Klong Toey Slum?

[JimsKnight]

i always hear klong toey mentioned as a slum rife with drugs and crime but all google attempts lead to the same three articles

does anyone have any idea what is actually going on there or are all the farang here just talking out their ass (as always expected)

An American expat I knew before he went off the grid up North (Thailand) claimed to of lived there for 3 - 6 months in a tin shack.

His manner, shaggy appearance and salt of the earth mentality gave me the impression he wasn't talking bs. Sadly his opium drug use also lent credence to this as well.

I asked him a bit about it and he did say that it was very boring, but he had scant funds and lived with a woman and her child.

Digs were/are about 500 baht a month, obviously shared by a family usually.

Food was really basic, but he did say that many of the slum folk would try and catch wild game, if you count rats and fish in that category.

He said he didn't feel threatened or get any hassle from the other thais.

When he got work in Iraq he moved away from the the Klong and up north.

I got his number but (as is usual in Thailand) he let it expire without telling anyone his new number! LOL.

An interesting guy. A mold breaker.

Here's the Coordinates for the cheapest digs in Thailand:

13°42'42.55"N

100°34'26.73"E

Edited October 21, 2008 by JimsKnight

[bonobo]

The market is great (just returned from there a few minutes ago.)

THe slums are better left alone.

A huge number of pigs get slaughtered there each night, and I don't think any of the abbatoirs are legal.

[Misplaced]

is it comparatively worse than south central LA or south bronx?

lol no way.

thats what i figured

thanks

Like either of you have been there

[Neeranam]

Don't go there wearing your rolex watches.

I used to work at Esso(Exxon Mobil) port offices and felt threatened occasionally at night on the outskirts of the slum area, however it's not as dangerous as Leith when the pubs close.

[DP25]

Like either of you have been there

Don't assume you have any idea whatsoever where I have and have not been.

[billp]

Here you can see what Khlong Toey is like: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jphulme/sets/72157603941300117/

And here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/koljaluecking...57607931527885/

[on-on]

I run through the slum paths fairly regulary over the last few years, they're interesting scenery. The people are generally nice when they're not suffering from dementia or something (and therefore just too far gone to react). I've certainly never run into any problems and most of the time people just smile and give the thumbs up and yell "Weng! Weng!" or tell their kids to say hi and laugh when I carry on talking to the little farts. My Thai is mild conversational, so I don't get everything, but I don't detect any malice. Of course I don't think I'd want my mother walking around there at night alone and covered in jewelry, but I've been down in there during the day alone and in the late afternoon/early evening a number of times alone and the worst I've ever gotten is a non-smile from the local street toughs. Occasionally that crowd, inevitably surrounding a worn-out pool table, will make fun of the silly farang running around looking lost (like teenagers anywhere in the world probably would), but I just laugh and smile and take the ribbing (since I am a silly, lost farang sometimes).

I recognize that I haven't commented on the misery one can surmise exists there (and that one can often see existing there), but to be perfectly frank I don't experience it most of the time. That's not a statement of hubris or apathy, just fact. I run in and I run out. Sometimes you'll happen across something particularly sad (the general conditions notwitstanding), but most of the time the people look pretty much like poor people carrying on with life who are surprised to see a foreigner running across their doorstep. The dogs on the other hand - occasionally not so nice, heh.

Anyhow, it's not scary at all compared to the little Barangay streets in much of Manila or some bordertown neighborhoods in Mexico, that's for sure. I wouldn't worry too much about walking through it during the day provided you don't make too easy a mark (and maybe I wouldn't worry even if you do make an easy mark, but I'm not a good judge of that). Safety in numbers probably doesn't hurt, but I'm about 6'3" and 90k and I smile like an idiot, so I tend to ward off the kind of problems I could imagine one maybe having in the slums.

[desertrat]

Scariest place ever for me was Walled City in Kowloon in early '70s

A Chinese friend took a few of us in, in single file of course, later on he was in discusion with a guy, and suddenly did a U-turn

and flashed past us in terror

We ran after him, after we were out, he was trembling and said he was told he would be killed if he bought gwailos there.

Having a death wish I often went alone, and the most remarkable thing to me was the number of dentists.

[Misplaced]

Like either of you have been there

Don't assume you have any idea whatsoever where I have and have not been.

Everyone who said that they've been there always said Compton, Lynwood or Gardena . I bet you were in once of those places.

[lifeisrandom]

Here you can see what Khlong Toey is like: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jphulme/sets/72157603941300117/

And here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/koljaluecking...57607931527885/

there are places all over bangkok which look like this to be hoenst

[lifeisrandom]

Like either of you have been there

Don't assume you have any idea whatsoever where I have and have not been.

Everyone who said that they've been there always said Compton, Lynwood or Gardena . I bet you were in once of those places.

these places have been covered extensively in documentaries and television

one can also access crime rates etc

now after this thread hopefully all the "you are a tough guy go to klong toey" posts will disappear

[jdinasia]

Please tell us all about other places you have never been

[bkkjames]

Please tell us all about other places you have never been

Ok, believe it or not but I have been here for 9 years and have been to every major city in Asia Pac but have not been to Kanchanaburi...but I am sure there is plenty of video on this place available.

[bonobo]

Please tell us all about other places you have never been

Ok, believe it or not but I have been here for 9 years and have been to every major city in Asia Pac but have not been to Kanchanaburi...but I am sure there is plenty of video on this place available.

You need to visit Kachanaburi!    There is lovely lake just north of there with some very nice waterfalls!!!!

[bkkjames]

Please tell us all about other places you have never been

Ok, believe it or not but I have been here for 9 years and have been to every major city in Asia Pac but have not been to Kanchanaburi...but I am sure there is plenty of video on this place available.

You need to visit Kachanaburi!    There is lovely lake just north of there with some very nice waterfalls!!!!

It's on my list of must do things, that and after all the posts above, visiting the Klong Toey slum.

[DP25]

Everyone who said that they've been there always said Compton, Lynwood or Gardena . I bet you were in once of those places.

Maybe we can go eat at Tito's Tacos and discuss our travels. You know where that is? I've been to all those places. And Klong Toey slum as well.

[jdinasia]

Everyone who said that they've been there always said Compton, Lynwood or Gardena . I bet you were in once of those places.

Maybe we can go eat at Tito's Tacos and discuss our travels. You know where that is? I've been to all those places. And Klong Toey slum as well.

The conquest of google!

[DP25]

The conquest of google!

For you, perhaps.

[Ritti]

I surrently live just on the outskirts of the slums. It was a very bad (poor and crime) area years before. When I tell taxis where I live they sometimes laugh and tell me stories. It is a very poor area that goes all the way to the river (read Bangkok Saughterhose) now is is not as bad and I have never had any trouble there but I would not walk throught he heart of it at midnight if I was a little westerner girl

The locals are friendly and there are soem relaly poor shacks that the owners have reallly tried to pretty up

[wayfarer108]

I run through the slum paths fairly regulary over the last few years, they're interesting scenery. The people are generally nice when they're not suffering from dementia or something (and therefore just too far gone to react). I've certainly never run into any problems and most of the time people just smile and give the thumbs up and yell "Weng! Weng!" or tell their kids to say hi and laugh when I carry on talking to the little farts. My Thai is mild conversational, so I don't get everything, but I don't detect any malice. Of course I don't think I'd want my mother walking around there at night alone and covered in jewelry, but I've been down in there during the day alone and in the late afternoon/early evening a number of times alone and the worst I've ever gotten is a non-smile from the local street toughs. Occasionally that crowd, inevitably surrounding a worn-out pool table, will make fun of the silly farang running around looking lost (like teenagers anywhere in the world probably would), but I just laugh and smile and take the ribbing (since I am a silly, lost farang sometimes).

I recognize that I haven't commented on the misery one can surmise exists there (and that one can often see existing there), but to be perfectly frank I don't experience it most of the time. That's not a statement of hubris or apathy, just fact. I run in and I run out. Sometimes you'll happen across something particularly sad (the general conditions notwitstanding), but most of the time the people look pretty much like poor people carrying on with life who are surprised to see a foreigner running across their doorstep. The dogs on the other hand - occasionally not so nice, heh.

Anyhow, it's not scary at all compared to the little Barangay streets in much of Manila or some bordertown neighborhoods in Mexico, that's for sure. I wouldn't worry too much about walking through it during the day provided you don't make too easy a mark (and maybe I wouldn't worry even if you do make an easy mark, but I'm not a good judge of that). Safety in numbers probably doesn't hurt, but I'm about 6'3" and 90k and I smile like an idiot, so I tend to ward off the kind of problems I could imagine one maybe having in the slums.

I think this and Ritti's appraisal are fairly accurate descriptions of today's Klong Toey, from my experience at least. I also work near the docks in KT, and have spent a fair amount of time wandering through the 'slums' and although the poverty is obvious, the area does not strike me as being particularly dangerous. Certainly nothing like equivalent neighbourhoods in Mexico City or Calcutta. I have never felt threatened or shocked. I actually find it very heartening in some ways, the way the residents have made the best out of difficult circumstances. But I do think that a non-local Thai wandering around KT might receive a different impression.

[Maigo6]

is this where the motorcycle taxi drivers and others working minimum wage in central Bangkok live?

It's where English Teachers live.

M/cycle taxi drivers are a few rungs up the ladder.

[bkkjames]

is this where the motorcycle taxi drivers and others working minimum wage in central Bangkok live?

It's where English Teachers live.

M/cycle taxi drivers are a few rungs up the ladder.

And to think he wasted his 3000th post on such brilliant thought.

[bonobo]

is this where the motorcycle taxi drivers and others working minimum wage in central Bangkok live?

It's where English Teachers live.

M/cycle taxi drivers are a few rungs up the ladder.

And to think he wasted his 3000th post on such brilliant thought.

You beat me to it and expressed it better than I would have.

[jdinasia]

But I do think that a non-local Thai wandering around KT might receive a different impression.

now exactly WHY would a Thai person have a different opinion? It seems like a Thai would be more likely to actually see the situation with other Thais far more clearly than someone from outside the culture.

I am not making a case for the Khlong Toey slums being horrendously dangerous but they are certainly not 'safe'. I have been a few times and will try and get down there again in the next few days to shoot some new pics. That being said, I wouldn't suggest the average non-thai speaking tourist wander through there alone sporting 100k worth of photo equipment. (Or even parking a motorcycle without knowing where to do so)

Like most people in pretty desperate situations the vast majority of people in the slums are nice people that are decent and honest. There is however a strong underground element around the area like most slums in most places in the world.

[lifeisrandom]

is this where the motorcycle taxi drivers and others working minimum wage in central Bangkok live?

It's where English Teachers live.

M/cycle taxi drivers are a few rungs up the ladder.

zing!

[jdinasia]

you were supposed to take photos today are you still working up the nerve?

1) go back and read what was written

2) go back and read what was written

3) go back and read what was written

The mere fact that I have been and you needed this thread to ask questions should be enough for you to know when you are seriously outclassed.

BTW I hope to see you at the piss-up on Fri

[bkkjames]

is this where the motorcycle taxi drivers and others working minimum wage in central Bangkok live?

It's where English Teachers live.

M/cycle taxi drivers are a few rungs up the ladder.

And to think he wasted his 3000th post on such brilliant thought.

You beat me to it and expressed it better than I would have.

And how would you have expressed it ?

That's easy, in your shoes I would have said something like, "After 2,999 pointless, boring and stupid posts, I will use my 3,000th to appologise to all TV members for being such an complete bore".

Or something to that effect. You are welcome

[jdinasia]

you are also wayfarer108 ????

Edited October 23, 2008 by jdinasia

[wayfarer108]

But I do think that a non-local Thai wandering around KT might receive a different impression.

now exactly WHY would a Thai person have a different opinion? It seems like a Thai would be more likely to actually see the situation with other Thais far more clearly than someone from outside the culture.

I am not making a case for the Khlong Toey slums being horrendously dangerous but they are certainly not 'safe'. I have been a few times and will try and get down there again in the next few days to shoot some new pics. That being said, I wouldn't suggest the average non-thai speaking tourist wander through there alone sporting 100k worth of photo equipment. (Or even parking a motorcycle without knowing where to do so)

Like most people in pretty desperate situations the vast majority of people in the slums are nice people that are decent and honest. There is however a strong underground element around the area like most slums in most places in the world.

I didn't say they were 'safe'. I said they weren't as dangerous, IMO, as equivalent districts in Mexico City and Calcutta, as examples. And my impression is they are more likely not to engage with foreigners. No I wouldn't take 100K worth of camera gear there.

Thais would get a different impression for exactly the reason you named. Also IMO they would be more likely to be approached since KT residents would assume they shared a common language.

Edited October 23, 2008 by wayfarer108

[jdinasia]

So, Thais would see the real danger that exists? There are only a few places in Thailand that I feel foreigners are 'targeted' (namely pattaya patong suk chawaeng kpg etc) but I am of the impression that a lone farang in the KT slums would be more at risk than the same farang in most other places. It certainly doesn't discourage me from going there but I do have to say I am even more acutely aware of my surroundings there than in most places in BKK!