Neighborhood · Samphanthawong · Chinatown

Talat Noi

ตลาดน้อย

A riverside maze of engine grease, ancestral mansions and street art — old Chinese Bangkok in miniature.

Jing ler? — no way

Hidden in the lanes is So Heng Tai, a 200-year-old Hokkien courtyard mansion — with a four-metre-deep scuba diving pool in the courtyard. The eighth-generation owner teaches diving lessons to pay for the house's upkeep rather than sell to developers.

Jing ler? — no way

Talat Noi's nickname is 'greasy alley': for decades its shophouses have dismantled engines into glistening mountains of second-hand parts. Before that, it was where Chinese junks moored — this tiny quarter has been trading for longer than Bangkok has existed.

Source & further reading: Wikipedia · District guide: Samphanthawong · Chinatown

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