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Post by ilbonito on Oct 3, 2010 8:53:20 GMT
Two weeks ago I left the earliest stirrings of Spring in small town Australia for two weeks in Bangkok. My husband has started a new job there. Over the school holidays I went to visit him, and I'll go back for three months at the end of this year. I'm already looking forward to it. On my last trip to Bangkok, I was sleeping on the floor of a squat for two Euros a night and trawling through the laneways of Chinatown and the “old city”.This time though, I saw a very different side of the metropolis. Daisuke had been set up in a serviced apartment with a rooftop pool on the corner of two of the city’s busiest business boulevards, Sukhumvit and Asok. Turning right from the lobby of the building, you come to cracked pavements covered by mangy dogs and their excrement, shabby mansions in stands of overgrown trees, a 24 hour international supermarket, a Japanese restaurant in a garden hung with lovely red paper lanterns and an excellent Australian-managed cafe. Turning left, you pass a shrine to the four-headed god Brahma, a clutch of motorcycle taxi boys playing cards in a scant patch of shade, and then this: Quite a change from Kyneton. We spent our time visiting tailors to organize work clothes, and had doctors appointments, and cruised through malls, watched cable TV and went jogging in the neighborhood park. And amid this everyday expat life, the city swirled around us – huge and humid and filled with noise and colour. I didn’t explore as much as I had on previous trips, but instead I had the privilege of getting to know my little part of the city – learning which food stall carts could be found on which corner at what time, starting to read the weather before the almost nightly monsoonal rain storms, and remembering where to find a pearl tea or a pharmacy or a department store foodhall. It was exciting to get closer to a city I have always enjoyed so much from afar. On my seventh trip to the city, I began to feel as though I belonged to Bangkok, and I was beginning the transition to being a resident. And flicking through the papers of the city’s English language press, I recognised more of the city I always loved. The Kingdom’s page-turning political intrigues were continuing as always; the week I arrived whispers were spreading that a mysterious group of “men in black” was about to launch an assassination attempt on the prime minister, while a police chief had been forced to resign over the two-decades old “Blue Diamond Affair” which had lead to a rift between Thailand and the House of Saud (jewels were stolen from their Thai “pleasure palace”). Meanwhile, ten thousand red shirts marched to rally outside a burnt-out department store, destroyed during the last bout of political violence. The Princess HRH Ubolratana Rajakanya, daughter of the nation’s revered god-king, had made a shoot-em up action movie with herself as star and I noticed that boxing matches between trained orangutans had been banned the week before. Ah, Bangkok. The more things change- the more they stay the same.
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Post by ilbonito on Oct 3, 2010 8:55:52 GMT
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Post by ilbonito on Oct 3, 2010 8:58:41 GMT
One of Bangkok’s strong suits has always been high concept, slightly oddball dining. Last time, I ate at the hard-to-top “Flying Chicken Restaurant” where chicken roasts are fired out of a catapult onto a waiter’s spiked helmet, and delivered to your table. So I was eager to see what new options the city had to offer. One in-fashion eatery boasted an inhouse blacksmith hammering out metallic objets while you eat, while another called “In the Mood For Love” was dedicated to the (wonderful) movie of the same name, although it served sushi rather than food from 1960s Hong Kong where the film was set (although it was filmed here in Bangkok). And of course there is “Cabbages and Condoms”, a few streets up from our place, where an oasis of lush greenery, draped fairy lights and gushing jets of water provides the setting for a touristy restaurant par excellence, raising money for safe sex and family planning organisations. The whole restaurant is decorated with “flowers” and artworks made out of condoms, and condom-clad superheroes. (There is also a gay bar called “Obama”). Another night Daisuke and I ended up eating an almond/mango/corn salad in a kitschly furnished restaurant perched above a sports centre. It was decorated with floral table clothes, retro 1950s light fittings, cascading LED lights imitating fireworks and small statues of Mao, with windows looking out over the soccer game on the indoor playing pitch below. But my big find - one that indeed rivals the catapulted chickens – was the brand new “Hajime” Japanese restaurant. Here, diners are served by robots. Located in a hard-to-find and newly developed minimall in a slightly obscure part of the city, it was however worth the trip for the food (an all-you-can eat shabu-shabu buffet), the views over the city skyline, and of course, the novelty. You order via a touch screen computer which controls the samurai-styled robots, sending them down a trolley-belt bearing dishes in one hand, and clearing your used trays in another. Occassionally, there is a “dance break” where the loud speakers play some thumping Euro-dance music and the samurai-robots come out and “dance”. Recommended!
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Post by ilbonito on Oct 3, 2010 9:02:32 GMT
There were a couple of interesting photographic exhibitions going on in town: 4 X 8 is an exhibition by photographer Peter Nitsch of typical Thai shophouses, which often also function as an out-of-hours living space. The title refers to their usual measurements. The small exhibition is on at Kathmandu gallery, near the Hindu temple in Silom. Brent Lewin is another Western observer who has recently trained his lens on another distinctive feature of the Thai metropolis: its “street elephants” . These are creatures that (illegally) wander the city’s outer suburbs for food, and come into the nightlife districts after dark, where they are used by their mahouts to beg for money and food. Lewin’s powerful images are on display at the Foreign Correspondents Club.
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Post by ilbonito on Oct 3, 2010 9:03:44 GMT
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Post by ilbonito on Oct 3, 2010 9:08:09 GMT
Bangkok as a city has been in existence for 220 years. Its glittering temples and palaces might reflect that pedigree, but little of else remains from before the 20th century. Near the river in Banglamphu, Chinatown and Bangrak (” the old city”) there are still streets of midcentury apartment blocks with their open grills, and little shophouses, and occassionally grand 19th century mansions. But in the brave new world of Sukhumvit, it is hard to imagine what existed before the megamalls and highrises, and their tangled electrical wires. Yet, tucked away in little corners, a few beleaguered survivors remain. One such building is the Scala cinema, a lovely art deco period piece standing in the heart of Siam Square (luckily, as another nearby and much-loved theatre was burned down in the recent political disturbance). The Scala comes complete with stucco faux-Oriental murals, a dripping chandelier, bow-tied ushers and oldskool, elaboratedly printed tickets. I stumbled in on a weekday at noon to watch a new Hong Kong blockbuster and virtually had the whole, cool theatre to myself. The other most notable reminders of midcentury Bangkok are its hotels – remnants from the dawn of the jet age when Bangkok enjoyed its first tourist boom. Hotels like temples of 1950s Americana still exist in the city. On my last visit I stayed at the incomparable Atlanta, surely the pinnacle of retro-loving tourist kitsch in the city and one of the most bizarre hotels in the world. But there are others too; the Florida, the Miami, the Rex. For some reason almost all of the old places have morphed into sex industry mainstays – 1950s interior decoration in Bangkok seems to come with a reliable side serve of prostitution. Perhaps they figure that sex tourists won’t be fussed about the authentically lumpy mattresses or old, unrenovated rooms? Or maybe this is what they have always been like? Perhaps that is the market they served back in the day too? The other place I wanted to visit was the Rajah, which I had read was home to a wildly over-the-top “tiki” style cocktail lounge, and boasted signs in the lobby giving directions to the old Soviet embassy. It too is located in the heart of the Nana red light district, wedged between a pool parlour snidely named ”the Ball in Hand” and “Annie’s World Famous house of Massages”. The hotel, long a seedy and uncared-for backwater, had recently been converted into serviced apartments and sadly, spruced up. The tiki room was still there, but had been painted over in white. What were they aiming for here – a restrained, minimal tiki look??? The waiters seemed extremely suspicious about my turning up out of the blue and wouldn’t let me take any pictures (I snuck in a few anyway). Maybe it was because the bar is best known today as a rendezvous point for Asian johns looking for Russian hookers? The absolute holy grail of Bangkok retro however is on the other side of town, on the edges of Chinatown. Its not a hotel, but a department store. Indeed it was one of Bangkok’s first and it is, to my mind, one of the highlights of a city packed with stupefying sights. “Nightingale Olympic” is a Lynchian time capsule, an eerie twin to the Atlanta Hotel. Like its cross-town sister, it is a dusty establishment that has seen better days yet steadfastly refuses to modernise or change. Left behind by the march of progress, it slumbers away all but unnoticed by the rest of the city . Entering the vaulted hallway of the store, with its creaking, whirring fans, you see decayed 1950s mannequins modeling dresses that could have come straight off “Mad Men” (but dirtier). Up a sweeping staircase (sadly closed off) I caught glimpses of dusty bongos (the music department) and the horns of old hunting trophies. A 1972 book about stamps was on sale, as was a quiver full of arrows and a box of vintage male athletic supporters next to a marble bust. Again, there were not photos allowed (why is it that so many of the world’s most interesting places hate having their pictures taken?) so I have borrowed these from the Bangkok Post reporter Oliver John who first “broke” the hitherto unreported wonderland on the website CNNGO. Up until now, these places have survived only by neglect. But there are signs that the tide might be turning, with younger generations ready to embrace their city’s modern heritage. There is now a Thailand art deco fan page on facebook, and the music of the 1960s and 1970s like luuk thung, a kind of Thai folk music that merged with Western funk, is enjoyed a renaissance with irony-loving hipsters, championed by local niche record company ZudRangMa, al abour of love for its fashion designer founder, and brand new record store Elephant Head music. Maybe Bangkok, in recent decades decried for its soulless concrete face, can get its groove back yet?
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Post by ilbonito on Oct 3, 2010 9:11:39 GMT
The latest, and possibly least successful, example of Bangkok’s ongoing love affair with buildings that look like things ( see the “Elephant building”, “the Robot Building” and “the temple shaped like a boat”). It is a hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 31. According to Alex Kerr, a much respected commentator on Asian cultures (particularly Japanese and more lately Thai, who lives in the building opposite me) this is merely a modern incarnation of a hallmark of traditional Thai decorative arts; this playfulness and the idea of something becoming something else, like fruit carved to look like flowers, leaves folded into geometric shapes or mythical creatures that blend between man, bird and beast. Is a skyscraper topped with an angular perspex bird just the latest version?
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Post by bjd on Oct 3, 2010 9:36:32 GMT
Great, Ilbonito. I really like the way you see and describe cities. I thought you were going to move to Hong Kong?
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Post by ilbonito on Oct 3, 2010 9:39:27 GMT
Thanks I'm going to Hong Kong via a few months in Bangkok, but I'll be in Australia until December !! All my friends are very confused about it ....
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2010 9:52:33 GMT
Stunning photos as always, ilbonito (who cares if you have to borrow some?). I really enjoy the research that you put into your visits and your appeciation for all things kitsch.
Bangkok and Hong Kong are indeed time machines where all epochs seem to co-exist, from imperial times to the 22nd century. However, it's true that Bangkok has managed to save more of the 1960's and 1970's (hence the shooting of In the Mood for Love there). I just hope that they realize before it's too late that some of this stuff needs to be preserved and not just kept until they can afford something better.
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Post by ilbonito on Oct 3, 2010 12:16:39 GMT
Yeah, I visited a few of those old heritage homes on teak stilts. They were so lovely. I wish that they had just nominated one little part of the city and preserved it perfectly. Sigh. I visited the Suan Pakkard ("cabbage patch" palace) where a lovely 16th century lacquered pavilion sits almost directly under a freeway: But then, that is also what gives Bangkok so much charm. It really is an inexhaustable font of weirdness. I bought a book called "Bangkok Days" to read on the plane home and discovered there is an another old kitsch 1950s hotel with an African safari theme I would've loved to have seen, a street called "Dead Painters Street" lined with bars named after Monet, Degas, Van Gogh etc and another bar called "Pump Up" where your car gets parked by a valet and then every once in a while they drive a random car in from the parking lot on to the dance floor and have it washed by "sexy" girls. There is surely no city so consistently bizarre (except Tokyo).
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Post by ilbonito on Oct 3, 2010 12:29:21 GMT
Emporium, one of Sukhumvit’s most upscale malls, is home to the Thailand Design Centre, which is currently hosting a fabulous free exhibition. It is all about ghosts and spirits in the modern commercial age. The exhibit starts with the origins of some of Thailand’s animist traditions, before examining the way in which sacred beliefs have been commercialised, both in Thailand and around the world. For example, the Northeastern tradition of firing rockets into the sky to catch the attention of the rain god, has become a tourist attraction and Halloween has become a gaudy money-spinner. The next part of the show broke down the economics of Thai superstitions, like the amount of money spent on fortune telling, jasmine garlands, and lucky amulets – apparently equal to the value of several of Thailand’s top exports. It also noted, dryly, how traditional practices had evolved to fit modern tastes. For example, the traditional offering to the sinister god of eclipses, Rahu – a platter of five black things – had become so much easier due to improved choices in grocery items, like Coca Cola and coffee jelly, it noted. Apparently you can even buy readymade platters for the god, like this one centred around an intentionally burnt chicken. Next came a highlight; a blackened room filled with models of various traditional Thai ghosts and spirits as well as (in typical all-embracing Thai fashion) Dracula, Chinese vampires and Japanese horror movie characters. Many of the Thai spirits, like the kra-sue (a vampiric floating head), the pret, a looming giant , were already familiar to me from this television commercial, for light bulbs. The show finished with a rundown of the Thai horror movie/comic book industry and some of its greatest hits.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2010 14:29:07 GMT
Hah, the Sylvania commercial is great!
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 5, 2010 2:21:36 GMT
Hmmm ~~ "I was beginning the transition to being a resident." ~~ sounds as though someone is planning a move to Bangkok, yes?
It's a shame that you and your husband have to live so far apart right now. I don't know if you all had a honeymoon, but if not, this two weeks in Bangkok sounds as much fun as any honeymoon could be.
The second paragraph in the OP sounds like desperate scenarios for bad movies that never got made, except that it's all true!
The sign for The World Buddhist University has some detached letters. How appropriate.
An in-house blacksmith at a restaurant? And you describe this as "high concept, slightly oddball"? ;D ;D ;D
I grant that robot-assisted dining might rival even flying chickens. I got a particular kick out of it as I read this thread right after viewing the episode of Big Bang Theory with the robotic arm removing the Chinese take-out food from the bag. Shabu-shabu ~ ?
So much of this is like a dream after an overly rich meal ~~ the fantastic (real?) giant lotus flower, the street elephants, the weirdly lighted Miami hotel (although that looks like something you'd find in Mexico), scary heads, black food ......
Are the items in Nightingale Olympic actually for sale?
Interesting comment by Alex Kerr on the the building aesthetic.
This was a real treat, with your amazing ability to capture the off the wall charm of the place in words and pictures. It was great to hear that there is still so much you're eager to see. Thanks for showing us your view of Bangkok.
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Post by ilbonito on Oct 5, 2010 7:50:10 GMT
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Post by ilbonito on Oct 5, 2010 7:53:51 GMT
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Post by james on Oct 23, 2010 8:30:50 GMT
Bangkok.....my first holiday overseas and what an experience.
Nice to see these pics. Must say, the trip from the airport to my hotel was something. Seeing a shack right next to a very nice building was strange. Then all of a sudden seeing all those peeps.
I went to this restaurant when i just arrived after a long walk. Saw this place across the road that seemed very busy and what i thought was a lot of foreigners inside turned out to be full of locals. So the menu came and a lot of giggles from the waitress, i ordered what i knew was familiar - first time overseas mentality i suppose.
Tom Yum Goong - mmmmmm nice and spicy. So the cook or manager comes up to me and says "very spicy" an i say "no problem, i like spicy". Well i didn't realise just how spicy it can be. Loved it though but what amazed me was the size of the bowl. It was kinda big and the prawn was with the head on in the bowl. Still giggling girls to my right.....more than one now.
Loved that first dish in Thailand and soon ventured to the street food afterward. Amazingly cheap and tasty.
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Post by ilbonito on Jan 16, 2011 14:58:20 GMT
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Post by ilbonito on Jan 16, 2011 15:00:46 GMT
I've been offline for a while, caught up in the fickle demands of the "real world" but I thought I'd post some more pics of Bangkok, where I've been living for the last month or so. It is really one of those exceptional cities where the more you dig, the more you find. Its wonders are inexhaustible.
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Post by ilbonito on Jan 16, 2011 15:02:15 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 16, 2011 15:21:37 GMT
He's back, and with a big Bangkok bang!
Ilbonito, what a pleasure to see you here and to get this glimpse into Bangkok. I can see why you say its wonders are inexhaustible.
Your photos are great. I particularly love the tiger/broom/door one. What is that thing on the car dashboard, & isn't it blocking the view from the windshield?
Thanks so much!
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Post by fumobici on Jan 16, 2011 15:44:37 GMT
Welcome back. Love the sleeping cat picture, the peaceful repose contrasting with the motion blurred tuk-tuk just behind is excellent.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2011 16:23:20 GMT
I can't wait to see more, ilbonito (even if I have seen more elsewhere). The real world is highly overrated.
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Post by tod2 on Jan 16, 2011 18:42:02 GMT
Well I never! The photo of the pink flowering plant growing in the guttering is, I am convinced - an IMPALA Lily!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 16, 2011 19:55:26 GMT
I recognized it instantly as Adenium obesum. When I looked it up to link here, I found out that it was introduced to the Philippines from Bangkok. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adenium
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 17, 2011 2:34:28 GMT
Just saw the pic of the lobby at the Miami.
I used to stay there, not for the hookers but because it was so cheap! And it had a pool! And it's location is so good!
Even though the sisters managing it are absolute bitches.
But I haven't seen it for 11 years now, is it still there?
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Post by ilbonito on Jan 17, 2011 5:00:58 GMT
It's still there! Always amazing to find anything with even the slightest history still standing on Sukhumvit!
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Post by ilbonito on Jan 17, 2011 5:08:06 GMT
The huge temple complex of the Dhammakaya sect (cult?) is one of Bangkok’ most underrated sights, I think. It is hard to get to though, located about an hour or more from the centre of Bangkok in the northern district of Rangsit. Even though I was prepared for it, when I caught my first glimpse from the taxi of the UFO-like nipple shaped entrance hall, I gasped. Dhammakaya is an offshoot of Buddhism, centred on meditation and founded by a Thai monk in 1916. It has become controversial though for its alleged lavish spending and the mysterious ways in which it has amassed so much money (much like Soka Gakkai in Japan). Started in 1970 on land “donated” by a Thai princess, this temple shows the extent of the group’s ambitions. It is almost impossible to overstate how vast the complex is. After the first UFO-shaped golden dome there is a building much like an airport terminal or a hangar. When I was there, it seemed empty except for some cleaners and support staff and it was only after walking for several minutes I discovered that there was a service underway, with a monk on a UFO-shaped dais lecturing to crowd of orange-robed novices, who had been concealed in the distance when I entered. Beyond that another, equally vast building was still under construction (according to plans I saw, it is to support a geodesic dome). Outside were a series of huge, bizarre statues, of golden eagles casting nets and lotuses and metallic shapes representing spirals of fire: I wandered in through the construction site (in their charming Thai way, no-one seemed the least bit fussed my my presence) to find a series of odd, cutesy, logo-like statues and then – almost unbelievably – another nipple shaped dome just as big as the first, in the courtyard: The entrances to the domes were closed though. I had come on a Friday, to avoid the vast crowds of white-wearing pilgrims who visit the temple on Sundays. I’m not sure now if I regret that decision – the crowds look rather intimidating but it would have been fascinating to have seen the place in full capacity too.
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Post by ilbonito on Jan 17, 2011 5:11:08 GMT
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Post by ilbonito on Jan 17, 2011 5:14:09 GMT
There are times when you feel that if you wander the streets of Bangkok long enough, you will see everything.
Last night, in the thronged roadside marketplace of Silom I saw touts hopefully flagging down a stunningly beautiful, modelesque young woman with ice-queen comportment, to try and sell her gay porn. It was the looks on their faces that amused me - they looked so hopeful, sure of their sale (which she brushed off with an almost imperceptible raise of one eyebrow). Are they incredibly naive, or am I? Really, what are the chances that that was what she was after that night?
Nearby a five-year old boy ambled by unattended, through the stalls of mens underwear and glowing disco accessories, totally engrossed in his iPhone. What was he doing here at 11pm? And who gives a small child an iPhone?
I had the feeling again, wandering around in a rather insalubrious part of town (near Khlong Toei subway stop) on New Years Day as I noticed a rotund, raggedly-dressed Thai man with that international something-not-quite-right-in-the-head expression on his face. He was ambling along aimlessly in the sun until he noticed me taking a picture of a street scene, and I saw him clock me out, and immediately change direction. He was coming towards me. His face was bright red - either from an extremely severe case of sunburn, or he was wearing full-body makeup, perhaps for a part as some red-skinned Hindu god in a pantomime. I honestly couldn't tell, but the fact that he had a bloody rip down one cheek made me think it best not not to linger and after it become clear that he was shadowing me for several blocks I hailed a passing taxi and hopped. Now I'll never know what he wanted.
I've often had that little jolt on the streets of Bangkok - the sight of a burqa-clad woman with a metal beak-like apparatus protruding over her mouth in the Middle Eastern district, a fierce cry down a meandering, quiet alleyway in Banglamphu only to find an openair Thai boxing school, an unexpected wail from a concealed neighborhood mosque, a part in the bushes leading to a little village street tucked just around the corner from my ten-storey apartment block.
Although the old homily was written about London, I think its fits here better: anyone who is tired of this city is tired of life.
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