Having already spent some time in Bangkok’s tourist traps, I needed a change of scenery. To experience the city’s more authentic heartbeat, I stepped away from these traps and visited the Gang Khan Phrom and Phara Nakhon districts. Bangkok is well known for its slum dwellings, so I wanted to explore the Khlong Toei Slum, its oldest and largest shanty town. This decision was the best I could’ve made, as my time here infused me with the lifeblood of Asia’s eleventh-largest megacity.
History and Context
Klong Toei is a district of Bangkok located southeast of the city’s bustling metropolitan centre. It borders the Chao Phraya River and contains Industrial port facilities. The area is also known for its wet market, the largest in Bangkok. However, despite being well-known for these dominant commerce locations, the district also hosts the largest slum dwelling in the rapidly burgeoning metropolis.
The Khlong Toei Slum is the oldest of its kind and houses an estimated 100,000 people—all within its minuscule land mass of only one square mile. The compact congregation of corrugated iron roofs, peeling plyboard walls, and uneven alleyways began in the 1950s when people started relocating from the country’s rural areas in search of work and better lives for themselves and their families. At that time, the rapidly growing city required access to cheap labour to aid in its development.
Land Ownership & Development
During this time, the city implemented a land rent system for hopeful newcomers, whereby they could settle in designated areas at little cost. This system worked well until the 1970s, when Bangkok’s growth skyrocketed. This new exponential economic growth inevitably resulted in a drastic increase in land value, which led its owners to use it for alternative sources of capital gain instead of housing poorly compensated labour forces.
The residents of Khlong Toey pay rent at an average of 4000 TBH ppm (£88 in 2024). There are legitimate residential areas, as opposed to the illegal status most of the information online information implies its residents possess. The town also benefits from regulated services, such as legitimate home addresses, postal deliveries, and electrical metering—things squatters would never see.
Inside the Khlong Toei Slum
As one can imagine, life inside anything known under the guise of a slum will entail a level of living quality below the norm of the West. And, for some inside the Khlong Toei Slum, this was the case. Many of its buildings were in disrepair, with a few plots entirely succumbing to the forces of nature. However, standing next to these ruins of rotten veneer stood a much higher ratio of seemingly well-built and lovingly maintained properties. That is, according to the average standard of Thai city households.
Yes, the town is a chaotic disorganisation of ad hoc construction. However, the notable difference between it and more modern communities rested precisely in this layout. Whereas more modern residential plots would be formally planned and constructed in a single swoop to maximise the efficient use of land, the slum appeared to embody fundamentally organic energy in its architecture—something no amount of grass roofs on top of post-modern buildings could capture.
Nevertheless, despite the quality of materials used and the skills of the builders who put them together, much of the area is still tragically located on top of a grey sludge of rubbish and what I can only imagine to be rotting human and animal excrement. Each of its abodes lifted precariously above the cesspits using concrete stilts. Online reports cite that the location is prone to flooding. Something which would undoubtedly ruin the properties and their inhabitant’s possessions if what they contained were to rise above the level of its ground floors. However, I saw no signs of flood damage or precautions during my visit.
The People of the Khlong Toei Slum
Through the eye of a Western lens, one would expect to see such rudimentary dwellings as a cause of people’s unhappiness. After all, we Westerners come from a culture where supposedly everything, including joy and fulfilment, is attainable through the acquisition of material luxuries. And that if you are unhappy in life, it is because you have not attained a house, fast car, or glued the latest trending acrylic abominations to your nails or eyelashes. Any release from pain is always at the means of any willing citizen if only they put their heads to the grindstone and work with a little more oomph.
The truth is, as anyone who has travelled to such locations before will have likely noted, this is not the case. Because while there is a certain level of crime and drug abuse which does occur in these places, the people are outstandingly happy. An observation which pierces the sheer fabric of cultural programming instilled in the Western mind.
From my experience walking through the winding alleyways under a myriad of ill-fitting roof panels and tarpaulin sheets, the people who resided in the often ill-lit rooms wore some of the biggest grins imaginable, especially when they noticed a strange, tall, beaded white man wandering around taking photographs in their neighbourhood—something from which most communities in the UK would die a death of suspicion and anxiety.
But no. More often than not, if I met the gaze of another with a smile and voiced the Thai greeting สวัสดี (S̄wạs̄dī) or hello in English, they would immediately return a favourable beam while rising to greet me. Surprisingly, they often requested that I take their photographs despite being inside their most intimate and private spaces, doing half my job for me!
The Essence of the Khlong Toei Slum
I arrived at Khlong Toei early in the afternoon. The place was quiet while the families’ breadwinners were at work and the children were at school. So, the people occupying the homes at this time were most often mothers caring for their babies and the lethargic elderly. This observation was easy to discern because most homes maintained open doors to combat the sticky heat creeping into the mid-thirties.
The contrast between the ages of the homebound, restricted either by their caregiving duties or as a result of age and ill health, began stretching my perceptions and observatory referencing beyond the sole impressions of the physical elements which surrounded me. It was as if through each open door I passed, I witnessed before my eyes the cycle of life and death. An intuitive connection exemplified by the organic nature of the concrete, wood and tin capillaries I walked within.
However, this multigenerational and close family support across generations is closer to how things should be inside a thriving community. Here, none of the children are shipped off to daycare while their parent’s slaves always pay for the opportunity to develop insecure attachment styles in their children. Nor continue their obligation of service to the state’s economy while locking up their parents in care homes. From birth to death, those assigned their lot here, though they may not own much, have each other to care for and rely on. In reality, these people may not be so poor; after all, that iPhone or brand-new financed car isn’t going to care for you when you need it.
The Pulse of the Khlong Toei Slum
After contemplating these thoughts for some time that afternoon, sitting with the low energy of the dwellings, at 1530 that afternoon, a sudden rush of energetic activity began flooding the streets. School was out, and the children ran, climbed, sang, and played throughout the town.
Of course, as naturally curious creatures, they were exponentially more interested in this new and exciting white-skinned camera-wielding creature pacing around their community than following a regular habitual activity. At one point, whilst flying my drone, I must’ve amassed a group of at least 20 younglings. Each one fascinated to witness their homes from a bird’ s-eye view.
This visceral pulse of energy only further expanded my connection to the impression of our place as organisms inside an expansive network of things. Because imagining this nature unfolding over time daily, I could perceive a beat to the pulse of life here. Sensing the old, the new, and the universe’s inexplicable curiosity in its desire to explore and discover itself.
Saying Goodbye to the Khlong Toei Slum
As the day grew long and the sun began to hang low in the sky, I began walking back to where I had started my walk inside the Khlong Toei slums. In passing, I waved again to an adorable and infinitely accommodating couple I had the pleasure of interacting with earlier that day. Both nearly exploded with excitement as they recalled my visitation and unhesitatingly invited me to eat for free with them at the quaint restaurant, which lined one of the community’s more prominent alleyways.
It was not the first time receiving an invitation to sit and eat with people that day.
However, as the sun had set and my legs had become wiry and fatigued, I gladly accepted the invitation to experience a most authentic Pad Thai.
During our conversation, in the most broken but applaudable English mustered by the couple, they warned me of now roaming the streets alone with my camera equipment in the dark. A cautioning I accepted as I was already about to make my way back: unfortunately, there were no taxis from the location, so the couple called their daughter, who rushed out unquestioningly to transport me on the back of her scooter to the closest seven eleven to hail a taxi.
Conclusion
As I waved goodbye from the back seat of the scooter and proceeded to exit the narrow passages with tight knees, I exhaled with a gratifying sigh one can only attain from such a substantial experience. Events like this in life reshape and restructure our perceptions of our world. I was genuinely content about my decision to visit this community and experience its warmth and hospitality. I recommend that anyone visiting Bangkok escape the tourism traps to do the same.
