Khlong Saen Saeb คลองแสนแสบ

Khlong Saen Saeb is a major canal and waterway starting in downtown Bangkok. It connects the Chao Phraya River with the provinces of Prachin Buri and Chachoengsao in eastern Thailand.

Saen Saep means hundred thousand pains, but even famous linguists aren't sure the correct meaning of Saen Saep:
Some say it means hundred thousand mosquito bites, the Khlong area is a hatchery for midges,
some people explain about the torture and hard work of hundred thousand Khmer muslim slaves and forced laborer digging out the canal
and some say the words Saem Saep comes from Khmer (Cambodian) language and means "Se" = devil of the water, "Saab" = mild.

The Saen Saep canal was built by the order of HRH Jessadabodindra King Rama III during the conflict between Siam and Annam about Cambodia, to establish a water transport for soldiers and weapons to Cambodia. The construction started in 1837 and was finished three years after.
Many thousands Muslim people were displaced from Cambodia against their will, and forced to dig out the channel within three years. The later generations of this Khmer muslims still live in this area in urban settlements and along the 53,5 km long channel.

The Saen Saep starts from or Khlong Mahanak around Mahakan Fortress downtown Bangkok, which is nearby the famous Backpack-center called Khao San Road. In Chachoengsao it terminates into the Bang Pa Kong River.

My album shows pictures from the outer part of the Khlong, out of Bangkok. Some watergates interrupt the route from downtown to the country side and province, so we had to start our tour in Minburi, an outer quarter of Bangkok, behind the last Khlong-sluice.

On the outer Khlong side only very few boats can be seen on the channel due the big alternative of transporting goods by trucks and lorries on the highways. Tourism never has established, only insider know how to hire a boat and how to go the side khlongs to avoid an final stop in front of a watergate.
A German friend, called Klaus, invited us for a trip on the Klong, a 25 km trip from Minburi to Nong Chok, about half the whole length of the Khlong.

In Sept. 2003 a small group of activists who live along this Khlong Saen Saeb, developed an opportunity to clean the channel and kill the permanent unbearable of rotten stench. They grow up the Enzyme Ionic Plasma the EIP, peels from citrus-fruits and the waste of vegetable were got fermented for about 15 days to win a sirup. After dumping 13,000 litter in the Khlong just after one hours the smell disappeared and after one night the water was clear.
But the "black ships" from nearby factories still disposed the industry trash into the channel and after a short while the Khlong inside Bangkok was as dirty and stinking as before - until a watergate stops the flowing dirt water into the outer part of the Khlong. This is one the reason why outside Bangkok a trip on the channels is more attractive but also more complicated than the common tourist trips on the Khlong downtown the city.

Khlong Saen Saeb is a major canal and waterway starting in downtown Bangkok. It connects the Chao Phraya River with the provinces of Prachin Buri and Chachoengsao in eastern Thailand.

Saen Saep means hundred thousand pains, but even famous linguists aren't sure the correct meaning of Saen Saep:
Some say it means hundred thousand mosquito bites, the Khlong area is a hatchery for midges,
some peop…  (read more)