Anyway, Bangkok seems to be a place with a remarkably poor reputation. The advice I got from fellow tour group members in India was that I'd pretty much just want to pass through it, while when I told the traveller who was stranded in Bangkok that I planned to stay at least three nights but maybe more, she looked at me as if I was a little mad and said, "In Bangkok?" disbelievingly. Even the Lonely Planet guide to Thailand, astoundingly, gives the distinct impression of not really being very fond of it, with various snide comments. But actually, I kind of liked it and I ended up staying four nights; if it hadn't been for the security situation (more on that later) it might have been more.
I figure a lot of the negative reputation stems from the notoriously steamy climate. It's hot and very humid all year round; while I was there at one of the less desirable times of year climactically I believe the seasonal differences are relatively minor. It does make you physically tired for sure after walking around for a while. However, two things you have to say in its defence: (a) they do air conditioning exceptionally well just about everywhere (from branches of 7-Eleven upwards), so you pretty much just have to step inside to get some relief, and (b) just when the humidity was starting to become a really serious problem while I was there, there was a short thunderstorm which freshened things up substantially. And it was a lot more bearable than northern India in April, when it doesn't rain at all.
What I really hadn't realised is that large parts of Bangkok feel like a distinctly modern, Westernised metropolis; in addition to all the air conditioning, you have lots of gleaming towers, shiny shopping malls, and some very 21st Century public transport in the form of the Metro and Skytrain (albeit they're limited in geographical reach) and abundant cheap and relatively trustworthy modern taxis. This supplements the traditional but useful and pleasant boat services up and down the river. Road traffic also seems calm and sensible if heavy. Oh, and fans of 7-Eleven take note - they're absolutely everywhere. :)
However, there are a few basics that the authorities don't ever seem to have thought about. Perversely, despite the apparent safeness of the way people drive, I felt more endangered crossing the roads in Bangkok than anywhere else I've been. Why? Because main roads commonly have five lanes in each direction and - unbelievably - crossing lights for pedestrians are virtually never provided. So you just have to take your life in your hands whenever you guess that the traffic flow is at its most favourable. At major intersections it's not fun at all. I also didn't see a public litter bin anywhere in the city, nor anything like a bench. These are hardly insoluble problems, so maybe by the time anyone reading this plans a visit some of them might have been resolved (assuming there continues to be any functioning government in Thailand that is of course).
The main conventional sightseeing attraction in the city is its Buddhist temples, the best known of which is Wat Phra Kaew, also the site of a major royal palace. I'm happy to say that I've found Buddhist temples probably the most beautiful religious buildings I've seen, as well as the most peaceful and calming. (I will declare a bias there; while I'm an atheist I have practised a little bit of Buddhist meditation as a relaxation aid, and was very happy to have the opportunity to meditate just a little bit in the temples I visited; I'm also pretty sympathetic to Buddhism as a philosophy if not as a faith as such.) The prominent colour, amongst variegated precious stones, is usually gold. I am usually someone who finds gold vulgar in the extreme, and I would sooner die than wear it or allow it to furnish my home - but somehow in the temples that I visited it usually just seems to work and create an overall effect which is remarkably tasteful, even beautiful, as well as striking. Wat Phra Kaew itself, the most sacred site in Thailand, was probably a little overwhelming - there are an extraordinary number of monuments in a really very small space - at the same time as it was breathtaking. I was therefore pleased to also explore the much lesser visited (and much cheaper to get into) Wat Pho with its enormous and rather extraordinary Reclining Buddha, some 46m long and 15m high.
Wat Phra Kaew
The other real must-see, if you are in the city at the weekend, is Chatuchak Weekend Market, one of the biggest markets in the world. It's definitely one of the best markets I've seen anywhere, selling just about everything you can possibly think of (from designer T-shirts and quality home decorations through to fish in plastic bags and er, used trainers). It's popular with tourists but not touristy, and also popular with locals. It was great to just wander round; I could only really stay a couple of hours but I'm certain I would have stayed amused all day if I'd had it to spare.
There is some hassle around the city from people who want to sell you things, but thankfully it doesn't seem to be in the (seemingly slightly reserved) Thai temperament to persist once you've said no once. What has stuck in my head is the call of "Thai massaaaaaaage!" whenever you walked past most of the many massage parlours, which often carried a rather comical (to a native English speaker) lingering high-pitched stress on the second 'a' of "massage" - no doubt because Thai is a tonal language whereas English is not. There are several well known cons tried on tourists too, but provided you're forewarned about them (just read the section in Lonely Planet) they seem easy enough to spot and avoid.
It almost goes without saying that there is plenty of sleaze as well. This is most notably in the form of go-go bars, as I understand it, basically a slightly sanitised access point for escorts and prostitutes, female or male (around the gay scene there were an entertaining number of balding, fat 50-something men parading young, lithe Thai boys). In addition to that on the infamous Khaosan Road amongst other places there are also plentiful stalls selling obviously pirated CDs and DVDs, and fake driving licences, degree certificates and so on (some of the ones on display were laughably poor quality fakes), as well as bars advertising their "very strong" cocktails (the tourist equivalent of a plastic bottle of cider from Asda?). Even amongst all of that though you can still find the odd tasteful chill-out bar, and great street food such as fresh mango with sticky rice and coconut milk which may, without exaggeration, have been the best dessert I've ever had. (Possibly the highlight of a very happy culinary time in Thailand - lots of lovely food, all very cheap too... And thankfully not a hint of a stomach upset either!)
I couldn't spend time sweltering in Bangkok without submitting myself to one of the aforementioned Thai massages. It was, er... a memorable experience. During a one-hour session which cost about £7, a typically small Thai lady yanked and shoved me in deeply unnatural directions, and gouged into areas of skin and muscle I barely knew existed, kneading them like dough. It was really pretty painful at times, and I was in not inconsiderable fear that some vital part of my body was going to be broken, ripped or dislocated. However, at the end of the session, I did feel remarkably fresh and relaxed! But to be honest, I think I'm going to stick to Swedish-style massages once back home! It could have been worse - I didn't have the appetite for the widely available "fish massage", which involves sticking your foot in a fishtank for the fish to literally eat the dead skin off between your toes and on the soles of your feet...
I've mentioned the gay scene which is reasonably extensive and impressive, albeit not quite as large or in-your-face as I'd imagined it could be. It's difficult not to observe the difference between this country whose principal religion, Buddhism, doesn't preach on sexual morals much beyond (if I've learnt correctly) 'treat people with respect', and other Asian countries where much more socially conservative religions hold sway. Bangkok's leading gay club DJ Station, set over three levels, mixes a mostly Western soundtrack with a distinctly Thai (and maybe slightly shy by Western standards) nightly drag show - quite good fun, and I can personally vouch for the fact that there are at least some genuine Thai guppies (gay professionals) who are neither go-go boys nor 'moneyboys'!
It may not have escaped your attention, dear reader, that there has been some political instability in Bangkok of late. I'd had fairly limited time to research and fix where in the city I was going to stay, and I consequently managed unwittingly to pick the edge of the district, Silom, where the trouble is centred. Furthermore, the vast majority of Bangkok's gay scene is located pretty much just round the corner from Lumphini Park where the 'red shirts' were camped out. However, certainly for the majority of my stay, the atmosphere seemed really pretty normal, and the advice from the FCO (British Foreign & Commonwealth Office) at the time was just to avoid the immediate area around Lumphini Park which I tried to do. Yes, there was the small matter of large numbers of armed soldiers and riot police all around, and the odd barbed wire barricade to navigate round. I also saw a small counter-demonstration, clearly being encouraged by soldiers, of people waving yellow - not the greatest of signs for future stability. However, people were going about their business and trading of every kind (to locals and tourists) appeared to be continuing normally. Normality is a relative concept after all (something that travelling around Asia definitely heightens your awareness of), and there's been regular unrest in Bangkok to a greater or lesser extent for some years now, so it would be more surprising really if people weren't getting on with their lives.
Red shirt demonstrations at a major traffic intersection, which closed down two major shopping malls
However, a series of bombings occurred during my stay - grenades launched from Lumphini Park, some of which landed substantially further away on Th Silom than I (or I think the FCO judging by its advice at that point) would have anticipated. If I'd been out on the gay scene that night, which I wasn't, I would have been walking through the area where it happened.
Because I was in fact nowhere near the area at the time, I didn't actually realise till the following afternoon exactly what had happened. The morning after I'd blithely hopped into a taxi and asked to be taken to Sala Daeng, the nearest pronouncable landmark to where I wanted to go next, but (I didn't yet realise) the exact focal point of the bombings - I didn't really understand why my taxi driver who spoke minimal English was getting quite so agitated in response! Oops. Suffice to say where I eventually got turfed out was a little distance away! Train stations in the area were closed in the aftermath as were most of the gay venues in the affected area the following night. (In hindsight I possibly shouldn't have gone looking, but it's harder than you might realise to assess these things when you're caught up in the middle of them... and I did have a good night at one of the few places that was open.) Also the FCO promptly changed its advice to warn against all non-essential travel to Bangkok. I took all of those as pretty good signs I was right to plan to leave the following morning. It did take me several slightly panic-stricken seconds to realise (from the comfort of my hostel lobby) that the start of a thunderstorm that morning wasn't something much worse!
A fellow traveller I met in Chiang Mai who had been in Thailand for seven months predicted that within a year the country will be in civil war. The Bangkok-born-and-bred friend I made said that it was freaking him out and making him wish he lived somewhere else. I've no idea how much credence should be given to either of those comments - let's hope againt hope they're both worrying needlessly - but just maybe from a travelling point of view (for however little that should actually matter in the grand scheme of things) I got to see this intriguing city just in time.
No comments:
Post a Comment