5 minute walk to reach Bangkok
The minds behind The Hangover II were clever. I don’t necessarily mean that in terms of content, since one could debate whether unknowing/drunken sex with a transgender* prostitute is a manifestation of the transitory Zeitgeist of our age, or just a cheap giggle.
*I apologize if this is not the currently approved phrasing, and to my mother’s friends, who perhaps didn’t expect to read sentences like that when they clicked on this seemingly innocuous title.
But they were definitely clever when they chose Bangkok as their second setting. After all, what trumps Las Vegas for ostentatious depravity, besides Bangkok?
Did you know Bangkok was the World’s Most Visited City on Earth last year? (Don’t worry, that’s the only actual information I will foist on you.)
Art for sale on the street in Yangon, Myanmar
Coming from Yangon, Bangkok seemed like a cold bucket of modernity to the face. Yangon was moldering building façades, communal tea cups waiting in shallow dishes of water, and people with nowhere in particular to walk, while Bangkok was sky trains, giant neon signs, and an entire mall dedicated to computers.
The name Khao San Road has echoed through the stories of travelers for decades, and I was curious to see this famous festival of traveler degeneracy and extravagance. I checked into a hotel, ate soup, and walked down.
Not sure what to expect, I was still surprised to find…nothing. Nothing new at least. Aggressive hawkers selling T-shirts, overpriced restaurants serving Western food, and shady guys on the edges offering more illicit entertainment. None of this was new. There was just more of it than usual, and younger tourists than I’m used to seeing.
Khao San Road
A woman wheeled a cart past me loaded with fried arthropods and annelids, that is, scorpions and worms. Yes, both of those are pretty gnarly to eat, but in that setting? Crunching down on a roasted locust seemed….kitschy.
But there is far more to Bangkok than Khao San Road. And it’s not far away.
A few minutes’ walk and I was in another crowd, this time with few white faces, the same shirts for half the price, and foods admittedly less unusual but far more interesting by virtue of actually being what people in Thailand eat.
Bangkok street
After a bowl of soup, no bugs required, I ambled past vendors headed home, fans resting for tomorrow’s heat, and men playing checkers on well worn chess boards.
By the time I got home, Bangkok and I were getting along just fine.
Worth a viewing/listen, if just for the chuckle…
As always, love your blogs!
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Sorry, I just couldn’t resist linking that. If you don’t recognize the reference, it is a number from a musical from the 80s (70s?) about two competing chess players (the musical was very cleverly titled “Chess” — Wow!). It, in my opinion, was a seriously bad play overall, but at the time I did enjoy this pop release of the only redeemable song in the whole production. In isolation, the song/video is very skewed, stero-typed and non-PC, but in context it made sense as it is sung by the play’s antagonist–the egotistical Chess Champion who is defending his title ftom the nice, good, well-intentioned protagonist (of course). His contempt runeth over in this number, thus the snide lyrics and his “perception” of Bangkok. Anyway, love it, hate it, I was betting that your experience there would trump anything this antique coukd portray about the famous and exotic city. Tx and please firgive me if you find this vid just too dated and annoying…
Best Regards,
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Ha! It was a trip! “Dated” and “annoying” are not necessarily pejoratives! (And thank you for the background, I was a bit mystified as to what was going on.)
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I’m glad you didn’t find its inclusion here annoying! LOL! If you are in the right mood, it can be a fun song to listen too, but yes, you really need the background to have any idea what the heck is going on in it.
Blog away my friend! Blog away! We’re reading, we’re enjoying, and we’re going along with you!!!!
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I don’t know which part of Bankok I visited while I was there, but I was pretty happy to get out of the city. Chewing the air is not my idea of a good time. We caught a train down south to Petchaburi, Kaeng Kratchan and Hua Hin and had a fantastic time. The destinations seemed far less visited by Westerners, locals and tourist venues super friendly and hospitable, and we didn’t get taken to a gem shop once 😛
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I’ll take note of those names, for if I go back, they sound highly preferable (and I didn’t even mention the insanity that is Phuket, yet). Bangkok was pretty cool, for a city, but I agree, chewy air is not a plus.
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I liked the apology .., ;)))… Lol..
Your writing and pictures bring the cities to life. I am telling you, start making documentaries. You have an interesting way to put things in front….. It is of different opinion that you freeze sometimes while speaking ;)… Lol… Just kidding.
Love reading your blog always.
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Thanks! (Oy though, I hate finding mistakes in published posts. Sorry about that.) I would love to make a documentary! It’s picking one place to stay long enough to do it that might be difficult…
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I was just joking… 🙂
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I love the way you delivered this line:
“unknowing/drunken sex with a transgender* prostitute is a manifestation of the transitory Zeitgeist of our age”
simplyvegetarian777 is dead-on right! You have a gift!
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And this line is perfect (I so crave being one of these people):
” and people with nowhere in particular to walk”
I had the most lovely emotional response to this little snippet hiding in the hubbub of the text that so vividly conveys the life in the streets of these two different cities. Wonderful writing! Any writer who can carry my emotional response such that the prose becomes sensation gets my full attention and my deepest respect. Write on and we readers will follow you to the ends of the Earth!
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Jinkies. Thank you. Now if only I could achieve results like that intentionally and reliably, I’d have it made. Thanks for reading, and hopefully we can find a couple more nice phrases.
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Oh, I dunno. I think you are doing splendidly! I run across a few of these in pretty much every one of your offerings! My bad for not being more “vocal” in my appreciation of them! It is also clear that you have attracted a loyal following… remember, your readers keep coming back for a reason (besides the fact of your charmingness, of course :). Just keep writing and your unique voice and perspective will just grow more and more distinctive and refined. I understand that writing is like that….
🙂 Cheers and safe travels!
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As a travel bug who can’t travel as much as she would like, I really enjoy posts like this.
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Glad you enjoy them! And I am really enjoying your blog too, every post I’ve read so far has made me want to go find someone to talk about it with.
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Not having been there myself, but having grown up with “One Night in Bangkok” on the radio and listening to the tales of others, I would hazard a guess that there is nothing innocuous about a walk to Bangkok. Soup on the other hand, now that is the stuff of excellence, and sweet innocence.
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Ha, sweet innocence indeed, good food pun. Most of Bangkok is no shadier or remarkable than any thriving city, but they do definitely have a tolerance for certain things that the rest of the world cannot understand, or at least mimic. I wish I could have seen the city 20, 30, 40 years ago… (Modernism is not all that impressive to me.)
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