Antique Turtle Car

A little off Bangkok’s Chinatown bustle lies the district of Talad Noi, a neighborhood older than the city itself. Originally settled by the Portuguese in the 18th century, it grew into a Chinese quarter and home to Bangkok’s oldest port, where immigrants to the kingdom of Siam first landed.

Though rather overshadowed by the larger Chinatown, the Talad Noi district remains a popular destination of cultural tourism for its nostalgic alleys, where the locals retain the dialect, cuisine and folk beliefs of bygone days. Alive with colorful murals, the neighborhood is filled with street art recalling its eclectic past, luring the visitors deeper into the serpentine entrails of old Bangkok.

But, of course, the Insta-perfect murals and cafés are not all that Talad Noi is. Its winding alleyways are also home to a large community of automobile repair shops, with neat heaps of car parts lying about on either side of the street.

In one particular corner, there is even an abandoned Fiat 500 nicknamed the "Antique Turtle Car." While it remains a bit of a local mystery, with much of its background unknown, it has become one of Talad Noi’s most iconic landmarks. Rust taking over its vintage orange paint, the deserted "turtle car" is quite a photogenic sight indeed.