Thailand's traditional wooden canal boats, which centuries ago helped earn Bangkok the name of "Venice of the East," face a watery grave as the city's ultra-modern new subway lures away commuters, some boat owners say.
For years, tens of thousands of Bangkok residents daily braved the pollution, disease and other hazards of the city's murky waterways to save minutes, mostly hours, off their travel to work by using the Thai longboats.
But the multi-billion dollar subway, inaugurated by Thailand's king just last month, promises to shift the transport landscape for Bangkok, which already has the unenviable reputation as one of the worst traffic gridlocks in the world. The canal boats are unlikely to be spared in this reshuffle.
Like relics from a bygone era, the fast narrow boats shuttle through Bangkok's narrow canals, called klongs in Thai. But while many cling proudly to Thailand's past, the future has caught up with the Thai Kingdom as Bangkok, a city of 10 million inhabitants will soon see its treasured klong boats disappear forever.
My business will not last long, maybe five or six years, says Chavalit Methayaprapas, owner of the Transportation Family Company, the only firm licensed to operate the klong service over the past 15 years.
The Thai government will extend its subway service to Bang Kapi (Bangkok's eastern suburb) and then I think our passengers will turn to the new subway system, Chavalit said. But our company will survive as I plan to do boat tours for tourists on the Chao Phraya River, he added.
Many boat line employees and riders on Klong Saen Saep, the main route, say they have yet to see a decline in commuter passengers, but some concede the exodus has already begun. One klong boat pilot said he estimated a 20% drop in passengers since he joined the company 8 years ago.
The boat pilots are hardened workers, navigating treacherous turns and choppy waters at very high speeds while dodging construction pylons, low bridges and other klong boats. Yet many Thai commuters swear by the boats. It's super fast and super cheap. They should continue to run the service for years, says Pipat Wongsophonpattana, a 24-year-old office worker. The fare is a maximum 15 baht (US$ 0,35) and rush hour boats pull up to the piers at a 1 minute interval.
Yet not every Bangkok resident is a fan of the klong transport. It smelled like a sewage pit, the boats barely stop at the piers and you have to be a stuntman to leap into the craft, says Karishma Vyas, who used to take the bus to work but switched to klong boats because they are much faster. It saves me an enormous amount of time, but when I got to work I smell like I have not taken a shower for months and the boat pilots navigate like kamikazes.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Authority, which is in negotiations to buy back the city's Skytrain and the subway from their operators, stresses klong transport is still very much a part of city life in Bangkok. The government has no desire to see the klong boat service come to an end, Harbor Department pier security official Kiatisak Klinbua says.
Bangkok is in desperate need of more mass transport options on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya, where road gridlock is notoriously bad but the Skytrain and subway have yet to penetrate. Changes are on the drawing board. The subway is due for a 72-kilometre (45-mile) expansion by 2010 which will include the densely populated area around the Grand Palace where several tourist sites are located.
The subways governor, Prapat Chongsanguan, says that by the year 2010 about 1.8 million people will be riding the Bangkok subway every day, and refuted charges that the Bangkok underground would drive the traditional klong boats out of business.
