Bangkok (Lonely Planet) - Andrew Burke [69]
Just off Th Chakraphet is Sri Gurusingh Sabha (Th Phahurat; 6am-5pm), a gold-domed Sikh temple best viewed from Soi ATM. Basically it’s a large hall, somewhat reminiscent of a mosque interior, devoted to the worship of the Guru Granth Sahib, the 17th-century Sikh holy book, which is itself considered the last of the religion’s 10 great gurus. Prasada (blessed food offered to Hindu or Sikh temple attendees) is distributed among devotees every morning around 9am, and if you arrive on a Sikh festival day you can partake in the langar (communal Sikh meal) served in the temple. If you do visit this shrine, be sure to climb to the top for panoramic views of Chinatown. Stores surrounding the temple sell assorted religious paraphernalia.
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TRANSPORT: CHINATOWN
Bus Air-con 507 & 508; ordinary 1, 4, 25, 33, 37, 49 & 53
Ferry Tha Marine Department (N4), Tha Ratchawong (N5), Tha Saphan Phut (Memorial Bridge, N6)
Metro Hua Lamphong
While we list bus numbers here, traffic in Chinatown is dire and it’s better to arrive by river ferry or take the Metro and walk. Following the walking tour Click here, or just making up your own, is undoubtedly the most interesting (and, ahm, hot) way to get around. If it all gets too much, at weekends a hop-on hop-off red tourist bus (that looks like a tram) loops from opposite Hua Lamphong station up Th Yaowarat and back down Th Charoen Krung.
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TALAT NOI
Map
bounded by the river, Th Songwat, Th Charoen Krung & Th Yotha; Tha Marine Department (N4)
This microcosm of soi life is named after a noi (little) market that sets up between Soi 22 and Soi 20, off Th Charoen Krung, selling goods from China. Wandering here you’ll find streamlike soi turning in on themselves, weaving through people’s living rooms, noodle shops and grease-stained machine shops. Opposite the River View Guesthouse, San Jao Sien Khong (unnamed soi; admission by donation; 6am-6pm) is one of the city’s oldest Chinese shrines, and is guarded by a playful rooftop terracotta dragon. A former owner of the shrine made his fortune collecting taxes on bird-nest delicacies.
WAT MANGKON KAMALAWAT (LENG NOI YEE)
Map
Th Charoen Krung; 6am-5.30pm; air-con 508, ordinary 16, 73, 75 & 93; Tha Ratchawong (N5)
Explore the cryptlike sermon halls of this busy Chinese temple (also known as Leng Noi Yee) to find Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian shrines. During the annual Vegetarian Festival, religious and culinary activities are centred here. But almost any time of day or night this temple is busy with worshippers lighting incense, filling the ever-burning altar lamps with oil and making offerings to their ancestors. Offering oil is believed to provide a smooth journey into the afterlife and to fuel the fire of the present life. Mangkon Kamalawatt means ‘Dragon Lotus Temple’. Surrounding the temple are vendors selling food for the gods – steamed lotus-shaped dumplings and oranges – which are used for merit making.
HUALAMPHONG TRAIN STATION
Map
Th Phra Ram IV; air-con 501, ordinary 25 & 75; Hua Lamphong exit 2
At the southeastern edge of Chinatown, Bangkok’s main train station was built by Dutch architects and engineers between 1910 and 1916. Above the 14 platforms it was designed in a neoclassical style by Italian architect and engineer combination Mario Tamagno and Annibale Rigotti, who were working at the same time on the grand Ananda Samakhom Throne Hall at Dusit. But it also embraces other influences, such as the patterned, two-toned skylights that exemplify nascent De Stijl Dutch modernism, and through these is known as an early example of the shift towards Thai Art Deco. If you can zone out of the chaos for a moment, look for the vaulted iron roof and neoclassical portico that were a state-of-the-art engineering feat.
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CHINATOWN’S SHOPPING STREETS
Chinatown is the neighbourhood version of a big-box store divided up into categories of consumerables.
Th Charoen Krung (Map) Chinatown