Klong Ban Ma or Klong Banma

I'm getting very slow. I just realized that the small canal I walked down to get to Klong Saen Saeb has the same name as the klong that is just up the road from me. My excuse is age and the differences in English spellings of Thai names. I have been referring to my local canal as Banma and this was Ban Ma. I should have picked that up straight away though. Ban Ma or Banma though is quite complicated route with many canals joining, right-angles and so on. This does give me a challenge though, a walk from one end, Klong Prawet Burirom, to the other end, Klong Saen Saeb.

The spelling thing is a problem. I have always used "klong" although now on official signs and much of the internet it's "khlong". The "Prawet" in Klong Prawet Burirom is spelt "Prawes" as the district and I have used Pravet in the past which is closer to how it sounds. For Klong Phrakanong we could use Phra Khanong, Phrakhanong, Prakhanong and so on.

Sunday's Drive

Drove out to the Royal Thai Navy Museum on Sukhumvit Road as I had never been there. I think we were the only visitors so far that day as they had to turn on some of the lights. A bit run-down but it would still be a boys delight with boat models and guns. We then went to the river ferry piers off Sukhumvit at the Bang Na Road junction. The next stop was at the river end of Klong Phrakhanong where I found a local authority poster with the history of the canal. (It involves opium;-) I will put this up plus all the photos later.

Today's Drive

Drove up the Carrefour supermarket at the western end of Onnut Road. On the way back I stopped at Wat Yang to see how much of this canal I can still walk. It looks like about 1 kilometer on the northern side. Wat Yang is a large temple complex that seems to do a lot of funerals. Unusual was a building with buffalo and cattle saved from the slaughterhouse by people to make merit.

Although there was no pathway on the temple's side of the canal, there were two women running a ferry service across the canal as you can see below. I didn't try it.

A lazy 2 hour Sunday afternoon walk on Klong Prakhanong between Soi 39 and 25 and back. Parked the pickup where I had a couple of days ago and walked west until the pathway run out. Monday is a holiday this week so the busy klong was fairly quiet. More than a few of the local residents were doing some very relaxed rod and line fishing. It is more for the sport I'm sure, although anything caught will end up in the post. If they were serious fishermen they would throwing nets out.

Lots of religious places on the klong as with everywhere in Thailand. Below is nice mix of mosque, temple and Chinese temple. The temple below had some clever mosaic work on it.

This mosque, Masjid Al Kubror, had a fairly modern look to it.

And this small Chinese style temple'e entrance was onto the klong and was certainly colourful with some ceramic tiles telling a story I guess.