None of the tributaries that enable the Chao Phraya extend beyond the borders of Thailand. The headwaters of Thailand’s longest rivers, the Ping and Nan rivers, form in the mountains of northern Thailand. The Chao Phraya River picks up where the Ping and Nan merge. From there, the Chao Phraya River meanders its way 372 kilometers/231 miles to the Gulf of Thailand. The Chao Phraya River system and the area where rain flows into the river makes up the Chao Phraya watershed, which covers 35% of the land of Thailand, an area of 157,924 square kilometers/60,975 square miles. The river constantly replenishes farmland with soil and sentiment brought south by the river system. Flooding is a part of life for people that live in the watershed. Floods bring nutrients to farmland.
At one time the lowland areas of the Chao Phraya watershed in central Thailand had been “designated as the Chao Phraya freshwater swamp forest, a tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregion, an area about 400 km (249 mi) north to south and 180 km (112 mi) wide.” [1] Those forests have mostly been replaced by rice paddies and other agriculture.
Bangkok’s origins go back to the 15th century when it was a small village under the rule of Ayutthaya. “Early settlers chose the original site because of the land’s fertility and the water’s abundance of fish.” [2]
Today “Bangkok’s Chao Phraya flows in exaggerated loops through historic neighborhoods, past Buddhist temples, gilded palaces, and humble teak bungalows teetering on the water’s edge.” [3] The river is extraordinarily important to commerce in Bangkok and to all of Thailand.
During the time that Ayutthaya was capital of Thailand several shortcut khlongs (canals) were constructed to bypass large loops in the river, shortening the trip from Ayutthaya to the sea. Following the Ayutthaya period the capital of Thailand was located on the west side of the river in the city known as Thon Buri until the capital was again moved to the east/Bangkok side of the river in 1782 when Rama I was king and the Grand Palace was constructed. In December 1971 Thon Buri was absorbed by Bangkok, which is now referred to as the Bangkok district/metropolitan area.
“The banks’ [of the Chao Phraya] landscape and way of life has also grown vertically. Soaring hotels and condominiums hem in solemn temples, churches and civic buildings that look 19th century European while yards away a wooden sampan sells noodle soup or dried squid to hungry river workers. It is this juxtaposition of calm and chaos, modern and traditional, religious and secular, ugly and sublime, foreign and indigenous that makes the Chao Phraya so evocative.” [4]
[1] Wikipedia
[2] River History
[3] Rachna Sachasinh for National Geographic
[4] River History
[2] River History
[3] Rachna Sachasinh for National Geographic
[4] River History
Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn)
The new and huge ICON SIAM Shopping Mall
Water Taxi from one side of the river to the other
Old rice barges now "apartments"
