The Blog of Michael Desrosiers: Charoenkrung Road

Charoenkrung Road, which runs through Bangkok's historical district, was the first modern paved road in Thailand. The road was constructed in 1864 at the request of the city's foreign residents who petitioned the king for a modern road connecting what was at the time Bangkok's foreign business and embassy district.

at Wat Suan Phlu

This Saturday's walking adventure started at Wat Suan Phlu, a medium-sized temple located just outside of BTS Saphan Taksin station. From there, we trekked along the historic old road, winding in and out of side streets and alleyways to see the sights. Charoenkrung Road has fallen out of prominence somewhat, and nowadays, it's not connected by the BTS or MRT. I think that's due to change in the future, but for now, it's a quiet historical district more popular with locals than foreigners.

walking to the cathedral

Assumption Cathedral is one of the most beautiful old buildings along Charoenkrung Road. Although Thailand has a fairly small Christian minority, most of those Christians are Roman Catholics.

Assumption Cathedral in Bangkok

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The cathedral has been visited by two popes. Pope John Paul II was the first pope to visit Thailand in the 1980s, and Pope Francis made his first official visit to Thailand just a few months ago in November.

Bangkok's Catholic cathedral

This week's walk was quite casual, more of a meander, really. We wandered slowly through the narrow alleyways along Charoenkrung Road from point to point, but spent a lot of time admiring the atmospheric district, chatting, and taking photos of the beautiful old buildings.

historic neighborhoods along Charoenkrung Road

Across the river, the twin residential towers outside the brand-new ICONSIAM shopping mall stood impressively over the river. One of my friends is going to be moving into one of these new luxury towers as soon as it opens, and he was excited to go on this walk to explore the areas around his new neighborhood.

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the beautiful new ICONSIAM Mall

Further on we came to the crumbling ruins of the East Asiatic Company, which has been purchased by a wealthy beer magnate to turn into a new luxury hotel. The historic trading company's warehouses have since been converted into the Asiatique night market further down the river.

We also came to the closed-up Custom's Office, which is open for tours only under certain circumstances.

trading company (left) and custom's house (right)

Next, we made our way to the Bangkokian Museum, a house museum dedicated to displaying the average life of an upper-middle-class Thai family in the years after the Second World War. The house itself dates back to the 1930s, and once belonged to a Thai doctor.

Bangkokian Museum

Now, it holds artifacts from the 1930s-1950s, and shows what life would have been like in Bangkok during those decades.

inside the house museum

The house is really a small compound made of several buildings set amongst a beautiful and lush tropical garden. Another building is something of an art museum, containing photographs, paintings, and mementos from the history of Bang Rak District.

another part of the museum

The family donated to house to the city, and worked hard to purchase land surrounding the museum so that no giant condo developments could take away from what they believed to be a cultural treasure of the Thai people.

family shrine (left) and museum collection (right)

House No. 1, a neoclassical mansion located between the French Embassy, the Customs House, and the Central Post Office was the chosen location for the offices of the Societe Francaise des Distilleries de l’Indochine, a French distillation and trading company operating out of Indochina. Built in the early 1900s, House No. 1 is closed to the public and can only be hired for private functions.

a historic house

We got lucky, however, to be visiting on the one weekend of the year when the beautiful old mansion was open to visitors! Next door, overgrown with the roots of an unlikely tree, stood an old warehouse, once owned and operated by Louis Leonowens, son of the famous Anna (as in, The King and I).

an old tree growing over the wall

The inside of House No. 1 displayed a collection of photographs from the old days of Bang Rak District, and we could even see the area where the big distillation vats used to stand.

inside the house

Every step and winding turn along our walk brought us past areas which were more atmospheric and photogenic than the last. As this area is still less developed than the rest of the city, it retains the old-world charm which makes Bangkok so enchanting.

back alleyways

Along the way, we passed some interesting street art and lots of portrait and street photographers out and about, enjoying the relatively cooler weather.

street scene

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street art

As we walked closer to Chinatown, we began to notice that the traditional Thai-style spirit houses were beginning to be replaced by Chinese-style family shrines, which sit on the floor inside the house.

a Chinese-style family shrine

This weeks we just had a small group on our tour. In a way, that was more fun than a huge tour group. We all got to chat and get to know each other very well. I have really enjoyed my walking adventures group, and have made some good friends.