Gebruiker:Waerth/Speeltuin

100 FIRSTS: The First Road

Published on October 24, 2004

Within a few months of ascending the throne on April 3, 1851, King Rama IV invited royalty and other court officials to donate bricks to improve the decrepit lanes (thang duhn) around the Royal Palace.

Six years later, he ordered Phraya Thipakornworawongs to allow a new canal to be dug linking the defensive Klong Padoong Krungkasem with Phra Khanong Canal in present-day Klong Toei district with a small road built to the north.

Thepchoo Thapthong wrote in his 1970s treatise “Krungthep nai Adeet” (“Bangkok in the Old Days”) that the cost of the road and the new Klong Thanon Trong (“straight road canal”), as it was dubbed by the king, was Bt16,633.

The roadway, named Wua Lamphong, and sometimes referred to as Hualamphong, was still quite slim in comparison with the later avenues that would be built to handle horse-drawn trams and carriages. Eventually much widened, King Rama IV’s first road today bears his name in tribute.

According to Thepchoo, the monarch dug the canal and built the road to accommodate Western traders who had established their shops along the Chao Phya River to the south of Rattanakosin district in present-day Si Phraya, Bang Rak, Sathorn and Wat Phrayakrai. The businessmen had complained that it was difficult for them to travel from their homes to trade with people in the city proper. They appealed to the king to facilitate their move to what is now Phra Khanong district by digging a new canal and building a road they could use in comfort.

Ironically, even when the canal and road were completed, they balked at the difficulties of moving residence!

Nevertheless, King Rama IV remained empathetic when he was later informed by Western consuls that Bangkok’s European emigres were falling ill as they negotiated the city’s filthy, narrow roads – mere pathways compared with what they were used to back home.

The king in 1861 ordered a road built outside the city wall, from the inner defensive canal Ong-arng to Wua Lamphong Road, to the north of present-day Wat Traimit.

Another was established from this road along the rear of the Westerners’ community on the bank of the Chao Phya River. This was named Charoenkrung Road, but was generally known as Thanon Mai (New Road). The section of New Road closest to the river is today called Tok Road.

As New Road was being constructed, the King ordered Klong Kwang (“cross canal”) dug from Bang Rak to Hualamphong Road in the present-day Sala Daeng area, and another road built to facilitate land travellers. This one is known today as Silom Road.

Both New and Silom roads were earthen, about 11 metres in width and raised 1.5 metres from the bordering properties. The cost of building both was Bt28,039.

In 1862, the King ordered Charoenkrung Road extended along the city wall, from Wat Pho to Damrong Sathit Bridge outside the wall. Its completion was formally celebrated with a festival in 1864.

Thus opened the first roads in a city of canals, all of dirt and predictably, treacherously mucky in the rainy season. King Chulalongkorn, Rama V, would see conditions improved remarkably in his time, with asphalt finally applied to the road surfaces to pave the way to a more mobile future.

NITHINAND YORSAENGRAT

100 FIRSTS: Motorcycle madness

Published on October 31, 2004

If the average Siamese in King Rama V’s day could only afford to look at the new automobiles puttering about the capital, he got no closer to the motorcycle: it too was priced way out of his reach.

In his series “Bangkok in the Old Days”, Thepchoo Thabthong notes that only the well to do – royalty or wealthy Chinese merchants – could afford the first motorcycles shipped here.

"The price was very high, and a buyer had to pay cash,” he writes. “The only available information about the motorcycle was in an English-language brochure. And the only way to get a motorcycle was to order one directly from its manufacturer abroad."

The first motorcycle brought to Thailand looked like a slightly larger but still gawky version of the bicycle.

Thepchoo reports that as late as the reign of King Rama VI there were only four or five petrol stations in Bangkok, including one managed by Phraya Pakdinoraset in present-day Si Phraya. The outlet, he notes, sold benzene and petrol from Standard Oil Co Ltd. You paid Bt1.50 for a litre bottle of benzene. Petrol stations and automobile garages were of course at the cutting edge of the retail world.

The Sixth Reign also brought a boom in motorbikes, though it was still mainly rich young men whizzing about flaunting their wealth. But government agencies soon started using motorcycles: postmen buzzed around the Post and Telegraph Department, and during World War II motorbikes with sidecars carried officials of the Interior and Defence Ministries and the Police Department.

The two-wheeled mechanical monster was originally called rot jakkrayanyont but quickly adopted the moniker rot motoesai. Riders could always be found plying their favourite circuit around Rajdamnoen Avenue and the Royal Plaza.

From the outset, Harley Davidson has been the brand to buy, with Japanese models becoming popular here only in the current reign.

According to Thepchoo, Bangkok’s first motorcycle race was held some time during the reign of Rama VI at Sanam Luang. Such organised competitions have been popular ever since, but for some reason they have never been sufficient for many of the Kingdom’s teenagers.

The biggest market in motorcycle sales by far, teens are still drawn like proverbial moths to the flame by illegal, night-time bike races along public thoroughfares. The spectators are agog, the noise is terrific, and the lights are hypnotic, at least until the cops show up – and the ambulances.

NITHINAND YORSAENGRAT

100 FIRSTS : tennis, a love match from the start

Published on November 04, 2004

Tennis was already among the attractions in Hua Hin, Prachuap Kiri Khan, in 1932, when this picture appeared in the Bangkok Siam newspaper.

Tennis, a love match from the start

You might have thought that until Paradorn Srichaphan came along, the only “racquet” Bangkok knew was all that noise pollution outside your window, but tennis has been enjoyed here since 1873. As with most imports, it was initially only played by foreigners and people of high standing, specifically American missionaries coaxing a match or two out of minor royals and government officials.

In his book “Prawatisat Protestant Nai Prathet Thai” (“A History of Protestants in Thailand”, reprinted in 1958), Dr Kennet E Welles claimed that, from the reign of King Rama III to that of King Rama V, American clergy and Christian laypeople indulged in croquet and tennis in their free time.

And in 1877, in “Prapas Sai Yoke” (“Visiting Sai Yoke”), King Rama V himself recalls watching his officials play tennis with Western envoys while he was staying in Ratchaburi province, en route to Kanchanaburi.

In fact many foreign sports were arriving in Siam at the time. The local sporting activities until then were limited to cock fighting, buffalo racing and, naturally, the martial arts like muay Thai. But now the Siamese were becoming engrossed in the global struggles of tennis, football and golf.

The Olympics loomed large, and Thais were increasingly involved in international competitions firsthand.

Today, of course, Thailand not only has its share of world champions, but Bangkokians are more health-conscious than ever, so sports and

fitness play a huge role in many people’s lives.

Spurred by the boom in books, magazines and television shows dedicated to health, we fill spas and yoga centres as fast as they can be built. We hit the golf course and jog through the park and, if Paradorn's not playing on television, we might just go down to the tennis club and knock a ball around ourselves.