Thailand - Experience The-Chao-Phraya

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The Chao Phraya

The Chao Phraya River is the most important waterway in Thailand. It played a key role in the country's development and much of Thailand's history can be traced along the banks of this mighty river. Some of the country's most significant and populated settlements - Ayutthaya, Nonthaburi and Bangkok - are found along its banks where the fabulous architecture of the royal Rattanakosin period is far better observed than further inland.

The name Chao Phraya is actually an ancient Thai feudal title meaning something akin to General or Lord, however its most common English translation is the River of Kings. The Chao Phraya, especially in Bangkok, is a constant source of stark contrasts where rickety wooden houses share the riverbank with shiny new skyscrapers and creaking cargo barges slothfully tail beautifully decorated river boats. For centuries, the Chao Phraya has been a major means of transport, trade and communication.

The origin of the Chao Phraya is in Nakhon Sawan at the confluence of the Ping and Nan rivers. It flows directly south for 372km (231mi) irrigating the lush central plains and passing through Bangkok to finally empty into the balmy Gulf of Thailand. The incredibly fertile Chao Phraya River Basin covers most of central Thailand (30 percent of the country's land area) where sizeable towns sprinkled among patchworks of paddy, orchards and sugar cane fields are home to 40 percent of the population.

In Bangkok the Chao Phraya River plays its most important role where it feeds a network of navigable canals (khlongs) that add zest to the city's aquatic landscape. Long tail boats buzz and skim around crowded commuter ferries that ply the choppy brown waters characterised by floating weed while shrill whistles signal the arrival of regular Chao Phraya Express Boats at the bobbing, creaking jetties. Locals say that the fast flow of the river even travels in both directions depending on the time of day. Cruising along the river is the most majestic and serene way to see some of Bangkok's most important temples and archaeological sights especially when they are elegantly illuminated at night. The Loi Krathong festival - where floral floats lit with candles magically illuminate the river - is one of the most mesmerising times to be beside the Chao Phraya and not least the most romantic.