Bangkok
Prior to this visit, I had been to Bangkok three times, all on business. The first time was in the late '90, arriving late at night, staying in the Sheraton in the city, meetings the next day, and then leaving that afternoon. Arriving late, there was a frenetic pace and activity to the city that I remembered in my meager time driving to and from the airport. Even then, however, I remember that someone had said that there as an elephant that got loose on the main avenue of town, snarling traffic.
My next two times to Bangkok were for wireless conferences, one time for another single night, the next for two nights. Working at the show all day, business dinners, then out on the town with the guys (i.e. the PG-13 or R rated out on the town). It was a city that over ten years of infrequent visits I had really ZERO idea about. I read the economic stories about Bangkok and Thailand during the economic meltdowns of the late 90's and early this decade. Travelling in Asia, you here the stories of the more 'notorious' parts of the city. But I had never seen anything. The last time I had been in Bangkok had been three years prior for a show, and was struck by the great hotels, a new efficient convention center, and excellent business infrastructure for visitors. But then you read that their new International Airport was shut earlier this year, as corrupt contractors had built defective runways which were cracking, or one read about traffic jams that made LA at Friday 5pm look like the Indy 500.
But then you read about the Tsunami (I had been on Phuket and Phi Phi two months prior, but I'll save that story for my Phuket segment). One read about the Military Coup d'etat last fall, one of a string of government changes by force of arms over the last few decades in Thailand. But a unique coup, as there were no shots fired, and the tourists kept on drinking walking around the soldiers. Then this year, and even while we were on the trip, one reads about the 'troubles' in Southern Thailand, with al Qaeda type violence and bombings (several in the last few weeks).
But then you read a newspaper, the Bangkok post, and for the FIRST TIME IN SEVEN WEEKS, I feel like I am reading a paper in a country with a free press. Scathing criticism, bad news, broad coverage, an amazing breath of fresh air after having to read the party line drivel in most of the countries I've visited (yea, I can actually say that now and be allowed to leave a country!). But THEN while we were here, their Supreme court banned the LEADING political party of Thailand for FIVE YEARS for election fraud, however the expected potential street violence never materialized. Huevos Grandes by their Supreme Court!
So, I guess you can tell from above that Thailand is a land of Paradoxes. A massively Buddhist country with a strong Muslim minority. A country with a King that is universally revered (and talking to the people, with good reason). A King that I might add was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Would not have been my first guess, but the King is Rama IX of a line of kings going back hundreds of years that have been a stabilizing influence on not only Thailand, but the region. Thailand has never been colonized, and has always been independent, but visiting their history museum, their history with Burma/Myanmar is much like France's and Britain.
Below, I'm going to show some images of Bangkok that were not my expectation. For the first time since Bali, my family and I broke out our line from the Bali segment of the trip "Wat did you say?", not a type, as Wat is Thai for a temple, and there are a lot of temples everywhere. Just bigger and better in Bangkok (and Chaing Mai, more to come). Mind Blowing temples. And regardless of your religion, visiting Buddhist temples in Thailand is an experience that takes one's blood pressure down, and by definition is a relaxing experience. And the imagery that we have seen will make pretty much anything we will see on the European segment of our trip dry and antiseptic.
So, to mix it up a bit, we landed early in the morning, go to our hotel, unpacked, and took a "long tail boat" (think James Bond Movies) through the canal district of Bangkok. So, given my intro above, I'm sure that you are expecting that my first image of Bangkok will be a….LARGE LIZARD!
Now, I've already alluded to the fact that things are BIG in Bangkok, and there is no sense of scale to this photo. But those are about 6" water outflow pipes, and the lizard was probably about 5-6 feet nose to tail. I think it was trying to piss us off, as it is clearly sticking it's tongue out at my family.
There are these the canal areas. We did two canal trips in our three days. Ancient claptrap hovels side by side with what looked like ultra modern, very expensive housing. Temples. Streets of houses like this one, with Mailboxes outside, utilities outside, and even water and power infrastructure and even street signs along the canals. Then we get to the temples, I don't know quite how I got this shot, no special effect here, just a large statue in front of an even larger Wat…
Now, this handsome guy if one of the world's largest recling Buddha's. Again, tough to have scale, but his head is about 18 meters high (57' feet). Maybe better if you see the feet, originally I was a bit miffed at this fellow for getting into my shot, but when reviewing, this is the only picture with a sense of scale…this is ONE BIG Buddha, and the swirly things on the right of the photos are TOES!
Not much to say about the shots above, except that you can probably tell by now that my wife and I like these guardian dudes, and the blueface guys make for excellent photos.
Much to our surprise, given the 'perception' of Bangkok, it is was a very family friendly city. We went through a lot of back streets with the kids, took them to the night market, on Tuk Tuk's, two long tail boats, multiple taxis, almost without any issues (one rip off taxi that we had to exit hastily). My wife and I also met a work associate at the top of a office building that had a bar on the 64th floor that made my wife extremely acrophobic! Another disappointment is that the 'street shopping' was consistently mediocre. I think one of the casualties of globalization is that it is really hard to find anything unique or with a price differential different from that on Amazon or other internet stores.
In summary, enjoyed the city, but my wife and I have been pretty consistent this trip, and on other trips, that the flavors of a country are found outside the big capital cities…so off to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand!
Jeff: Beautiful narrative and pictures. Of course, have come to expect no less from you now -- perhaps to add variety you could perhaps pursuade each one of your family members to "guest blog" once in a while -- think what that would look like on their CV!! Arun
Posted by: Arun Inam | June 09, 2007 at 09:24 PM