Last week we spent another afternoon exploring a part of Sathorn. This time we started at Saphan Taksin BTS station, and ended up at Surasak BTS station. We didn’t take the direct route though, but first wandered down Charoenkrung Road.
Department of Rural Roads
This sign always amuses me. Charoenkrung Road was the first ever road built in Bangkok. It is far from rural, so why is there a sign indicating that the nearby park is under the control of the Department of Rural Roads?
The Ghost Building
The Ghost Building (officially known as Sathorn Unique) is a left over from the Asian Financial Crisis of the late 1990s.
Paper Umbrellas
A little further along Charoenkrung Road there is a small canal that carries water to the Chao Phraya River. The local authority seems to have tried to improve the look of it by adding some paper umbrellas.
Buddha Statue In Glass Case
This statue looks much better in real life than it does in the photo above. It’s at the entrance to a small university.
Charoenkrung Road
We walked from Saphan Taksin BTS station, along Charoenkrung Road as far as Soi 58. also known as Soi Saphan Pla (Fish Bridge Road). We saw the above smiley statues outside a Thai massage shop.
Chinese immigrants settled in this area many decades ago, so you’ll see lots of Chinese signs, statues and lanterns.
This old Chinese lantern looked like it had seen better days. Also note the Chinese sign above the shop.
Soi Saphan Pla (Fish Bridge Road)
This road is aptly named, as this is where the fish market is located. It was closed when we visited though. If you walk to the end of the street you will come to the Chao Phraya River.
It looked like someone lived on this houseboat, which was at the end of Soi Saphan Pla (Charoenkrung Soi 58).
I found this view quite intriguing. It was a brand new spirit house next to some pretty dilapidated housing. Thais take spirit houses very seriously.
Charoenkrung Soi 57
Next we headed back in the direction of Saphan Taksin BTS as far as Charoenkrung Soi 57. We were lucky enough to discover a great cafe – House of Phraya Jasaen.
Snakes
As we carried on up Soi 57 we came across what appeared to be a paper warehouse. There were lots of these snake symbols outside. I’ve no idea why.
Chinese Cemetery
A bit further along is an old Chinese cemetery that is now pretty overgrown. I think it was a quite important cemetery in its heyday.
Running alongside the cemetery is a small khlong (canal). Flowers have been placed along it to improve the looks, but it smells pretty bad.
Colorful Tyres
At the top of Soi 57 is Charoen Rat Road, which is where we saw these colorful tyres. This is only a few minutes walked from Surasak BTS, where we were headed to.