Today's walk across Chinatown takes us from the Hua Lamphong MRT-station to the Flower Market with a quick incursion into Thonburi across the Chao Phraya River. The distance covered was about 4km long.
You could walk from Hua Lamphong Railway Station to the Flower Market in roughly 30mn by walking straight. But it took me well over an hour as I made several stops along the way.
It is an interesting alternative to visiting an unknown part of Chinatown. It is a straight walk along Song Wat Road, which runs parallel to the Chao Phraya River.
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| Typical shop on Song Wat Road |
→ This is what a historic street landmark says about this area:
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Song Wat Road
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The road was built in King Rama Y's reign, beginning from Ratchawong Road running straight to meet Charoen Krung Road with a total distance of 1 kilometer. The Song Wat (literally means the King's drawing) was called after King Rama V's drawing of the road construction line within Sampheng commercial district, in order to lessen the population density, to improve the unhealthy condition and to have an easy access to the area transport in case of a fire incident. The road then developed to function as major access to water transport in the area along the road. There are a number of minor roads and alleys linking with the pier which served all the steamers communication between Chon Buri Province, Bandon of Surat Thani Province, and Bangkok, and also barges running between the seaside towns and the capital. This area, therefore, was the major transport region of seafoods, vegetables, plants, and herbs. The row-houses along both sides of the road are mostly the wholesale companies and shops doing businesses related to the vessel transported commodities. The buildings constructed during the beginning period still exist and can be observed in the present days.
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This is an interesting street full of old Chinese trading shophouses. There are many porters carrying goods and also a lot of picturesque street vendors of all sorts dodging their carts in the middle of the street traffic.
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| Street scene |
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| Tea/coffeeshop |
Another particular characteristic of this area are the many religious sites encountered. Besides a few sidewalk shrines, I saw two Chinese temples, a large Thai monastery and a very peculiar, historic mosque.
→ This is what the historic landmark says about this mosque:
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Luang Kocha Itsahak Mosque
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The Mosque was established by Luang Kocha Itsahak, son of a Saiburi merchant. Luang Kocha Itsahak was a government officer at Krom Tha Khwa (the Department of Commerce and Foreign Affairs (contact with western countries)); his position was a Malay interpreter, responsible for trading and obtaining royal presents, i.e. gold and silver trees from states in the Malay peninsula. His duties also included being an interpreter for ambassadors and the Siam Royal Court.
Luang Kocha was known by foreign Islamic merchants, who did the trade in Siam. There were no mosques around at that time. It was difficult for them to perform a religious ritual. So a piece of land of about 1 acre was offered to build a Muslim place of worship to construct the mosque. Luang Kocha's children helped deliver bricks and stones from his old building in Thonburi. The building is in European style, which was was the trend at the time. It has been used to perform religious rituals ever since the completion of the construction.
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| Luang Kocha mosque |
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| Roof frieze on a Chinese temple |
Many of the street buildings date back to the early days of Bangkok. Some of them – like the mosque - are really unexpected in style.
→ Another landmark tells us about a particularly interesting row of shophouses:
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Old Building at Thanon Song Wat
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King Rama V assigned a construction of a new street called 'Songwat' after the fire at Sampeng area. This is an important street for commercial purposes. Along the streets are alleys leading to piers connecting between Bangkok, Chonburi and Ban Don, Surat Thani Provinces. These piers also link to other port for the transportation of foods, herbs, and spices to the city.
The buildings on both sides of the street were constructed for many companies and shops, considered as the early row buildings in Bangkok along the river bank. There are beautiful 3-story buildings decorated with stucco. On the opposite side are 2-story buildings, which are also beautifully decorated with stucco in floral, fruit motives and Corinthian pillars. Over the window panel, there are arches decorated with colored glasses.
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| Two-storey shophouse |
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| House window |
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| Side street house |
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| Sculpture above a Chinese shop |
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| Street vendors |
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| On Memorial Bridge |
Finally, crossing Memorial Bridge over to Thonburi was meant as an introduction to a third walking exploration of the Thonburi riverbank.
After resting at a coffee shop at the pier, on the Bangkok side of the river, I simply took the taxi boat back to Saphan Taksin bridge.
Christian Sorand
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| Riverside shophouses |
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