Every Bridge tells a Story: A Klong Lod Walking Tour

The canal, officially titled Khlong Kum Meuang Doem, is a groove of history on the surface of modern Bangkok, part of the moat that circled the old city on both sides of the river during the Thonburi period. Walking these roads gives a sense of a time when there were no roads. The area teaches snippets of its past with brown square signs: once upon a time this khlong was both a boundary and a vein of transport and commerce, where the Kingdom's best engineers built fine white bridges that were practical and innovative and symbolic all at once. It's one of my favourite walks for old-city ambience, and still shaded by broad trees - though in the hot season the khlong itself is none too fragrant, and best avoided at the peak of the day.

You can, coming from the river with a map, join the canal at any point. It starts at Pak Klong Talat, the 24-hour flower, fruit & veg market, garlic and chilli sellers and pick-ups full of cabbages along its banks. It's easy enough to start there, getting the express boat to Saphan Phut, then walking the length of the Khlong to the point where it cuts off, at the big junction near Sanam Luang. Another good starting point is Tha Tien. The canal is a bit of a walk inland from here, but you'll see old shophouses by the river - not nearly as old as the canal but another picturesque remainder of Bangkok's development - and Wat Pho and Saranrom Royal Park are on the way, both of which are worth seeing and compact enough to be explored well in a short amount of time.

Follow the streets still further in from the park and you'll find the canal. Turning left to journey north yields the most interesting results, but if you want to see all the bridges, turn right and walk a little way down to Ubonrat Bridge, built as a memorial to Princess Ubonrat Nareenart in 1912, and Mon Bridge, built of teak in the nineteenth century and rebuilt in 1920, named for the Mon traders from Burma who moored their houseboats there.

Double back and continue north past Saranrom Park to Pii Kun bridge, also called Saphan Muu. Both the bridge and the nearby Pig Memorial were built in 1913 for Queen Phatcharinthra's 50th birthday, to commemmorate her own birth as well as that of the three royal donors born in the same year as her - the year of the pig. The bridge is adorned with four pillars to represent birthday candles for the queen's four zodiac-cycles. The impressive building across the street from this is the Ministry of the Interior (1910).

Next is Chang Rong Si bridge, the 'rice mill elephant bridge', originally made of a tree thick and strong enough for elephants to cross over in the days when there was a royal rice mill here. It was rebuilt and reinforced by Prince Damrong Rajanubharb, the first Minister of Interior, in 1910, to commemmorate his birthday.

Onwards, past the Ministry of Defence (1880s) to Hok Bridge, reconstructed in 1982, which has a lifting mechanism for its middle section. Next up is Charoensri 34 (1913), built by Rama VI, who, after his coronation, built public bridges over canals (this was before river-bridges) to commemorate his birthdays. Near these bridges is Wat Buranasiri, built in the third reign by Chao Phraya Sutham Montri, in a mix of Thai and Chinese architectural styles.
Alongside the canal on the other side of Atsadang road there's an army surplus market and a row of guitar shops, selling standard acoustics, semi-acoustics, electrics, ukuleles, drums decorated in the style of temple murals, electric versions of Thai folk instruments with finial-heads, and other guitar-like creatures. (This is the best place I've found in Bangkok for ukuleles, by the bye).

Klong Lod ends at Pan Pibhop Leela Bridge (1906), by the big upcoming junction, but you can turn right and walk along Khlong Lod Wat Buranasri. Look out for the old water faucet on the corner, built in 1872 in the form of the Earth Goddess giving water to the people. Then go down along the canal, which was dug by Rama 1 in 1783 to connect the city moat to Rap Peung, cutting a strategic line across the city that would serve for transportation and communications. The name of this canal is somewhat fluid, never officially named and so taking the names of places it passes. It's narrower and more tree-covered than Klong Lod, and after passing some shops is lined by small village-like houses and shady walkways.

A pleasant time can be had wandering here. When I went, I encountered sleepy cats, friendly old inhabitants, trees wedged with statues and old toys to keep their guardian spirits happy, and an orange-juice vendor squeezing her cart between the waterside and old statue-dotted wall. An old woman saw my camera and insisted I take a photo of her holding a ginger cat, then grabbed my hand and gave me an impromptu tour of the temple behind the wall, introducing me to the head monk whose irises were the colour of milk, who showed me a room where bones and ashes of the dead are kept in locked wooden boxes in the walls, and the bright temple hall filled by a monk's chants where a young man was kneeling, presenting a tray of takraw balls to the great gold-leaf covered Buddha. Eventually I wandered from there, pleasantly lost by this point, onto a street of shops hung with the smell of peppery soup, watched by white rabbit statue as tall as a man, and onwards until I found my bearings again, to visit the Giant Swing and Wat Suthat.

Alternatively, after reaching the end of Klong Lod, return to the river past Sanam Luang and the Grand Palace to Tha Chang (where there's a lunch market with lots of options), and get the express boat back downtown.

See also: Wat Pho (at night)

Walking Tour: Talat Noi, Sampeng and Pahurat

There are infinite routes through Chinatown, and this is only one of them - I'll probably do more Chinatown walking guides, but this one is as good a starting point as any, and goes through places that even people used to Sampeng Lane and Yaowarat may find new and fascinating. It takes you through some very old and diverse communities, many of them dating back to the earliest days of Bangkok. Go in the morning to miss the worst of the heat, and for the morning-bustle and street breakfasts.

Start at Tha Si Phaya (a short express-boat ride from Sapan Taksin), and head upriver past River City and into a little market lane, where there are plenty of tempting breakfast options. Carry on going straight into Talat Noi, an old quarter with a real mix of ethnicities and architectures, where the oil and grease from heaped used car parts mingle with the scents steaming from food-vendors' carts. The mechanics' and car-parts shops are an evolution of the blacksmiths that originally plied their trade here. Go down soi Duang Tawan to see labyrinthine piles of motors in store-rooms behind mossy brick walls, vast trees bound in coloured ribbons, tiny alleys down to the bright river, birdsong from old-fashioned cages that hang from every roof-tip. In a car repair yard is the entrance to the Jao Sien Khong shrine, full of wonderful 3D mosaics of dragons and tigers. This area is an absolute must during the Vegetarian Festival in late October, when it becomes a thronging market of meat-free treats and sweets, and the Chinese shrines crowd with people and offerings and incense and entertainments.

Carry on to soi Phanu Rangsi, then turn right and then left onto Songwat road. On your left is Wat Prathum Khongkha, which dates back to the Ayutthaya period, and where the stone on which royal executions were once performed (by beating the person to death with a sandalwood club in a velvet sack) is still preserved. The rest of Songwat is a pleasant walk lined with a jumble of old and new facades, spice shops, rice warehouses. At the corner with Rachawong are some of the oldest remaining houses in Chinatown, with beautiful wooden walls and windows. Turn right and then left onto Sampeng Lane, the narrow shopping street that sells everything you never knew you needed. The lane is covered and some of the open shops blast air-con into it, so it's a nice place to walk if you don't mind small crowded spaces. Vendors come through, sometimes taking up the whole width of the lane with their carts of fruit or juice or steamed peanuts. Sampeng cuts across several roads, each interesting in their own right. Turn left on Chakrawat road to find Wat Chakrawat, where the architecture is a mix of Thai and Khmer, collections of Buddhas and assorted spirits and deities cluster in shady rockeries, and a fenced-off pond hosts crocodiles - supposedly; I saw none when I was there.

Across Chakrawat road and down Soi Bhopit Phimuk past the spice shops and ice shops, you'll reach a canal that marks a loose border to the Indian quarter. Little shops selling sweets line the canal, and tucked in dark air-con-freezy rooms are Indian restaurants. It may be around lunchtime when you reach this spot, so stop at the Royal India (I recommend the vegetarian thali). Then, across and right on Chakraphet raod is Pahurat cloth market, which as well as fabric sells dancing costumes, temple goods and offerings.

From Pahurat it's a short walk down to the river and Saphan Phut pier, where you can get the express boat back downtown. Or if you're not walked out, there's plenty more in the area to check out. The Old Siam mall and Sala Chalermkrung theatre are on the block next to Pahurat, and there are charming canals and temples to explore nearby, as mentioned in my post on the theatre. Or down by the Saphan Phut is Pak Klong Talat, the 24-hour flower market (though I think all these things are best explored in the evenings).

The walk in map form:

View Chinatown walk 1 in a larger map

A Walking Tour: Up Old New Road

If winter happened at all this year (it did in Chiang Mai, I know, I was there, but apparently not so much in Bangkok), it’s definitely over now, with the sun unrelenting on the glass and concrete towers, and the Emerald Buddha having been changed into its summer costume. I recently wrote about hiding from the heat, but enough about that: the pavements are still there, and as worth walking as ever. There are areas that will be more pleasant to walk in than others, though – places near the river, or shaded by big trees, or populated with cafes and other oases. So I present my first walking guide: Charoen Krung or New Road, the oldest road in Bangkok.

A bit of history: In the nineteenth century Western residents in this city of waterways petitioned for a road, blaming their ill health on not being able to take carriage rides in the fresh air. Construction of the ‘New Road’ began under King Rama IV in 1861. The completed soil road ran along the east bank of the Chao Praya and much of its route is the same today, with its commercial and multicultural history still very visible all along it. This walk focuses on the central stretch of the road, between Saphan Taksin bridge and Chinatown – north of the area I cover here are Yaowarat and Rattanakosin, which need their own entries. It would be impossible to cover every point of interest, and as well as the places mentioned below are plenty of smaller temples and shrines, plus hotels and restaurants for every budget, vendors of all sorts, tailors, jewellers, galleries, cafés, gallery-cafés, and so forth.

Saphan Taksin is a good place to start, and can

be reached by skytrain, express boat, the 1, 15, and 75 buses or the 1256 songtaew. The area under and around the skytrain station is open and often breezy, with decent street food, a small park and a Chinese shrine. Coming up from the river or out of the station onto Charoen Krung, I turned left and went a little way down to Wat Yannawa, or 'Temple of the Junk'. This boat-shaped temple was built under Rama III when trade with China was blooming, as a monument to the Chinese junk. There are stairs inside the boat-building leading up to the 'deck' and and a cabin with statues and incense.

A more recent piece of economic history: on the other side of the road from the wat is the creepily beautiful Sathorn Unique building, a 47-storey tower half-built and abandoned in the ‘97 economic crisis. Frilly balconies, ivory-white two thirds of the way up and then unpainted weathered grey, metal rods fraying out. There are quite a few ghost constructions like this in Bangkok, slowly disintegrating. People squat inside, or visit to graffiti the walls.

Back past Saphan Taksin and you're in Bang Rak, one of the original districts Bangkok was divided into. Districts were often named after what was made or sold there. Was this literally 'Love Village', or is that a coincidence, the spelling having evolved as place names do from something different? The covered market here sells dry goods at the front, dark interior smelling of spice, then becomes a fish and meat market - not for the squeamish.

Further up the main road, straight through the Assumption College grounds, is Assumption Cathedral, a building that touches several points in Bangkok's history - commissioned by a French missionary in 1809; refurbished after damage from the Allied bombings in WWII - and a few in my own (I was in a nativity play there as a small thing). As a lapsed Catholic I have an uneasy relationship with churches, especially ones built by missionaries, but on purely architectural grounds it's gorgeous. The area around is full of flaking colonial-age grandeur; a shortcut through the car park and down an alley that could have been sliced out of Italy (complete with elevated corridor-bridge between two buildings) brings you to the Oriental hotel, established in 1876 and visited by Joseph Conrad and Somerset Maugham - part of the modern hotel is still called the Author's Wing, and the Author's Lounge is a veritable paradise of macaroon-coloured palm-fronded pristine indulgence where the flaneur can rest her weary feet before heading back out to the real world.

Out of the hotel and left, up the street, left again and past the O.P. shopping plaza brings you to a street of green-painted shutters and weed-sprung concrete facades, at the end of which is the Old Customs House. Designed by an Italian and built in 1890, it was known as the southern gateway to the city by foreign merchants coming upriver from the sea, who would have to stop there. It's now used by the Bang Rak fire brigade, who park their engines there, but you can still wander round and look at its crumbling elegant front, which faces the river. Back up the street there are tiny alleys leading into Haroon Village, a Muslim community with shaded streets and a small mosque. This was the first mosque I've ever visited in Bangkok where the building was divided between women and men's sections, and not realising this at first I went in through what looked like the main entrance only to be tutted at and told to go around the back. A few years ago this would have sent me off in a huff, but if urban exploration has taught me anything it's that you see and hear and learn and think a whole lot more if you stay curious and stay patient. Inside it was quite beautiful and calm, and the people there were happy to show me around.

Beyond the Haroon Village, Charoen Krung carries on past the imposing General Post Office, and you can carry on to Captain Bush Lane (named after a British ships' captain employed by the Siamese court in the nineteenth century; Bush later became an admiral and is buried in the protestant cemetery further south on Charoen Krung) and River City shopping centre, where you can embark on river tours, or take the express boat back to Saphan Taksin. Or carry on up to Chinatown, or the Rare Stone Museum, or the Bangkokian Museum (the home of a local family preserved as it was during WWII, recommended).

I found myself a pavement café with no name down a shady soi that did a very decent toastie and banana-coffee shake. I'd recommend it but, well, no name.

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