Chao Phraya River…..

by Mandeep Chana

The Chao Phraya is the major river in Thailand, with its low alluvial plain forming the centre of the country. It flows through Bangkok and then into the Gulf of Thailand.

I hope you enjoy this time lapse of the Chao Phraya river at night:

Here is the daytime time lapse view:

The Chao Phraya constitues a valuable waterway for the transport of the nation’s traditional exports of teak and rice south to Bangkok , though less bulky commodities are now moved overland by road or rail. For centuries the Thai’s have made use of the Chao Phraya, and particularly its canal (khlong) system, for drainage, recreation, and fishing and as a source of water.

The river’s headwaters—the Ping, Wang, Yom, and Nan rivers—rise in the mountains of northern Thailand. At Nakhon Sawan, 140 miles north of Bangkok, the main river begins with the Ping-Nan confluence. Its tortuous course flows past Chai Nat (site of a government dam and irrigation scheme), Sing Buri, Ang Thong, Nonthaburi, and Bangkok to its mouth at Samut Prakan. From its formation at Nakhon Sawan, the river falls less than 80 feet (24 m) in its journey to the sea.

The Chao Phraya system drains 61,807 square miles (160,079 square km) and is the basis of several major irrigation projects. The river’s basin is a low, filled arm of the Gulf of Thailand that is seamed with numerous distributaries. Near Chai Nat a distributary—the Nakhon Chai Si River—branches to the west and parallels the mother stream to the gulf at Samut Sakhon, 25 miles (40 km) west of the main mouth. The main stream bifurcates and reunites several times. Below Chai Nat, the Noi River branches westward and rejoins the Chao Phraya at Sam Khok. The Lop Buri River branches eastward and, before returning to the main stream, flows past the cities of Lop Buri and Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya; at the latter, it receives a great eastern tributary—the Pa Sak River—from the Phetchabun Mountains of the northeast.