Chao Phraya River
by Nilma Dole
Going to Bangkok and not seeing
the Chao Phraya River is like living in Colombo your whole life and not
seeing the World Trade Centre. While most of my tourist friends hit the
streets of Bangkok to dabble in their endless hobby of shoe-shopping and
handbag bargaining, I thought the best thing was to cart an unsuspecting
friend to the river by hiring a taxi for just 20 Baht from our hotel.
Everyone in Thailand wants to sell you something, and a 1000 Baht river
ride was no exception so we just had to get on board.
 The systematic winding of the rivers streaming down with the floating
market at the end is a great way of not just seeing the Thai people
living their solitary river life but also gives you a chance to see how
they have adapted so well to living on water. According to many European
legends, the river was called Menam or Mae Nam, the Thai word for river
(Me or Mae is “Mother”, Nam is “Water”). The name Chao Phraya is a Thai
feudal title, which can be translated as “Grand Duke”.
In the English-language media in Thailand, the name is often
translated as River of Kings. The Chao Phraya begins at the confluence
of the Ping and Nan river at Nakhon Sawan (also called Pak Nam Pho) in
the Nakhon Sawan province.
It then flows from north to south for 372 kilometres (231 miles) from
the central plains to Bangkok and the Gulf of Thailand. In Chainat, the
river splits into the main river course and the Tha Chin river, which
then flows parallel to the main river and exits to the Gulf of Thailand
about 35 kilometres (22 miles) west of Bangkok in Samut Sakhon. In the
low alluvial plain which begins below the Chainat dam, many small canals
(khlong) split off from the main river. The khlongs are used for the
irrigation of the region’s rice paddies.
There are several townships that the river passes like Nakhon Sawan,
Uthai Thani, Chainat, Singburi, Ang Thong, Ayutthaya, Pathum Thani,
Nonthaburi, Bangkok and Samut Prakan, listed from north to south.
The Chao Phraya watershed is the largest watershed in Thailand,
covering approximately 35% of the nation’s land, and draining an area of
157,924 square kilometres (60,975 sq miles). The watershed is divided
into the the Pa Sak Basin, Sakae Krang Basin, Greater Nan Basin, Greater
Ping Basin, Tha Chin Basin and the Chao Phraya Basin. All in all, the
Chao Phraya river makes a great way to get around, since many of the
major tourist sites are easily accessible from the river.
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