The Top 10 Canal Boat Stops in Bangkok

The Top 10 Canal Boat Stops in Bangkok

Posted by Mark Philip

Image sourced from creatvecommons.org

As we’ve probably mentioned a few times before in some of our other Bangkok-related posts, the Thai capital was formerly known as the ‘Venice of the East’.

To put a finer point on it, when the former capital of Ayutthaya was moved to Bangkok a couple of hundred years back, the extensive network of major canals and sub-waterways running through the region chosen for the new Thai capital city would have been the main mode of transportation for both trade and common use.

And as we have also undoubtedly mentioned before in other posts, many visitors to Bangkok either don’t know about the canal boat taxis, don’t really know how to approach using them, or simply avoid the notion of them altogether, preferring instead to sweat it out in the back of taxi stuck on the road at an absolute stand-still for more than 40 minutes, with a moody driver who can’t speak English and doesn’t know where he’s going.

However, depending on where you decide to stay during your visit to Bangkok, the canal boats are a great way to experience the real joy of a diverse and contrasting city that does thankfully still have a few things to offer that are cheap and unique, which in and of themselves are a couple of good reasons why we love Bangkok so much.

Image by David Mcelvey sourced from wikimedia commons

There may be a couple of aspects of using canal boats to consider first that may make the experience seem a bit more challenging for some people (the locals included). Firstly, the piers where the boats stop do tend to be in fairly random areas, hence not always that easy to find – and secondly, the actual water in the canals could be described as a dark, fetid, rancid sesspool that you wouldn’t even relish the sight of your worst enemy going head first into.

Thankfully the boats do have waterproof flaps that are pulled down once the boat has picked up any degree of speed, keeping any potential splashes of said water of the passengers for the most part.

Stretching right across Bangkok from east to west, the city canal (known as Khlong Saen Saeb) begins in the Old Town region (near the Mahakan Fort at the end of Ratchadamnoen Road), and runs as far out as Chachoengsao Province, where it melds with the Bang Pa Kong River.

What any potential Bangkok city-centre visitors or dwellers might be primarily interested here though is the stretch of khlong running through central and otherwise interesting areas such as Phayathai, Pratunam, Chitlom, Nana, Asok, Thonglor and Ekkamai, Ramkhamhaeng and on to Bangkapi.

Image by Heinrich Damm sourced from wikimedia commons

Canal Boat Lines

There are two lines of canal boat service in Bangkok, designated as western and eastern, whilst also known as the ‘Golden Mount’ and ‘NIDA’ lines.

The western line: Otherwise known as the Golden Mount Line, this runs from the Pan fa Leelard Pier near the Democracy Monument to Pratunam Pier.

The eastern line: Otherwise known as the NIDA line and runs from the NIDA/Wat Sri Boonreung Pier to Pratunam Pier.

The Pratunam Pier is the interchange between the two lines, and tickets can be used on both lines.

This guide features the most useful or interesting stops along the almost 20-km route, and provides valuable insights to a more traditional mode of transportation in Thailand’s capital, by looking at 10 of the best canal boat stops in Bangkok.

You can find further specific information regarding canal boat transportation routes and hours of operation here: https://www.transitbangkok.com/khlong_boats.html

And a route map here: https://www.transitbangkok.com/images/BTS_MRT_Chao_Phraya_Express_Khlong.png

1. Pan Fa Lilat Pier

This is pretty close to the democracy monument, the UN Building, and Khaosarn Road, and is the end of the line for this boat’s run.

The Pan Fa Lilat canal boat stop is under a historic bridge behind the Mahakan Fort at the end of Ratchadamnoen Road in the Old Town, where the UN Building, among a fair few other prominent historical ones is situated.

Image sourced from creativecommons.org

Hopping off at this stop places you somewhere in the vicinity known as the Rattanakosin, or Old Town quarter of the city, in which a fair few of the old historical icons listed on many a tourist’s list are located, and this also happens to be just a short walk to the equally well-known ‘backpacker’ zone (although seemingly not for much longer) — Khaosarn Rd.

There is an impressive example of Italian Barocco sculpture in the  Mahatthai U-thit Bridge, and Wat Saket (Temple of the Golden Mount), and the Grand Palace are otherwise not too far to hand from here.

Location: Ratchadamnoen Avenue, Banglamphu Bang Khun Phrom, Phra Nakhon, Bangkok 10100

2. Bobae Market Pier

Image sourced from creativecommons.org

Not too far along from Pan Fa, Bobae is the stop to hop off at if you fancy sampling one of the best real shopping experience Bangkok has to offer in terms of price and quality.

The best, that is, in terms of low-priced, discount, wholesale markets for clothes, accessories, and all manner of other things at a third of the price you’ll find them being sold in shops, markets and the stalls and malls of more touristy areas.

Location: 488 Damrongrak Road, Bobae Tower, Bangkok 10100

Check out more information here:

http://www.bangkokcanal.com/16414609/bobae-market-pier-4

3. Pratunam Pier

Image sourced from creativecommons.org

Hop-off at Pratunam Central Pier and find yourself in another area well-known as a shopping haven, particularly in terms of wholesale items. You’ll likely find all the accessories you could wish for in the Platinum Fashion Mall and Market, and in Pantip Plaza you may find yourself on the hunt for cheap computer equipment.

The canal boat stop is just beneath the bridge on Ratchadamnri Road, before the junction of Petchaburi and Ratchaprarop roads, meaning you are not too far away from a few other well-known local attractions by way of CentralWorld, the Gaysorn and Erawan shopping malls, and the Ganesha, and Trimurti, otherwise known as the Erawan shrines.

Location: Ratchadamnri Road, Bangkok 10330 

4. Hua Chang Pier (Siam Square)

Image sourced from creativecommons.org

This central Bangkok canal boat stop is also in an area renowned for shopping – Siam – meaning simply the biggest and the best malls in the country. And lots of them, with many of them almost merging at times it seems.

Doubtless you’ll find everything by way of street top-end designer fashion, realms of luxury goods, etc., etc. if any of that is your thang.

Hop-off at Saphan Hua Chang Pier, just slightly westward of Pratunam.

Location: The pier is under the Hua Chang Bridge (Elephant Head Bridge), Phayathai Road, near the BTS Ratchathewi station.

5. Chitlom Pier

This central Bangkok canal boat stop-off brings us to a pier on the northern side of the canal route, on the western side of a bridge. This is, by way of chance, the next stop along from Pratunam by roughly 500 metres or so, but is in no way anything like the previous place.

Image sourced from creativecommons.org

In fact, you may be far more likely here to stroll off along the nearby Lang Suan Road and check out some of its swanky-looking restaurants, coffee-bars and bars.

Location: Beneath the bridge on Chitlom Road, Phloenchit, Bangkok

BTS: Chitlom

6. Nana Neua Pier

Jumping off at this particular canal boat stop will find you in the midst of a somewhat diverse mix of strong Middle Eastern and African influences in an area of Nana sometimes referred to as the ‘Arab Quarter’, along and between the Sukhumvit Sois 3 and 5, as we now head along the Sukhumvit Road line for four stops consequtively between Chitlom Pier and Thonglor Pier.

Location: Beneath Sukhumvit Soi 3 Bridge, at the northern end near Petchaburi Road.

BTS Sukhumvit/MRT Asok

7. Asok Pier

Image sourced from creativecommons.org

What’s around Asok? It’s more a case of what’s not, as the hub of many things (including the underground and skytrain interchange, along with a good few skyscrapers with similar sounding names.

You could also visit yet more hi-so shopping malls at the next waling-distance BTS station along if you fancy a 10-20 minute walk, or perhaps take a different cultural slant entirely by way of either the Siam Society museum and cultural centre, or the ‘mini red-light district’, as it has sometimes been referred to — Soi Cowboy

Location: Beneath the bridge at the junction of Phetchaburi and Asok roads.

8. Soi Thonglor Pier

Image by Preecha MJ sourced from wikimedia commons

The next and the last along the lines of Sukhumvit pier stops before the waterway begins to veneer off in different directions away from the reaches of this built-up and often congested, central area.

You may wish to stop off and take in the somewhat more cosmopolitan surroundings with an upscale feel to them. In doing so, you will doubtless encounter a fine and expanding array of coffee-bar, restaurant, beer, wine, and various other bar-type ideas, as well as various boutiques, clubs, and other nightlife in this clean and rather trendy-looking area that is currently popular among affluent young Thais.

Location: Under the bridge at the northern end of Soi Thonglor, Sukhumvit 55 (near the junction with New Petchaburi Road).

9. The Mall Bangkapi Pier

The Mall Bangkapi is a fair-sized shopping complex on the nether regions of the inner city, reasonably devoid of either tourists, foreigners, or the usually over-inflated prices likely to go with their presence.

So we are deep into ‘Thai neighbourhood’ districts this far down the line with nothing too much to see save for the odd mega mall and temple, such as the ones found at this and the next stop.

You can be dropped at the back entrance of the mall on the pier of this canal boat stop, and easily spend a good few hours wandering around this mall which, like most in Bangkok, is fairly impressive.

Location: Khlong Chan, Bang Kapi District, Bangkok 10240

10. Wat Sri Boonreung

This is the other end of the ‘line’ as far as the khlong’s operational transportation services go, and it brings us to a nice temple on the beginnings of the outskirts of the central city regions, fittingly and subtly out of reach of the mall on the previous stop.

Location: Hua Mak, Bang Kapi, Bangkok 10240