Bangkok, the ‘City of Angels’

The City of Angels:

Bangkok’s official name is translated into English as “Great City of Angels, Repository of Divine Gems, Great Land Unconquerable, Grand and Prominent Realm, Royal and Delightful Capital City Full of Nine Noble Gems, Highest Royal Dwelling and Grand Palace, Divine Shelter and Living Place of Reincarnated Spirits.”

Shortened for everyday use, this becomes simply, “City of Angels.” It is also called the “City of Mangoes.” It is considered by many to be Southeast Asia’s most dynamic and exciting city, with many temples, historic sites, good restaurants, lively clubs and bars, good art galleries and museums, and a full calendar of cultural and social events. The city of 10 million is incredibly urbanized – the epitome of the modern, steamy Asian metropolis.

Keeping Busy and Visiting with the Family:

Everything we owned that had the possibility of breaking broke all at once – in India, just before our arrival in Bangkok. So we had plenty to do to keep us busy. Luckily for us, Bangkok is known to have everything that you might need or want. We biked all over the city to find shops to repair our large list of items: the watch, the altimeter, the odometers, the water filter, the battery re-charger, the MP3 player, different bike parts. My sandals broke completely in half, so I got a new pair. So we had our hands full, but we still made time to visit the city along the way.

In fact, we spent a good deal of time in Bangkok, because just as we were leaving (for the first time), we found out that Stephane’s second cousin would be in Bangkok for one week. So we stayed one week extra and spent the evenings with him. Then we packed up a second time, only to find out just before our departure that Stephane’s cousin and his wife had gotten last-minute tickets to Bangkok and would be arriving a few days after our planned departure. So we stayed on again to visit with them. Cool surprise! Awesome visit!

Bangkok, a Commercial City:

The city is very modern, urbanized, and consumer-oriented. There are huge commercial centers, bright lights, expensive brand-name stores, gigantic malls (one is even 8-storeys high and looks very space-age!), and huge cinema complexes showing Thai, American, French, Spanish, and Italian films (with English and Thai subtitles). 7-11 convenience stores are extremely popular and can be found on almost every corner of the city. There are thousands of them! And the best part is that they’re air-conditioned. So if you want a quick break from the humidity, you just have to step into the nearest 7-11 to get a blast of frozen air!!! It’s great! This city also has many chain stores, like KFC, McDonald’s, Dunkin Donuts, Baskin Robbins, Dairy Queen, Pizza Hut, Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, Tiger Marts, Nine West, Guess, Levis, Diesel, and a hundred other stores that we are familiar with. Many of the stores are expensive and are obviously catering to a clientele that has money to spend. It’s a real shopping city.

The most expensive mall that we saw was called The Emporium. In fact, inside was the single largest concentration of upscale shopping and prestigious stores that I’ve ever seen in my life: Versace, Chanel, Dior, Hermes Paris, Louis Vuitton, Armani, Calvin Klein. One pair of shoes in such a store could easily go for 1000 USD – in a country where the average salary is around 150 US per month! We had a lot of fun window shopping!

Alongside of these department stores and commercial centers were people selling all sorts of goods on the sidewalks – mostly clothing, textiles, food, cheap jewellery, music CDs and cassettes, and electronics items. Bangkok is known for its booming trade in fake brand-name goods.

It was an experience just taking a tour of the grocery stores in Bangkok. We didn’t know what half of the food was. Many grocery stores had delis and sit-in eating, whose tables were always full. We bought some of the fruits and vegetables, just to try. But you never knew what you were going to get. We once stumbled upon a shopping center whose entire lower level was filled with stalls of sweets. They were all the different colors of the rainbow, some of them dry, some sticky, some gooey, some in fluorescent drippy strings that looked like thin pasta. We bought about a dozen different varieties and sat down for a taste. There was only one that we could finish! The Thai food is incredible, but their sweets…well, I won’t be sorry to pass them up from now on!

We walked around a huge fruit and vegetable market that was located inside a large warehouse and that spilled out onto the streets. Families sat cross-legged on the floor, cleaning and preparing vegetables. They smiled sincerely and some of them waved excitedly as we passed. Men pushed round woven baskets on pushcarts. We saw an entire street that was filled only with flowers – thousands upon thousands of them. Religious offerings are a big business in Thailand! Women threaded them onto wires for the offerings. The flowers were so beautiful and so colorful that many of them didn’t look real. They were beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!

Most large cities have a Chinatown, and Bangkok is no exception. In fact, the Chinese represent the largest minority in Thailand. Chinatown’s streets are filled with a crowded array of jewellery, hardware, fabric and automotive shops, wholesale food, and antiques (or so-called antiques). Goods are cheaper here than elsewhere in Bangkok, and the Chinese like to bargain. This area provides a good contrast to the rest of urban, commercial Bangkok. The Chinese were moved to this area in 1782 by the government, who made room for the new capital in the old Chinese quarter. A census in the area was taken 100 years later, and its findings are interesting: there were 245 opium dens, 154 pawnshops, 69 gambling establishments, and 26 brothels! A distinctly Chinese neighborhood had developed. Today, these same vices exist, but have gone underground.

During the early morning hours at Lumphini Park – the city’s largest and greenest area – women practiced aerobics to hip-hop music in large classes, old and young alike jogged in hordes along the paths through the trees, and elderly Chinese practiced yoga to the sounds of relaxing music.

Not only Commercialism…

There is more to Bangkok than just towering skyscrapers and large malls, however. There is the Grand Palace, built by Rama I when Bangkok was first built several centuries ago. There are many temples and museums. We spent a lot of time exploring what Bangkok has to offer, crossing the city many times by bicycle, taxi, river boat, underground metro, and the new, state-of-the-art air-conditioned sky train.

The Grand Palace was situated on extensive grounds. It is used only for ceremonial occasions and is closed to the public, but even the exterior architecture was worth a look. We spent most of our time visiting the adjoining Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The structures in this temple compound are extremely colorful, comprising gleaming, gilded “chedi” (stupas), polished orange and green roof tiles, marble pediments, and mosaic-encrusted pillars. Gem-encrusted giants guard many of the buildings and tiny fountains with lily pads and delicate purple or pink flowers add a finishing touch. Extensive murals depict scenes from the “Ramakian,” the Thai version of the Indian epic, the “Ramayana.” Many of the half-man, half-animal creatures are wearing colorful masks.

During the several hours that we spent at the complex, the chanting of the monks and of the devoted public never once ceased. Worship was concentrated inside of the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, which was completely filled with worshippers on the floor, praying to the 61-cm. jasper Buddha statue. The Buddha statue wears a gem-encrusted robe that is changed three times per year by the King himself – one robe each for the hot, cold, and rainy seasons.

The temple complex was amazing because of its architectural characteristics and because of its colors. It was a rainbow of colors, glittering from the mosaics and colored mirrors. Spires pointed heavenwards. Every angle seemed to end in a point. The golden roofs had flames that point upwards – a distinctly Thai architecture that combines the traditional Buddhist lotus bud and the fire. The lotus signifies cooling and calmness of the spirit, while the fire signifies the passions. The two together are meant to signify moderation and balance.

It was right out of a fairy tale – Disney has nothing over these guys!

The Wat Pho Temple, near the Grand Palace, has a long list of superlatives. It is the largest and oldest temple in Bangkok, as well as being the earliest center for public education. It is the national headquarters for the teaching and preservation of traditional Thai medicine and massage (Stephane will take a class in Thai massage here when we return from the South). It has the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand and its galleries feature 394 gilded Buddha images.

The Temple of the Reclining Buddha within the Wat Pho complex houses the largest reclining Buddha in Thailand (46 m. long and 15 m. high). The reclining Buddha illustrates the passing of Buddha into final nirvana (passing away). The Buddha is essentially lying down, with the bottom of its feet and its eyes made of mother-of-pearl. The feet display 108 auspicious characteristics of a Buddha.

It is remarkable for its many colors and for its architecture, which – like at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha – is unlike any I’ve ever seen before. It was glittery and shiny, with its colored ceramics and colored mirrors decorating the walls and every part of the temple, forming beautiful designs. Every part of the temple came to a point. Like in the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, lotus buds and flames were combined in Wat Pho. This temple also was amazing!!!

Others of note were the Wat Traimit and Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn. The former houses the world’s largest golden Buddha, weighing in at 5 1/2 tons of very shiny solid gold. The latter has an exterior embedded with a mosaic of broken, multi-colored Chinese porcelain.

The amulet market at Wat Rajanadda was notable for its huge size and its varied good luck charms, which came mostly in images of Buddha, the Hindu gods, or…penises! They seemed to have a thing for the male anatomy – there were thousands of amulets and images dedicated to it, from the tiny to the life-size in huge, African-style necklaces. Having seen sculpted penises left as offerings in other Thai shrines and temples, I imagine it is seen as something to bring good luck or to be offered to satisfy the gods or spirits. Speaking of which, the Chinese in Thailand apparently believe that eating the Tiger penis and its bones is a curative!

One of the highlights of our visit in Bangkok was a tour of the city’s canals by long-tail boat with Stephane’s cousins Claire and Laurent. It highlighted a completely different side of Bangkok – one that was green, almost like a jungle within a city. There were many banana trees and the wooden houses along the canals were made mostly of teak. Flower pots and laundry hung in front of most houses. Waving boys and young men jumped from the wooden docks and swam in the canal.

We visited a few museums, including the Royal Elephant Museum, which illustrated beliefs and traditions concerning white elephants, including the capture of wild elephants and the ceremonies held to confer royal status on white elephants. There are three types of elephants: those used for war; those that are auspicious (royal, but without perfect physical characteristics); and white elephants (who are not white, but who have perfect physical characteristics). A display of royal elephant tusks showed tusks up to 2.9 m. (9 ft.) in length! A large jar showed preserved skin from a white elephant.

The Vimanmek Teak Mansion is the world’s largest golden teak building, previously used by King Rama V as a royal residence between the years 1900-1905. It is beautiful, and showcases a mahogany and ivory baby grand piano, china, crystal ware, and enormous elephant tusks in almost every room.

The Abhisek Dusit Throne Hall is a building on the same grounds that has delicate details, soft colors, and stained-glass ceilings. It had an exhibition of traditional Thai handicrafts, including buffalo-hide carvings, objects made of beetle-wing collages, bamboo and fern-vine baskets, and jewellery made from the hill tribes.

Just across the street, we visited the Dusit Zoo, which was the best zoo I’ve ever visited. I saw many animals that I had never seen before, plus a few rare species. The zoo is reputed to be the best in Southeast Asia. The animals had much larger cages than in most zoos and relatively large “wild” habitats. The big cats and monkeys are always my favorites. We saw lions, tigers (Bengal and white tigers), and the graceful black and spotted leopards. Each one showed off for us in his own way. The Bengal tiger put his face up to the glass for us, while the spotted leopards mated, and I jumped about ten feet high when the male roared and grabbed the female by the back of the neck. We saw many types of monkeys, including the crab-eating macaque, orangutan, chimpanzee, and gibbon. Some had wonderful markings – stripes, gloves of different colors, and red, orange, white, or black colorings. We saw the world’s only male albino barking deer (not very pretty!). We saw the hippo, which opened up his mouth wide for us to get a good look at his fluorescent teeth! And the Malayan tapir, a rare species from Malaysia, who looked a bit of a cross between a hippo and an elephant, with its striped coloring, body of a hippo and half-trunk of an elephant that sniffed around. It was hysterical!

Eating in Bangkok:

Thailand is known the world over for its excellent and varied cuisine. We weren’t in the least disappointed. One thing that distinguishes Bangkok from its Western counterparts are the roadside stalls that sell food. It is cooked in front of you – usually grilled chicken, pork, fish, or seafood on a stick, or soups and rice. Sometimes tables and chairs are set up on the sidewalk to accommodate those that are eating, and sometimes not. Bangkok is a take-away city. Many Thais buy the “fast food” and eat it for lunch or take it home with them after work in a plastic bag for the family. Aside from the soup, almost every Thai meal comes with sticky rice and a spicy or sweet-and-sour dipping sauce. Rice is so important, in fact, that the English infinitive “to eat” is translated into Thai as “to eat rice.”

We generally ate food on the street or in small street-side restaurants, for about 0.75 USD per meal. Aside from the grilled meat, we could find grilled octopus or squid on a stick. In addition to the sticky rice, we often ate a spicy papaya salad or a spicy vegetable salad (Watch out here! In Thailand, “hot” has a different definition!). We ate chicken and gourd soup, the spicy Tom Yum soup, and duck and noodles. We ate a lot of mangoes, litchis, mangosteen (out of this world!), and a round red fruit with hairy green protruding spikes (I don’t the name of this fruit or a host of other fruit).

But we were treated a couple of times to some truly fabulous dinners, as well. Fair and Ralph took us to an out-of-this-world place where we tasted ten different plates between the four of us: shrimp with sweet-and-sour sauce, fish, Thai vegetables, oysters, squid stuffed with pork, spare ribs with chili and garlic. Perhaps the best was a sort of grapefruit (pomelo) topped with flavorful, fried coconut grinds and a coconut soup with chicken. Also, we had banana fritters with homemade coconut ice cream for dessert, plus a plate of mangoes with sticky rice.

Michel, Stephane’s cousin, treated us to a place called “Cabbages and Condoms,” where they served up delicious baked duck braised in a coconut curry, coconut soup, and a catfish salad. They replaced the usual after-dinner mints with condoms!

So, despite the fact that Bangkok is a modern, capitalist city to the max, it has still retained its traditional Thai character, attested to by its mobile food stalls and sidewalk restaurants, flourishing sidewalk trade, folkloric temples and spirit houses, and its canals with their longtail boats. What a city!