Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
front of him, the designer of a handsome block of shophouses has erected a pediment that
is a miniature duplicate of the station frontage.
A riverbus plying the Saen Saeb canal passes the Jim Thompson House.
here is an old photograph in one of the topics I have about Bangkok that always
amuses me. It was taken at the beginning of the city's railway era, the photographer stand-
ing on the bank of the Padung Krung Kasem canal, and in the foreground is a hotel
proudly bearing the name hotel hovel. I can only assume that it was supposed to be Hotel
Novel, and that the Thai usage of the English language was as whimsical then as it is now.
But other than this the picture is interesting because it shows that in this area, to the front
of the old Paknam Railway Station, the kind of inexpensive hotel accommodation that
grows up around a railway terminus had already started to appear.
Exit the station today, and towards the left there is a big sign looming above the
rooftops of a very elegant row of shophouses and bearing the words station hotel. The
entry to the hotel is not exactly salubrious, being tucked down an alley lined by food shops
that appear distinctly uninviting to even a usually happy enough consumer of street food.
The lobby, though, is spacious and very Chinese in style, and the rooms, at about 250 baht,
are not expensive by any standards. The Station Hotel is, however, not an ancient struc-
ture, the manager estimating about fifty years, so unless this is a reworking of an earlier
building there is no great antiquity here. Pity. It all sounded rather romantic. By contrast,
in Rong Muang, the lane that runs directly alongside the station, is something of a gem.
The Sri Hua Lampong Hotel is housed inside a building that must have been here since
the station itself. This is a very traditional old Thai-Chinese establishment. The reception
desk is a small table in the far corner of the Chinese-style lobby, and there is a seating area
made from tables and benches that once graced a railway carriage.
Opposite are the very attractive buildings that house the station offices, and further
on along Rong Muang, past the big overhead conveyor that connects the Bangkok Mail
Centre with the station, is the little village of Charoen Muang, once famous as an
umbrella-making district. These are the big sun umbrellas found shielding the tables in
