On April 20, 2024, I headed to the neighborhood called Ban Khrua. I discovered that amazing place recently and decided to continue exploring the area with a telephoto lens a Nikkor 70-300mm on a Nikon full-frame D750 f/4.5-5.6.

To reach Ban Khrua, I first traveled on a bus and then took this speedboat.

The passengers are leaving and, next, I was coming on deck...

No traffic jams, and the speed is amazing... The whole trip lasted several minutes, and here we are, Hua Chang pier:

I don't speak Thai but I know some words, a couple of hundreds, probably. And that's enough to see a meaning in Thai signs and urban names from time to time. I am saying this slightly proudly and feeling ashamed, at the same time, since I have spent enough time in Thailand to learn some basic speech... Hua Chang means the elephant's head, I knew it, and my hypothesis was proved by reality when I walked up the bridge adjacent to the pier:

After a meal at a 7-Eleven convenience store (they have fish with lemongrass and rice, love it!), I went back to the canal, to another pier called Ban Khrua Nuea:

I was walking along the canal and looking for any interesting details like this beautiful roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) in a pot over the canal:

The main mission of the walk was actually cats.

But I will mostly skip this topic this time to give way to pictures Ban Khrua itself with its houses, people, wires...

As I know there is a plan to move the wires underground (and they have started the thing already)... When I think about that, I feel sad. And I am sure I am not the only one among fans of Thailand who have a special feeling about these bundles.

They are like a symbol of what I fell in love when I came to Asia. Not sure what words to choose. A charm of the chaos?

Thailand without bundles of wires would be like tom yum without chili, ridiculous.

There are many Thai Muslims in the neighborhood, and I saw at least two mosques.

There are not many signs of Islam in Ban Khrua. But there are. One of them: part of children wear special school costumes, like these boys:

I noticed them in the alley and decided to take an image. As soon as they noticed me (with that huge camera in my hands), they got excited and started joyfully laughing.

I had another communication in Ban Khrua. While I was photographing and feeding cats

I was approached by a young man. He politely asked me general questions (in great English) and told me that foreigners are rarely seen in Ban Khrua (it was a compliment, obviously).

He said his name is Spy, he is a rapper (IG: @sspy_plo). And we had this small photo shoot then.

It turned out he was born in the neighborhood and even has a tattoo of Ban Khrua:

We connected on Instagram and I soon left to keep my catsploring before it was too dark.

That's a song from Spy's Youtube channel, great one:

P.S. Check out my catstagram! IG: @cats_in_streets Very young account, subscribers wanted!! 😁 + My images of cats on Twitter: @cats_in_streets

More images and stories from Southeast Asia are ahead! Check out the previous ones on my personal Pinmapple map.

I took these images with a Nikkor 70-300mm on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 on April 20, 2024, in Pattaya, Thailand.