Chinatown, Bangkok

Chinatown in Bangkok is not just a strip of noodle shops or Peking ducks for tourists, it is indeed as significant, culturally and historically as Chao Praya River (blood line of the central plain) that runs further south. The first night life of Bangkok came into being here where the first two high rise buildings of Thailand stood facing each others at 6 and 7 storeys above the impressive 4 lanes road.


The first department store of Bangkok PACIFIC took up the whole ground building width of the 6 storey building, extreme right: below. Now a hotel and chinese restaurant at street level of Yaowarat Road.

Chinatown would not be a chinatown without a chinese temple. Wat Mangkorn Kalamawa (วัดเล่งเน่ยยี่), below:

As the first downtown of Bangkok, it was where the elite and the influencials and all other bad and ugly came out to be seen in neon lights. It was where the dancing studio was, the best cantonese roast ducks and pork could be found only here, the best Dim Sum in town, a famous street corner restaurant SEE FAH ("Blue Color", they were the first shop with fluorescent lights! SEE FAH is still going strong today) serve their many signature dishes up to your limousine on a brass tray hook to your car doors!

Yaowarat Road in chinatown today turns into an eating street by night after a long day of heavy traffic and trading in gold. Food stalls just magically materialise at sun down right in front of those tens of gold shops. Many of them are sea food restaurants famous for their freshest catch of the day!
Below, Yaowarat Road in heavy traffic and out of this world signage, ..

..where I was born, at a 3 storey shop house not far from PACIFIC Department Store.