Fah Thai Magazine Jan-Feb 2020

GALLERY
MAIN IMAGE
A young couple share a joke at
Wallflowers Upstairs Café in
Soi Nana near Chinatown.
OPPOSITE TOP RIGHT
The ‘Awakening Bangkok’ light
installation set up in an
old house in Talat Noi.
OPPOSITE CENTRE
Contrasting murals
captured in Talat Noi.
RIGHT
Milkbar Café tucked on
the third floor of Fotoclub
on Charoen Krung Road.
Ask any Thai to describe their outlook on
life and one word is bound to come up –
“sanook”, which can be loosely translated
as fun.
A stroll around Bangkok’s oldest neighbourhood
offers “sanook” around every corner, with tradition
and trendiness sitting side by side on streets that
hug the Chao Phraya riverbank. Many of the heritage
buildings have been turned into boutique hotels or
posh cafés and restaurants, yet you can still hear
Chinese songs and chants flowing out from venerable
shrines nearby.
Amid locals and old markets going about their
daily business unchanged for decades, there’s a
chance you’ll come upon beautiful graffiti with the
paint barely dry. If you’re in Chinatown during the
annual Vegetarian Festival in October, treat yourself
to some Chinese opera at the Chow Sue Kong shrine
in Talat Noi.
The riverside community is bustling with life,
especially when night falls and restaurants and bars
light up the streets. Highlights include the family-owned
noodle stall where you can play board games with other
diners, or a coffee-and-dessert hangout disguised as
flower shop in nearby Soi Nana in Chinatown.
While time seems to fly in the hustle of modern
Bangkok, its oldest riverside neighbourhood offers
a taste of life taken slow and “sanook”.
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