Kudi Chin

When Ayutthaya fell in 1767 and Taksin established a new capital at Thonburi, he granted land on the river to communities who had supported him, and the Portuguese-descended Catholics - people of mixed Portuguese, Thai, Mon and other ancestry who had been in Siam since the sixteenth century - were settled here. Santa Cruz church, rebuilt several times and now in a 1916 Renaissance form with a dome, is the centre of the community. The thing the quarter is known for is khanom farang Kudi Chin, a small cake baked over charcoal with heat above and below, from a recipe descended from Portuguese baking and adapted with local ingredients; only a few families still make it and one has done so for around two hundred years. Within a few hundred metres are also a Chinese shrine, a mosque and Buddhist temples, which is the quarter's real interest - four communities on one riverbank.

The main sights

• Santa Cruz church - the 1916 domed building at the community's centre.
• Khanom farang Kudi Chin - the Portuguese-descended cake, baked over charcoal.
• The four faiths - church, mosque, Chinese shrine and temples within a few hundred metres.
• The riverside lanes - narrow walkways between old houses on the Thonburi bank.

When to go

November to February. The cake bakeries sell out by early afternoon. Weekends bring more visitors; weekdays are quiet. Two to three hours to walk the quarter.

What to expect

Narrow residential lanes where people live - noise and photography into houses are unwelcome. The cake bakeries are small and sell out. The community museum keeps limited hours. Reached by ferry rather than road.

Nearby

Wat Prayoon and Wat Kalayanamit are on the same bank; the Phra Nakhon side is across the river.

Key facts