Bangkok

---

---

The first thing that we saw in Bangkok in daylight was not flowers, temples or tuk-tuks, but power wires. They are everywhere, dangling not far above your head in ridiculous numbers, running from one pole to another and obscuring the buildings on the opposite side of the street. Buildings are a separate story too. Most of them look like they suffered a fire and have been never repaired, and remind me a lot what I saw on those post-war pictures – grey five storeys flat blocks, black on the corners or just all over. Needless to say, they look poor and not very neat. Place a bunch of these flat blocks and some bizarre wooden shacks, connect them with wires and water pipes – all on the outside that is, sprinkle temples and shrines inbetween, new foreign cars mixed with old motorbikes and vendors pulling their trolleys on the roads, a bit misty air and the blazing sun above it – and you get the picture.



Temples are surreal, bright and happy, quite a contrast with the people’s dwellings and the Christian churches I’m used to. Flowers, candles, wooden (?) elephants, zebras and roosters, and all the colours in the world. Ah, and statues of Buddha too – they have to be there, haven’t they? And the monks, draped in nice orange blankets. I may be wrong but looks like temples come in the form of several buildings at a time, and a lot of stuff is displayed or happens outside, kinda in the courtyard. Almost every house has a small shrine next to it, we even had one next to our hotel. Then there are temples, or wat’s, which are not shown on our maps, so I take they are not the important ones. And then there are wat’s that are famous and contain some special Buddha statues within, like the Emerald Buddha, the largest golden Buddha, the tallest standing Buddha, the reclining Buddha, the…. You can get into the minor temples for free, but need to take your shoes off, and, just in case you felt a little chilly at +35C, you need to wear a full length trousers and a long-sleeved top. Decency for the Buddha. This rule about the clothes is actually strictly observed in the case of larger temples, and special shops have been set up right there to sell the trousers and tops to the tourists.



The traffic is crazy, road marking – hardly visibly or not meant to be there altogether, driving on the opposite side of the road – all the time, and all this happens quietly, without honking horns and out-of-the-window discussions. People were telling me it’s crazy to learn driving in London, they have probably never been to Bangkok. Out of curiosity and heat we got into a tuk-tuk, which is kinda a cart with a roof, attached to a motorbike. That was scary. Behind the driver there was a “no farting” sign. Signs on the window of a taxi we used to get to the airport were even more interesting, we concluded that you can point on one or several of them and the driver will deliver you to a place that fulfils your request: caraoke, VIP, a woman saying OK, drinks, and a strange vibrating office chair – no idea about this one thou, lack of relevant experience to blame.



Most of the buildings are very run-down, but not the temples and official ones. The Grand Palace is especially well-maintained, my impression was that all the development budget of the city is diverted that way. Similar to temples, here’s a sea of gold, ceramics and bright colours. Curling upwards golden edges of the roofs, a massive story-telling mosaic around the perimeter of the palace complex, flowers at shines, long trousers and tops and no-shoes at the emerald Buddha temple. Notice to myself: the bag should not only contain those long trousers and a top, but is also good for keeping your shoes in when you need to take them off. The palace is warded by some strange bright monkey-dragons wearing pointy hats.

In the evening a couple of street not far from our hotel are turned into a night market. It’s a lot like a day market, but more alcohol flowing in the bars along these streets, more country and other non-asian music, different lights and a bit less heat. Sliced fruit and water are sold everywhere, mangoes and pineapples are very cheap and sweet.

The most telling views of Bangkok I think we got from a boat trip along the river and canals crossing the city. A simple trip to a harbour toilet ended up in being talked by a transsexual into a private boat trip, and it was worth it.Temples look great from the river, in one a monk was offering to buy some bread to feed massive fish which already gathered by the boat. But temples are not that frequent after all, and most of the time we saw some incredible shacks where people live. Being placed literally in the water, they are built on top of elevated platforms, but the supporting beams and platforms are made of wood and thus are often rotten and askew. Water pipe goes, as it were, under water. Electricity poles are of course coming out of the water too. Very few people are seen around, apart from the banana-mango-beer-vodka floating vendor in a tiny boat, waiting for tourists to pass by. Oh, and we saw a massive lizard, that was very cool indeed! It must be somewhere in the pics which I will upload later.

Flying to Thailand, I expected to see something exotic, hot and weird, something that I couldn’t even think about before. And I got it, plenty. But if palm trees and temples are removed, what you are left with is very similar to Kiev in summer as I remember it, hot, poor and grey, with uneven pavement, serious tired faces and bribery screaming at you from every corner. What is different in Bangkok is that some people do smile at you, and you smile back.

---