In Search of King Taksin

King Taksin

Before I left the UK I was given a book of walks in the city of Bangkok and now I have been here a few months and starting to find my way around the city I thought it was high time that I tried one out.  It is called 22 Walks in Bangkok by Kenneth Barrett.  The book is actually a fascinating read for it describes much of the history of the city that is not immediately obvious if you are a tourist.  I am lucky enough to be here for a good long time and this should enable me to complete them all, assuming I still have plenty of time on my hands.  I started with the first walk in the book, which looked like a modest length and easy to get to the start.  I shan't try and reprise the history given in the book in this blog - rather give my personal experience of the route and the sights, sounds and smells that I came across along the way.  My experience of Bangkok so far is that these can change day by day.

Chao Mae Aniew Shrine

The starting point for the walk is Wong Wian Yai Skytrain station on the south west side of the Chao Praya River and on the Silom line about 15 minutes from Siam station.  I came from Hua Lumphong and this necessitated a change at the Silom/ Sala Daeng interchange at the corner of Lumphini Park.  Once out if the station I was faced with the very busy main road underneath the BTS line - it didn't seem a very promising start.  The first place I was looking for was Chao Mae Aniew Shrine, a small Chinese shrine that Mr Barrett suggests hints at the rural backwater that this area was not too many years ago.  I eventually found it further along the road than I expected - there was a little sign that showed where it was.  The canal it sits next to is far from a lovely waterway - it had quite an aroma.  There was a man on the shrine side bank fishing out rubbish.  I didn't like to trouble him so after a quick look at the shrine I retraced my steps back to the main road.

Health and Safety

I turned right at the next big junction and was faced with another busy road - this one leading to the large roundabout at Wong Wian Yai.  This is clearly an important and busy part of the city but one that I would suggest that few tourists would venture to.  Yet the book clearly has had an impact for I did see a few other westerners who looked like they were following the same route.  This was the best part of the walk to view everyday life for it was lined with market and street food stalls.  Most seemed to be gearing up for lunchtime, which was still a little way off.  Alongside the road were a number of gangs of maintenance workers, clipping the hedges and tending to the electrical wires that line the road.  To my eyes there seemed little in the way of health and safety checks - the vegetation gang were spilling out into the fast lane of the traffic with only their hi-viz clothing as protection.  The sheer number of them was quite astonishing too - far more than you would see in a similar Western setting.  The electrical engineers used bamboo ladders, with one gang resting it directly on the wires they were sent to inspect/ fix.

Maintenance Crew

Eventually after dodging around all the vendors I made it to the crazy roundabout at Wong Wian Yai.  In the middle is a green oasis of a beautifully ordered garden.  I could see some gardeners hard at work and my immediate query was how they had got there for there was no obvious route across the several lanes of traffic.  Every so often there appeared to be a short window of opportunity to cross when the sequence of traffic lights allowed.  I didn't see anyone try and cross and I decided that to try and do so would probably be suicidal.  I instead walked all the way round the roundabout, climbing up and over the footbridges at each of the feeder roads.  This allowed me a good view of the statue of King Thaksin at the very centre of the roundabout.  It also gave me a good view of the traffic jams and I was very pleased that I was on two legs and not four wheels.

Guarding the Roundabout

Almost 7/8 of the way around the roundabout I finally came upon the way to get to the middle when I found the one and only subway.  I seized the opportunity and headed over there.  Once in the middle of the roundabout the atmosphere was rather different.  Somehow everything was calmer, presumably because the only people I had for company were the gardeners and they were far too busy spraying the formal borders with water and readying some new plants for planting.  King Taksin looked very impressive close up looking in the direction of Ayutthaya, the capital of old Siam before it moved here following the sacking of the old city by Burmese forces in the 1700s.  Following this calamitous event King Taksin managed to unify the rival groups and form a new nation under his leadership.  He is held in very high regard by Thai people and this statue was put here in 1954.  The other thing that really caught my eye from my position in the middle was the rather sombre and empty department store.  I hadn't really noticed before because the frontage has been usurped by market stallholders.  It was apparently the Merry King but has been empty for a good many years and left derelict.  Meanwhile elsewhere in Bangkok new shopping centres are still being built - go figure.

Derelict Merry King

I went back to the other side of the roundabout and back along the approach road on the opposite side for a few metres.  I stumbled across my next destination quite quickly and without even looking for it.  This is the mainline station of Wong Wian Yai but couldn't b further from the grandeur of Hua  Lumphong if it tried.  This terminus station is for the rather strange Maeklong line, which runs to the place most famous for the railway market where stallholders quickly move from the tracks when the train comes.  In between Bangkok and Maeklong passengers have to get off the train halfway, board a ferry across a river and then reboard a train on the other side to resume their journey.  The Bangkok end of the line is almost as chaotic with the station peopled by yet more food vendors and hemmed in by a narrow street.  Apparently the line originally continued to the Chao Praya River where it unloaded goods on to waiting ships but this stretch was closed in the 1960s to ease local traffic congestion.  The course of the line can still be traced along a street where it once ran.

Gardener at Taksin Memorial Garden

My walk now took on a different character as I soon left behind the craziness around Wong Wian Yai and followed the small road that ran alongside the railway.  Soon a diesel unit clanked into the station passing me on a small level crossing that enabled me to watch it going down the bumpiest track I have ever seen.  As I walked away from the railway station the road got increasingly quiet, even to the point that I had to remind myself that I was in Bangkok  for it seemed almost rural at times.  I passed by Suan Phlu Mosque, a very different looking religious building to the Buddhist temples that I have become used to.  It looked strangely 1970s but most definitely like a mosque should.

Jam at Wong Wian Yai

All along the lane the verges of the railway line hosted all manner of pretty flowers including frangipani, hibiscus and jasmine.  Some of the vegetation had run riot in places and at least one building along this part of the line had been engulfed by greenery.  As I wandered along I saw a young girl harvesting a few of the flowers, perhaps for the Loy Khratong festival that was almost upon us.  It wasn't only botany along here, I was also amused by a small lizard playing statues on a speed limit post for the railway and also a cat that ambled along the tracks.

Wong Wian Yai Station

As I approached Talat Phlu station I took a left hand turn and wandered down through some rather splendid houses.  Now it felt like I was in a small village rather than surrounded by the city.  No-one paid much attention to the sweaty foreigner in their midst - the locals were too busy working on cottage industries in their front yards, standing around having conversations or in the case of motorised transport trying to work out who had right of way in a busy street that seemed devoid of formal rules.  My destination was the small temple called Wat Kantathararam and when I arrived I saw a small plaque that told me that it was donated by a Mr and Mrs Chan in the late 1800s - the Thai name is a corruption of their name.  Inside is a very interesting looking ordination hall with what look like Chinese style figures overseeing proceedings.

Railway Soi

I wandered back to Talat Phlu, the second station along the Maeklong railway and one that served the nearby market (Talat = market in Thai).  The platform was thronged with passengers and shortly after the train chugged in to pick them up.  The train had to wait for the signalman to push the crossing gate across the road before he could proceed - it was all rather heritage railway.  Once all the activity had died down I wandered across the crossing and headed northwards the short distance to Bangkok Yai canal.

Peacock Flower

At the pier I was confronted by two rather different sights - the first was the sight of a number of caged birds and a heap of chickens roaming around scratching a living from lord knows what.  I guess someone looks after them but whoever it was they weren't obvious.  Perhaps they were one of the customers at the nearby restaurant that the author of the book waxes lyrical about.  It was rather busy that's for sure and I pressed on, not wanting to deprive a local person of a seat at this populare spot.  I contented myself with watching the other sight which was the activity on the canal instead.  There were a lot of long tail boats cruising up and down, many of which were transporting Western tourists.

Suan Phlu Mosque

I backtracked for a short distance dodging the van that had pulled up and started selling green vegetables and herbs to a surprising number of customers that weren't there just five minutes earlier.  I took a turn along the adjacent soi and wandered through Talat Phlu, which was once a betel  market.  Betel was a a mixture of herbs and leaves chewed by people until the mid 20th Century, when it was banned by the Thai Government in a bid to clear the streets of the black residue that was spat  out by the chewers.  The market now sells more mainstream produce and I wandered through some of the stalls and past the fire station before reaching the next temple at Wat Mon.

Wat Kantathararam

This tranquil spot was a riot of reds and golds in keeping with all the Buddhist temples I have been to.  I paused for a while to enjoy some sit down and several glugs of water.  As I did so a group of giggling boys and girls came wandering past and it looked as if they were changing classrooms between lessons.  I was interested to note that a number of boys were dressed as monks although none of them could have been 14.  It never occurred to me that monks started that young or that they would be schooled alongside their peers.  I also noted a shrine that appeared to celebrate the military and it was indeed to honour a hero who won a battle despite his sword breaking in half.  Before leaving I explored the artificial mountain that is a feature of many Buddhist temples.  This one had seashells and rocks stuck to the side, giving it a strange seaside theme.

Level crossing

I left Wat Mon and wandered along the main road to the final port of call for the day; Wat Intharam.  This is the final resting place of King Thaksin, hence the name of the walk.  Along the way I passed by lots of shops seemingly selling very specific things - one looked like a pork rind shop; one sold old gas bottles and another weighing scales.  I have noticed this a lot in Thailand - for all the sell everything shops that proliferate here there are also a lot of 'niche' shops that haven't diversified at all.  Of most interest though was the Thai state school that I passed for it seemed to be having a prizegiving ceremony going on and there was much excitement from the children.  If I could have got away with it I would have stayed outside and watched through the fence for some time but I don't think I would have been very welcome!

Talat Phlu Pier

The temple of Wat Intharam was next door and I wandered slowly through enjoying the decorative chedi and prangs of the temple as well as the pretty flowers that seemed to be placed at sytrategic points throughout the grounds.  I smiled as I passed a sleeping monk and cursed a small group of nois boys who looked like they were going to wake  him with their ceaseless chatter.  Both seemed to exist in their own worlds though without impinging on the other.  As I toured round I finally came to the life sized statue of King Taksin that was obviously revered by visitors who come here specially to see him, for it was adorned with lots of beautiful flowers and had incense burning alongside.  The statue has gold leaf on it which adds some extra magic that you wouldn't see anywhere in the west.

Wat Mon kids

This marked the end of the official walk - I stopped briefly to take another look at Bangkok Yai canal before wandering through the streets to reach the BTS station at Pho Nimit, one stop on from Wong Wian Yai.  Even this section was full of interest, passing yet another temple and some surprisingly large houses along the way.  I reflected on the walk as I waited for the Skytrain - it was hugely satisfying and far better than I expected from what on the face of it looked a fairly uninspiring route.  I shall be back soon to try walk 2!

Wat Intharam