George Byrne Bracken - A Walking Tour: Bangkok

All text and illustrations by G. Byrne Bracken
Designer: Benson Tan

2016 Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited

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National Library Board (Singapore) Cataloguing in Publication Data
Names: Byrne Bracken, G. (Gregory)
Title: A walking tour Bangkok : sketches of the citys architectural treasures ... journey through Bangkoks urban landscape / Gregory Byrne Bracken.
Other titles: Bangkok : a walking tour.
Description: Third edition. | Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Editions, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: OCN 935266957 | eISBN: 978 981 47 5147 6
Subjects: LCSH: WalkingThailandBangkokGuidebooks. | Historic buildingsThailandBangkokGuidebooks. | Historic sitesThailandBangkokGuidebooks. | ArchitectureThailandBangkok--Guidebooks. | Bangkok (ThailandTours. | Bangkok (Thailand)Guidebooks.
Classification: LCC DS589.B2 | DDC 915.93dc23

Printed in Singapore by Fabulous Printers Pte Ltd

I would like to thank everyone who has helped me with this book, particularly Melvin Neo, Justin Lau and Benson Tan at Marshall Cavendish for their wonderful support.

History

Charoen Krung Road

Rattanakosin

Bang Lamphoo

Dusit District

Culture

Rattanakosin

Dusit District

Further Afield

Markets

Prathunam

Silom Road

Charoen Krung Road

Chinatown

Bang Lamphoo

Further Afield (Chatuchak Weekend Market)

Shopping

Prathunam

Wireless Road

Silom Road

Charoen Krung Road

Chinatown

Childrens

Prathunam

Dusit District

Bangkok is notorious for its traffic, which means that walking is one of the best ways of getting around the city. It is also greener than most people realise with a number of different areas, almost cities within a city, which are best explored on foot.

Each chapter of this book shows a suggested walking route, each following on from where the previous one left off. These try to cover one particular area per walk, like Chinatown or Rattanakosin, but the citys Downtown is so large that it has been split into three separate walks. Distances can be huge, city blocks in Bangkok are big and have few crossing streets, the advantage is that once youre on the road youll have less chance of missing the things you want to see. The buildings and sites listed are only suggestions for visiting, they dont have to be followed rigorously, and apart from the usual temples, mosques, churches and museums theres also information on other places of interest, like skyscrapers which have restaurants, bars or galleries with good views of the city.

Be careful when following some of the routes as Bangkok can be treacherous uneven paving, crumbling edges, even gaping holes that are left unprotected so watch your step, particularly when you have your eyes gazing upward at the buildings. Remember to stop often, dont overdo it in the tropical weather. Drink plenty of liquids, and there are numerous shops, cafes and restaurants en route to stop in and rest. Parts of Bangkok can be surprisingly green, with shady trees lining the roadways, but increasingly shadows seem to be coming from the increasingly tall buildings in and around the city.

Most of Bangkoks streets are lively day and night, and theres nearly always something interesting to see, and smell or even taste, so enjoy the experience. Do remember, however, that if you want to go into places like temples and some museums you must dress appropriately (i.e. you cant wear shorts, tee-shirts or sandals).

After a particularly savage attack by the Burmese in 1767, Auytthaya, the capital of Siam (as the Kingdom of Thailand was then known), was destroyed. It had been the countrys capital for more than four centuries and had been as large and rich as many European cities. The site was now considered too vulnerable and so a new capital was founded by King Taksin farther down the Menam River at Thonburi. A short time later the King went mad and was overthrown by one of his generals, Phraya Chakri, who put him to death. Phraya Chakri then took the title Rama I and founded the Chakri dynasty, which still reigns today, King Bumibol (pronounced Bumibon) is known as Rama IX.

Did You Know?

King Taksin was executed in the prescribed way for Thai royalty, by being tied up in a velvet sack and beaten to death with a sandalwood club.

Rama I then moved the capital, which was known to Westerners as Bancok, or the village of the wild plum, to the more easily defended eastern side of the river, forcing the Chinese merchants who had settled there to move farther downstream to what is present-day Chinatown. He built a series of defensive canals, a palace and a new temple to house the Emerald Buddha. He called the new Royal Island Rattanakosin, but the name Bangkok stuck in Westerners minds. At Rama Is coronation in 1782 he renamed the new capital Khrung Thep Phra Maha Nakhorn (the City of Angels, the Capital City), and it is still known to Thais as Khrung Thep (City of Angels) a shortened form of what has since become the longest city name in the world.

Until the second half of the twentieth century the main means of transport in the city was by boat, and though a lot of the canals, known as khlongs, have since been culverted, it still remains one of the best ways to see Bangkok. Filling in the canals wasnt just an aesthetic impoverishment, the waterways had acted as drains for the entire delta and their loss has left the city more prone to flooding than ever, but it didnt do enough to alleviate the road shortage anyway. The Chao Phraya River, which changed its name from the Menam in honour of Rama I, is teeming with craft, from huge cargo barges to ferries and longtail boats, and is the backbone of a network of canals, which in Thonburi are still relatively intact and give a flavour of what Bangkok life used to be like.