ABSTRACT
DOWN the left side of the Menam Chao Phya lies Bangkok. The houses do not spread themselves far to the sides, but gradually lose themselves in gardens and fields. Bangkok is not a large town according to European ideas, there being a dense population of 500,000. Nor is it imposing ! It is interesting only from the opportunity of studying Buddhism. It has often been called the “ Venice of the East,” but such comparisons, which Europeans are so fond of making, only serve to perplex. During the last two or three decades the comparison has been misapplied as the miserable water-ways have been replaced by streets. But this has not been enough, there are still some canals filled with swampy water—the Eldorado of mosquitoes, and the hotbed of fevers under the tropic sun. They bring no good name to Siam’s capital.
