Bangkok as I saw it: A pictorial

I'm finishing my cities (Hong Kong and Bangkok) portion of this trip blog today. So I'm going on a  rant with this post.  These two cities are like oil and water.  Hong Kong clean, Bangkok dirty.  Hong Kong wealthy, Bangkok dirt poor.  Hong Kong rife with fascination for the Western lifestyle but not our traditions, while Bangkok is just trying to survive a Western influx of tourism.

Some of the things I've witnessed while in Bangkok disgust me; like watching American and European men walk around with Thai women arm candy they "bought" for the evening.  I just want to walk up to them, kick him in the nuts and give the girl the freedom of not having to sleep with the pervert, but don't knowing the next night she'll have another sex starved Westerner on her arm.  It's all about money, not so much acquiring money to escape their life but money just to survive there. I read a book from the Thai best seller list "Private Dancer" by Stephen Leather that helped me understand what I was witnessing.  It was fascinating reading and a definite read for anyone visiting here for any length of time.

For some reason I was intrigued with wiring in Bangkok, masses of tangled, jumbled, low hanging wires were everywhere.  You could see them spark and hear them buzz as you walked by. 

Shrines to Buddha and the King were everywhere as well, merchants would set up stalls close to larger shrines like above selling freshly made floral wreaths to workers so they could have something to offer as they stopped to pray. This shrine was right next to the Starbucks. The lady below and her husband were there every morning.  In the evenings when we'd return from sightseeing the fence would be adorned with numerous fresh flower garlands.

These homes were right on the water some were next to fancy hotels like the Four Seasons. You couldn't help but see this type of rich/poor diversity throughout the city.  A similar style home was next to our hotel and a 2 minute walk further down was a Lexus dealership, it was unreal. On the sidewalk outside the Lexus dealership it appeared as a normal city sidewalk during the day but at 5pm that same sidewalk became an impromptu street food restaurant serving dozens of locals late into the night. Mismatched seating and barbecues made out of trash cans brought in customers by the droves. Every morning just steps from the hotel, I saw a woman who set up a sewing shop under a low hanging tree branch on the same sidewalk, I so badly wanted a photo but I felt I would insult her by asking or taking the liberty, she was there faithfully hovering over that sewing machine mending whatever clothing came her way.

Dispersed between the ram shackled housing would be beautiful monuments gleaming with hand painted tiles, gold coating and jewels almost making you forget the about the grime.

These wires were just laying on this conglomeration of various roofs. Below huge bowls of food sat under tarps shaded from the hot sun.  The smells were conflicting to the senses; rotted fish carcasses covered with flies, fresh seafood, dried salted fish, spices, sweet coconut and garbage all mixed together did not create the culinary explosion of a good kind. We were here searching for the insect market, because we wanted to eat grasshoppers, perhaps fortunately we never found it.  You could roam through these dark narrow passage ways behind the food stalls and sense that you had wondering into areas most tourists don't see, realizing full well taking photos would not be tolerated.  We backed out of one of the passageways thinking had we continued further we might never be found.       

Through it all I saw there was pride as seen by the group of school girls below in there clean uniforms.  These clothes were washed by hand and air dried.  We saw clothes hanging off electrical wire, balconies and make shift drying racks. There was pride in the workmanship skill needed to construct shines for Buddha and the King, there was pride if you took an interest in how certain delicacy's were being prepared.  The Bangkok residents were genuinely helpful, kind people and while I did feel out of my element, I never felt threatened, I understood the boundaries and respected the culture I was observing first hand.      

The shrines below are in stark contrast to the poverty I saw.... but they were everywhere.  It was as if they denied themselves small luxuries in order to pay respect to their King and Buddha.  Even in houses constructed from blue trap a small orderly area of the living space would contain a shrine.

                                                   
                                                   

The photos above were from the Grand Palace, the tarps below occupy a park across the street from the walled palace.  Initially, we thought this was some sort of market until we tried to explore and realized this is where people lived.  

The ever present military reminder.

Relaxing after a mid-day meal but still catching up on the latest news, we saw masked people everywhere. At first I thought the masks were worn to prevent the spread of germs but we later came to learn it was because of  high pollution levels.

This baby was fast asleep with her hammock tied to a tour bus, the driver (her father) must have been waiting for the tourist group he was hired to drop in Chinatown to return from their day of sightseeing. He kindly allowed us to fuss over the child and permitted the photographs.

Bangkok was similar to Venice with the many canals its is often referred to as the "Venice of the East"  Having been to Venice I would only venture to agree that the similarities end after the fact that both cities use canals for living and transport.  Below represents a  typical quite street on the canal.

I have no desire to return to Bangkok and am thankful I did not spend my life savings to come here. Actually,  I paid no more than $1200 total for the entire two week trip (including the $400 upgrade to fly first class).  That is not to say I did not enjoy myself.  I pushed myself to experience as much as I could tolerate outside the realm of a typical tourist, but as I sat on a bamboo sofa drinking beer in the shade of Bangkok's relentless heat and humidity with dirty water running next to me as it passed through the restaurant I said to my friend "I'd much rather be golfing in Scottsdale".