So I am sure you are all sick of hearing about Bangkok by now, hell I have been on an Island for the best part of a week now and believe me there are a wealth of stories to be told from that experience.
Before I leave my first encounter with bangkok behind though, here are the last thoughts that the city left me with.
For me there is a fascinting dichotomy in Bangkok. It is not so much the division between the opulence and the poverty. Dont get me wrong, that is clearly an element of Bangkok life, the gulf between the street markets and the shopping malls is more pronounced than any I have seen before. Bangkok is a developing city though, this disparity is far from unique. The key to my first impression lies elsewhere.
Tension and release.
You can ask a hundred different visitors Bangkok what they felt when they were there and you will likely get a hundred different answers. Whether they were backpackers, holiday makers, business travellers, ex-pats or any one else, they will all have their own experiences and their own feelings, but the one common sensation that stays with you throughout is that of unease.
This may have been especially pronounced when I was in the city as it is currently election time. The sunday I was in town, they placed an alcohol ban across the whole place in prepartion for the days balloting. Khao San road was quiet. You could still get a drink but only in discreet locations removed from the central hubub.
There is no question that despite the international miasma floating around the face of the city, it belongs to Thailand and their people. Tourism is a huge industry but the motorcycles that ride on to the pavements to sell you a lift are just as clearly stating unequivocal ownership of where you walk. This isnt to say you are under threat, there is a balance in place and it seems to serve all parties pretty well but it isn't one that seems likely to tip towards the visitors any time soon.
Despite this it still a city of extreme release. As evidenced before, people come here to let their hair down. The nightlife is riotous, the distractions abundant, the vices innumerable. You are just as capable of witnessing a protest during the day as you are a ping pong show at night. There are many who come to bangkok for a good time and they don't do it by halves.
Uninhibited debauchery is not the only release offered by the city though. You could walk down any bustling road and stand a chance of finding a temple on the corner. Majesty amongst the mayhem.
They come in various sizes and from various perspectives reflecting the myriad of spiritual values held by those who formed them. My first experience of one was on quite a small scale. I was told (and I have no doubt forgotten the finer details of the story so take this with a pimch of salt) that it was built following the start of construction on the grand shopping mall it sits beside. Supposedly construction was started on an unlucky day and sure enough everything started to go wrong. As such construction was halted and the temple was built to appease whomever was responsible for reaping so much misfortune upon them It now stands as a shrine to good luck for all who visit.
Now anyone who knows me will also know I am not a spiritual person. Its just not my bag, I wont go in to it here. Despite this I found the temple to be a remarkable point of tranquility. Nestled between the highway, the skytrain and and a high end shopping mall, once you enter there is calm and there is reflection.
Feeling like a minor fraud I partook in established practice, planting incense and laying flowers around all 4 sides of the shrine, paying my respects to, if nothing else, the first semblence of peace I had found in this place. And hey, if I had ever felt I was getting too lost in the mysticism of it all, i just had to look up and see the logos for Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen emblazoned on the surrounding walls outside to provide me with a frank wake up.
I visited another temple that day which offered similar quiet and similar wonder. I may have accidentally got married here. I received a monks blessing with friend and I need to look up what it means if he joins your hands together then starts chanting and spraying you with water. I may need a lawyer on this one.
Either way it was a stark contrast to the journey home, wandering through a strange part of town because the taxis wouldn't take us past the site of a protest that had shut down all the traffic in its area. For all the righteous anger held in an event like that, it is no less a part of what characterises Bangkok than the reverential worship that takes place in the ornate temples. It is a system that has risen to serve the needs of city that is still creating itself, despite the ancient history that preceeds it.
The whole thing may seem crazy to us, but then we are only visitors. Bangkok is happy to let you skate on through, observe the delights and take it all in, you just have to remember that the ice is thinner than some people realise. You don't want to fall through.
No comments:
Post a Comment