Klong Prawet Burirom

Today I walked for a couple hours along "Klong Prawet Burirom". This is the large klong very close to where I live. A five minute walk gets me onto the canal path. For the second day I went east to "Wat Krathum Sueapla". A wat is a buddhist temple. The reason I went back that way today is the local authority has put up three signboards outside the temple. They have probably been there a long time but I only noticed them yesterday.

One has a map showing a bicycle touring route along canal paths and small roads. One has the history of the klong and the last the history of the temple. I will start with the temple, pictured below.

Wat Krathum Sueapla takes it names from the krathum trees and fishing cats (sueapla) that were common when it was built in 1802. I must admit I'm not sure what a krathum tree looks like but I have seen a fishing cat in the zoo and they are in Wikipedia. I don't think they have lived around here for long time. People were making merit today feeding tame fish in front of the temple. I will do more on this temple another time.

Klong Prawet Burirom was built in 1877 to link the eastern suburb of Bangkok called Samut Prakan with the next river to the east, the Bang Pakong. It's 47 kilometers long and took 3 years to build. So now I know more about local history that I learnt in the last twenty-five years or os of living here.