Nakhon Chaisri and Nakhon Pathom

On Sunday I had a chance to take a friend out to the Jesada Technik Museum in Nakhon Chaisri and then onto Nakhon Pathom for a bit of a walk. An early start meant we got out of Bangkok quite easily but we did hit traffic out of town and on the way back. It's so hot at the moment that everyone with a car is trying to get away on weekends.

So first the Jesada Technik Museum. This is a place for grown up boys to go look at cars from their youth. I've talked about this place before and it's definitely for boys not girls. The owner, Jesada Dejkulrit, is a millionaire who has built a museum any 11 year old boy would dream of. It's pure collecting for the sake of collecting and I'm really jealous. I wish all millionaires spent their money as sensibly as this.

I took 277 pictures and my friend a similar amount. They are of old cars, some just wrecks, motorbikes, scooters, trucks, helicopters, a DC3, rice barges, old fire engines and even a tank. The new museum building looks like it is getting close to being finished inside. Another trip would be in order when that happens.

Jesada Museum Entrance

From the museum we drove onto Nakhon Pathom with no real plans on what to see. Nakhon Pathom is a fairly ancient town in Thailand and pre-dates the Tai race entering what is present day Thailand. The town was probably part of what is called the Dvaravati Kingdom which was inhabited by the Mons. Strange therefore that we ended up looking at buildings from the late 19th. and early 20th. century.

We had a walk through the well kept grounds of the Sanam Chan Palace. This complex of Royal residences is 101 years old and features a building that would pass as a castle in a Disney movie. Click on the picture below.

Chali Mongkol Asana

Taking care of this fairly large area were young women dressed in black. They looked like fashionable version of the Khmer Rouge but on reflection I suspect they were students from the fine arts department and black would be for mourning the recent death of the Thai King's elder sister.

Palace Cleaning Crew

The last stop was at the Phra Pathom Chedi built in the 1870's which is the tallest stupa in the world at 127 metres. It is much revered in Thailand.

Phra Pathom Chedi

Wat Khu Sang, Samut Prakan

Not much exercise on Saturday. A drive over the new bridge to the Chulchomklao Fort navy base for lunch in their seafood restaurant and then a drive out on some of the small roads going west from there. Going along the northern bank of Klong Sapphasamit and turning right just before the cement road runs out at the large rice mill takes you on some small roads back towards the river. Close to the canal is Wat Khu Sang with many colourful temple buildings. Below is one that was really shining in the sun. Click on the picture for a better resolution one. This temple is well kept and clean and obviously the center of the local community. In the Bangkok suburbs this role has largely been taken over by the large shopping malls.

Blame it on Harry Potter!

Not really Harry Potter's fault here in Thailand but he did help. I went to the Bangkok International Bookfair yesterday to meet some people. In Thailand we always have the book fair during the school summer holidays; it's our very hot season here. There were tens of thousands of kids, mainly teens, camped out on every available bit of floor space and they were reading! I hope there are similar scenes in the UK and rest of the first world otherwise we will be left behind in twenty years.

Split this Blog

I have been thinking about splitting this blog. Maybe my minority views on UK politics don't really fit in with canals and walking although that's where I fine tune them;-) On the internet we tend to niche everything. The more we niche the easier it is for people to find us. So maybe I will take new political posts onto a new blog. I will ponder this some more.

This is what you get for the money!

I couldn't let the British Airways Heathrow Terminal 5 story go by this week without a comment. I live in a third world country where two years ago they moved from one airport to another 25 kilometers away overnight and still had passengers flying with their baggage the next day. So why couldn't British Airways, and maybe the British Airports Authority (BAA), get it right?

Well you would have to go back to 1981 with British Airways when Maggie Thatcher put John King, later Lord, in as chairman of the company to set about privatising it. Two years later he brings in Colin Marshall to run it and from then on you have a history of job losses, bad labour relations and crooked dealings. While the Tories held up British Airways as what could be done by privatisation, experienced travellers avoided the airline like the plague. If it hadn't had its sinicured atlantic flights out of Heathrow it would have died years ago.

I suspect I could make a similar case about the now Spanish owned BAA. How did British Airways hope the move would work out when the staff-management relations are so very poor. Where was the needed enthusiasm from the labour force meant to come from. The whole Thatcherite policy on privatisation needed a beaten labour force to make these companies succeed without state support. The chairmen of these companies were picked to do the job. You only have to think back to bringing Ian MacGregor in as head of the coal industry.

So which of the many companies privatised have worked out as successes. Sure there has been some success for asset strippers and those that hold a near monopoly position in their industry, but for the customers and staff there has not been an overall benefit. Will train commuters in the UK claim they are better off. I suspect not many of the remaining small shareholders feel particularly happy. Those in British Airways should demand a change in management at the very least. How about those who invested into the Channel Tunnel. I guess the then Tory cabinet didn't put anything into that one.

Read Diamond Geezer, he was there.

West Samut Prakan Walk

The province of Samut Prakan, like Bangkok, spreads across both sides of the Chao Phraya river. It sits at the mouth of the river between Bangkok and the sea. Since the recent industrial ring road bridge, and even more since the new Bangkok Ring Road bridge have connected both banks of the river below the city, new places of interest have become easier to access. One of these is the Chulachomklao Fort.

We went over there for a walk yesterday. I found this about year ago by following signs which took me to a guarded naval base at the mouth of the river. Apart from the fort we found a museum naval ship, a fine seafood restaurant and wood decked pathways through preserved mangrove swamp. Yesterday with a friend we walked around them all, playing with the six inch guns that were fired at the French Navy in 1893 and walking through the dry-docked corvette, HTMS Maeklong, which was built in 1935 in Japan.

HTMS Maeklong

British WW2 25 Pounder

There is a display of various guns in small park and it includes a ex-British WW2 vintage 25 pound artillery piece. The two pathways through the mangrove swamp were interesting with plenty of birds, a couple of large water monitors and some mud-skippers which are fish that can breathe out of water. An 11 AM stop at the restaurant gave us some coffee and another stop outside the gates for a soft drink let us watch the guys fishing off the bridge over one of the large canals in this area. It really is a good place to visit if you haven't been before and great if you have kids. For foreigners you should have your passports and for Thais your ID cards to get through the navy guards.

Heron in the Mangrove Swamp

From there we headed back along the riverside road until a left turn took us out to Ban Sakhla. The road ends after about 8 kilometers in the car park of Wat Sakhla. From here we could walk through Ban Sakhla village where access is only by the pathways or by canal. Of course now-a-days everyone has a motorbike, but most houses also had long-tailed boats of various sizes. From this village boats go to Klong Sapphasamit which joins the Chao Phraya River to the port of Samut Sakhon to the west.

Ban Sakhla Houses on Canal

Wat Sakhla is lively place, being the center of village life, and the car park for anyone visiting. There was quite a bit of karaoke and eating going on while we were there. At the northern end of the temple is an old leaning stupa that I suspect dates back many centuries. I think this is in the Mon style of temple building.

Wat Sakhla Leaning Stupa

Old Hall at Wat Pounwanaram

Going back down Ban Sakhla road we stopped at another old temple hall at Wat Pounwanaram. This old building, although not as old as the stupa at Wat Sakhla, was interesting as the walls were wood planks, I guess teak. The last stop and walk was on the river at Wat Traimit Wararam. Most of the buildings here are more recent although I suspect there has been a temple on this site for a very long time. There is a great river view here and just behind the temple an old large wood hulled and decked river boat is moored. A man came over and offered us the boat for 200,000 Baht, but I supect that's a bit like buying Tower Bridge in London.

Old Wooden River Boat

Charlton Athletic 1-1 West Brom

It's hot in Bangkok right now. Everyone is complaining about it. Weekends it becomes more noticeable as we are out of the office air-conditioning. Being hazy I left my hat off for some of yesterday's walk and burnt the top of my head. I get lazy, find more to moan about and even Charlton can't help me. A one-one draw with West Brom doesn't help. It's good not to be losing but now really only wins help.

The only upbeat football story to come out of the weekend was in Frankie Valley's new blog where he stood next to the great Garry Nelson, footballer and writer. Shouldn't have peed on his shoes though Frankie.