Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Nai Lert gained more fame when in about 1910 he imported the new ice-making equip-
ment, being the first person in Siam to be able to solidify water, an art that drew aston-
ished crowds to such an extent that an exhibition was staged in the Sala Sahathai building,
next to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.
Around the time Nai Lert opened his store, the tram service along Charoen Krung
Road had been electrified, and the street was evolving as the most fashionable shopping
district in town. And then something else happened. Around 1900 the first motorcar ap-
peared in Siam. Owned by Chao Phraya Surasak Montri, the vehicle was of an unknown
make and was described by an envious noble as looking like a steamroller set on solid
rubber tyres and topped off by a flat roof. Possessing a feeble engine sufficient to propel
the vehicle along level ground but without the power to climb humped bridges, it non-
etheless required fuel. When in 1904 a son of Rama
V
, travelling in Europe, ordered a
Daimler-Benz to be delivered to Siam, which he then presented to his father, a motorcar
was something every wealthy Siamese wanted to own. This proved a decisive time for
Nai Lert, who took on the concession for Shell motor spirit. His store became one of
Bangkok's few filling stations, and he expanded the premises. Motorcars did not remain a
novelty for long. Nai Lert had started a horse-drawn carriage service for hire to the afflu-
ent to tour the city's new roads, and in 1910 this evolved into a bus service using engine-
driven vehicles, importing the motors from England and appointing a team of local car-
penters to build the bus bodies, following a design that Nai Lert himself sketched out with
chalk on the cement floor of his shop. A distinctive white colour, the first White Bus route
ran from Pratunam to Siphraya Road, and this was followed by the White Boat service
that ran along the Saen Saeb canal, bringing people in from as far afield as Nongchock and
Minburi, where they disembarked at Pratunam. He imported Fiat motorcars and rented
them out with drivers by the hour, starting Bangkok's first taxi service. He built pleasure
boats and sea-going vessels that fished the Gulf of Siam and transported goods to and
from provincial towns along the coast. He built the Hotel de la Paix, in the Saphan Lek
Bridge area, which offered English beer, Scotch whisky, and tasty sausages made by his
wife. King Rama
VI
came to lunch shortly after it opened.
In 1915 Nai Lert did something that really made people shake their heads in disbelief.
He purchased, from the royal family, twenty-five acres of swampy land alongside the Saen
Saeb canal. Bounded by what are now the top part of Wireless Road, Ploenchit Road, and
Soi Chit Lom, the investment seemed a whimsical one. The city was spreading outwards
in the southeast, the Bangkok Sports Club was not that far away, and there were several
big houses a little further to the south of Nai Lert's land. But in the area of the canal the
