Not sure where to go next

I'm not sure where to walk next or where to take this blog. I had thought I would mix what I saw on my walk and what I had been thinking about during it. It has become too much a travelogue of the klongs. I had even been thinking about walking the next big klong to the north.

I guess one of the problems is taking the photos and remembering some of the places meant I didn't have to think of other things. I not very good with bad news nowadays and I have some worries that I build up far bigger than I should.

I think what I will get back to is just walks on the local sections of the klong and a bit more thinking.

Walk to Wat Yang

Did the walk I looked at yesterday when driving up Onnut Road. I parked the truck a fair distance from Klong Prakhanong on Soi (Thai for lane) 17 and walked up to the bridge to get onto the pathway.

From the Soi 17 bridge looking west there are no signs of any more footpaths, see picture below. There might be something between Sukhumvit Road and the river and I hope to get over there soon.

Walked to where the two ladies run the cross-klong ferry service at Wat Yang, it was further than I thought. I couldn't do the last bit between the two temples as there was a low gate on the walkway that looked like it kept some dogs penned in. I didn't bother going the last few hundred meters.

This area seems to be the oldest part I have visited which makes sense as Bangkok would have developed outwards from the river. It seemed Buddhist rather than Moslem so the dog count went up along with their mess. Next to Wat Yang was a very old house that looked original. The small tiles on the roof are not usually seen on other than temples and palaces.

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.

Saturday's Drive

Took a break late afternoon and drove down to the eastern end of Klong Prawet Burirom where it joins the Ban Pakong River. This was about 48 kilometers from where I live. Maybe next weekend I will do the western end where it joins the River Chao Phraya. That's 10 kilometers from here. Below is a picture of the Ban Pakong River a little north of where the klong joins it. It was getting late and the light was going.

Looking from the last road bridge to the east where the klong joins the river. On the right side is private land and to left is a factory so there is no access. At the end on the right is a house which must be a fantastic locaation to live.

This the last road bridge to the east of Klong Prawet Burirom.

From the bridge you can see these watergates looking to the west. Google Earth shows another loop of the canal to left with another watergate but you can't see it from here. I might do another trip out this way.

About one kilometer up the river from the klong is a large temple complex. In it is this old temple building. One of the monks said it was more than 100 years old. Until recently temples tended to be more interested in new buildings than keeping old ones standing so this is good.

Thursday's Walk

Almost a regular walk to the temple, Wat Krathum Sueapla, and back but I did deviate it so part was on Onnut Road to make more of a loop. At the top of one of the lanes I took to get to Onnut, Soi 61, was this small temple with both Buddhist and Hindu statues. You can see taking the major spot is Ganesh or Ganesha as Wikipedia has it now.

At Wat Krathum Sueapla they have a pair of tall trees with barriers at their base so I guess these might be krathum trees as in the name of the temple.

This glass and mirrored building in the grounds is outstanding.

This hall is fairly new looking.

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.

Football - Crystal Palace 0-1 Charlton

Yesterday's game was one of the two times this season we will meet our "local" rivals so any win is a good one. Although all the newspapers will use the term local this shows a lack of understanding on how London transportation works. A trip on public transport across South London from Charlton to Crystal Palace is best done by a railway ride into central London and them back out again.

When I left England Palace were not our local rivals as really we didn't know any Palace supporters. Millwall up the road were local but they didn't see us as rivals as they already had a historic one in West Ham. They were the two London dockers teams. Palace considered Brighton on the south coast their main rivals for some reason that I never bothered discovering. It used to be quite embarrassing as nobody thought Charlton were a worthy rival.

That all changed a number of years ago when Charlton, in financial trouble, were forced to share Crystal Palace's ground. The brave souls who made the journey across to continue supporting their team were never made to feel welcome so had no fondness for the Palace. Charlton gave the Palace fans reasons to dislike them two seasons ago by winning in a game that relegated them to the division we both now play in, and cheering while we did it.

Thank god for our minor tribal loyalties. I doubt a Charlton or a Palace fan would send us to war in Iraq, although we might be tempted to us weapons of mass destruction on each other.