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The Chantaboon Waterfront Community in Chanthaburi offers a much-welcomed reminder of life away from all those gadgets
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THESE days of ever-more rapid information technology, the connections
we have to places and people are at risk of being lost. An abundance of
information is constantly popping up on our personal screens, telling us
where to go, what to do and who to meet, resulting in a disassociation
from the physical and psychological realities of daily life.
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Chanthaburi River sweeps through the old community in the eastern province of Chanthaburi
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To reclaim some of what we have lost,
my friends and I take a walk along Chantaboon Waterfront Community in
Chanthaburi Province. Here, in the province’s oldest area, the Christian
church, Chinese shrine, Buddhist temple and old houses lining the
waterfront serve up a big dose of reality. A bowl of rice noodles topped
with garlicky Mantis shrimp is, for me at least, way more real than the
best photos of noodle dishes flying around the social media.
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“Can I have two more bowls? Please. An army marches on its stomach,”
Pla, my travel companion, asks the vendor even though our “army” will
only be covering a few kilometres at most.
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In fact, the old waterfront of Chanthaburi River is barely a kilometre
long, flowing north to south from Tha Luang Bridge to the Catholic
Church. The right bank is lined with old wooden houses and timeworn
European-style mansions. The left bank is home to the Cathedral of the
Immaculate Conception – Thailand’s largest Catholic Church. The
cathedral, with its two towers, is visible from anywhere along the
Chanthaburi River waterfront and much like a giant mother hen, guards
her chicks on both sides of the river.
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A chapel inside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
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“The
Chantaboon community, which was once clearly marked on nautical charts,
was an important trading port,” says local guide Krit Phetchang. “It
was a meeting point for Thais, Chinese and Vietnamese who traded and
exchanged wild produce and spices. Chantaboon was also a strategic
location for the French during the Franco-Siamese War of 1893.”
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We stop at the church to admire the neo Gothic house of God. Built in
1909, the cathedral celebrated its centennial eight years ago. In fact,
the Christianity arrived at the waterfront 300 years ago, when farmers
and merchants started trading alongside the river. The present cathedral
was built on the site of a chapel constructed in 1711. The chapel is
huge and peaceful, and the stained-glass windows are impressive. The
statue of the Virgin Mary at the front is decorated with more than
200,000 sapphires – a fitting link between the faith of the locals and
city’s gem trade.
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From the cathedral, we cross the bridge to the right bank of the Chanthaburi River.
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Just as in Hoi An in Vietnam, Takua Pa in Thailand’s South and other
ancient ports, the residents of Chanthaburi waterfront started trading
peppers, scented woods, wildlife hides and rubber sheets with foreign
merchants. Today, the one kilometre-long street still includes many
private homes and the emerging art galleries, coffee shops and tasty
snack stalls entice visitors over the weekends.
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It is a place of contrasts too, with two very different types of architecture, both of them charming.
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The first and the more lavish are the colonial style mansions owned by
the royal servants with their sculpted clay ornaments. Then there are
the wooden houses with intricate lace-like wooden facades favoured by
the wealthy merchants.
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“People of Chanthaburi are recognised for
their wealth,” notes the local guide. “The rich sent their children to
study in Bangkok or Penang and George Town in Malaysia.
“Unfortunately, the younger generation abandoned their family homes
along the waterfront and settled in other towns. Some of the old houses
are rented out. Others have been sold off and still more have fallen
into disrepair.”
.Source: TheNation
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