Last Wednesday Walk and Drive

Now catching up with the walks on Wednesday and Thursday. Since then it has been Friday off and Saturday and Sunday driving. I will do this day back to front and talk about the drive around the landfill site and Bangkok Metropolitan Authority (BMA) waste collection depot first before the walk I did before it.

The drive into the landfill and BMA depot area is probably unusual unless you are working there. Small scale industry has set up in this area recycling trash coming in. Very little plastic can make it into the landfill as even the plastic bags are washed and dried to be turned into more plastic bags I guess. The small klong, Klong Wat Krathum Sueapla, that goes to the north from the landfill is polluted, being black and smelly. It joins Klong Prawet Burirom next to the temple, Wat Krathum Burirom. The two smoking stacks I had seen earlier in the week were part of the medical waste incinerator. The third stack looks like it's part of an abandoned incinerator. There is no pathway along Klong Song Hong next to the rubbish truck depot so this section can't be walked.

The walk earlier had been from the other side of the Bangkok Ring Road back to where I had started the Klong Song Hong walk previously. I did get the picture of the grocery boat along this walk. The canal's name started as Klong Takhe Khop but it became Klong Song Hong partway along. The blue dots on the map below show the walk. Klong Takhe Khop actually does a right turn to the south at ends just under the road.

Two Walks - Two Days

Have been walking but not blogging. Walked 4 kilometers on the southern side of Onnut road on Wednesday and 6 kilometers on an often done walk to Wat Krathum Sueapla today. I will give more detail another day, maybe the weekend but here are few visual tasters.

Below is a real Bangkok floating market. The fruit and vegetable seller was stopping off at most of the klong-side houses.

The rubbish truck depot with the stack of rear axles and differentials I mentioned on Sunday. I took this photo after driving into the landfill area and from the road bridge over Klong Song Hong into the depot.

The two smoking stacks in Tuesday's photo actually belong to a medical waste incinerator.

The other stack hasn't been used for a while. I do vaguely remember a pilot waste incinerator project from quite a few years back. From the web it sounds like not incinerating is a good thing for the environment.

And finally a gold frog with golden coin in its mouth from Wat Krathum Sueapla. There must be a story about this somewhere.

More on Klong Song Hong

Yesterday was the usual busy Monday so no walk and no blog. Today a bit better as I had to drive the accountant over to Srinakarin Road and I carried on so as to pick up Klong Song Hong further south and walk back to where I left it on Sunday. (This was where the canal split and I had to go with the right, western klong.) See the map below.

It was a 2 kilometer walk down to the southern wall of the rubbish collection vehicle depot. I had seen the northern end on Sunday. There was a few hundred meters between the two points without a walkway. The picture below shows the end of this path.

On the right, east, of the klong were Bangkok Metropolitan Authority facilities around the Onnut landfill including the incinerator. Two of the three smoke stacks are visible below.

Klong Song Hong

Hadn't walked for the last two days so made up for it with a 7.7 km walk today. For the first time walked south of Onnut Road. For two sections of the walk I had to leave the klong as the pathway run out. By the time it ended I had totally lost any sense of direction and though I had reached another main road rather than looping back to Onnut. On the map below the walk is shown with the red dots and I started from the little tail heading to the east.

First went a short distance east on the large Klong Prawet Burirom and then south on a small klong called Song Hong. The pathway stopped a couple of hundred meters short of Onnut Road at a sharp dogleg in the klong, but there was an alley that took me up to Onnut Road. Usually I'm lucky as the pathways tend to go under main roads but this time I had get across Onnut which was busy even on a Sunday. Found an entrance by the bridge to get back onto the klong and headed south.

500 meters along the klong split with the path hugging the right hand klong. In between the two sections was a massive Bangkok council yard for their rubbish collection trucks. You can see this in the photo below. Looked like all the trucks were parked up on a Sunday afternoon. Just in front of the office building was 20 foot stack of rear axels and differentials so I guess they take a beating in normal use. Next time I will get a shot of these.

Followed this klong for about half an hour through fairly un-built on land with a few ponds open for Sunday anglers. When the path stopped there was another alley through a small community onto a lane that took me back to Onnut. Crossed back over Onnut and then turned right onto Pattanakarn Road where I could get back on Klong Prawet Burirom and then back home.

Unusual site on the big canal today was a large dead monitor lizard over a meter long. Seen a few dead dogs and some very large dead fish before but this was a first. Stunk a bit so didn't hang around.

Saturday was a good football day. My team Charlton played badly in the first 45 minutes and went into the break losing two-nil but came out in the second half to win three-two. Maybe things are getting better.