22 Walks in Bangkok. Kenneth Barrett
with gold leaf, is a recent one, and a far more modest monument than the one at Wong Wian Yai. Sculpted life-size, it was commissioned soon after the end of World War II., when several miniature models were made by prospective sculptors and it was left to the public to decide which they liked best. Wat Intharam is today a place of pilgrimage for the Thais, especially those of Chinese descent, who in addition to coming here on the anniversary of Taksin’s coronation also pay homage at Chinese New Year. The third of the Bang Yi Rua temples, incidentally, still exists and is known as Wat Chantharam.
Wat Intharam’s compound backs directly onto the canal bank, where a frequent longtail boat service whisks visitors along Bangkok Yai and out to the Chao Phraya River. Next to the pier is a fine old two-storey wooden house whose front entrance uses a traditional Teochew method for securing the building against intruders. Erected inside the doorway are three or four wooden pillars. To get in or out, a person inside the house needs to remove a pillar. The pillars cannot be lifted from outside. As long as there is someone waiting at home, and as long as you don’t severely upset that person, it’s a pretty good system, as there is no key to be lost.
WALK 2
BANGKOK YAI
The Old Harbour
This quiet stretch of riverbank contains remnants of Thonburi’s original communities along with temples, shrines, mosques and churches, and even a pagoda that affords a magnificent view.
Duration: 3 hours
The reason why the Wong Wian Yai terminus of the Mahachai-Mae Klong railway is such a modest little affair is that it was never actually built as a terminus. It was originally the penultimate station, with the line tootling on towards the river and terminating at Klong San ferry pier. From here, the produce was loaded onto boats and floated straight over to the piers that served the commercial heart of the city, which in those days was Charoen Krung Road and Chinatown. The railway had been built and operated under a forty-year concession by the Tha Cheen Railway Company, headed by Celestino Xavier, one of the most influential members of the Portuguese community in Bangkok, who served at the Siamese ministry of foreign affairs and was awarded the title Phraya Phiphat Kosa. When the concession expired in the early 1940s, the line was bought by the government and eventually became part of the State Railway of Thailand. In 1961, the traffic around the Klong San-Wong Wian Yai area having become congested, military dictator Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat decided to axe the section of line that ran through the increasingly busy streets. He had wanted to cut the line a few stops down, at Wat Singh, but the residents and traders persuaded him that Wong Wian Yai would be more appropriate.
Today, crossing over Somdet Phra Chao Taksin Road from the Wong Wian Yai terminus, it can immediately be seen where the railway line used to run, for concrete slabs have simply been laid over the course of the track. On the corner of Charoen Rat Road, along which the line had passed, is one of Bangkok’s leading leather markets. Further along this road there are some attractive old houses, one of them being home to the Thonburi Full Gospel Church, a conspicuous pink landmark with a huge red cross on its frontage. Keep walking, following the ghost of the line, and Klong San Market comes into view. At first sight this looks like any other small urban market in Bangkok, but look a little closer and it becomes apparent the market has been laid out exactly on the site of the old Klong San station, and consequently has a long, linear footprint. Although there is a wet market off to the left, the main attraction is the garment market, which occupies the site of the line and the platforms, and is one of the best-known markets for young Thais to shop for inexpensive fashion. Klong San is, for compulsive non-shoppers (I think you know who I mean), a rather tedious market to negotiate, because much of the thoroughfare is a single alley: you go up and you come down the same way. At the end of the market, next to the steps that lead up to the river pier, there is a long, single-storey timber building that housed the ticket office.
Klong San is today an almost forgotten corner of Bangkok, important only to those who live here or the ferry passengers passing through. But in the days of Ayutthaya and subsequently the Thonburi kingdom, the entire bank of the river, starting from here, was the port where the ships moored to offload their produce onto smaller vessels or into warehouses, and for the captains to pay their taxes and tea money. This continued into the Rattanakosin era, with the old harbour busy with the produce of the rice mills and timber yards located along the Thonburi bank, and remnants can be found today. Turn northwards at Klong San Market, and an enormous marine mast can be seen towering above the rooftops.
When Rama IV built the third and final moat around Bangkok, he ordered the construction of five forts along the canal and also the building of a fort on the Thonburi bank, thereby forming a strong line of defence against any sea-borne invasion. Pong Patchamit Fort was built at the inlet of the San canal, the waterway from which the district derives its name, and it was directly opposite to the fort on the opposite bank that guarded the entrance to the new moat. Three years later, in 1855, the Bowring Treaty was signed and Siam opened to foreign trade. Steam ships began replacing Chinese junks and foreign shipping began to crowd into the harbour. In the reign of Rama V, the Harbour Department installed a signal flagpole at Pong Patchamit Fort where flags were hoisted to indicate the owners of the trading vessels that were arriving or departing. During Rama VI’s reign the signal flag was moved downriver to Klong Toei, and the flagpole at the fort was changed to indicate weather conditions that were provided by the Meteorological Department. Later, when the weather forecasting system was modernised, the signal flag method ceased. The mast however remains, as does part of the fort. The Fine Arts Department rescued what was left in 1949. Unless the visitor knows it is there, he or she will never find it, because the fort is hidden away behind the Klong San District Office. Enter Soi Lat Ya 21, the lane beside the mast, and walk through the District Office compound. There is a flight of steps leading up to the ramparts, and a small garden with stone seats.
On the other side of the mast is the Taksin Hospital, and the lane alongside here, Soi Lat Ya 17, leads between old timbered houses to a tiny canal. On its bank is Wat Thong Noppakhun, a temple of unknown age, in whose forecourt is a stone yannawa, an ocean-going Chinese ship. About seven metres long, painted cream and red, and with a bodhi tree for a mast, the vessel carries an inscription in Thai that commemorates the arrival of Buddhist monks from China and Japan. The vessel is a shrine, with offerings made at the base of the tree, and directly behind the rudder is a single Chinese grave, encased in plaster, where offerings are also made. The temple is believed to pre-date the Bangkok era but to have been restored during the reign of Rama II, the Chinese porcelain on the gable ends of the wiharn having become popular then, signifying the scale of trade with China. Inside the wiharn are murals, with depictions of Siamese cats perched above the main doorway, on guard against mice, cockroaches and other vermin. The windows on the temple ubosot, or ordination hall, are unlike any other, resembling the port-holes of a ship, set deep within the thick white walls, protected by gold and lacquer shutters and ringed by elaborate frames. The sema stones, used to mark the sacred area of an ubosot, are encased in cylindrical columns looking rather like miniature lighthouses, with the stones visible only through a small slot on either side. Several chedis surround the temple, and there are many small chedis and grave markers outside the house of the abbot, beyond which can be seen a Chinese pagoda rearing into the sky.
Follow the lane around past the front of Wat Thong Noppakhun and some of the most exuberant Chinese architecture in Bangkok will be revealed. Chee Chin Khor was a society formed in 1952 to undertake charitable works for the poor and to provide disaster relief supplies. During the first forty years of its existence the society headquarters had a rather peripatetic existence, but this riverside site became home in 1993. A temple was built, a four-storey structure with multiple roofs clad in green ceramic tiling, and the pagoda was added as recently as 2001, becoming an instant landmark for river travellers. Saturday morning is a good time to visit Chee Chin Khor Temple, as there is a service at that time and a sizeable crowd gathers at the open-air restaurant at the side of the compound. There are four altars within the temple, with fat Chinese Buddhas and gongs and incense, and the crowd surges into the building to disperse amongst the various floors and altars. A climb up the circular interior staircase of the pagoda is irresistible, and from the top