The first thing I tell anyone going to Bangkok is to get on the river. The traffic can swallow an afternoon, but the express boats slip past all of it, breezy and cheap, with the whole city sliding by on either side.
We rode the ferry the way I did as a girl, hopping off at a temple, then back on, then off again at a market. It is the version of the city I most want my son to remember — not a sight to be ticked off, but a place that moves and breathes and feeds you well at every stop.