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Giant Buddha, Wat Pho, Bangkok
As an idea of scale, that is a doorway in the bottom left of the photo.(N) Bangkok was founded in 1782 by the first monarch of the (present) Chakri dynasty. It is now the country's spiritual, cultural, diplomatic, commercial and educational hub. It covers an area of more than 1,500 square kilometres, and it is home to approximately ten million people or more than 10%!o(MISSING)f the country's population. Interestingly (I think), "Bangkok" means something like "Village of the Plum Olive" but is not the official name of the city, rather it is the name of the original village where the French had a short-lived garrison in the 1660's. The modern capital was founded on more or less the same spot, but its name begins "Krung thep..." ("City of Angels...") and continues for 43 syllables in total, making it the longest placename in the world.
The official blurb for Bangkok can't be bettered as a simpering introduction to its attractions:
"Over the last few decades, Thailand's capital city, Bangkok, has changed into a modern, exciting and sophisticated city. It offers to visitors not only the cosmopolitan amenities they would expect from other big cities, but also a unique treasure trove of cultural attractions. Thailand, in the heart of Southeast Asia, and unlike its neighbours of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar etc., was never colonised (apart from that little French incident, presumably)
and thus kept its unique culture and heritage intact. Bangkok offers visitors the opportunity to experience fascinating glimpse of Thailand's gentle culture amidst the bustle of a great and dynamic metropolis. This great city has had astounding success in combining the ancient and modern world.
The city is dotted with 400 glittering Buddhist temples of great beauty and fascination, magnificent palaces, classical dance extravaganzas, numerous shopping centres and traditional ways of life, especially along the "Venice of the East" timeless canals. It is worth taking a trip along the water before exploring further into different canals to take a glimpse of old Bangkok". So how did we find it?!
A diary of our last week... We stayed in an area of Bangkok called
Banglampu, and it is here where the infamous
Khao San Road is to be found, the part of the city where many backpackers stay. It is about 500m in length and is full of bars, hostels, internet cafes and travel agents, with plenty of market-style stalls in front of them on the street, selling genuine fakes of
every description, plus plenty of food and drink. The shops and stalls are all cheek-by-jowl, the signs overhead on the buildings screaming for attention like in Hong Kong. At night, the stretch becomes a mass of neon lighting, the music starts and flyers for low-priced alcohol are handed out; but although there are a few westerners who look like they have been hanging out there for longer than could be considered healthy, the atmosphere is good-natured partying; most people are only interested in having a good time and there seemed to be little trouble. Perhaps the presence of the police station at the end of the road helps.
Our hostel in Banglampu was less than 1km away from Khao San Road, but much more laid back, with something of a village-within-a-city feel. There were also plenty of places to eat, drink and arrange travel, but more spread out. It's a place where cars, bikes and tuk tuks force their way through the mostly pedestrianised lanes, but the pleasant side of life generally prevails: the fruit-tree lined ways, the food, fruit and drink stalls and the many varied bars. The more we got to see of the rest of Bangkok
Nick
Homemade baguette with "shakshuka", an Israeli egg dish whose other main ingredients are tomatoes, garlic, salt and paprika. with its crowded and polluted roads, the more we liked our imperfect oasis.
Tues 26th Arrived back in Bangkok with some despondency - we had left the Beerlao umbrella on the bus to Damnoen Saduak. Farewell, old chum. (Sing along with Beerlao
here). To make up for this, I had a large baguette sandwich and felt better. We had a curry that evening in
Roti Mataba, a place of much local renown but not much style; the plastic plates are stained yellow from previous dinners and the lighting is very bright. The food was delicious, especially the chicken inside a
roti bread. Paula contrived to drop a 10 baht coin into a small cup of dip that was only a couple of millimetres wider than the coin itself - had she tried to repeat that feat again 100 times it wouldn't have happened.
Weds 27th Woke up to a very muggy air. "Ooh it's going to rain something chronic next week" I thought to myself. Actually, the rain came just 30 mins later, but fortunately it was one of the few times we'd decided to eat breakfast indoors. The air cleared up and the rain stopped abruptly.
We took a ferry (Bangkok is another city to have had comparisons with Venice made) for 15 minutes down to the
Silom neighbourhood, passing extraordinary views of The Royal Palace and the elaborate
Wat Arun, while other river traffic included a huge barge bearing 1000's of crates of Pepsi, and houses balanced on rickety stilts at the water's edge. It was like the ride we did in Shanghai along the river, and also reminded me of the days when the weather was good and I travelled to work in Liverpool over the Mersey.
There is not so much to see in Silom, but it is interesting to wander the area between the busy
Charoen Krung St (the first paved road in Bangkok) and the river, which has many Victorian-era buildings in not-too-good states of repair, including the old Customs House and another old building housing the fire brigade but which is due to be turned into a boutique hotel. A couple of grand hotels are also here, including The Oriental, the only posh hotel I have seen anywhere that enforces a no-shorts policy (unless you are a guest of course). Not to be stopped, I zipped on the bottoms
of my detachable trousers and wandered inside (
sans Paula, who only had sandals, which are also a no-no). I went to check about their jazz shows (in the musical sense) as a potential future night out. It was a luxurious interior but not OTT, and I am informed that the author W. Somerset Maugham once recovered here from an advanced state of malaria which he had contracted in Burma, and subsequently wrote
Gentleman in the Parlour in a suite, which put the hotel on the literary map (a double bonus for the manager who had initially objected to his staying there, saying that "a death would be bad for business"), and other notable guests have included Noel Coward and Graham Greene.
Nearby are plenty of gem and silver shops, plus the odd antique shop, one of which announced in large letters in its front window that "Dinosaur Droppings" were available to the connoisseur. There was also a gem museum whose advert informed that it had "Various ashtrays of various nations" on display. It was a struggle not to go inside.
Bangkok's Chinatown was a 20-minute walk away, and that was where we headed next. On the way, we
stopped at
Wat Traimit, famed for its 3m tall, solid gold Buddha. There was an entry charge to see it, and unfortunately a horde of people filing off to the outbuilding where the effigy was located. The thought of paying to see
yet another crowded Buddha seemed, on reflection, to not be worth it. While Paula was taking a photo at the front, I wandered around the side.
A deep voice behind me boomed out "Come here"! It was an old-ish monk sat cross-legged in his own small prayer hall. "Kneel down"! he said, pointing to a mat in front of him. So I felt obliged and did so; at which point he dipped what can only be described as a small broom in an urn of holy water and tapped me on the head several times with it, with a not particularly light touch. He said some words in Thai, and translated them as "Good luck for you", which is a common blessing that monks give in Thailand and neighbouring countries. He tied a small charm bracelet around my right wrist, and when Paula came over, he got me to put one on her left wrist (monks cannot
touch women). Before leaving, I put some money in his donation box, at which he raised his eyebrows. "Give me your wallet" he said. Knowing that he was unlikely to do a runner, I proferred it. He then unwrapped a wafer-thin piece of gold leaf (which was kept between 2 pieces of sealed paper, just like a plaster wrapper), measuring about 2cm squared. He took some glue which he used to affix the piece of gold leaf inside my wallet. Every time that I subsequently took a note or coin out, a little shred of it was rubbed away, and now all that remains is a gold square imprinted on the wallet fabric.
We continued on our way to Chinatown and when we got there, we discovered it was much more 'Chinesey' in character than Chinatown in Saigon had been. We walked past shops selling all sorts of dried herbs, berries and fish, and on the street plenty of people were sat selling watches, small statues and beads plus lots of other odds and sods. The traffic was the worst we had seen so far in Bangkok; the roads were an almost constant stream of vehicles which, along with
the heat, made the air quality terrible. We were headed to
Wat Mangkon Kamalawat, reputed to be one of the largest and most active Chinese temples in the city. Outside the temple itself, as with all other ones, were vendors selling flowers and incense to be used as offerings. What was especially interesting were the market stalls selling paper objects to be burned at a shrine, in the hope that a real version of them would be obtained in the future; for example, paper cars (about 30 cm in length, complete with chauffeur in the front!) and smart suits (also made from paper) in a box, complete with plastic gold wristwatch!
Like the other Chinese temples, it was hot and smoky from the incense sticks. there seemed to be a festival occurring, as fruits and garlands were being dispensed with a certain abandon, and the gold statues were wearing pink headscarves. About 40 novice monks in their late teens chanted in front of another set of golden statues; a few were very earnest, while others merely mumbled and sill anothers chatted amongst themselves. Instead of wearing of saffron robes, for some reason they had on orange jumpsuits and looked
more like escapees from Guantanamo.
We headed south down a series of connected narrow streets which made up a covered market, whose stalls were crammed with everything from clothes, to stationery to delicious food (dumplings, kebabs, fresh sponge cake), the not-so-delicious food (fried pork skins, dried fish) and the attendant smells. Not far away stood a branch of
Bangkok Bank that has been there for more than one hundred years. Interestingly, one walking salesman was offloading comfy-looking blankets; on closer inspection, they were branded ‘Etihad’ - we weren’t sure if the Dubai airline had officially disposed of them, or if they had fallen off the back of a jumbo.
We took the boat back to our part of Bangkok; but instead of the smooth tranquil ride of the morning, we were at rush-hour. The cruise boats also carried commuters, and ripped up and down the river, in between them were weaving longboats and other vessels - it’s amazing that there aren’t regular accidents. The boats hardly stop at the bouncy piers, they just pull up alongside, push the craft into reverse while people jump off.
We saw that John Digweed was playing on other side of Bangkok
but there was no ticket information available. We turned up anyhow, got in and had a great night.
Thurs 28th - the main sight of Bangkok is its
Grand Palace. The guidebook advised getting there early to beat the hordes, but this is not practical advice if you only got to bed shortly before sunrise. So we were just one of hundreds gawping around the palace complex, which also included the stunning temple of
Wat Phra Kaew. At the entrance, a woman at a desk was guiding the tourists who wear wearing shorts towards a room wear they could borrow ‘longs’ to cover up. More often than not, however, they would not hear her and walk past; at which point she would pull out a megaphone from under the desk and shout at them!
One of the most impressive parts of the complex was a large golden
chedi, but plenty of buildings in the vicinity were covered in mirror tiles to ward away evil spirits, which looked stunning all together. Some of these were guarded by large devils with pantomime faces. The highlight of the complex is the
Emerald Buddha, a small statue on a 10m-tall, finely
ornamented altar. The figure is highly venerated by Thais, who like to have their photos taken outside its temple while holding a lotus flower (having first dipped it in water and let the drips fall on their head) and to make offerings on the inside. The statue has three sets of clothing to wear, depending on the season, and it is the king himself who is responsible for the changing of the clothes.
In the main part of the palace area, we went into a throne room and saw majestic buildings from the outside; unfortunately we could not enter because the king’s sister had recently died and was lying in state. At least that explained why everyone was wearing black; we later found out that, to pay respects to her body - which would be lying in state for
11 months - it was necessary to be in mourning clothes.
Perhaps surprisingly, the palace guards looked a little shoddy; their uniforms were all slightly different shades of white and cream, they were unable to resist posing for photos in their sentry boxes, and looked quite effeminate as they measured the half-arm length between them when stood at attention,
hands on hips.
Not far outside the palace stood the
City Pillar, a wooden pillar erected during the founding of Bangkok in 1782. Today, covered in gold leaf, it is a place where people come to pray and ask for wishes to be granted. It was the same as in Kanchanaburi, although over there it was on a smaller scale. That time, there was a small parade of musicians playing lively music, perhaps in response to the granting of a wish.
To complete the cultural effort, we went to see the
46m-long Buddha at
Wat Pho. It was absolutely huge! Gold in colour, it was 15m tall and took up the entire hall in which it was displayed. Even its feet measured 5m by 3m, and they were inlaid with Mother-of-Pearl decoration. The grounds of the temple were suitably impressive too, not least the four 42m-high
chedis for the first four Thai
Rama kings, decorated with unusual floral tiles.
Fri 29th We headed to the
Siam district and visited
Jim Thompson's House. He is the American credited with reinvigorating the traditional Thai silk industry in the middle of last century, before mysteriously disappearing in the 1970s.
The house consists of a complex of six traditional Thai-style houses, which are teak structures that were purchased from several owners and brought to the present location from various parts of Thailand.
In the garden, we saw a huge stingray and several fish, each 1m long - and that was just in the small pool in the front - nearby to which was a tall, wide terracotta jar with an impressively beautiful lotus flower emerging from its murky waters. In the souvenir shop, there were a wide variety of items, from food to t-shirts, with the name ‘Jim Thompson’ imprinted on them, which would be just marvellous if you shared your name with the great man.
It was time for us to take a break from all this cultural activity and visit the malls. We found it strangely enjoyable to waltz around the hyper glitzy centres. It was a couple of women’s products that most caught our attention: firstly a bra shop where a poster tried to explain why they stocked so many different styles of bra, by having about 20 cartoon pictures of various shaped bosoms each with a different comical descriptor underneath, such as cupcakes and
various citrus fruits! Then there was the nipple whitening cream under the brand name of....
Paula!! That evening, we ended up watching a film in a smart cinema at one of the malls (but not before we had tried ‘cheesy fries’ in a Bangkok McDonalds, on the recommendation of our erstwhile Trans-Siberian-travelling and Christmas-cottage-sharing companions John and Laura, and they were indeed as nice as you would expect of fastfood fries covered in hot liquid cheddar from a squeezy bottle).
After the film was over, we went to another notorious part of Bangkok, called
Patpong, famous for its ping pong shows. “What goes on there?” I hear the uninitiated ask. Well, we didn’t go to a performance but suffice to say that it involves women who can do unconventional things with little plastic balls. Patpong itself was a real hotch-potch; consisting of a few of parallel streets along which were plenty of ‘conventional’ bars but plenty of others that seemed to be full of mostly sad-faced girls in bikinis dancing on bars and around poles (I mean tall pieces of metal, not eastern Europeans). Elsewhere, such bars would be behind closed doors but such is the competition for business that
the touts were showing off their attractions to win more customers: “You want ping pong show? You want banana show?” we were asked every couple of minutes. There were even free entry and low priced drinks; one place boasted “50 beautiful girls and a few ugly ones!”
And all around, a typical Thai night market, with food, craft and clothes on market stalls, was going on amongst which young families as well as single blokes were wandering around in the muggy heat. We had a couple of drinks in a fairly trendy terrace bar, one of many on this particular side street, and were quite enjoying ourselves, then a couple of drag queens came out and performed on the roadside and when we looked around we saw that almost all the other customers were pairs of men...
We shared a taxi back to our part of Bangkok later that night, which was the first time we had been in a car for 4 months!
Sat 1st March - a lazy day. It was the weekend of national elections in Thailand and, as we’d seen elsewhere on other election weekends, there were notices advertising that no alcohol
would be on sale for 48 hours, not from supermarkets nor bars nor anywhere. I could not believe that the establishments on infamous Khao San Road would abide by this rule; after all, the whole street’s profits came from beer. However, that night it seemed only possible to buy soft drinks everywhere and the atmosphere was very different; no loud music and people not quite sure what to make of it. Not to be outdone by the Thai authorities, however, we managed to get our hands on some booze (who'll remain anonymous, you never know who might be reading this and we wouldn’t want to get our local bootleg supplier into trouble). We were in the company of Scandinavians Anna and Jacob who we’d met on the train across China and who we’d completely randomly bumped into (not literally) at least 3 times at various points around south east Asia over the past 4 months, most recently that very morning.
Sun 2nd - our last full day. There was of course time to visit one more wat, which was one we had walked past about 20 times during our 3 visits to Bangkok, called SomethingverylonginThaiwhichmeansVictoryinWar. There was nothing
sensational about it, but it was visible from the top floor of our basic hotel ("Merry V Guest House") and we wanted to go. It kept up of the usual Thai standard of attractive, bright-coloured mosaics, and peaceful Buddhas holding lotus flowers. We took a tuk-tuk to visit the famous
Erawan Shrine, zooming past street markets and canals, still sight-seeing with just 12 hours till we left the city! There are a couple of versions of the history of the shrine, but it seems that the original one, built to ward off evil spirits during the construction of the grand Erawan Hotel in the middle of the last century, was not good enough because of continued mishaps. So it was rebuilt in a more elaborate fashion, and now consists of a large sculpture of the 4-headed deity Brahma, made of plaster and covered in gold leaf. It is surrounded by yellow flower garlands, bowls of fruit and enough burning incense to set off the smoke alarms inside the adjacent hotel (well, almost. It made our eyes water anyway). In another good example of ancient versus modern in Bangkok, immediately behind the shrine is an ultra sparkly Burberry shop.
The
most interesting aspect of this shrine is that it has a reputation of granting peoples' wishes quickly. It is custom to come back to the shrine and 'thank' Brahma, often by paying a small group of official musicians and dancers. It is very well-organised: the devotees form a queue by a small wooden desk, pay the man and when it is their turn, they kneel down in prayer position in front of the dancing troupe (see photo). The 8 dancers, all colourfully dressed in traditional attire, start in the kneeling position, then slowly rise as the music plays, then kneel back down again ready for the next one, all lasting about 3 minutes. The dancers were accompanied by 3 musicians, playing xylophone, drum and bell (the bell man only had a small role, and was able to read the newspaper for most of the time).
We finished the night at the fabulous Imax cinema, watching Beowulf in 3D. I was very pleased to get a large cup of coke with a plastic Spiderman on the top, the cheese and salty popcorn was delicious and the film wasn't bad either. (Sing along with Beowulf
here).
At dawn the
Food stall, Banglamphu
Near our hostel. Note the consideration for "delicate foreign digestion"! following morning, it was time to come home. Right until we left, Thai people in Bangkok were still asking about our white
bacii bands that we had been given at the homestay in Laos - in Thailand, they have a slightly different meaning, worn by those who are recently married, and they wanted to know if we had done so while in the country.
It was time to face up to not living on a whim, such as exchanging the A4 piece of paper on which we had scribbled the past 2 months travel plans for a proper diary. But we were really looking forward to seeing family and friends again. On our way back, we flew over the sands of UAE and Oman, and saw miles and miles of a thin tarmac road that seemingly ran endlessly across the desert. Over Dubai, we could clearly see one of the highly exclusive resorts, of the style that are built into the sea and which fan out like a huge brown spider into the sea!
Our transfer in Oman was brisk, landing in the outskirts of a dry city, the runway being only a stone's throw from white-washed low-rise
dwellings straight out of the Bible, the nearby palm trees being visibly sandy from all the, well, sand. In the terminal, we hurried past (mostly) burly gents in traditional Arab gowns and headgear, onto a much more modern plane back to London. In a stark reminder of what we could expect, the fruit portions in the meal were more bitter and hard than what we were used to. Best stick to bread, I think.
We’ve enjoyed recounting our experiences in this diary. For the entire first month of being back, it was very unusual to not feel my money belt under my trousers. Well, what a fine way to finish the blog.
And if you have been, thank you for reading 😉
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