Bustling Bangkok

I went to Bangkok expecting a chaotic, slightly seedy city with rampant signs of a struggling economy and a government in the midst of upheaval. Instead, I found myself surprised by Bangkok’s rampant modernity including massive mega malls, a state-of-the-art subway and elevated train system, and a Starbucks or McDonald’s on almost every corner. It was almost disappointing in its familiarity, although it did provide for a more comfortable transition into Southeast Asia after a few months in Australia.

From Bangkok '07

Bangkok is far from the exotic national capital it often seems to be made out to be. It certainly retains touches of its old world reputation with a bit of scruffiness at street level, a slew of ’hostess bars’ (i.e. strip clubs and brothels), and smoggy, smoky air due in large part to the plethora of motorbikes churning out seemingly unrestricted exhaust emissions on the fairly well packed city streets. But, I almost had to go out of my way to experience the grungy fringe of an otherwise decidedly modern city that’s a heady mix of second world (unlike other parts of Thailand, it’d be tough to describe many parts of Bangkok as truly third world) meets first world.




Bangkok is a sprawling city that spreads itself out unencumbered on an expansive, flat stretch of landscape. It’s built more out than up and a handful of sleek, modest skyscrapers pepper the low skyline providing reference points for the various business and neighborhood clusters around the city. Those clusters are connected by a grid of wide, almost airy (if not for the constant churning of exhaust fumes) main streets packed with late model cars (mostly Toyotas of some sort) and an equal number of motorbikes.

Motorbikes, in fact, seem to be the preferred mode of transportation, likely for their affordability to the average Thai family. While the roads are normally well-packed, they typically fall short of locking up completely thanks in large part to the number of motorbikes that obviously take up less room on the asphalt they share with their larger counterparts. The compact size of the motorbike allows them to deftly, often with seeming disregard for personal safety, swerve in and out of their larger counterparts which ultimately serves to keep traffic moving at a moderate pace. Another factor that seems to foster traffic progressing with some regularity is the little regard given to traffic signs and road rules. It’s a look-out-for-yourself mentality with everyone switching lanes so often that lane markings seem a waste of paint.

I got a chance to experience the organized chaos in many modes of transportation, including on a three-wheeled tuk-tuk, but riding on the back of a motorbike taxi provided the most unique and hair raising experiences by far. Motorbike taxis are as prevalent as automobile taxis on the streets of Bangkok and can often be seen hauling multiple people as well as large packages or deliveries that seem like they should’ve caused the motorbike to tip over or spin out of control miles earlier. I hailed a motorbike taxi on one of my last days in Bangkok, taking that long to work up the nerve. As my driver careened between paper-thin openings between other motorbikes, cars and even large trucks I think I dug a few new fingernail marks into his shoulders hanging on for dear life. But, it was as exhilarating as it was terrifying and I nearly peed my pants for both reasons.


I found more sedate experiences just walking daily around the streets of Bangkok. While it’s office buildings and shopping malls may be ultra-modern retail palaces, the streets themselves are lined with thousands or rudimentary carts and tents offering a glut of offerings from food to handmade trinkets to clothes to the latest theatrical release mysteriously already on dvd. While far from lacking during the daytime, the number of street vendors seems to increase exponentially when the sun goes down resulting in crowded street bazaars that, once you’re amongst them, block out all evidence of the surrounding bricks and mortar retail outlets whose sidewalks they line.

While the vendors hawking wares (t-shirts, shoes, electronics, handmade trinkets) are unquestionably geared toward tourists, the food vendors seem to play more of a role with the locals. Offering a wide array of options - fresh, cut-as-you-wait fruit, a variety of noodle and soup dishes, and just about anything fried or barbecued - the food merchants provide inexpensive dining options for locals looking for a reason to get out of their homes. The food carts also seem to serve as the de facto epicenter of the nightly social scene in many neighborhoods with the sidewalks packed with friends and family partaking of the local cuisine as they catch up on each others’ lives.

The multitude of carts also provide one of Bangkok’s most distinctive characteristics. The city air is permeated by a kaleidoscope of pungent aromas, sometimes parading as pungent odors, emitted from the thousands of food vendors lined up along its sidewalks. A walk along its city streets provides an olfactory assault that becomes as much an experience of the city as any visual stimuli.

However, I failed to work up the courage to sample local fare from any street vendors, even when aromas seemed to be to my liking. Instead, I opted to indulge in the indigenous culinary offerings at more established locales. Luckily, I managed to find equally as authentic and rewarding dishes, even when what I ordered turned out to be a little more than I bargained for. On my very first attempt, I ordered a dish that I seemed a safe initial choice of chicken and noodles to ease into my samplings of authentic Thai cuisine. While I got just what the menu described, it was seasoned with spices that packed a considerable punch leaving my tongue burning, my eyes watering and my nose running. Still, I found it to be a tasty dish and a definite departure from the more sedate Thai food I tried (and still liked) at home prior to leaving. Other samplings proved to be an equal mixture of unexpected tastes and textures and, save for one ill-advised order, I found Thai food generally to my liking.

Outside of eating and walking around downtown Bangkok, I actually did some sight-seeing as well. Most of Bangkok’s main attractions are conveniently located in its historic district, Old Siam, and are easily walkable in a day’s time. The centerpiece is the aptly named Grand Palace which is actually a complex housing numerous official government buildings, sacred temples and the former palace for the country’s venerated monarchs. The current, long-standing monarch, admired with near-deity reverence, now lives in a new, bigger palace a few miles north.





The temples and palaces of the Grand Palace complex are some of the most ornately decorated buildings I’ve ever seen with what must have being painstaking decades of applying the finest minute detailing to every square inch of each building in the complex. It’s a visual feast with every panel of a building revealing a new detail that’s unlike other sections yet congruous to the whole.

The most scared of buildings in the complex is the Temple of the Emerald Buddha which houses a deceivingly (for all the adulation it receives) diminutive sitting Buddha that’s actually carved from jade but looks like emerald, hence the name. Inside the temple is an equally ornate interior with Sistine Chapel-like detail painted on every interior surface and the emerald Buddha seated twenty feet above the temple floor on an elaborate throne. On the floor in front of the sacred Buddha was a temple floor packed with ardent worshippers serenely engaged in prayer and rhythmically bowing their praises toward the country’s most sacred symbol.

A few blocks away from the Grand Palace, I found an equally impressive spectacle in a Buddha that was as big as the Emerald Buddha was small. Measuring at least a hundred feet from head-to-toe and forty feet from arm-to-arm, the Reclining Buddha sits on a huge pedestal lying on its side, propped up on one arm like it‘s spending the day on a lounge next to a pool. It takes a full minute to walk from one end to the other and that’s without stopping for pictures. There’s only about one angle in the whole building where you can capture a photo of the full Buddha thanks to its size. While there’s not much else to see outside of the Reclining Buddha, it remarkable just for its sheer magnitude.



Equally remarkable was another Buddha slightly further away in an unremarkable building in the Chinatown section of Bangkok. The Golden Buddha is so named because it is literally made of gold. It‘s valued at something around $15 million by sheer weight alone although there‘s evidently speculation that it‘d be worth considerably more if melted down. More interesting is the fact that it was almost lost to the world forever. To avoid seizure of the fixture by the invading Burmese armies centuries ago, it was encased in inch-thick stucco clay to cover it’s true golden nature. The golden fixture that lay inside was evidently forgotten until about 50 years ago when it was knocked while being moved and a portion of the stucco chipped away revealing it’s more alluring golden shell.




But, it was a museum dedicated to an American that I found to be one of the most interesting sights in Bangkok. Jim Thompson was a CIA intelligence officer who came to Thailand shortly after World War II. He retired not too long after and opted to remain in Thailand, enamored with the country. The large estate that he built in authentic Thai style and construction - amazingly using no nails in his multi-room house - serves as the museum in his honor. But, Thompson‘s real contribution to Thailand, and the reason for the museum, is that he discovered Thailand‘s dormant and nearly abandoned silk producing artistry. He’s credited throughout Thailand for single-handedly resurrecting and fostering the Thai silk industry into the powerhouse that it remains today.




Unlike Jim Thompson, I don’t know that I’m ready to settle permanently in Bangkok (I can hear my mother sighing in relief). But, Bangkok’s heady mix of first world modernity, third world underpinnings, ornate and intriguing ancient temples and centuries old culture made it a worthy city to explore, especially as an initial entree into Southeast Asia.

BANGKOK PHOTO ALBUM: http://picasaweb.google.com/gscottie/Bangkok07