Walk in Old Bangkok. Speedboats, Rapper Spy, Wires, Cats
On April 20, 2024, I headed to the neighborhood called Ban Khrua. I discovered that amazing place recently and decided to continue exploring the area with a telephoto lens a Nikkor 70-300mm on a Nikon full-frame D750 f/4.5-5.6.
To reach Ban Khrua, I first traveled on a bus and then took this speedboat.
The passengers are leaving and, next, I was coming on deck...
No traffic jams, and the speed is amazing... The whole trip lasted several minutes, and here we are, Hua Chang pier:
I don't speak Thai but I know some words, a couple of hundreds, probably. And that's enough to see a meaning in Thai signs and urban names from time to time. I am saying this slightly proudly and feeling ashamed, at the same time, since I have spent enough time in Thailand to learn some basic speech... Hua Chang means the elephant's head, I knew it, and my hypothesis was proved by reality when I walked up the bridge adjacent to the pier:
After a meal at a 7-Eleven convenience store (they have fish with lemongrass and rice, love it!), I went back to the canal, to another pier called Ban Khrua Nuea:
I was walking along the canal and looking for any interesting details like this beautiful roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) in a pot over the canal:
The main mission of the walk was actually cats.
But I will mostly skip this topic this time to give way to pictures Ban Khrua itself with its houses, people, wires...
As I know there is a plan to move the wires underground (and they have started the thing already)... When I think about that, I feel sad. And I am sure I am not the only one among fans of Thailand who have a special feeling about these bundles.
They are like a symbol of what I fell in love when I came to Asia. Not sure what words to choose. A charm of the chaos?
Thailand without bundles of wires would be like tom yum without chili, ridiculous.
There are many Thai Muslims in the neighborhood, and I saw at least two mosques.
There are not many signs of Islam in Ban Khrua. But there are. One of them: part of children wear special school costumes, like these boys:
I noticed them in the alley and decided to take an image. As soon as they noticed me (with that huge camera in my hands), they got excited and started joyfully laughing.
I had another communication in Ban Khrua. While I was photographing and feeding cats
I was approached by a young man. He politely asked me general questions (in great English) and told me that foreigners are rarely seen in Ban Khrua (it was a compliment, obviously).
He said his name is Spy, he is a rapper (IG: @sspy_plo). And we had this small photo shoot then.
It turned out he was born in the neighborhood and even has a tattoo of Ban Khrua:
We connected on Instagram and I soon left to keep my catsploring before it was too dark.
That's a song from Spy's Youtube channel, great one:
P.S. Check out my catstagram! IG: @cats_in_streets Very young account, subscribers wanted!! 😁 + My images of cats on Twitter: @cats_in_streets
More images and stories from Southeast Asia are ahead! Check out the previous ones on my personal Pinmapple map.
I took these images with a Nikkor 70-300mm on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 on April 20, 2024, in Bangkok, Thailand.
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Doing a photo walk in Bangkok is really interesting, especially in the neighborhood.
True. The only minus is that I can't talk to people (except very few). That's why I sometimes think about visiting Manila one day - people speak English and are talkative there as I know...
Ah yes, you can easily communicate with the Filipinos but also be careful to visit the slums area with your expensive camera. But in general, we, Filipinos are friendly.
Yes, safety, no idea how safe in Manila. But I will learn step by step starting from the most touristy places. 🙂
There's a trick I learned from a fellow traveler. Make your camera look ugly or broken, or look like you fix your broken camera with scotch tape or masking tape. So that nobody is interested to rob your camera and sell it. XD When it looks shiny and new, it sparks the interest of the robbers.
Good. When I have a shiny new camera, I will follow this advice 😄
hahaah when you take good care of your camera that still looks new, somebody is still interested in robbing that. XD
Out from the start your post make me laugh 😅 at first I was expecting small boats with those turbo engines they put on when you said speed boat 😂 and then the love for the chaos, its true a very iconic thing to remember if its all over the place and suddenly is gone after cabling goes under ground, from what I saw you have a lot of models for your cats in streets account, I love cats and probably will get one or two soon, I want an orange cat and a black cat, now that my kids are old enough to be over any type of allergies risk 😎✌️
🙂 Right, speedboats... Maybe I used this word in the wrong way. I just wanted to express an idea that these boats are not slow but very fast with all those splashes.
You are a lucky one. I love tabbies... But too nomadic to have my own cat.
Thank you! 🙂
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