Showing posts with label District office. Show all posts
Showing posts with label District office. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Lists of former office holders

When I do my walking tours through Bangkok, I always try to catch a district museum or at least a district office on the way. For the tour through Phaya Thai district, I managed to visit both - the district museum as a small part of the larger Broadcasting Museum in the backyard of the Public Relations Department - I'll write about it in my travel blog later - as well as the district office of Phaya Thai in a soi near Ari Skytrain station.

The district office itself wouldn't be worth a posting here, only thing special at first sight was the billboards with the constituency candidates - I was there in the middle of the election campaign. The district office as government area was of course free of the election posters, but as it also serves as polling station the candidates are announced there in a neutral  way. But more interesting was a board right next to the staircase at the entrance.

The very decorative wooden board lists all the former district officers of Phaya Thai, starting with the district of Phra Nakhon province created in 1966, up until the current district office of the district within Bangkok special administrative area. One can see the administrative changes at district level by the title of the district officer - 1966 till 1973 it was Nai Amphoe (นายอำเภอ), then when the Amphoe were converted into Khet with the merge of Phra Nakhon and Thonburi to Bangkok the title changed to Hua Na Khet (หัวหน้าเขต). In 1985 the title was changed again, now Phu Amnuai Khet (ผู้อำนวยการเขต). This change happened on September 1 1985, and since it was in the middle of his term the 13th district officer is listed with two titles on the list. And finally, the very last entry is also interesting, as the 23rd and current district officer Sawang Bunsit (สว่าง บุญสิทธิ์) is listed as being in office from October 10 2007 till September 30 2011. Thus already in May it was known that the district officer will change this year, probably because he has reached his retirement age.

On a later tour, I have discovered a similar board in the district office of Pak Kret, and funnily also my reader Ian sent me two similar ones he discovered in Satun town. As most of the administrative units either have no website, or only a website with few historical information, these board help me a lot in adding lists of officers into my XML, only copying text from a website is much easier than typing a name from a photo. But any photos of lists like this are welcome, only should be high enough resolution to be able to recognize the Thai characters well, so if you stumble upon one don't hesitate to photograph and send me...

Friday, July 15, 2011

Historical office buildings

When I was planning for my recent trip to Thailand, I added the visit to the Ratchaburi branch of the National Museum, knowing that it is located within the historical province hall. Though I had seen other historical offices before, e.g. the old Nonthaburi government complex, as a matter of coincidence, in this recent trip I happened to see quite a lot of similar former office buildings, and all of them noticed just by coincidence.

Already at the Ratchaburi National Museum, there are in fact two historical offices to be found. While the main part of the museum is located in the former province hall, the adjoining buildings housing the museum offices and space for temporary exhibitions was the office of the Monthon Ratchaburi. [Map]

On a stop in Phang Nga, I was able to catch all of the administrative offices within the town, and to my surprise close to the district office of Mueang Phang Nga I found the old province hall. As being built from concrete, it looks very well preserved, but seems to be empty and not used currently. [Map]



In Sichon, I passed the location of the municipal administration, and doing a short walk within the compound I noticed a small wooden building still having the sign of being the district office. But in front was a separate sign which states that the building in fact is the registrar office of the municipality. The district office is located outside town nowadays, so the old building was given to the municipality. [Map]

The district office of Mueang Phuket is located directly next to a second old wooden building which also has the sign above its entrance that marks it as the district office. As I walked there when the office was closed already, I could not recognize well how it is used nowadays, but judging from the sign at the entrance it is used as additional office space to the modern building. [Map] By the way, the province hall of Phuket is still within the historical wooden building. [Map]

Since Thailand has not that many historical buildings preserved, it is good to see that at least some of the old government buildings weren't simply torn down after a new building was opened. Being a museum buff, I most like the reuse for a local museum, as was done in Ratchaburi or Nonthaburi, and also in Lampang the old province hall is set to become a branch of Siam Museum.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Importance of the District Office

Mueang Samut Songkhram
The 1962 book Politics in Thailand by David A. Wilson, while it otherwise has nothing about the administrative subdivisions, in the concluding Chapter has the following interesting quote on the population structure.
...consisting of an extremely large agrarian segment and a small ruling segment. The two groups interact in a tenuous manner so that the smaller does not irrate the larger. [...] Direct relationship between the two social segments are maintained through the district office, which is highly formal and socially (and often also geographically) distant.
While there are two more administrative levels below the district, these are led by locally elected headmen, which are villages same as their electorate. Therefore the district is the lowest administrative level manned by government officials sent from Bangkok. Citizen have to visit the district office sometimes, especially for the registration services - even though these are now also possible to do in the municipality offices - but the province hall they usually don't need to visit, so the district office is the most important of the government offices for the normal citizen.

This quote describes the situation 50 years ago, and the population structure has changed a lot since then. Today there's a big middle class, and only in the northeast the agrarian sector still predominates. While working in the government sector is still very popular as the career choice, it is no longer the only way to middle and higher class. And as mentioned before, now the municipality office have taken over some of the registration services, so the importance of the district office has shrunk a bit. And finally, in the last 50 years the number of districts has grown a lot from around 500 to 928, thus the district office has come closer to the people geographically as well - and with increased mobility it is also much faster to reach than 50 years ago.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Old district office of Ko Lanta

Photo courtesy Camille
Camille from Ko Samui has been traveling to Ko Lanta in the Andaman Sea, which administratively forms a district of Krabi province. By coincidence he found the old district office, a beautiful old wooden building in the historic town center on the southern island. While the building is supposed to be a local museum now, it looked like it was closed down and not kept well recently - which is quite a shame. Though Ko Lanta is still a lesser known tourist attraction, there are lots of resorts on the island already which could bring enough visitors interested in a well-kept local museum.

According to one website I found, this Koh Lanta Community Museum (พิพิธภัณฑ์ชุมชนชาวเกาะลันตา) was opened in December 2007 and is open daily, yet for Camille it looked like it has been quietly closed down in the meantime. Hope it is only a temporary closure, or a misunderstanding by Camille - I'll keep a look on his blog if he can find out any more details.

The building looks rather similar with the historic province hall of Nonthaburi, which is located right at the Chao Phraya river next to the Nonthaburi pier. Though the building there also has parts where it isn't restored that well yet, it has the local museum for Nonthaburi inside which is very much worth a visit, even though it is still only covering few rooms and is planned to have many more rooms and exhibits.

The modern district office of Ko Lanta is in the middle of nowhere still on the mainland, from the satellite image in Google Earth it looks just like most of the district offices today.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Administrative offices in Ranong

Since Ranong is a rather small provincial capital, the main administrative offices are not spread too much, and their original locations not becoming too cramped that a newly built government center needs to be built to replace the nice old buildings.

Sign
City pillar shrine
The tour starts at the city pillar shrine, which I have covered in detail on my travel blog. Directly across the street is the municipal administration of the town Ranong (เทศบาลเมืองระนอง). On the Google map below it only shows the old office building, but directly next to it a new more representative one was built. As the current imagery on Google is from 2006, it is one of the many local administrative buildings built very recently.
Old municipality office RanongNew municipality office Ranong
Old municipality officeNew municipality office
The province hall (Sala Klang) is located on top of a hill, and though it is rather old it still looks very much like the province halls in other provinces. While the building itself did not catch much of my attention, I much more enjoyed the fence at the small parking lot with the provincial seal inside, and a small park with a statue, I think it shows King Chulalongkorn.

Province hall Ranong

Provincial court Ranong
Province hallProvince court
Down the hill again one reaches the provincial court (ศาลจังหวัดระนอง), again a building in the standard style, so not the kind of building many people want to photograph. I still wonder why the guard at the entrance did not allow me to take a photo - but luckily he only told after I did the first photo already and was trying to find an alternative view. I never experienced any real security measures around the administrative offices - only at the three southernmost provinces troubled by the insurgence I could imagine the authorities to be more reluctant on photography.
District office Ranong
District office
One the other side of the hill is the district office of the Mueang Ranong district (อำเภอเมืองระนอง). This is a really old building, mainly built by wood.

I sadly missed the office of the Provincial Administrative Organization (PAO), which I did not find on the map before. When I later found out that it was actually located just across Phetkasem road from the gas station we stopped anyway, if only I had know its location I could do a quick walk over there without the need to ask for another stop. Well, opportunity lost, for the next such visit I will try even harder to have all the locations on my map before. It will probably take many years till I have another chance to visit Ranong.




View Ranong administration in a larger map

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

New offices on Ko Samui

District office
While googeling to check if there are any new districts in the planning currently, the search term "อำเภอใหม่" (new district) did return me one article at the nathoncity website talking about the opening ceremony of the new district office for Ko Samui with deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban (สุเทพ เทือกสุบรรณ) leading the ceremony. I knew the district office is rather small and located in middle of Nathon town, so it would be feasible that a completely new building was constructed, so to keep my maps up to date I asked the blogger Camille on Samui to check it out for details.

He could directly deny that there is a new district office, the old one only had received a major reconstruction. Though I had been on Samui once several years ago, I did not take photos of the administrative offices at that time, so I asked him to do so when he has time and is in the area. Faster than expected, he did the tour and wrote about it in his blog.

Municipality
As you can notice in his posting, it turned out that the municipality Ko Samui had built a new office recently, located close to the old municipal office building. Actually a bit hidden, as Camille only noticed it this time despite driving past many times. As in most cases, within the municipal compound there's also the fire station, and the base station for the garbage collection trucks.

Not mentioned in his posting is the district office, about which he said it received some renovations, and also now has more parking space. If you take a close look at his photo placed in top of the posting, you'd notice that the sign actually says "Koh Samui District" - not following the RTGS transcription system usually used in the government offices. The recommended transcription in Ko Samui, but the spelling Koh for the Thai word "island" (เกาะ) is so widespread it seems the Royal Institute cannot eradicate it - same as Pattaya should actually be transcribed as Phatthaya.

And in fact there is even a third newly built administrative office, as the provincial court Ko Samui (ศาลจังหวัดเกาะสมุย)in the south of the island was opened only few years ago. I marked all three buildings in the map below, but note that the municipal building is hardly visible because it is located directly at the boundary between hires and just recently added medium resolution imagery, thus a bit blurred. And since the hires data is from 2003, there's obviously no trace of the new building in there.


View Samui administrative offices in a larger map


So, many thanks to Camille for providing me with the information as well as allowing me to use his photos for display here. Now whenever the special administrative area of Ko Samui gets closer to be set up I have at least a photo of the municipal office to decorate the posting.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Administrative offices in Nonthaburi

Province hall of NonthaburiFor the province Nonthaburi many of the offices are placed together in a single compound, the Nonthaburi government center. Not only comfortable for anyone having to do business with any of the these authorities, but also for me to be able to photograph all the offices with just a little bit of walking.

The last part of the provincial slogan - งามน่ายลศูนย์ราชการ - claims that the central administrative building is "beautiful, worth looking at". However to me the province hall looks just like all the others, yet when researching for the article on Nonthaburi province some years ago I came across a site which claimed that the province hall was awarded by the Ministry of Interior as the most beautiful province hall once.

Statue of King Chulalongkorn in front of the province hall NonthaburiPeltophorum pterocarpum
In front of the province hall is a statue of King Chulalongkorn, together with two Yellow Flame trees (Peltophorum pterocarpum, which is both the provincial symbol flower and tree. When I visited there, it also had lots of billboards around there, the candidate lists and other announcements around the election for the provincial administrative organization (องค์การบริหารส่วนจังหวัดนนทบุรี). This local government entity sharing responsibility for the whole province with the province hall has its office next to the district office, but since I did not look for it nor with my limited Thai noticed it on the map at the entrance I missed to photograph that one.

City pillar shrineCity pillar of Nonthaburi
Directly at the entrance of the compound is the city pillar shrine, though beautiful its architecture is quite standard style of these buildings. The first office building at the entrance is the municipality office (สำนักงานเทศบาลนครนนทบุรี), followed by the district office of Mueang Nonthaburi (ที่ว่าการอำเภอเมืองนนทบุรี).
Municipal office NonthaburiDistrict office Mueang Nonthaburi
The final important building I also missed to photograph is the provincial court, with the family and juvenile court directly next to it. The two courts actually use a different entrance from the main road and therefore were also omitted on the map at the entrance to the main compound. For the other buildings in the compound see in the map below, where I marked all the buildings I coulhttp://mt0.google.com/vt/lyrs=m@116&hl=en&x=0&y=1&z=2&s=Gd identify.

View Larger Map

The government center was opened in 1992, but from what I read already at the old location all these offices were in a single compound. Just a few months ago, this old building had been converted into the Museum of Nonthaburi (พิพิธภัณฑ์จังหวัดนนทบุรี), which from that review sounds like a very interesting place to visit. It is now definitely on my list of places to go next time I am in Bangkok.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Administrative offices of Phetchaburi

This year I happened to stop over in Phetchaburi two times, and used the time to collect photos of the administrative offices. Which was rather easy as they are all located close to each other on Ratchawithi road, and easy to find as on Phetkasem from bangkok it's just driving straight on instead of taking the turn to the south next to Khao Wang.

When driving that way, the first place to see is the city pillar shrine (Lak Mueang), a small shrine located in a nice park with the wooden pillar covered by gold in the center. And as it has a pond within the park, one can of course by food to feed the fish inside. And also as usual with such attractions, it has several souvenir carts as well as small eateries at the parking lot.

The actual offices are located 500 meter further down the street. Starting on the northern side, it has the district office (ที่ว่าการอำเภอ) of Mueang Phetchaburi district first. As there are a few additional buildings between the office and the street I could not get the standard view of the whole office this time - and now I look at the building in Google Earth again I think I have been on the backside only and thus missed the better view on the other side - so I have to return there to check next time.

A few buildings further down the street comes the municipality office (สำนักงานเทศบาล) of the town (thesaban mueang) Phetchaburi (เทศบาลเมืองเพชรบุรี).

Now turning south to the other side of the road it has the province hall (ศาลากลางจังหวัด), the central administration for the whole province. I am not sure what were the two smaller buildings in between - maybe the PAO office is among them-, but then on the other end of the block opposite the district office it has the provincial court (ศาลจังหวัด).



View Phetchaburi administration in a larger map

Thursday, November 26, 2009

District office construction for Galyani Vadhana district

Last week the Department of Provincial Administration (DOPA) issued another report on the ongoing creation of the 878th district Galyani Vadhana in Chiang Mai. While most part of the announcement is just the repetition of previously noted facts, like the name being bestowed by HM the King in July, and that the cabinet approved the creation in October. The new information is at the bottom
โดยในขณะนี้จังหวัดเชียงใหม่ ได้จัดเตรียมพื้นที่ในการก่อสร้างที่ว่าการอำเภอแห่งใหม่แล้ว บริเวณหมู่ที่ 2 ตำบลแจ่มหลวง อำเภอแม่แจ่ม จังหวัดเชียงใหม่ จำนวน 82 ไร่ 2 งาน 39 ตารางวา สำหรับที่ว่าการอำเภอชั่วคราวของอำเภอ กัลยาณิวัฒนา กำหนดให้ใช้อาคารของสภาตำบลบ้านจันทร์ หน่วยงานที่เกี่ยวข้องและหอประชุมใช้อาคารของ
ศูนย์ศิลปาชีพ ซึ่งตั้งอยู่ภายในบริเวณวัดบ้านจันทร์ หมู่ที่ 3 ตำบลบ้านจันทร์

Right now, the province Chiang Mai is preparing the area for the district office already. It will be in the area of village 2, subdistrict Chaem Luang, Mae Chaem district, Chiang Mai province and covers an area of 82 rai 2 ngam 39 tarangwa (132,156 m²). For temporary use the building of the Tambon Council Ban Chan and the auditorium of the Center of Arts, located within the temple compound of Wat Chan, in Village 3 of Ban Chan subdistrict.
Using the map on the website of TAO Chaem Luang the location of the new district office will be in the northernmost village of this subdistrict, close to the border to Ban Chan subdistrict. Sadly Google Earth/Maps has no high resolution imaginary of the whole area of the new district, but in the Thai clone PointAsia it shows. But for the exact location of the future district office I still have no idea.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Administrative offices of Samut Songkhram province

Like in several other provinces, in Samut Songkhram the main offices of the administration are located within one compound. When we went to the floating market in Amphawa we had to pass that compound, so I could shortly stop there and walk around to take photos of all the buildings.

The main building is of course the province hall (Sala Klang, ศาลากลาง), which also has the main parking lot in front. Since we went there on the weekend the parking lot was completely deserted, and I was the only person strolling around there.As usual, a statue is placed in front, if I am not totally mistaken it's king Chulalongkorn, similar with the statue on the Royal Plaza in Bangkok.

East of the parking lot is the city pillar shrine (San Lak Mueang, ศาลหลักเมือง), a small building with the wooden pillar inside.As usual, this pillar is covered with gold and has colorful clothes stripes around it in order to honor it. The shrine itself however looked like it needed a little renovation already, as the color started to fall off. Especially that small tree starting to grow in the roof shouldn't be there, but for the photo it adds some nice green color.

Continuing along the road to the north next comes the provincial court (San Changwat, ศาลจังหวัด). The photo I made isn't that good as there were too many bush and trees blocking the view, and I did not want to walk inside on the grass to find only to find a better spot for the photograph. The next building however was easy to photograph again, the district office of Mueang Samut Songkhram district (ที่ว่าการอำเภอเมืองสมุทรสงคราม). For a change this office did not have the photo of HM the King, but of princess Sirindhorn placed in the frame in front.

Returning to the parking I lot I chose not to walk the same way back, but instead walk inside the compound to the backside of the province hall. This turned out to be a very good decision, since to my surprise I then found the building of the Provincial Administrative Organization (PAO) as well.I hardly ever find this office marked on any maps, usually only the above mentioned province hall and district office are shown.

I only could not take any photo of the municipal office, which is located on the other side of the street - simply because they put a thick sun-shading net over the parking lot in front of the building, so it was impossible to take a photo showing the facade of the building.

And as usual, I have created a Google Map with all the offices marked.



View Samut Songkhram administration in a larger map

Friday, July 31, 2009

District office in the house of museums

A very interesting museum in the western outskirts of Bangkok is the House of Museums (บ้านพิพิธภัณฑ์), where lots of everyday items of the 1950s and 1960s are collected and displayed. All floors are interesting, but when I reached the top floor to my pleasant surprise I found myself in front of the workplace of a district officer.

The place is titled ที่ว่าการอำเภอสีหนคร (Thi Wa Gan Amphoe Si Nakhon, district office Si Nakhon), a totally fictional name however. On the desk it has an old typewriter, in the wardrobe to the right several items from the work of the officer - most notable the gun and two issues of the thesaphiban magazine, the official magazine for the administration. On the wall it as a map and some other fitting illustrations, as well as some official documents which looked a bit like the announcements in the Royal Gazette - but as I could not read them I have no idea what they are actually are about.

The exhibits are actually not completely contemporary - the map on the wall still shows French Indochina so was from before 1949, the thesaphiban magazine was from 1953, and on the desk itself was a Siam statistical yearbook of 1969 (which I had that one in my library as well). But it gives a nice nostalgic view on how these offices looked like in the past - even though I have taken photos of quite a lot of the buildings already, if I recall correctly I only was inside two of them yet, and obviously they did not look like the one in the museum anymore.

Friday, July 10, 2009

District offices in Prachuap Khiri Khan

This year we were driving from Surat Thani to Bangkok by car, not by overnight bus or train as most other times. Especially while passing through the province Prachuap Khiri Khan, which marks the narrowest part of Thailand connecting the South with the central part, we passed several district offices since they are located directly next to the Phetkasem highway, the main road through the province.

While the southern districts of the province have their district office a bit separated from the highway - about 8 kilometer for Bang Saphan and Bang Saphan Noi and about two kilometer for Thap Sakae. In the town Prachuap Khiri Khan itself its also two kilometers from the highway, but since we stopped there anyway for eating I used the chance to complete my collection of photos of the offices in town, as well as confirm the location of the Catholic church.And of course the district office of the Mueang Prachuap Khiri Khan district was one of these offices I photographed this time.

Continuing to the north the following district offices are directly at the highway. The next one is the one of Kui Buri, located in north of the small town Kui Buri. The next one would have been Khao Sam Roi Yot, however that one I failed to spot from car, probably because it is located on the other side of the street, towards the sea. Also, there's no real settlement around the district office, so we probably passed it quite fast.

The next one is located in a town again, this time Pran Buri. Again, the district office is a bit north of the town center. Interestingly, directly next to the district office is the office of the municipality Pran Buri, a much less representative building. The final district office is in Hua Hin, but we took the bypass and not drove through the town itself. But earlier in the last vacation we were in Hua Hin, and I used the short time we spend in the town itself to take a photo of the municipal office. I could not remember the exact location of the district office, which to my shame is located directly across the street of the municipal office, but I did not notice it. So I can only show three out of the seven district office so far.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Administrative offices in Prachuap Khiri Khan

Province Hall
As the town Prachuap Khiri Khan itself is rather small, compared to the size of the province, the important administrative offices are all close to each other. I went there just once, taking the dinner break there on the road trip from Surat Thani back to Bangkok. As it was just a stopover and everyone already tired and wanting to be back home, I only had short time to take some photos.

City Pillar ShrineWhen entering the town, the provincial hall (Sala Klang) is hardly to be missed, a large building with a typical blue roof directly in the extension of the road. However the most important place I wanted to see was the city pillar shrine (Lak Mueang), which is located close by as well. The building style of the shrine is different from that in other provinces, as it is built in Khmer style modeled after the several Khmer temple ruins found especially in the northeast of Thailand. I don't know why this style was chosen as Prachuap Khiri Khan has no Khmer ruins.Sign at City Pillar Just speculating - when the province Prachuap Khiri Khan was created, the now Cambodian province Koh Kong located opposite the Gulf of Thailand was named Prachanta Khiri Khet, a kind of a sister province. Maybe someone who can read the sign to the right can shed a light on this.

Provincial court
The only other office I could take a photo was the provincial court (San Changwat), located directly opposite the road of the province hall. While I tried to walk little bit more to search, I sadly could not remember the exact location of the other two important ones - the district office of the Mueang Prachuap Khiri Khan district and the municipality office of the town Prachuap Khiri Khan, so both have no photo yet. The PAO of Prachuap Khiri Khan seems to have a separate office, as I guess the one on the top banner is the office building. But I have no idea where it is located, I even cannot find a street address on that website.


View Larger Map

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

District office of Phunphin

Surat Thani trainstation
The Phunphin district (อำเภอพุนพิน) with its central town Tha Kham (เทศบาลเมืองท่าข้าม) is the transportation hub of Surat Thani province, especially as the southern railway passes through this town and not the city Surat Thani itself - that is located about 15km to the east. Also the main road from north to south through the province, national highway 41, passes near Tha Kham and not through the provincial capital. Surat Thani airport is also located near Tha Kham. Thus quite a lot of tourists taking the more budget way to go to Ko Samui will pass Tha Kham instead of Surat Thani city.

Tha Kham municipal administration officeThe administrative offices of the district and the municipality are located close together, and both not far from the train station. While the district office is of the standard style of these offices, the municipal office is a very plain office building. I even at first misidentified that office with the hospital next to it, which from the satellite image looked much more representative.

The municipality was created in 1955 as a sanitary district, and was upgraded to a subdistrict municipality in 1986. In 2000 it finally received the town status (thesaban mueang), which it still has today.

Phunphin district officeThe district Phunphin was one of the original ones of the province. The southern part of the district was at first a separate one named Phum Duang (พุมดวง) before 1917 and then Tha Rong Chang (ท่าโรงช้าง), and was merged into Phunphin someday between 1917 and 1938 - sadly I haven't yet found the relevant Gazette announcement on this. The only thing on the history of the district I could find in the Gazette archive was its rename from Tha Kham to Phunphin in 1939 (Gazette), however according to the district list of 1917 it was named Phunphin, so I am lacking another name change announcement.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Taling Chan district office

Taling Chan district offceBangkok's Taling Chan district (เขตตลิ่งชัน) is directly adjoining Bangkok Noi district to the west. Like all district offices in Bangkok, it looks much more like a western office building, not the typical district offices found in the provinces.

The district office is located at the rim of Khlong Chak Phra (คลองชักพระ), and 8 kilometer long canal which connects Khlong Bangkok Noi and Khlong Bangkok Yai. The canal name translates to "pulling Buddha". It got this name from the traditional boat procession which takes place on the second day of the waning moon in the 12th lunar month, when a Buddha relic is drawn from Wat Nang Chi to Wat Kai Tia (วัดไก่เตี้ย) in Taling Chan district, passing this canal.

Rafts of the Taling Chan floating marketThe location next to the canal inspired Mr. Prachum Charoenlap, the district officer of Taling Chan in 1997, to create a market for agricultural products, which was augmented with five rafts in the canal serving as restaurants in 1999. Today there are 11 rafts. One simply sits on the floor, and buys food from the boats or the fixed selling places on the raft itself.

Taling Chan marketThough the place is advertised as a "Floating Market", unlike the much more famous on in Damnoen Saduak here only the eating places are floating, while the actual market where one can mostly buy flowers or food is under a roof at the street in front of the district office. And unlike Damnoen Saduak in this place one mostly finds Thai people and only rarely a foreigner, so its much closer to the traditional way of markets and not designed for tourists only.

In the open space between the street and the railway line - the western railway from Bangkok Noi railway station towards Kanchanaburi - a small park was built, with a Lotus pond, bridge, colorful bushes.

A longer review with more photos of the market and the restaurants was posted by Richard Barrow. The market is only open in the weekends.

The street address of the district office is
324 ถนนชักพระ324 Thanon Chak Phra
แขวงคลองชักพระKwaeng Khlong Chak Phra
เขตตลิ่งชันKhet Taling Chan
กรุงเทพมหานคร 10170Krung Thep Maha Nakhon 10170