Bangkok’s Chao Phraya River flows in exaggerated loops past Buddhist temples and humble teak bungalows. For one writer and her immigrant family, it's a link to the country she calls home
—the city’s first paved street, running parallel to the river—was added in 1867. French, Portuguese, and Chinese sailors who’d been trading with Siam since the 16th century were joined by British, Indian, and Middle Eastern merchants, who settled in communities south of the Grand Palace between the water and Charoen Krung Road.
By the time my grandfather, Hakim Singh Sachdev, a Sikh Indian from Punjab, sailed up the Chao Phraya in the 1920s, the river port city was in full swing. Chinese junks, Siamese barges, and European ships ran rice, spices, and teak up and down the river. On its banks, trafficked in glass and block-printed textiles and Indians traded cotton fabrics milled in England. Narrow woodenPlease be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.: Bangkok’s Charoen Krung Road is lined with historic shophouses built by Indian, Portuguese, and Chinese immigrants.: Bright paint and architectural trim cover a historic shophouse in the Ratchawong neighborhood.
Despite Thailand’s famously warm and welcoming nature, my grandfather and his fellow immigrants were often called khaekComing of age in the 1960s, my father shirked his conservative Sikh upbringing and the khaek sobriquet. He embraced the laidback Thai temperament, hobnobbing with local politicos and foreign correspondents at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel’sIn the 1970s, the end of the war in neighboring Vietnam fueled a building boom away from the Chao Phraya.
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