This city is built on an island in a broad river, and part of it on the
banks of the river. It ought therefore to be a pleasant city, but it is
_not_, owing to its extreme untidiness. The streets are full of mud, and
overgrown with bushes, amongst which all the refuse is thrown; there are
also many ditches with planks thrown across. There is only one pleasant
part of the town, and that is, where the Wats are built. The Wats are the
idol-houses. Near them are shady walks and fragrant flowers, and elegant
dwellings for the priests. The people think they get great merit by
making Wats, and therefore they take so much trouble: for the Siamese are
very idle. So idle are they that there would be very little trade in
Bankok, if it were not for the Chinese, who come over here in crowds, and
make sugar, and buy and sell, and get money to take back to China. You
may tell in a moment a Chinaman's garden from a Siamese garden; one is
so neat and full of flowers;--the other is overgrown with weeds and
strewn with litter.
The most curious sight in Bankok, is the row of floating houses. These
houses are placed upon posts in the river, and do not move about as boats
do; yet if you _wish_ to move your house, you can do so; you have only to
take up the posts, and float to another place.
Besides the floating houses, there are numerous boats in the river, and
some so small that a child can row them. There are so many that they
often come against each other, and are overset. A traveller once passed
by a boat where a little girl of seven was rowing, and by accident his
boat overset hers. The child fell out of her boat, and her paddle out of
her hand; yet she was not the least frightened, only surprised; and after
looking about for a moment, she burst out a laughing, and was soon seen
swimming behind her boat (still upside down), with her paddle in her
hand. These little laughing rowers are too giddy to like learning, and
they are not at all willing to come to the missionaries' schools; but
some poor children, redeemed from slavery, are glad to be there, and have
been taught about Christ in these schools.