Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
WALK 1
WONG WIAN YAI
In Search of King
Taksin
Starting from Wong Wian Yai Skytrain station, the walk takes us alongside the Bangkok Yai
canal to the temple that is the final resting place of King Taksin.
Duration: 2 hours
Once Bangkok had been founded as the new capital of Siam, Thonburi became
something of a rural backwater. A place of market gardens and canals and old
temples, it snoozed all the way through the nineteenth century as the Chakri dynasty built
Bangkok into a powerful city. Only in the early part of the twentieth century did the world
intrude again upon Thonburi, and even then it was to use the former kingdom as a transit
point. The turn of the century saw the beginning of the railway era in Siam, and to service
the south a line was opened to Petchaburi in 1903, later continuing down to Butterworth,
across the Malay border. As there was no bridge across the Chao Phraya, a station was built
in Thonburi, next to the Bangkok Noi canal, and passengers made their way across the river
by boat.
For several years the northern and southern railway systems operated independently of
each other, divided by the river. As rail traffic grew, however, the decision was made to build
a bridge across the river and link all the lines at a new station on the east bank next to Ch-
inatown. The Rama
VI
Bridge, opening in 1927 at Bang Sue, on the northern side of the city,
was Bangkok's first river bridge. Thonburi railway station continued to operate, serving loc-
al passengers and also the new railway line that was built to Kanchanaburi, in the west, but
