Chao Phraya River
— — a working river that holds the city's whole light.
Not only on a wall.
“The Chao Phraya runs roughly 372 kilometres from Nakhon Sawan, where the Ping and Nan rivers meet, south through the central plain to the Gulf of Thailand. By the time it reaches Bangkok it is a wide, slow, brown working river carrying barges of rice and cement, longtail taxis, and the cross-river ferries that link the temples on the western bank to the city on the east. Wat Arun's prang rises from that west bank near the old royal palace. At dusk the whole river carries the gold of the city back to itself. from the studio
Chao Phraya River, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Chao Phraya is the principal river of Thailand, formed at Nakhon Sawan in the central plain by the confluence of the Ping and Nan rivers and joined further down by the Wang and Yom. It flows roughly 372 kilometres south to the Gulf of Thailand, draining a basin of about 160,000 square kilometres — the country's agricultural heartland. The river passes through the old royal capital of Ayutthaya, then Nonthaburi, then central Bangkok, before splitting into a delta of canals and meeting the sea at the bay south of Samut Prakan. The name translates roughly as river of kings.
The Chao Phraya is a working river. Rice barges, cement tugs, longtail taxis, and the orange-flagged express boats share the channel from morning into evening. The water reads brown — it carries heavy silt from the central plain, which has built the delta out into the gulf over centuries. Annual flood pulses through October and November have historically defined the rhythm of life along the banks; the great flood of 2011 inundated wide stretches of Bangkok and reshaped flood management policy across the basin. Tidal influence from the gulf reaches as far upstream as Ayutthaya on the high tides.
In Bangkok the river is best experienced from the water. The Chao Phraya Express Boat runs orange, blue, and green flagged services along the city stretch, with piers at Sathorn (Saphan Taksin), Tha Tien for Wat Pho and the Grand Palace, and Phra Athit for Khao San. The cross-river ferry to Wat Arun on the western bank costs only a few baht and runs constantly. The temple is loveliest at dawn, when its porcelain-tiled prang catches the first light, and again at dusk, when the prang lights against the deep blue river. Tourist dinner cruises run nightly from Asiatique and the riverside hotels.