Three Temples, A Market, A Mall, & A Big Mac!

Bangkok, Day 34

"How about we....?" - these are the words that R has come up with today. Now I'm sure that he's secretly going onto some Bangkok forum on Reddit or something as I can't imagine he has come up with this idea on his own but he suggests we hop on the BTS to Talat Phlu on the other side of the river from us and we have a look around this area. Now I already know that he has a Google map of pinned places from a couple of foodie YouTubers that we follow, so I suspect that he's looking to visit one of these places for lunch, but it sounds interesting, so that's our plan for the day.

Once we're ready, we quickly dispense some of Neko's food into his dish and get out the apartment before he can complain it's not enough for a growing cat of his stature.

23 Dec 2024

Talat Phlu

Talat Phlu is a community and marketplace by the Khlong Bangkok Yai canal over in the Thonburi side of Bangkok.

The history of Talat Phlu dates back to the reign of King Taksin of the Thonburi Kingdom, which followed the fall of Ayutthaya in 1767. At the time, the Thonburi side of the Chao Phraya River was the new capital of Siam (the name of Thailand at that time). Talat Phlu was a community of overseas Chinese or Thai-Chinese, also including Muslims and Mon. After King Rama I took the throne, establishing the Rattanakosin Kingdom, the capital was moved across the river to the Phra Nakhon side. Most of the Chinese moved to live in Sampheng, but some of them remained, descending to the present day.

In its heyday (around 1950s–1960s), Talat Phlu was a bustling district, and it was said to be comparable to Yaowarat as one of Bangkok's Chinatowns.

Nowadays, the area is famous for its street food. In addition, there are many shophouses and buildings with delicate stucco and wooden fretwork decorations in Chinese style along the road beside the canal worth sightseeing.

The Mall Lifestore

As is often the case with us, our first stop was to the nearby The Mall LifeStore - Tha Phra, which is a large mall not far from the Talat Phlu BTS station. Now we do have a confession - we have been in Thailand for 34 days now and we have mainly eaten Thai food but today we had a bit of a craving for a burger, so we gave in and each had a Big Mac meal at McDonalds (total cost was £7.67, which is probably about half of what it would be in the UK). We haven't had a McDonald's in absolutely years, so it was very nice. After a walk through the whole mall and with our bodies refuelled, we set off to have a look around the local area.

R was in charge of the navigation, since it was his plan, and we headed down (or perhaps it was up?) towards the canal area.

The Train Station

Before very long we came across an amazing railway community area. Now I know we have read in the past about the places where the markets are practically operating right at the side line of the railway and they need to move stalls in every time the train passes, so it was pretty awesome to come across the same sort of area but less chaotic, dangerous and with no tourists about.

As it was around early afternoon, I think a lot of the market had probably finished for the day (and we saw this later too), but there were still several food sellers doing brisk business with Grab drivers and locals.

Seeing this area beside the railway was pretty fab though and there were even a number of people waiting for a train there, so it is very much a used train route.

Talat Phlu railway station is a class 2 railway station and serves Talat Phlu community. It is located in a different location to Talat Phlu BTS station. Currently, 34 rail services operate at the station. The station opened in 1904 during the reign of King Chulalongkorn. The station, along with the rest of Talat Phlu neighbourhood, was featured in the 2024 movie How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies.

After this, we continued to make our way down to the canal and main market area, and in the process of looking at this, we came across 3 different temples: Wat Chantharam, Wat Intharam and Wat Werurachin. Each of the temple areas was pretty awesome, and again, we were just taken with the beautiful structures and displays around the whole area. Given the number of photos we both took, I'm sure I will have the various ones mixed up in my descriptions because even when you think it is a single temple, each of the temples generally has various other buildings beside them. It's so strange, though, how you can build three temples in such proximity to one another. We were quite happy, though, as we looked like the only tourists in the area, and it was really quiet.

Wat Chantharam Worawihan

Wat Chantharam Worawihan, also known as Wat Chantharam, is a historic third-level royal monastery. It was built in the Ayutthaya period. Originally it was called Wat Bang Yi Ruea Klang, or known locally as Wat Klang, because it was flanked by two other temples, Wat Intharam and Wat Rajkrueh. Later in King Rama III's reign of the early Rattanakosin period, it was renovated and elevated to the status of a royal monastery of the Worawihan type.

Wat Intharam Worawihan,

Wat Intharam Worawihan also known as Wat Intharam is a third-class royal temple. This temple is recognized as "the temple of King Taksin the Great" (1767–1782). The temple was built during the Ayutthaya era. It was restored by King Taksin, who afterwards granted it the status of a royal temple. It was his favourite temple, where he came to stay overnight to meditate and observe religious precepts.

In 1782, the temple was used to house the royal crematorium of the late King Taksin and his family. Inside the temple, there is also a pair of stupas containing the ashes of him and his royal consort. It retained its status as a royal temple throughout King Rama I's reign (1782–1809), with three high-ranking monks governing the monastery. During King Rama III's reign (1824–1851), a Mon-Persian descent nobleman, Phraya Sisahathep (Thongpheng), restored it once again and asked the King to grant it the status of a royal temple. The request was granted, but to a lower status than before. It was named then Wat Intharam in the present day. Wat Intharam has been registered as a national heritage by the Fine Arts Department since 1949.

Temple Market

The area around the temple is a bustling place for the local morning traditional market known as Talat Wat Klang. A wide variety of products are sold, including fresh produce, dry goods, seafood, ready-to-eat food, Thai sweets, and clothing. The entrance to the market is in Soi Thoet Thai 12, and both sides are lined with shophouses selling retro products. The area of the market still extends to cover nearby temples, Wat Intharam and Wat Rajkrueh as well.

The market is open daily from 12.00 am to 12.00 pm (but of course we had missed it!).

The area around here was really interesting, and I can imagine what it must be like when the market is in full swing. Although most of the stalls were all closed up by the time we got to the main market area near the canal, several people were sitting, talking, and others were fast asleep on top of their stalls, which just goes to show what a hard and exhausting life many of these sellers must have.

There were also several narrow boats on the canal, most of which looked like they were tourists, perhaps from a nearby floating market or key tourist spot. We certainly have seen some for the Hidden Bangkok Tours.

Suriya Coffee

One of the key stops we wanted to make whilst in this area was to have a coffee at Suriya Coffee, which is a place that has been selling coffee for over 100 years. It has an amazing location overlooking the canal, so it would have been a great spot to have a break but unfortunately it was closed by the day (Monday) time we got there (after 12), so all we managed was a photo to show we had made it to the spot. For a good idea of what it is actually like, have a look at The Roaming Cook's video for this area: https://youtu.be/735Or_BLB2E?si=j5I4vZQQ9DqzqYj6

Then it was time to start heading back to the apartment and face the wrath of Lord Neko.

On the way back to the BTS, we took a shorter route back across the train track, and it had been closed off to allow a train to pass, so the cars and motorcycles had to wait a few moments before they could continue with their travels.

Apart from a quick deviation for a couple of ice creams, we then called it a day. Back home at the apartment, and after Neko was fed, he got his new toys to play with. It's strange how hard it is to find places that sell pet toys!! However, we did manage to pick up a few from a store when we were in the mall. He seemed to be happy with these...

Below is a rough route plan of where we went today, and note: we didn't walk all the way there, but I couldn't get Google Maps to show a combination of walking and public transport! In all fairness, I have to give R credit for today's outing, as it turned out much more interesting than I think either of us expected.

Bangkok, Thailand