What i am about to show here could be very distressing and sadful to many people i have been coming to Bangkok on and off for many years and even been living here for periods of times and have heard many stories about the Khlong Toei Slums but could never bring myself to going there with the stories i had heard it was not safe and dangerous but yesterday i worked up enough courage to visit the Khlong Toei Slum area.
The slum area is about 1.5 square kilometers in size and all these corrugated tin and wooden shacks sit along this very unhygienic swamp canal everything possible is released into this canal including raw sewage. It was a very , very hot day yesterday i was wearing a mask and still couldn't bare the smells coming from this canal it was really playing with my senses of smell luckily i had a spare mask so i double up on my mask and it made it a little more bearable.
Right in the heart of Bangkok , Khlong Toei is largest low income communities area the community consists of over 100,000 people and these people are living on borrowed land since the 1950's and how that came to be was when Bangkok city was in development cheap labor was needed so people from the country sides moved here looking for work when all was done they were forgotten about by the governments so the people decided to stay on this borrowed land as squatters as they had no where else to go.
Many of these tin roofed wooden houses sitting over these stagnant stilts on this polluted canal are all leaning on each other holding each other up as you can see in the photos but that isn't the only problem due to the monsoon periods each year these stilts are sinking lower into the swamp land , definitely not safe shacks to be living in but what choice do these poor people have but to survive the best way they can.
As a Westerner i didn't feel completely unsafe walking through these slums in broad daylight as long as you show respect for the inhabitants of such dwellings and give them a smile with a greeting they will show you respect back. I even had a couple of runs in with some lovely kids having fun and entertaining themselves in there own ways.
Although i found it a little creepy walking through these small passageways i still kept my cool and humor and sometimes i wasn't sure if these passageways were going to lead me the right way or into some ones tin shed actually a couple of times i had to make a U-Turn but no harm done it was all interesting like seeing this 100 plus year old Thai women still cooking for herself on a wood burning fire-pot was just amazing to see. Don't think i would want to walk through there at night time 😨
Leaving the narrow passageways i was out in the open again and i started following the smelly polluted canal along the main road and the two overhead highway roads one that leads into the heart of Bangkok city and the other going opposite direction leading out of the city and it is here under these highways that the Khlong Toei Slums appear.
Under this long stretch of highway with these supporting concrete pillars is where you will also see these squatters taking up habitation free rent no electricity or gas bills no land taxes if you can put up with the putrid smells from the canal and mosquitoes biting you honestly it's a tough and sad life who are we to complain.
What i saw next literally shocked and sadden me deeply to see these two guys swimming around in this sewage canal collecting scrap metal to sell for a few cents , damn i rather be dead then having to do that really sad to see what people will do to survive.
Wow..that left a real bad taste in my mouth let's move on as the far highway was coming to a end there were still people squatting under this narrow part of the highway building smaller wooden houses under that highway at least it would be cooler under that big slab on concrete road.
I really thought i was going to venture into a scary dangerous ghetto but these locals they have definitely seen the odd backpacker with a camera before and if you approach these locals slowly and calmly with a smile they will even give you a friendly smile back and some might even try and strike up a bit of a chat with you even if it's body language they are happy to see you.
Surprisingly there has been times on my walks through Thailand if you try to walk down random alleys and walkways some local Thais will stop you to say it's not safe to venture down them random alleys or walkways so you just give them a polite Thai Wai 🙏 and more on to another direction.
I have always enjoyed getting of the tourist tracks and wander off the beaten tracks and this proved to be another great learning experience in Thailand if you have the heart for it just do it as the saying goes 😊
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