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Published: April 24th 2006
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Bangkok Skyline
The view of the city as seen from my hotel window Bangkok has been described as a city of constant surprises. As a New Zealander who knew next to nothing about Thailand, that has been entirely true.
Brooke, Tan, Ric and I landed in Bangkok International around 10pm, thankfully no one placed drugs in my bag so my anxiety about being thrown into prison and executed vanished. Even better our bags actually arrived - this fear was even more grounded than the last as the woman at air New Zealand who checked us in was incredibly nasty to us (we weren’t so nice in retaliation) and a flash back to a Seinfeld rerun I had watched recently made me suspicious that my luggage would end up in Honolulu.
Even though it was close to the middle of the night when we stepped outside, the layers started coming off, Bangkok is incredibly humid (this came as no surprise) and it smells like a food court. We got in the shuttle to our hotel which offered the comfort of air conditioning and the white knuckle fear of being in a car with a maniac and having no seatbelts. As it was dark sight seeing extended as far as the other cars on
Weekend Markets
This represents just a microcosm of the Weekend Markets in Bangkok the motorway - I’m particularly interested in the Ute’s that look like a motorized Oregon Trail wagon with all the kids piled in the back, and large Las Vegas shrines to the King of Thailand.
The Hotel is very nice, it’s like a small expensive city that if you so chose to you would never have to leave. We are situated on the 17th floor and everything is great except the concrete slab bed - I like my beds soft. In the extreme quietness of the hotel I got an overwhelming sense of loneliness that came from a realization that I was very far away from home and my friends and family and that it would be a considerable amount of time before I saw them again, I must admit that when I went to sleep that night, I was actually very sad.
Jet lag caused me to wake at 6am on Sunday morning - I looked out the window and got my first real view of Bangkok. The sky scrapers near the horizon paint a picture of sophistication and prosperity, however in the foreground were structures that looked like bombed car parking buildings. These are apparently buildings that were never finished due to an economic crisis in the 90s. The smog in the air gave the illusion of a cool overcast day, but as soon as you stepped outside there was blazing sun and that inescapable humidity.
After inspecting a very intricate shrine that was across the road from the hotel and dodging motorbikes and Tuk Tuks, we got in a taxi to go to a place Tan and Ric frequent on their trips to Thailand - the MBK centre. The taxi driver had other ideas and as soon as her heard us utter the word “Shopping” we were whisked off to a Gem Store. I am now too scared to use either of the terms “shopping” or “gem store” in the presence of a taxi driver. We then walked from the gem store to the MBK centre through a pathway next to the canal. At the centre we had a wonderful breakfast of fresh fruit - I could live off mango for the rest of my life - and if I were to stay here I would have too, there is nothing like a city full of slim Thai girls to make you feel like a fat westerner! Too make matters worse we were dressed like we were on safari and had sweat escaping every pore while the people around us were wearing jeans and had immaculate hair and makeup, the weather did not effect their composure whatsoever.
As this was the only weekend day we would be in Thailand we took the Sky Train (a much safer alternative to Taxis!) to Mo Chit and the Weekend Market - a massive sweat box maze of low price shopping. Tan the kamikaze shopper managed to buy 2 outfits within the space of half an hour for under $40 NZ. I settled for a video camera bag and a pair of jandals. The heat coupled with loud pulsating techno music and people shouting in Thai over mega phones created a surreal atmosphere that was very disorientating. We found the stalls that sold animals and there were many puppies and kittens that looked too hot and dehydrated, I wanted to take them all home to New Zealand and let them roam free in our many paddocks with our many sheep - alas that is a pipe dream. Other more privileged puppies and kittens had been upgraded to the business class of pet stalls which were small air conditioned glass house like structures and had water on tap - these animals celebrated by frolicking and biting each other.
Just as we were making our way out of the markets we passed a beggar who had lost his leg and was crawling along the ground on his stomach whilst people threw coins into his bucket. I was incredibly shocked. I come from a very sheltered background and had of course never seen anything like this before. Then as we kept walking there was another one, again no leg and crawling across the ground - at this point I completely lost it - it was too much for me and I burst into tears. Tan decided this might be a good time to leave the market.
So we jumped back on the sky train and ended up in the most expensive mall in Bangkok eating Gelato - this would have to be the exact antithesis of what I had just experienced, it reminded me of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Even Burger King and McDonalds looked like expensive restaurants in this mall - however I am starting to suspect McDonalds owns this city, McDonald’s uniforms bare an uncanny resemblance to Police uniforms here - and we have passed more than on McBusStop.
Dinner was complementary at the hotel - It was followed by an amazing performance of traditional Thai dancing. This style of performance is incredibly precise and apparently the dancers train their fingers to bend backward from an early age - For the last dance we were all summoned to join in - our finger bending efforts were poor in comparison! But it was the perfect end to the evening.
Today I will be visiting a Buddhist Temple… but I will have more on that later.
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