An unusual view of Pakkret

An early morning walk around city resident's favourite island area

By Grant Cameron

November 1^st, 2017

Getting up early to explore what one thinks of as areas of Bangkok we know well can be quite surprising. Pakkret, for example is a favourite of haunt of Thais and expats alike, who tend to visit at weekends to explore the small walkways, kilns, temples and sweetshops. But getting there before the crowds, and not confining oneself to just the island can be very revealing.

An early morning "explore" a few weeks ago, primarily on foot and with a brief drone flight, opened this writer's eyes to an area that was very different from what the average weekender sees. I share it with you, beginning with just how early it was when we arrived: sunrise!

Our journey began with with a visit to Wat Bang Chak, วัดบางจาก. Opposite the island of Koh Kret. This temple is the home to a 27 metre high golden Buddha statue which, while large, is rather disproportionate, but nevertheless attractive in its own way.

The temple was built by in 1813 and was once called Wat Bang Phum. The Buddha statue is called Luang Phor Toh and, apparently, is in the Subduing Mara posture.

I won't argue with that!

A lot of Thais visit this particular temple to chase away bad luck in their lives, and they do this by walking through the tunnel under the ubosot.

I was lucky enough to capture both a fellow photographer and plane in the below image.

Within the temple complex is a large garden with possibly hundreds of statues depicting the life of the Buddha along with statues of the many Hindu Gods.

There are many different colored statues of the deity Ganesha (also known as Ganapati, Vinayaka and Binayak) and which is one of the best-known Hindu Gods.

Images from within the temple complex:

Our journey continued down a very small Khlong (canal), with many of the residents not having woken. Or perhaps they had, and gone out to do their business.

But in any event, there were few people around, though there was one industrious man painting newly installed railings, whose shirt matched the paint he was using. No photoshop here!

There's more of this story and walk-about to be told, with many more images. But like the villager below, busy working at home, we're busy preparing the next part of our story. Check back soon . . or as they say in the movies