Klongs!

[Jockstar]

I work in Bang Sue. There is a few klongs around where i work. I can tell you they are dirty/smelly etc etc. But not brown. They are so black with filth. I really dont know what the future holds for the people who live in that area.(sickness or worse) I'll tell ya. Its so ######ing bad the smell could make you sick. Why? Oh. Why cant the government sort this problem out? Its filth. I have been working where i do for nearly 4 years. And in that 4 years its gotten worse. It was never great but it is really bad now. Any suggestions for what can be done by the locals? You know i have actually seen locals fishing in the <deleted>. REALLY! No bullshit. Its defo not good for them.

Any comments on your local klongs?

Edited November 23, 2005 by Jockstar

[meadish_sweetball]

Some people also swim in them, and wash their clothes.

[Jockstar]

Some people also swim in them, and wash their clothes.

I've seen that also. But trust me. You would come out dirtier than you went in. Will try and take a pic tomorrow and post it.

[phazey]

Reminded me. with all the recent news coverage of the oil slick near Pattaya - then remembering the trips i used to take from WTC to Bang Kapi on the Klong-taxi........which is the bigger disaster ?

[plachon]

I work in Bang Sue. There is a few klongs around where i work. I can tell you they are dirty/smelly etc etc. But not brown. They are so black with filth. I really dont know what the future holds for the people who live in that area.(sickness or worse) I'll tell ya. Its so ######ing bad the smell could make you sick. Why? Oh. Why cant the government sort this problem out? Its filth. I have been working where i do for nearly 4 years. And in that 4 years its gotten worse. It was never great but it is really bad now. Any suggestions for what can be done by the locals? You know i have actually seen locals fishing in the <deleted>. REALLY! No bullshit. Its defo not good for them.

Any comments on your local klongs?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Dunno about getting worse over the past 4 years, but they ain't got any better the last 10 years, that's for sure Jocky. They stink and are black in all the same places, although some have disappeared under roads, buildings, so are no longer visible.

The Klong Saen Saeb is a classic, as it runs east - west through all the main shopping and tourist areas and could have been a gem of a waterway, had the government seen its worth and saved it from pollution and "development". Instead, it was allowed to become an open sewer and is now largely built over, virtually stopping boat traffic at many points along its length. It might have been kept as a brilliant way to travel across Bangkok - say from Sukhumvit to Pratunam to Siam Square to near Sanam Luang and Banglampoo, had the pollies taken certain decisions a couple of decades ago to clean it up and put decent boats on it. Sadly, they didn't and now look at the mess its in.

Like the klongs you see in Bang Sue, the only fish in it now are the common crap and the ubiquitous discarded skin of the Condom maximus spp.

Yet incredibly, you do occasionally see kids backflipping into these seething cesspools and living to tell the tale, which either means that certain Thai kids have the strongest constitution on the planet, OR that we are way too delicate and shouldn't be worrying ourselves about water the colour of Guinness and a smell worse than 10 day old unwashed cacks. Gotta hand it to the kids - they're tough.

[The_Other_Mac]

It might have been kept as a brilliant way to travel across Bangkok - say from Sukhumvit to Pratunam to Siam Square to near Sanam Luang and Banglampoo, had the pollies taken certain decisions a couple of decades ago to clean it up and put decent boats on it. Sadly, they didn't and now look at the mess its in. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ah yes, I remember back in the old days when I rode the boat service on khlong Saeb... it must have been way back in, oh, October.

[Buff-horns]

just open sewers really . they dont have a comprehensive system of sewers built to handle the load as BKK grows apace.

i have seen treasure hunters digging in them looking for lost gold and coins and talismans and old buddhas.

and brushing their teeth as well .

[DJ Pat]

I use the canal boats regularly, they are a god send when you wanna speed across the city. They smell, we know that but apart from a half arsed clean up by residents who live by the canals in 2003, nothing more has ever been done.

The reason they smell is that they USED TO flow through the city into the river but then they started blocking a lot of them in and they can't really flow anymore.

12-inch long worms live in the canals I was told.

[plachon]

It might have been kept as a brilliant way to travel across Bangkok - say from Sukhumvit to Pratunam to Siam Square to near Sanam Luang and Banglampoo, had the pollies taken certain decisions a couple of decades ago to clean it up and put decent boats on it. Sadly, they didn't and now look at the mess its in. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ah yes, I remember back in the old days when I rode the boat service on khlong Saeb... it must have been way back in, oh, October.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I didn't say it wasn't possible to still travel by boat along Klong SS, Mac. I just meant that it is not v. pleasant, i.e. the canal has been dwindling in size as it has been encroached on from all sides, the boats have been becoming fewer, while all the time it has remained an open sewer. This situation could easily have been remedied 10 or 20 years ago with a bit of foresight and it could have been a magical place to travel along today. Just take a look at Regent's Canal in North London as one example of a turnaround from a polluted canal to a desirable place to walk, shop, live and be on a boat, thanks to foresight and environmental law enforcement.

[The_Other_Mac]

Ah well fair enough, sounded like you thought they'd gone. Another service did close down a few years ago, due to financial problems.

However things are looking up, at least for transport. The Chao Phraya service is being extended south of Sathorn. There's a new part-river, part-khlong service into Dao Khanong, with similar routes planned for others, and BMA is actually bothering to finance the boats and make vague noises about paying for the piers, instead of leaving it entirely up to private enterprise. I believe they're planning air-con boats for San Saeb. I've seen a few new condo developments where the khlong is presented as a visual feature. I reckon a smart property developer should be hunting down canalside land at the moment...

It's amazing that the Hualampong/Bamglampu route closed, considering its obvious attractiveness to Khao San road tourists. But I don't recall ever seeing a sign from the station, or around Banglampu. You can imagine the logic of the operators - why would tourists want to use smelly old 5B boats instead of those taxis that they can afford to ride in. Someone should really bring it back, charge 50B per trip and spend a bit of cash to keep the signs visible...

[redrus]

The canal with a lock kind of thing just behind the Sathorn river taxi stop, that also follows in along Sathorn road. That was really awful when last there in Feb, can't imagine thats going to get any better just cos Chao Phrya service is being extended further south.

redrus

[GuestHouse]

Another case of that 'Thai BS'... we 'Thais love Thailand' meanwhile they throw their sh1t and garbage all directions.

And here's a joke from the Thai Parliament.

Some years ago during a debate on foreign ownership of land in Thailand a member of the Thai Parliament argued that foreigners should not be allowed to own land because they would not take care of it and damage it.

[h90]

Another case of that 'Thai BS'... we 'Thais love Thailand' meanwhile they throw their sh1t and garbage all directions.

And here's a joke from the Thai Parliament.

Some years ago during a debate on foreign ownership of land in Thailand a member of the Thai Parliament argued that foreigners should not be allowed to own land because they would not take care of it and damage it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

the worst dirty pig from europe might take care better than an average thai

(I remember the factory which puts the hard-croming chemicals in the klong and really noone in that company nor in my company thinks that something is wrong about that)

[DJ Pat]

Thai Polyphosphate Company, Samrong, used to dump a lot of waste into the canals and drains and when I asked them why, I got an answer a bit like "out of sight out of mind"

sad but too late!

[Gary A]

They may still call them klongs but they are actually open sewers. Many years ago I lived in Ohio. They were trying to clean up the small creeks. When they discovered a tile draining into the creek they would test the water and if it was not drainage water they would dig back and destroy the tiles. People got the point quickly. The septic tank business showed a GREAT improvement. LOL!

[The Gentleman Scamp]

My new bedroom window overlooks a klong.

It's a klong way down.

[greenwanderer108]

The obvious and true evil is the automobile industry...The same industry that brought Bangkok's tramway to an end back in the 60s with the introduction to mass highways and interstates.

The same industry that took the hope out of Hopewell. The same bass terds that have delayed the finishing of the Suanaphum line in the name of mousetrap-concrete mazes around the city.!!!

They just kept building and relying on these paved concrete roads and highways for the last four decades, as the only hope for modernization and infrastructure, that they let the klongs go to crap...what a shame

My biggest disgust when looking at the klongs around bkk, isn't the color or stench, but it's when I come to a road bridge and see the pipes and water gates that block off any passage for any boat to better accomadate those roads and cars!

Take Rama Six expressway. Under that, there's a wide north-south klong there that would have been a nother jewel into the city from the north...but not possible as its blocked off at every bridge and doing nothing now except filling with piss and rain.

disapointed. Anyone fancy monkey-wrench activism?

[TAWP]

Have one some 200m away, that one passes if going to a close supermarket-store. Right next to it are the poorest and the shed-houses. And ofcourse whenever it rains a lot this section of the street (along with the closest houses) is flooded high.

And yes, I have seen residents clean their clothes in the water and some people fish in it...and it just stink of death...

But at the same time, before my wifes family built the house I'm sitting in now (a complete waste of 3M TBH office-space) the neighbours would all through garbage over the low wall.

"Out of sight, out of mind."

Kinda reminds me of the summerhouse back in Europe, when we dug up bicycles and fridges the previous owners had dug down in the 60ies...

[Buff-horns]

strange thing is that i never saw a condom floating in the klongs have you ?

[Thaiboxer]

Twenty years ago, swimming in Kong Saen Saep was possible; particularly near the Bangkapi/Minburi areas. Some folks I've worked with have witnessed young boys jumping off the bridges/pipes right into that filthy water. I can only imagine what would happen if one of us went in there I remember a couple years back when that pop star crashed his car into one of those dirty klongs and some wierd fungus destroyed his brain. He's still alive but he's a vegetable. When you ride along the klong you can see numerous pipes that come from all the condos/apartments and drain directly into the canal. Given that the sewer system cannot handle that much it's not hard to figure out what comes out of those pipes.

[plachon]

strange thing is that i never saw a condom floating in the klongs have you ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just the odd one or two (thousand). The canal in Banglampoo near the old New World Dept. Store which runs into the Chao Phraya and can vary between black and brown, depending which way the water's flowing, used to be a dead cert for spotting the little skins on the surface bobbing by. Never used to have much appetite there for anything other than beer, for some strange reason. Glass noodles was definitely off the menu, although the condom salad at C&C is recommended (as there's no canal in sight I guess).

[Neeranam]

Twenty years ago, swimming in Kong Saen Saep was possible; particularly near the Bangkapi/Minburi areas. Some folks I've worked with have witnessed young boys jumping off the bridges/pipes right into that filthy water. I can only imagine what would happen if one of us went in there ohmy.gif I remember a couple years back when that pop star crashed his car into one of those dirty klongs and some wierd fungus destroyed his brain. He's still alive but he's a vegetable. When you ride along the klong you can see numerous pipes that come from all the condos/apartments and drain directly into the canal. Given that the sewer system cannot handle that much it's not hard to figure out what comes out of those pipes. bah.gif

I've seen kids swimming in the khlong near bangkapi, maybe 7 years ago.

Khlong Saen Saeb, in Thai means canal of "1000 stings". It originally meant mosuito stings but now the water getting on your skin is enough to give a nasty rash.