2- Chinatown Gate (Odeon Circle)

After visiting Wat Traimit, head to Odeon Circle, commonly known as the Chinatown Gate. This colorful Chinese-style gate, which doubles as a roundabout, was built for the 72nd birthday of King Bhumibol (Rama IX) in 1999. The name “Odeon Circle” refers to the Odeon Cinema that used to be on the site. Another name used to be “Dragon Head,” as the gate is located at the entrance to the road formerly known as “Dragon Road” or Thanon Mangkon, which is now Yaowarat. It is a symbol and landmark of Bangkok’s Chinatown, as well as an emblem of the Samphanthawong district.

Two white jade lion statues guard the Chinatown gate, donated by the Chinese government in 2007 for the 80th birthday of Rama IX. Another statue, this time of a rabbit, the year the king was born, will also be donated by China to mark his 84th birthday. From the Chinatown gate, you can either head to Yaorawat Avenue, known for its food stalls in the evening, or along Charoen Krung Road, formerly known as New Road. But in our case, it is Tri Mit Road that you will need to follow to reach the next point, the Wat Pathum Khongkha**.**

3- Wat Pathum Khongkha

The temple itself is not particularly architecturally memorable. However, it is located on a street with a beautiful line of Chinese merchant houses, and it is located just off Phanurangsi Street, which marks your gateway to the Sieng Kong area. It also has an interesting history, as it is seemingly one of the oldest temples in Bangkok, dating back to the Ayutthaya era. Renovated by the brother of King Rama I, it then became a second-class royal temple in the early 19th century and named **Wat Pathum Khongkha **which can be translated as “lotus temple on the river”.

It was on its soil that the rebellious brother of King Rama III was executed (the stone on which the sentence was carried out is preserved). The proximity to the adjacent Chao Phraya River also made it an important site for royal cremations but also for white elephants, animals exclusive to the king, of which it was also the symbol of the Siamese flag between 1855 and 1916.

4- The Sieng Kong area

Following Soi Panurangsi, you will come to a fork with a left, a street called Soi Wanit 2. You will then enter an area filled with small workshops selling car parts and scrap metal. You are officially in the Sieng Kong area! The name is derived from Teochew, a Chinese dialect, where Sieng means “god” and Gong means “uncle”. Although the name has nothing to do with used car parts, it has become synonymous with the auto parts business.

Before World War II, local dealers mainly dismantled and repaired bicycles, but following the war, many vehicles were decommissioned. The business grew even more as it had previously been necessary to order spare parts from Japan, and recycling locally available parts quickly became lucrative.

For people who appreciate street photography like me, it’s a visual paradise. There’s a dirty, messy quality to it as it’s filled with piles of blackened, oily cogs and engine parts tumbling onto the sidewalks. Mechanics toil in small open shops, surrounded by so much metal you wonder how they find their way around.

As you walk down the small street of Soi Chew Su Kong, you will come across the trendy café of Hong Kong, housed in a group of period houses, superbly renovated in its idyllic location on the banks of the river. It is one of the last created in the area, which little by little, is transforming into a relaxing outing area, and the scrap metal shops could well disappear to make way for restaurants in the longer term. This is also the case for the neighbor, a large wooden shack which was during my last visit, under renovation to certainly become another place for the taste buds.

Right next door you have an important Chinese shrine which bears the name of the street you previously took, Chow Sue Kong Shrine (which is transcribed on Google Maps as Zhou Song Gong Shrine), dedicated to the eminent Chinese physician, Chow Sue Kong, appreciated during his lifetime for his knowledge of medicinal plants and herbs, whose mixtures he tested on himself before offering them as a remedy to his patients. Built in 1804, this temple is one of the oldest temples of the Hokkien Chinese community of Talat Noi.

Adjacent to the temple is another recently tested cafe, which also offers guest rooms, the Photohostel & Photocafe, and next door you have the famous River View Residence, at the top of which is the restaurant terrace **River Vibe Restaurant and Bar **mentioned above.

5- The So Heng Tai Mansion

Turning left after the River Residence, you will come across a beautiful sacred tree a few meters further, surrounded by colorful ribbons. It is located at the corner of a junction. If you continue straight at the tree (the latter being then on your right), you would return to Soi Wanit 2, I invite you to take the small street on the right, after which you will see a old Fiat 500 placed there and forgotten against the wall, has become a very popular spot for Instagram and illustrates the vibe that Talat Noï provides.

A few more meters further and you come across a red door with a rounded shape, typical of old Chinese residences, here you are at the entrance to So Heng Tai Mansion. It’s a rarity in Bangkok – a hidden treasure just waiting to be discovered. Step through the ornate front doors and enter a courtyard that might leave you wondering. In fact, you’ll find a pond, or rather a swimming pool, in the middle of the courtyard.

So this is a small guesthouse in the heart of Talat Noi? Actually no, here a stone’s throw from the Chao Phraya River, you have what serves as a scuba diving center. Yes Yes. Housed in one of the oldest Chinese courtyards in Bangkok, the So Heng Tai Mansion runs a diving school and a small café on site. The creation of this swimming pool in this historic place was debated at the time, but it is the solution that the owner found, to generate income and maintain the four houses surrounding the courtyard and forming the So Heng Tai Mansion.

The beautiful colorful front door of So Heng Tai.

It was built by a member of the So clan, Phra Aphaiwanit (1813-1849), a Hokkien Chinese man from Fujian who made his fortune in Thailand by holding a government concession to collect swallow nests, a delicacy that is still popular and expensive today. The house was later transformed into a financial centre to allow the many Hokkien people who settled in Thailand to send their earnings to their families back home. Today, the house is still inhabited by his descendants, including a branch that now forms the Posayajinda family. It is one of the last remaining traditional Chinese houses in Bangkok and claims to be the oldest private residence in the city.

Despite a monthly maintenance cost of 150 baht, he has already turned down big purchase offers and is keeping the family home in the hope of preserving it as it approaches its bicentennial (in 000). While the diving centre, which opened in 2047, is now little used, it has converted to what is fashionable, so you can enjoy a coffee on the second-floor terrace of one of the side houses, which overlooks the diving pool and central courtyard. With its gently curved roofs, bright red accents, portraits of ancestors and colourful porcelain adorning the walls, the house is a magnificent living museum.

Small Update: They now charge 50 baht entrance fee if you don’t plan on having drinks.

6- Rong Kueak Shrine

If you go back out and continue in the same direction, so to the left of the So Heng Tai Mansion, you will come across a somewhat hidden restaurant, located on the edge of the river and housed in what remains of an old two-hundred-year-old warehouse. The only time I wanted to try it, we changed our minds, because when looking at the menu, we found the prices excessive. To give you an idea, a basic dish like stir-fried basil leaves, which is generally found for 70-80 baht with a fried egg, here in Baan Rim Name, you will have to pay 250 baht, or 3x the normal price. If you are in the mood and the setting, charming it is true, suits you, then this might be the opportunity to take a lunch break.

Shortly after, you come to the courtyard of a small Chinese shrine, yes, another one. This time, it is a shrine built by ethnic Hakka Chinese. Its name is a nod to the past, when the area was home to blacksmiths making horseshoes. With its exquisite carvings on the roof and worn murals on the exterior walls, the shrine is a testament to the Hakka architectural style. One of the distinctive features of this shrine is that it has an octagonal gate leading to the side of the site (the latter are more commonly round). Inside is a statue of Hon Wong Kung, the first emperor of the Han Dynasty of China (206 BC – 220 AD), who is said to bring good fortune. It is therefore particularly popular during the Chinese New Year (although this is still true of many Chinese shrines).

One year when we went there around the New Year period, a small market was organized on the weekend in the courtyard of the temple itself. It is also on the riverside, next to one of the stops of the Chao Phraya Express (Marine Department). You have a view of the Icon Siam, the Millenium Hotel and its famous bar, the ThreeSixty Rooftop Bar.

7- Street Art in San Chao Rong Kueak Alley

Going back to the right after Rong Kueak, you will cross the alley that bears the name of this sanctuary, San Chao Rong Kueak. It is popular for housing a certain number of murals depicting scenes specific to the history of Talat Noi and Chareoen Krung (the first street in Bangkok that passes not far from there, as a reminder). If you still haven’t had a coffee break until now, here is an interesting address, Mother Roaster Talad Noi. It’s the first big old house you’ll come across on the left, with a collection of street art on its facade.

Don’t be fooled by the apparent chaos just behind the entrance, it’s apparently part of the concept, follow the signs leading upstairs, where the café is set up. I particularly like this kind of concept which allows you to revive your old homes that have been somewhat forgotten over time. To quickly get back to street art, you will see all styles, some rather childish and others more elaborate and stylish. The advantage of this street art is that it evolves and therefore, you could have new "paintings" compared to the few that I put here in photos.

Another example of a trendy café, set up in an old Chinese house that I had spotted a few years earlier, still abandoned, was the popular Patina, one of the first to invest in the Sieng Kong area. Unfortunately I say it was because it closed after two years of service…

8- Holy Rosary Church

Once back on the small Soi Wanit 2, you have about a hundred meters left to arrive in front of the gate leading to theHoly Rosary Church, or in plain English: the Holy Rosary Church in Bangkok. This is an integral part of a Catholic school, as it is located in the school’s courtyard, separated from the river by basketball and football fields, a location that seems so timeless to me today.

The first version of this religious building was established shortly after the fall of Ayutthaya, when a group of Portuguese settled here in the Talat Noi area. A first wooden church on stilts was built there around 1787. As an anecdote, if there are two churches built under the aegis of the Portuguese (with Santa Cruz de Kudee Jin therefore), it is because the missionaries were then led by a French priest from the French Mission. However, a faction was apparently at odds with the latter and settled on the other bank of the Chao Phraya. Unfortunately, if they did have a church, they did not have a resident priest so the latter found themselves celebrating mass at Santa Cruz anyway... It would take until 1822 to repair this wrong. Later, easily damaged over time, a second version mixing a stone base and wooden walls was established there in 1838.

By this date, the Portuguese community had already dispersed and most of the faithful were Chinese traders. Having fallen into ruin in 1890, particularly following a fire in 1864 which destroyed the adjacent buildings, Father Desalles began construction of the current building, in neo-Gothic style, from 1891 and was consecrated in 1897. The church is also known as Kalawar, a reference to the Portuguese term calvario, which designates Mount Golgotha, or the Calvary of Jerusalem.

Next door there is another historic building belonging to the Siam Commercial Bank (which has kept several old houses in this style, spread throughout the city), the first Thai bank. The Talat Noi branch is the first and oldest bank branch in Thailand since it is still in operation! Built in 1908 in a Beaux-Arts style that was very fashionable at the time, the building is the work of the Italian architect Annibale Rigotti.

The choice of this location is not insignificant and demonstrates how important a nerve centre Talat Noi was in the past. In addition to being a busy port area, it was also the home of many Chinese businessmen who had established trading services around the Song Wat, Sampheng and Yaowarat areas. Surrounded by a beautiful lawn, on the banks of the river, this bank is elegantly beautiful and enjoys a privileged position. I only mention it briefly because I personally did not know that it was open to visitors, but you can go there during the bank’s normal opening hours.

A view of the Siam Commercial Bank building and its garden.

9- Wat U Phai Rat Bamrung (Chùa Khanh Van)

We finally come to the last visit, which remains the most optional since after the church, you can join River City and take a boat or come back along Charoen Krung to the Saphan Taksin metro. If you make a loop by coming back instead to the Hua Lamphong MRT, then you can skip the Wat U Phai Rat Bamrung, passing through Charoen Krung but in the other direction as if to return to Wat Traimit.

Chùa Khánh Vân is one of the first Vietnamese temples in Thailand, built in the late 18th century. Several kings of the Chakri dynasty maintained close ties with the Vietnamese community, helping each other during several regional conflicts in Indochina. This is how the temple received royal patronage from Rama IV, then by his successor, Rama V, who also donated the Bodhi tree that can be admired next to the entrance gate.

The temple is well worth a look, because while it is usually quite common to come across Chinese sanctuaries, it is rarer to see Vietnamese ones. In terms of architecture, it is a mix between that of Thai temples for the form, and the shimmering colors of a Chinese temple precisely, a rather atypical combination.

Getting to Talat Noi