GoPro footage shows what it’s like to kayak through once-polluted canals that have been turned into a ‘Venice of the East’.

Residents can use the boats for free to paddle along the Ong Ang canal in the centre of Bangkok, Thailand.

The scheme includes 15 kayaks which are available to take onto the water every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Government chiefs rolled out the boats out as part of a regeneration of the area, along with romantic lights, food stalls, musicians, handicrafts and street art.

The area was once polluted, dirty and overcrowded but residents are delighted with how it has been improved. The water is also clean following extensive cleaning and filtering.

‘It’s great, I’m so happy that the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority decided to develop this area,’ resident Chockchai Rattana said.

‘The place is now clean and looks great. It’s really great for walking around and the atmosphere is more like what it is in Europe.’

Another elderly lady who used to live in a home along the Ong Ang canal said there were once hundreds of shops ‘encroaching onto the walkway’.

However, the ”beautification project” has lead to a new generation of younger Thai locals visiting to enjoy the canal to ”walk and take pictures”.