Map of the Old Canals
Posted by Stuart at 10:37 AM on April 29, 2004
One of my favorite Thai websites is 2bangkok.com. The owner of the site is facinated with big infrastructure projects here in Bangkok -- the Skytrain, the subway, the hundreds of unfinshed skyscrapers that dot the city.
The interesting part about his site is that he (and/or his Thai friends) translate stories from the Thai press that somehow never end up in the English press. So his site is always a good read.
Last week I followed a link from 2bangkok to another site, created by a German man. It was all in German, but at least I found one very interesting image, which I have stolen and placed here. It is a drawing of Bangkok's city layout, circa 1900. Before this time, there were no roads in Bangkok, only klong (canals). The first real road (called "New Road", now called Charoen Krung) was built in 1863.
The interesting thing about this image is the fact that even though some of these klong still exist, most of them have been covered/filled in and made into driving roads. Note the ones at the lower right: Suriwong, Silom, Sathorn are all very busy, popular roads now, while Hualompong is now the 8 lane Rama 4 Road.
(Click on the image to see a bigger view.)
When I was a kid and my family and I were here in Thailand on vacation, my dad took me to the Satorn area to visit my great grand aunt. The thing is, he couldn't find her house! He was very adamant about having the correct address, but still, no house. In the end, we ended up circling the area nearly a dozen times because he couldn't find the klong that used to be there when he was a kid! Hehe, we eventually found her house, though, and later learned that, just like you said, it'd been turned into a road.
I saw the 2bangkok link on the front page of your site a while back, and have since found myself enjoying the plethora of interesting tidbits and such that can be found there. So thanks for the link. =)
Hi Stuart,
first time I see your website. I was looking for some thai courses and google led me here. Then, as I watched more closely to your website, I saw your trip in Laos. And it reminded me a lot as I exactly did the same as you. I am pretty sure we took the same plane, my friend and I, from LP to Vientiane, as the air-cond was also broken.
It seems that you have fond in love with LP. For my part, I did. And the way back at home in Bangkok has been very hard for me.
Luckily, the week ends tomorrow...
Well, I don't want to forget that the first reason I talk to you is that I really want to know whether you can help me to find a Thai teacher.
thanks a lot in advance.
Sego