Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
WALK 16
THE EUROPEAN DISTRICT 1
The Sea of Mud
Bangkok's first paved road, Charoen Krung, was laid out along the swampy bank of the
river soon after the Europeans arrived and set up their legations, warehouses, hospitals,
homes and churches.
Duration: 2 hours
“
March 25—At seven o'clock this morning we weighed anchor, and attempted to
cross the bar; but when about half-way over, the ship struck in the soft mud, in
which, as the tide fell, she sunk four feet. We had, at the same time, not above four feet wa-
ter. As the evening tide made, she floated, and we crossed the bar without sustaining any in-
jury. A strong and favourable breeze soon carried us to the mouth of the Menam, a distance
of not less than ten miles from the outer edge of the bar, ploughing almost all the way
through the thin ooze; and at seven o'clock at night we anchored of the village of Paknam,
about two miles and a half from the mouth of the river, upon its left bank.”
Diplomat John Crawfurd, on one of the first official British missions to Bangkok, arriv-
ing in 1822, was observing the shipping hazard that had always presented difficulties for
mariners, and the huge submerged mud bank that stretches out into the sea remains to this
day an obstacle to shipping. Continual dredging keeps the navigation channel open, but
only for the smaller vessels; the container-carrying leviathans must use the deepsea port at
Laem Chabang, on the Gulf coast near to Pattaya. The bar would be far larger were it not
for the fact that the sediment that washes down from the farmlands becomes so liquefied
that it washes over the accumulated mud and is swept out to sea, despite the strength of the
tide that attempts to push it back again. The Port Authority of Thailand has the responsib-
ility for keeping 66 kilometres (41 miles) of the river dredged for navigation, starting from
