tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75684316250115668912024-03-17T01:53:05.324+07:00The Streets of BangkokUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger53125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-48768712792925273592011-10-25T21:55:00.004+07:002011-10-26T00:27:29.589+07:00Flood info and updatesHello there, patient readers and potential stumblers. I'm posting from the UK, but I notice that I've had a few hits for flood-related search terms so I thought I'd link to some useful and reliable sources of information for anyone who finds this blog because they're looking for flood news. I'll update this as and when I find more, and if you know of any please let me know in comments, or tweet <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/streetsofbkk">@streetsofbkk</a>.<br /><br />Here's what I got so far:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.thaiflood.com/">Thai-language website</a> with lots of info.<br /><br />A <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V7IzHrdUIa-jdxKCO9toojjETH_GWUVniD-A7qNxGs8/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1">publicly-editable google document</a> collecting info and tips, in English.<br /><br />All stories tagged 'flood' from the Bangkok Post can be found <a href="http://www.bangkokpost.com/search/news-and-article/flood">here</a>. In English. Anyone got a good Thai-language equivalent?<br /><br />A post about some free <a href="http://iphone.mythailandblog.com/2011/10/3-iphone-apps-about-the-thaiflood-thaifloodeng/">flood-related iPhone apps</a> - post in English; apps in Thai.<br /><br />On Twitter, use/search for the hashtags <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/search/%23ThaiFlood">#ThaiFlood</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/search?q=%23ThaiFloodEng">#ThaiFloodEng</a><br /><br /><br />As far as I've been able to see on twitter, there's lots of good info out there, but as ever in times of uncertainty there's some misinformation flying about too. Check your sources and try not to spread unverified news.<br /><br />To all in Thailand: hope you're safe and dry, good luck, and lots of love.Torihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09350537162050314146noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-77427453232684799532011-07-30T18:09:00.003+07:002011-07-30T19:56:18.763+07:00Amphawa: just magicA while back I did a <a href="http://thestreetsofbangkok.blogspot.com/2010/04/markets-on-train-tracks-markets-on.html">post</a> about the Mahachai-Mae Klong-Amphawa route - a fantastic little day trip out of Bangkok, with trains, a railway market, boats, and canals. I didn't get to spend much time in Amphawa that time round, and my camera gave out before I got there, so I've been wanting to go back and do it properly for ages. And last week I did.<br /><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Uc7YE5uuYXw/TjPoTIWMHsI/AAAAAAAAAJw/ZeCpRMVkCgU/s640/IMG_0416.JPG"><br /></a><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-SyDyW6Pwzxk/TjPwHA5lcII/AAAAAAAAAJ8/F9d-sWNG21w/s912/IMG_0416.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 600px; height: 261px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-SyDyW6Pwzxk/TjPwHA5lcII/AAAAAAAAAJ8/F9d-sWNG21w/s912/IMG_0416.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Everything about Amphawa is delightful. It's a tiny village with a wide canal as its main thoroughfare, crossed by an ever-busy bridge that joins two halves of the market, which spills over both banks. Boats selling fruit and fresh seafood, as well as ones carrying tourists off on adventures, go up and down the canal. There are gorgeous guesthouses and homestays, and firefly-watching boat trips at night. The bankside market sells traditional sweets, retro-kitsch souvenirs, and a whole bunch of (tastefully!) cute stuff from independent artisans and designers. There's a definite tourist vibe, but it's geared towards Thai rather than farang visitors, and there's a real sense that it's a community project - no big corporations, no same-same tacky market tat; a lot of the small businesses have adopted firefly motifs as a kind of unofficial town logo, and the drinks vendors even sell 'Amphawa'-branded bottled water.<br /><br />An amble through the market yields up all sorts of things you didn't know you needed, plus a good few gifts for friends and relatives. And sweets. Lots of sweets. I have a particular weakness for 'golden' sweets - thong-yip, foi-thong, etc - and guess what was the very first stall was selling?<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-sXZ5ryLbSsU/TjPnPO2xRyI/AAAAAAAAAKA/_zf_D0VCzsg/s640/IMG_0344.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 600px; height: 450px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-sXZ5ryLbSsU/TjPnPO2xRyI/AAAAAAAAAKA/_zf_D0VCzsg/s640/IMG_0344.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Not just foi-thong; foi-thong in </span>ceramic boats. <span style="font-style: italic;">With a paddle for cutlery. Place could not be more charming if it was shaped like a kitten and knew how to waltz.</span></span><br /><br /></div>... and a few stalls further in was one selling some very pretty thong-ek, with dabs of gold leaf on them. This is the market's tragic flaw: there's so much delicious food being sold in it that you risk filling up before you reach the canal, and you really should eat at the canal. Restaurants are set up on steep waterside steps, with miniature stools and benches acting as chairs and tables. Below are rows of moored boats with their noses nuzzling together; each boat a little kitchen specialising in one or two dishes - some do grilled prawns, squid, crab, or scallops, others do pad thai or som tam. These get passed up the crowded steps to the tables, money passed down. It's worth doing this just for the experience of eating in what is essentially a 30-capacity restuarant crammed onto a set of canal steps (it's cosy!); the hot delicious freshness of the food is a wonderful bonus.<br /><br /><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-mRSZdCVzfs4/TjPn8T8Al5I/AAAAAAAAAJo/0Iq9PDgmH2I/s512/IMG_0380.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 384px; height: 512px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-mRSZdCVzfs4/TjPn8T8Al5I/AAAAAAAAAJo/0Iq9PDgmH2I/s512/IMG_0380.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-HJCJTCvA6CI/TjPnzCnOe8I/AAAAAAAAAJk/SyScLrf_jdA/s640/IMG_0377.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 600px; height: 450px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-HJCJTCvA6CI/TjPnzCnOe8I/AAAAAAAAAJk/SyScLrf_jdA/s640/IMG_0377.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a>The one thing I was really sad to miss on my last visit was the temple, which got a mention in my guidebook for its murals - and I love me some murals. So I was excited to check them out this time. Wat Amphawan Chetirayam dates from the early Rattanakosin period. Formerly the residential palace of Queen Amarindaramas (wife of Rama I), and the birthplace of Rama II, it was later renovated by the Queen into a temple in memory of her mother. The murals are a mix between scenes from literature, from daily life, and from royal ceremonies. And they're stunning. I took more photos than I'll ever know what to do with - these are just a few of my favourites:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-tlOBiMOWCE0/TjPmlttw01I/AAAAAAAAAJQ/9K5WgYDDzWU/s512/IMG_0342.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 384px; height: 512px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-tlOBiMOWCE0/TjPmlttw01I/AAAAAAAAAJQ/9K5WgYDDzWU/s512/IMG_0342.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Behind the Buddha image is Rattanakosin Island, bursting with detail.</span><br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0rGLVS2RN1E/TjPnAWzK3rI/AAAAAAAAAJY/aQRTR4hPrM4/s512/IMG_0316.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 384px; height: 512px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0rGLVS2RN1E/TjPnAWzK3rI/AAAAAAAAAJY/aQRTR4hPrM4/s512/IMG_0316.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">A royal funeral procession. As this was painted some time in the first two reigns, this is very possibly the first ever royal funeral, that of Rama I's father, for which these golden chariots (that are still used today; you can see them in the National Museum) were built. Amazing.</span></span><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-B9wct2db1gk/TjPltX0ChiI/AAAAAAAAAJM/z5ctTlKHebg/s512/IMG_0330.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 384px; height: 512px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-B9wct2db1gk/TjPltX0ChiI/AAAAAAAAAJM/z5ctTlKHebg/s512/IMG_0330.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Krai Tong, hero from folklore, diving down with his magic spear, cloth, and candle to defeat the Crocodile King Chalawan.</span></span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-IN4ji463gAU/TjPlr3iUZhI/AAAAAAAAAJI/bqDusrcdqpk/s640/IMG_0338.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 600px; height: 450px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-IN4ji463gAU/TjPlr3iUZhI/AAAAAAAAAJI/bqDusrcdqpk/s640/IMG_0338.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Detail from one of the courtly-life scenes. A lady and her maid, presumably, but looking rather excellently sapphic.</span></span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">I can't recommend this place enough. It's far enough away from the city to feel like a proper break, but close enough to do in a day - or an evening, if you drive. Or a weekend, which I'd love to try. (there'll just have to be a third post in this series!) For the full day's adventure, get the train from Wongwien Yai to Mahachai, then a ferry across the river and another train to Mae Klong (and check out the railway market), and a songtaew to Amphawa (all this is described in <a href="http://thestreetsofbangkok.blogspot.com/2010/04/markets-on-train-tracks-markets-on.html">this post</a>). There are also buses to and from the city.<br /></div></div>Torihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09350537162050314146noreply@blogger.com93tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-29775764652008228432011-07-24T17:56:00.002+07:002011-07-24T18:08:26.015+07:00Weekly Photo: mis-en-scene<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-G1YmCO7jvmk/Tiv6jRtK4VI/AAAAAAAAAHA/08hYpqVpa4U/s640/IMG_0487.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 600px; height: 450px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-G1YmCO7jvmk/Tiv6jRtK4VI/AAAAAAAAAHA/08hYpqVpa4U/s640/IMG_0487.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a>This was taken on the new platform between the Chong Nonsi BTS and Sathorn BRT stations. There was movie-camera stuff all around the place so clearly they were setting up to film a scene. The writing on the little flower booth is all in French, though it's hard to imagine Sathorn standing in for anywhere in France... The boy was running to fetch something, saw me with the camera, and leaped up into the air.Torihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09350537162050314146noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-47184223187544030322011-07-18T11:23:00.003+07:002011-07-18T11:30:07.823+07:00Weekly Photo: river lights<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-l7oAQwqQbxE/TiOzlUObErI/AAAAAAAAAFc/e5eJgVkeSqU/s640/IMG_0231.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 600px; height: 450px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-l7oAQwqQbxE/TiOzlUObErI/AAAAAAAAAFc/e5eJgVkeSqU/s640/IMG_0231.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">The view downriver from Patravadi Theatre's restaurant/performance space.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-85351207988572839422011-07-15T14:21:00.006+07:002011-07-15T15:01:35.010+07:00And here we goHellooooooo Bangkok! I got in last night, so I'm a bit of a jetlagged mess at the moment, but hopefully I can kick it fairly quickly. It'll take a few days to get used to breathing tropical soup again and breaking into a sweat the moment I step outside, too. But ah, it's grand to be home. To get back into good blogging habits, here are a few snaps from the little neighbourhood wander I just went on. Mostly of food (what can I say, I've missed it).<a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-JWWY3awrE0s/Th_uK8lAP3I/AAAAAAAAADM/v9YoMETZBd4/s512/IMG_0207.jpg"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-1ZtPKqHvwME/Th_u0Ss_GpI/AAAAAAAAADY/I1CdeYRYMnk/s512/IMG_0211.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 384px; height: 512px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-1ZtPKqHvwME/Th_u0Ss_GpI/AAAAAAAAADY/I1CdeYRYMnk/s512/IMG_0211.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-li6u8xhGZ88/Th_vj0gD88I/AAAAAAAAADo/0LC2rMAzV2I/s512/IMG_0215.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 384px; height: 512px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-li6u8xhGZ88/Th_vj0gD88I/AAAAAAAAADo/0LC2rMAzV2I/s512/IMG_0215.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-E9nvx53WUwE/Th_uFB8DuMI/AAAAAAAAADE/SYXget0MgAA/s640/IMG_0208.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 640px; height: 480px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-E9nvx53WUwE/Th_uFB8DuMI/AAAAAAAAADE/SYXget0MgAA/s640/IMG_0208.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Hrsol2bHFi0/Th_ursveKCI/AAAAAAAAADU/k2SBG3iUj3Y/s640/IMG_0209.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 640px; height: 480px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Hrsol2bHFi0/Th_ursveKCI/AAAAAAAAADU/k2SBG3iUj3Y/s640/IMG_0209.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-JWWY3awrE0s/Th_uK8lAP3I/AAAAAAAAADM/v9YoMETZBd4/s512/IMG_0207.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 384px; height: 512px;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-JWWY3awrE0s/Th_uK8lAP3I/AAAAAAAAADM/v9YoMETZBd4/s512/IMG_0207.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />I was very restrained and only bought something from one street vendor. I'll work my way through the rest over the next month, I'm sure...Torihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09350537162050314146noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-54028202510015749292011-06-24T17:34:00.004+07:002011-06-24T17:54:27.484+07:00A bit of dusting, a bit of new furniture...Streets of Bangkok has been sitting in its corner of the internet, gathering dust. Well, no more! I'm heading to Bangkok in July for a month, part holiday, part research trip for the novel. I hope to be blogging my socks of during that time - I've got tonnes of places that I never got around to writing up before, but will take requests too! Which streets, sights, districts or general bits of Bangkokiania do you want to read about?<br /><br />But first some announcements. The site has a couple of new features now - if you look at the top you'll see an<span style="font-style: italic;"> <a href="http://thestreetsofbangkok.blogspot.com/p/about.html">about</a></span> page and a <a href="http://thestreetsofbangkok.blogspot.com/p/write-for-us.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">write for us</span></a> page. I don't like to see this project languishing while I'm away, and I also think that a mish-mash of different perspectives suits the blog's ethos, so I hope people will consider doing guest posts. Do check out the <a href="http://thestreetsofbangkok.blogspot.com/p/write-for-us.html">guidelines</a> if you're interested. We also have an email address now: thestreetsofbangkok [at] gmail [dot] com.<br /><br />Finally, Streets of Bangkok is now on twitter! Follow <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/streetsofbkk">@streetsofbkk</a> for updates about new posts and for anything Bangkok-related (it was feeling increasingly strange to keep tweeting about Bangkok on my regular account, given that I'm based in the UK for now).<br /><br />Have a lovely weekend, everyone, and look out for new content soon!Torihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09350537162050314146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-43541170914711064782010-11-19T20:47:00.004+07:002010-11-19T21:25:37.399+07:00The Temple Fair<span style="font-style: italic;">Happy Loy Kratong everybody! I'm breaking my hiatus to post a piece I wrote about the Wat Saket temple fair last year. It's a mad and magical experience, a real old-fashioned </span>ngan wat<span style="font-style: italic;"> the likes of which it's hard to come by in the city</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">and anyone with nothing to do on any of the next couple of nights should head on over there. It's a bit of a mystery fair, hard to track down the exact dates online, but it generally happens over several days around Loy Kratong night.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">If you're coming from around Silom the number 15 bus should get you there, or if coming from Sukhumvit take the saen saep taxi-boat.</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocitycity/4064704402/" title="Wat Saket by O city city, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2768/4064704402_58a984c7c9.jpg" alt="Wat Saket" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /></div><br />All the waterways are brimming, inky-black with city lights floating on them like heralds of the krathongs that will be launched in a few nights’ time. This moon’s waiting patiently to be filled to overflowing with light, the streets less so. Kratong stalls on any street near water, little floats of banana-trunk or lotus-petalled bread or the banned-in-theory polystyrene. Firework shops bought out. And fairs on temple grounds: in side streets tucked behind shops, or either side of the grand river-bridges, but most throngingly, blazily, blaringly at Wat Saket, the Golden Mount, temple and its surrounds packed, reveller-heaving.<br /><br />Mixing currents of traffic and people under this brightlit hazy night—I’m not entirely sure this is the right bus or that the right stop, except on some level I am—the fair has a magnetism of its own, assures me this is the way. And suddenly the crowd’s pattern becomes obvious, turns from milling people and vendors and crawling tuktuks and balloon-sellers to a flow with a single direction, we’re both funnel and funnel’s contents, pouring like water into the temple’s grounds.<br /><br />And I’m one with the crowd—it would take an effort not to be, to stay an onlooker only. There’s nowhere to duck out of the scene in order to photograph it; any snapshot will just have to contain half a dozen half-heads of fellow fair-goers. And here, at Loy Krathong that’s what everyone is, even if I’m a particularly lonely specimen, everyone else here with friends, family, parents with clouds of kids, bubbles of teenagers, close-pressed couples. We’re still not in the grounds proper, but a long fleshpacked avenue selling toys, 69-baht jeans, and sweets, roofed and walled with patchwork tin and tarpaulin, bulbs hanging all along it like fat buzzing stars on strings. No knowing how long it goes on—but here’s an opening, and through it a glimpse of open space. A Nang Nopamas talent show on a stage, blue-sequinned singer crooning Northeastern songs; shining in the air behind her, the Golden Mount itself, hanging between the black of the trees and of the sky as if floating on the night. There are folk crowding up its spiralling sides to pay respects at the top, and encircling its base, a great ring, a neon-sprinkled donut: the fair.<br /><br />There are games stands—here, a father coaxing his son to shoot the bamboo arrow at a target, like a King Thotsarot teaching a young Rama—and souvenir sellers, and every other stall sells food: noodle shops with hook-pierced jellyfish hanging down in front of the counter, crepe-makers with sizzling hotplates, sweet-shops, meat shops.<br /><br />‘This way!’ calls a man, into a megaphone; ‘Haunted shack, ten baht only!’ Real Wat Saket ghosts, I wonder? Could this tin shack with garish ghouls painted on crude banners over its facade house the ghosts of old plague-victims, the crowds of corpses that were once heaped on this ground? One way to find out: be packed into the entrance with a crowd of stranger, pushed in. The walls are all covered on the inside with black cloth, backdrop for the neon paint-spattered skeletons that dance about us, animated by string. A man in a white sheet with a devil mask follows us—CLANG! He rings the metal wall while we're distracted by something moving ahead. We press forward against each other to get away from the sound, jumpier than we should be in this tiny space that reverberates when struck. We're in for maybe a minute before being forced to escape by running past a leaping ghoul’s head—no way back, with more crowd pressing in behind us—the head is rubbery, jerking wildly on its rope, controlled from somewhere unseen. And we’re out, into the equally cramped outdoors.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocitycity/4063968663/" title="Temple fair crowd by O city city, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2623/4063968663_460c48a7b8.jpg" alt="Temple fair crowd" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /></div><br />There best way to get breathing space, it seems, is a 25-baht ticket onto one of the fun-sized ferris wheels that turn and turn, dwarfed by the ancient trees. I'm locked into a little round cage by myself, my weight lop-siding it. My 25 baht gets me more turns than I can keep count of. The lights from up here make the leaves look painted, cheaply enamelled, as they shake (it’s November, after all, itchy humid heat stirred by a smear of winter breeze). Through the leaves I can see a portion of the crowd, all heads and shoulders from up here, hemmed in by rides and sideshows and shops selling glazed grilled chickens, carousel-bright bottles of orange and lime juices. They’re so crammed together they’ve lost all sense of their way, looking back and forth for lost companions and finding a roving jam donut seller instead.<br /><br />Tiny ferris wheels and enormous balloons, music and noise from everywhere, a radiance from the coil of pilgrims and a haze from the food-sellers, shrieking crowd, spirit-shrines, everything in this light, in these colours, disturbed, distorted, stretched or squashed out of proportion, all of us trapped in some yaksa’s human kaleidoscope. I go with the jostling flow, bumping up against a line of coin-operated fortune-telling shrines, finding coal-hot squid and shining bags of Chinese peanut toffee to buy. These stalls like the ones I came in by, though I haven’t passed the haunted house again. Everything’s kaleidoscope-shifted for real—surely that’s the ferris wheel I just got off—but suddenly I’m face-to-face with an oversized two-headed baby peering wide-eyed from a glossy banner. ‘See the mermaid’s child! Real live ghosts and monsters!' blare the megaphones. The banner also advertises Pii Krasue, Nang Tanee, pin-up mermaids. I know these ghosts well from my creased folklore books and B-movies watched disjointedly on youtube, but I’ve never seen one up close. Ferried along on the crowd-flow, I pay my coin and enter.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocitycity/4063973717/" title="Sideshow 2 by O city city, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2422/4063973717_f726770357.jpg" alt="Sideshow 2" height="375" width="500" /></a><br /></div><br />The inside space is outdoors too, a tree growing up from the dirt floor out through the roof, the only spot that could be found unfilled by food stalls. The promised ghouls are kept in booths, human heads growing from papier-mache ghost-bodies. A Pii Krasue's with a little girl's face, entrails hanging from her neck glistening red, sticks her tongue out; Nang Tanee's face grins, perched on a slender banana stem. You can see the mirrors if you look, but spotting them doesn't make the effect any less gruesome. Along the other wall is a narrow table supporting jars of foetuses—where in the wide warped city can those be from? Loaned from a hospital, the show-keeper’s private collection, or a black-magic-man? The two-headed human foetus floats there as advertised, another has its ears growing in its neck. Then the mer-baby—a real mermaid’s child, or a stillborn human with legs fused together? Goats and pigs with too many legs, and a naga—a real one, I’m sure of it, with a snout and crest like flames, shapes that should exist in carved gilded wood, not colourless flesh in formaldehyde. Thai teenagers peer with mild interest, and a tourist with his heavy black camera stays much longer than anyone else, leaning in to capture these strange sad en-jared beings, lens ghoulishly close.Torihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09350537162050314146noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-78760786112079630092010-07-13T07:18:00.004+07:002011-05-28T02:57:45.625+07:00HiatusI've been remiss in not posting about this, mostly because it makes me sad to announce a hiatus. I'm heading back to the UK for an MA in Creative Writing, and so won't be able to walk around Bangkok and find things to write about any more. For a time! I'm not, emphatically not, closing this blog. I'll come back for holidays, and, of course, I'll wind up living in Bangkok again before long. It's not really somewhere I could leave for good.<br /><br />If any readers are interested in guest-blogging on walking-related things during this time, or fancy doing a bar/restaurant/market/theatre/something review, let me know. I may post intermittently about interesting things going on that I hear about, and I've got a couple more posts to finish that I'll get up soon.<br /><br />For now, check out some photos from Gavin Gough's upcoming 'Photographer's Guide to Bangkok': <a href="http://www.gavingough.com/2010/07/bangkok-transport-system-bts/">Bangkok Transport System (BTS)</a>. As he says, the BTS is "enormously photogenic". And doesn't that book sound exciting?!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-85388552682070042952010-06-20T09:49:00.002+07:002010-06-20T10:05:46.140+07:00Weekly Photo: Treelift<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TB2CVM4GkuI/AAAAAAAAAOc/N81D_glX1-0/s640/IMG_3529.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 600px; height: 450px;" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TB2CVM4GkuI/AAAAAAAAAOc/N81D_glX1-0/s640/IMG_3529.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>This was taken on my road, a spot I pass on my way to the supermarket or coming home from work. A year and a bit ago it was some kind of nondescript building that I only noticed by its absence, after it had been knocked down. Then for a long time it was walled off from the street, and in the last few months it's been a building site. To my delight, when I walked by the other day, they were planting trees outside the new building (which looks to be some sort of showroom, perhaps, lots of glass). Now there are pretty green rows there, very pleasant to walk past.<br /><br />Speaking of tree-planting, check out this blog: <a href="http://plantatreebangkok.blogspot.com/">Plant a Tree - Bangkok</a>. The author plants seedlings in likely-looking spots around the city and posts about the process and the progress of the little treelings. Anyone interested in tree-planting in their own area (and it looks pretty straightforward) can find advice or ask questions there, and it's a nice, calming read, too, with lots of pictures of greenery.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-68012560652063862902010-06-19T16:53:00.006+07:002011-05-11T03:50:23.890+07:00The Iron Faries<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TBSSVf2HLzI/AAAAAAAAAN8/oypId0G1uWc/s640/scribblers%20streets%20fairies%20029.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 600px; height: 450px;" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TBSSVf2HLzI/AAAAAAAAAN8/oypId0G1uWc/s640/scribblers%20streets%20fairies%20029.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Thong Lor, consumercultural mash-up of nightclubs, boutique mini-malls, pizza places and ramen shops, has almost everything - including a portal out of Bangkok and into a fantasy world. An appropriately dark door in an appropriately dark facade leads to <a href="http://www.theironfairies.com/">The Iron Fairies</a>, the bar-cum-smithy (yes, it actually is a smithy), and the interior is a dark fairytale, steampunk decor with metal-working tools on the walls, vials of fairy dust clustered in corners, arcane machinery and the little iron fairies themselves, which are for sale at 600 baht each. A spiral staircase glimmering with fairy lights coils up into the gloom; on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday nights a live jazz band performs on the platform above (or, indeed, on the stairs themselves).<br /><br />I first heard about Iron Fairies some months ago but only managed to get there last week. I knew it would be cool but didn't dare hope it would actually feel like sitting in the tavern at the beginning of a fantasy novel, waiting for something magical to kick off. It did. Boxes of peanuts sit on every table, and patrons are encouraged to throw the shells on the floor. The food and drinks aren't cheap, but good - a range of burgers served on wooden platters, stabbed through the heart with a knife (about B240 each). An article I'd read said they did a veggie burger, but it wasn't on the menu - they made one for me when I asked, though. Here's my chocolate martini (B280), photographed with the iron demon I was sitting next to (he turned out to be a great listener):<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TBSSV493AjI/AAAAAAAAAOE/m3e1xDicu2I/s512/scribblers%20streets%20fairies%20033.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 381px; height: 508px;" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TBSSV493AjI/AAAAAAAAAOE/m3e1xDicu2I/s512/scribblers%20streets%20fairies%20033.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Recommended.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The Iron Faries is located at </span><strong style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal;">395 Soi Thonglor, Sukhumvit Road. Open 6pm-2am. Turn up early to ensure you get a seat!<br /></strong>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-34405835448033029572010-06-13T23:24:00.001+07:002010-06-13T23:26:09.272+07:00Weekly Photo: Christmas is coming?<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TBSOL_gzYdI/AAAAAAAAANc/P3BkJ9BDJ14/s512/scribblers%20streets%20fairies%20013.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 384px; height: 512px;" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TBSOL_gzYdI/AAAAAAAAANc/P3BkJ9BDJ14/s512/scribblers%20streets%20fairies%20013.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Good to see that the new indoor section at Siam Square is ready for Christmas...<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-14135510682745218292010-06-13T14:49:00.004+07:002010-06-13T15:57:50.223+07:00Silom Walking Street<div>The Grand Sale or 'walking street' on Silom, held to benefit traders impacted by the riots, continues this weekend and anyone who hasn't been down there yet should check it out this afternoon. I went yesterday, and the atmosphere was buoyant, bustling, the road turned into a long pedestrianised market selling all sorts of clothes, accessories, gifts and miscellanea, many at reduced prices, with food vendors, a marching band, and stilt-walkers adding a touch of carnival to the event. I came away with bags of the kind of clothes I usually make moon-eyes at in Siam Square but wish were a little cheaper - and this time they were. There are stages for bands which were vacant at the time; presumably to be performed on in the evenings. Fun for all the family!<br /><br />The Bangkok Post <a href="http://www.google.co.th/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBcQqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bangkokpost.com%2Fnews%2Flocal%2F38674%2Fwalking-street-to-expand-after-silom-vendors-clash&rct=j&q=silom+walking+street+expanded&ei=YJ0UTNGiG8uErAet7fiiCA&usg=AFQjCNGYBPlq6eBZ15aLbOOnoDYz0nOzSw">reports</a> that the walking street was to be extended today, as the numbers of registered and unregistered traders were too much for the original area. It also states that "Next week, the city will relocate the Grand Sales event to Soi Rang Nam, close to the Victory Monument, where the Center One shopping mall was once located."</div><br /><div> </div>Photos from yesterday:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TBSSUgzxDpI/AAAAAAAAAN0/iLUM3oBZQ0Y/s640/scribblers%20streets%20fairies%20020.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 640px; height: 480px;" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TBSSUgzxDpI/AAAAAAAAAN0/iLUM3oBZQ0Y/s640/scribblers%20streets%20fairies%20020.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TBSOM3IKB5I/AAAAAAAAANo/rEulqiJlNS0/s512/scribblers%20streets%20fairies%20018.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 384px; height: 512px;" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TBSOM3IKB5I/AAAAAAAAANo/rEulqiJlNS0/s512/scribblers%20streets%20fairies%20018.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TBSONclTX7I/AAAAAAAAANs/1ZXWlgz79cE/s512/scribblers%20streets%20fairies%20027.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 384px; height: 512px;" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TBSONclTX7I/AAAAAAAAANs/1ZXWlgz79cE/s512/scribblers%20streets%20fairies%20027.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TBSOMvJQsEI/AAAAAAAAANk/kt15QK5NJA8/s640/scribblers%20streets%20fairies%20016.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 640px; height: 480px;" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TBSOMvJQsEI/AAAAAAAAANk/kt15QK5NJA8/s640/scribblers%20streets%20fairies%20016.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TBSOMaUehGI/AAAAAAAAANg/6DC1a8LI8Us/s640/scribblers%20streets%20fairies%20014.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 636px; height: 477px;" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TBSOMaUehGI/AAAAAAAAANg/6DC1a8LI8Us/s640/scribblers%20streets%20fairies%20014.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><div> </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-81502271745608784542010-06-08T22:09:00.004+07:002010-06-08T22:41:19.986+07:00Glowing Lights in the NightI went on an impromptu Chinatown wander tonight, having been at the opening of On The Edge, an exhibition at <a href="http://www.ardelgallery.com/">ARDEL</a>'s Hua Lumpong gallery, and leaving with a sense of wanting a little more from my evening. I crossed the canal in front of Hua Lumpong train station and rounded a corner, and immediately was in a different slice of city, one that smelled of spices. I'm not exaggerating; I don't do that (consciously, at least), and I don't like it when travel writers do, make a habit of amping up some particular sensory experience, cutting out details, transposing or conflating them. The air did go from smelling of dirty canal to spices with a few steps. The point is, just a corner away from the trendy galleries and restaurants around the station is a differently-flavoured city, and if you find yourself there one night, a little wander through the streets around China Gate is a good way to end the day. Some photos from tonight:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TA5iwz5ekeI/AAAAAAAAAM4/N5gANOjoHLU/s512/IMG_3434.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 384px; height: 512px;" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TA5iwz5ekeI/AAAAAAAAAM4/N5gANOjoHLU/s512/IMG_3434.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TA5ixdP-f8I/AAAAAAAAAM8/8s274x6FXpY/s640/IMG_3437.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 600px; height: 450px;" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TA5ixdP-f8I/AAAAAAAAAM8/8s274x6FXpY/s640/IMG_3437.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TA5ivjVJdMI/AAAAAAAAAMs/YxV89u3fBw8/s640/IMG_3411.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 600px; height: 450px;" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TA5ivjVJdMI/AAAAAAAAAMs/YxV89u3fBw8/s640/IMG_3411.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TA5iv28BqxI/AAAAAAAAAMw/X8bCQYboSqY/s512/IMG_3417.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 384px; height: 512px;" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TA5iv28BqxI/AAAAAAAAAMw/X8bCQYboSqY/s512/IMG_3417.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TA5iwWPj_PI/AAAAAAAAAM0/eCPCEIDWUkw/s640/IMG_3421.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 600px; height: 450px;" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/TA5iwWPj_PI/AAAAAAAAAM0/eCPCEIDWUkw/s640/IMG_3421.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-51804251345462593912010-06-07T08:30:00.003+07:002010-06-07T08:50:22.324+07:00Weekly Photo: Spiritcat?<a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4008/4677271372_3be735a1d6.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 500px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 333px; CURSOR: hand" border="0" alt="" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4008/4677271372_3be735a1d6.jpg" /></a> <p align="center">Couldn't resist this cat, sneaking its breakfast from early-morning offerings left out for spirits.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-34313932288677597012010-06-04T14:43:00.000+07:002010-06-04T14:42:15.768+07:00Every Bridge tells a Story: A Klong Lod Walking TourThe canal, officially titled Khlong Kum Meuang Doem, is a groove of history on the surface of modern Bangkok, part of the moat that circled the old city on both sides of the river during the Thonburi period. Walking these roads gives a sense of a time when there were no roads. The area teaches snippets of its past with brown square signs: once upon a time this khlong was both a boundary and a vein of transport and commerce, where the Kingdom's best engineers built fine white bridges that were practical and innovative and symbolic all at once. It's one of my favourite walks for old-city ambience, and still shaded by broad trees - though in the hot season the khlong itself is none too fragrant, and best avoided at the peak of the day.<br /><br />You can, coming from the river with a map, join the canal at any point. It starts at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pak_Khlong_Talat">Pak Klong Talat</a>, the 24-hour flower, fruit & veg market, garlic and chilli sellers and pick-ups full of cabbages along its banks. It's easy enough to start there, getting the express boat to Saphan Phut, then walking the length of the Khlong to the point where it cuts off, at the big junction near Sanam Luang. Another good starting point is Tha Tien. The canal is a bit of a walk inland from here, but you'll see old shophouses by the river - not nearly as old as the canal but another picturesque remainder of Bangkok's development - and <a href="http://www.watpho.com/en/home/index.php">Wat Pho</a> and <a href="http://bangkokforvisitors.com/ratanakosin/saranrom.html">Saranrom Royal Park</a> are on the way, both of which are worth seeing and compact enough to be explored well in a short amount of time.<br /><br />Follow the streets still further in from the park and you'll find the canal. Turning left to journey north yields the most interesting results, but if you want to see all the bridges, turn right and walk a little way down to Ubonrat Bridge, built as a memorial to Princess Ubonrat Nareenart in 1912, and Mon Bridge, built of teak in the nineteenth century and rebuilt in 1920, named for the Mon traders from Burma who moored their houseboats there.<br /><br /><a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2458/4085249807_3a72fd9c0f.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 375px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 501px; CURSOR: hand" border="0" alt="" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2458/4085249807_3a72fd9c0f.jpg" /></a>Double back and continue north past Saranrom Park to Pii Kun bridge, also called Saphan Muu. Both the bridge and the nearby Pig Memorial were built in 1913 for Queen Phatcharinthra's 50th birthday, to commemmorate her own birth as well as that of the three royal donors born in the same year as her - the year of the pig. The bridge is adorned with four pillars to represent birthday candles for the queen's four zodiac-cycles. The impressive building across the street from this is the Ministry of the Interior (1910).<br /><br />Next is Chang Rong Si bridge, the 'rice mill elephant bridge', originally made of a tree thick and strong enough for elephants to cross over in the days when there was a royal rice mill here. It was rebuilt and reinforced by Prince Damrong Rajanubharb, the first Minister of Interior, in 1910, to commemmorate his birthday.<br /><br />Onwards, past the Ministry of Defence (1880s) to Hok Bridge, reconstructed in 1982, which has a lifting mechanism for its middle section. Next up is Charoensri 34 (1913), built by Rama VI, who, after his coronation, built public bridges over canals (this was before river-bridges) to commemorate his birthdays. Near these bridges is Wat Buranasiri, built in the third reign by Chao Phraya Sutham Montri, in a mix of Thai and Chinese architectural styles.<br />Alongside the canal on the other side of Atsadang road there's an army surplus market and a row of guitar shops, selling standard acoustics, semi-acoustics, electrics, ukuleles, drums decorated in the style of temple murals, electric versions of Thai folk instruments with finial-heads, and other guitar-like creatures. (This is the best place I've found in Bangkok for ukuleles, by the bye).<br /><br />Klong Lod ends at Pan Pibhop Leela Bridge (1906), by the big upcoming junction, but you can turn right and walk along Khlong Lod Wat Buranasri. Look out for the old water faucet on the corner, built in 1872 in the form of the Earth Goddess giving water to the people. Then go down along the canal, which was dug by Rama 1 in 1783 to connect the city moat to Rap Peung, cutting a strategic line across the city that would serve for transportation and communications. The name of this canal is somewhat fluid, never officially named and so taking the names of places it passes. It's narrower and more tree-covered than Klong Lod, and after passing some shops is lined by small village-like houses and shady walkways.<br /><br />A pleasant time can be had wandering here. When I went, I encountered sleepy cats, friendly old inhabitants, trees wedged with statues and old toys to keep their guardian spirits happy, and an orange-juice vendor squeezing her cart between the waterside and old statue-dotted wall. An old woman saw my camera and insisted I take a photo of her holding a ginger cat, then grabbed my hand and gave me an impromptu tour of the temple behind the wall, introducing me to the head monk whose irises were the colour of milk, who showed me a room where bones and ashes of the dead are kept in locked wooden boxes in the walls, and the bright temple hall filled by a monk's chants where a young man was kneeling, presenting a tray of takraw balls to the great gold-leaf covered Buddha. Eventually I wandered from there, pleasantly lost by this point, onto a street of shops hung with the smell of peppery soup, watched by white rabbit statue as tall as a man, and onwards until I found my bearings again, to visit the Giant Swing and Wat Suthat.<br /><div></div><a title="along the khlong by O city city, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocitycity/4086006976/"></a><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 500px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 375px; CURSOR: hand" border="0" alt="" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2670/4086006976_ca37c0ea79.jpg" />Alternatively, after reaching the end of Klong Lod, return to the river past Sanam Luang and the Grand Palace to Tha Chang (where there's a lunch market with lots of options), and get the express boat back downtown.<br /><br />See also: <a href="http://thestreetsofbangkok.blogspot.com/2010/04/wat-pho-at-night.html">Wat Pho (at night)</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-89217885248303642352010-06-02T21:00:00.004+07:002010-06-03T14:10:33.980+07:00Things to do in Bangkok in JuneA bit about my thinking behind these things-to-do posts, which is the same as the thinking behind most things I feature on Streets of Bangkok: I try to find events or activities that are convenient and accessible, which means you don't need a car to get to them (pedestrians and public-transport users are people too...) and that they're either free or not too pricey. Occasionally I'll put something expensive in if it's awesome enough, but I try to limit that, partly as I'm tired of reading events listings and thinking 'OOH-oh wait it costs a large fraction of my salary'. Personal taste comes into it as well, which is why you'll see art exhibitions every time but no shoe sales (urban strolling isn't kind to pretty shoes anyway...). I'm always looking for new things and open to suggestions, especially for things that could use a little extra coverage - so if you have/know of an event, drop me a message.<br /><br />Enough of that, here's some stuff to do in June:<br /><br /><strong>Weather</strong><br /><br />Monsoon! It's beautiful! Curl up and let the rain sing you to sleep (or the thunder wake you, unless you're a heavy-duty sleeper like me), huddle in a café or just run down the street, jumping in puddles and chasing frogs.<br /><em>Location: everywhere!</em><br /><br /><strong>Art<br /></strong><br />First, an event - <a href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.attic-studios.com%2F2010%2F05%2Fbangkok%25E2%2580%2599s-a-blast-attic-studios-will-be-a-riot%2F&h=b4ffd">First Friday #7</a> at <a href="http://www.attic-studios.com/">Attic Studios</a> - this time with a timely 'make art, not war' theme. Bound to be as fun and full of interesting people as ever.<br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Friday May 7, 7-11 pm, Sukhumvit 31.<br /><br /></span>And some exhibitions: <a href="http://www.bangkokpost.com/leisure/leisurescoop/37650/thai-puppetry-exhibition">Thai Puppetry</a>, an exhibition featuring traditional and contemporary Thai puppets.<br /><em>Thailand Cultural Centre exhibition room, until June 7</em><br /><br /><a href="http://wtfbangkok.com/index.php/2010/05/02/share-the-wonderful/">Wonderful Thai Friendship</a> at <a href="http://wtfbangkok.com/index.php/about/">WTF café and gallery</a>, featuring 13 local artists.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.ardelgallery.com/">ARDEL</a> galleries have several interesting ones, including <a href="http://www.ardelgallery.com/exhibition/213">All About Her</a> by Bussarapong Thongchai (until June 30), in which the artist examines her relation to gender roles in modern Thai society.<br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic"><br /></span><strong>History</strong><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic"><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic"><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic"><strong><br /></strong><br /></span></span></span>Not June-specific, but the <a href="http://www.google.co.th/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBcQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.museumvolunteersbkk.net%2F&rct=j&q=nmv+bangkok&ei=2FQHTL_QHYO4rAfxvcSkAQ&usg=AFQjCNEz0PSZLpCERiu1YdOxNTNvsol7uQ">National Museum Volunteers</a> offer free guided tours of the museum in several languages. There's usually an English-language tour on Wednesdays and Thursdays, starting at 9:30 am. On Wednesday June 16, the tour will be led by yours truly. I've recently completed the guiding workshops and try to balance overviewy stuff for tourists with details that residents might not know. If you haven't been to the National Museum it's well worth it - see you there?<br /><em>The National Museum faces Sanam Luang and is a 10-minute walk/quick motorbike-taxi ride from Tha Chang express boat pier. Most buses will take you to the area, too.</em><br /><br /><strong>Volunteering<br /></strong><br />The Little Light Project, a programme that promotes volunteering at the Bangkok School for the Blind, is holding a <a href="http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=127238770620353&index=1">day of activities</a> at the school on June 5, 8:30-11:30am. The project, which aims to "use group activities to promote learning and confidence", sounds wonderful and if you're free this Saturday I hope you'll consider going and making a difference.<br /><br /><strong>Sales<br /></strong><br />To celebrate its 6th anniversary, the nicest second-hand bookshop in town, Dasa Book Cafe, is selling their books at a 20% discount. They also do a fiiine chocolate brownie and have a good selection of teas, so this is highly recommended as a spot of book-buying/brownine therapy for us busy Bangkokians.<br />Dasa Book Cafe, Sukhumvit (between soi 26 and 28). Daily 10 am to 8 pm until June 10 .<br /><br />And at the Bull's head, <a href="http://www.nancychandler.net/">Nancy Chandler's Thailand</a> (they make the awesome candy-coloured maps) is holding its Summer Anniversary Sale, with activities for all ages and up to 50% discounts on Nancy Chandler products.<br /><em>Sukhumvit soi 33/1, June 5, 11am-5pm.<br /></em><br /><strong>Out of Town<br /></strong><br />For several interesting festivals and events country-wide, including the <a href="http://www.tourismthailand.org/festival-event/grand-content-6832.html">Phi Ta Khon festival</a> (oh oh I so want to go to that festival one day!)<span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">, </span>check out Talen's nifty <a href="http://thailandlandofsmiles.com/events-calender/">event calendar</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-54302028982794437522010-05-31T09:01:00.004+07:002010-05-31T09:09:55.033+07:00Weekly Photo: Graffiti Mural<a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2614/4075416866_862bfe50b2.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 500px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 375px; CURSOR: hand" border="0" alt="" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2614/4075416866_862bfe50b2.jpg" /></a> As Bangkok's returned to relative normalcy, I'll get back on with walking-blogging, but for now have a photo. An old one, as I was in KL for a large chunk of last week and so everything currently on my camera's memory card is from the wrong city. I pass this wall every day on my songtaew ride to work.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-74121033986272061272010-05-24T22:52:00.002+07:002010-05-24T22:59:12.550+07:00Weekly Photo: PANDA<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S_qhnPNUyAI/AAAAAAAAALs/OO9md9SJTXE/s1600/IMG_3162.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 600px; height: 445px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S_qhnPNUyAI/AAAAAAAAALs/OO9md9SJTXE/s320/IMG_3162.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474865992491649026" border="0" /></a>Graffiti at a construction site on my road<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-80853489733845484292010-05-16T17:08:00.003+07:002010-05-16T17:11:09.526+07:00Staying In, MostlyWell. What on earth is one supposed to do with a walking blog when there's bloody violence on the streets, chunks of town on fire, and an impending curfew? (Or... not? I've been hearing reports of the curfew and reports that it's cancelled in quick succession, over and over). A few weeks ago I was blithely walking down Ratchadamri snapping photos; on Wednesday I went to see Iron Man 2 with a friend and skirted round bamboo stakes and razor wire to get to Scala, only to find it closed and decide that MBK was a far better idea anyway. But even being able to contemplate 'demonstration tourism' seems a thing of the long-ago peaceful past, now. On twitter and facebook the consensus among Bangkokians is: get away from the protest zones if you can, and stay inside. So... I'm not doing much strolling at the moment.<br /><br />I live on Nang Linchi, close enough to Sathorn, Silom and Sala Daeng to hear the gunfire at night, and the frequent helicopters passing overhead, but just far away enough to still feel safe. It's shocking and heartbreaking to see footage of so many places I know and love full of fire and fighting and black smoke, and if not scary it's worrying to think that my local supermarket and restaurants might have trouble getting fresh deliveries. The supermarket yesterday was as busy as I've ever seen it, almost like Christmas Eve back in UK, with shelves emptying. I nabbed the last two loaves of bread - a couple of French ladies in the queue ahead of me had almost bought out the bakery. This morning I walked to a nearby coffee shop to work, because I thought I'd go mad if I stayed cooped up any longer. Streets eerily quiet, heavy dark sky pressing down, air still and hot.<br /><br />Also managed to get to a dim sum restaurant (Ho's Kitchen, recommended, btw), by the port near Rama III, for lunch. This was the view:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S--3i4Foc_I/AAAAAAAAALM/8cNG_hs4FyM/s1600/IMG_3171.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img style="width: 600px; height: 450px;" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S--3i4Foc_I/AAAAAAAAALM/8cNG_hs4FyM/s640/IMG_3171.JPG" border="0" /></a></div><br />Back at home now, working fretfully and keeping an eye on news sources. I can't thank the internet gods enough for twitter in this - the news is often upsetting, but I can't imagine how much scarier it would be to not know what's going on. And I'm finding it more reliable than reports on international media, which have disappointed me a few times lately by playing up some aspects of stories, playing down others, and recycling older footage to accompany 'live' reports. At the moment I'm getting most of my updates from <a href="http://twitter.com/RichardBarrow">@RichardBarrow</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/georgebkk">@georgebkk</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/tulsathit">@tulsathit</a>, and <a href="http://twitter.com/aleithead">@aleithead</a>.<br /><br />This post counts as my weekly photo, I guess, because I haven't exactly been roaming around looking for interesting new things to post about. But to balance the gloom of the smoking city, here's my mug of hot chocolate from Wawee Coffee this morning, showing Thailand still has some of its proverbial smiles:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S--3jUvMzmI/AAAAAAAAALQ/xQPoPl3tFkI/s1600/IMG_3163.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img style="width: 600px; height: 450px;" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S--3jUvMzmI/AAAAAAAAALQ/xQPoPl3tFkI/s640/IMG_3163.JPG" border="0" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-68889093167076969352010-05-05T16:47:00.001+07:002011-05-11T03:57:37.637+07:00Walking Tour: Talat Noi, Sampeng and Pahurat<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S-E8lsCp2-I/AAAAAAAAAKg/vipzf46xxpY/s912/IMG_3103.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 600px; height: 208px;" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S-E8lsCp2-I/AAAAAAAAAKg/vipzf46xxpY/s912/IMG_3103.JPG" alt="walking tour Chinatown" border="0" /></a>There are infinite routes through Chinatown, and this is only one of them - I'll probably do more Chinatown walking guides, but this one is as good a starting point as any, and goes through places that even people used to Sampeng Lane and Yaowarat may find new and fascinating. It takes you through some very old and diverse communities, many of them dating back to the earliest days of Bangkok. Go in the morning to miss the worst of the heat, and for the morning-bustle and street breakfasts.<br /><br />Start at Tha Si Phaya (a short express-boat ride from Sapan Taksin), and head upriver past River City and into a little market lane, where there are plenty of tempting breakfast options. Carry on going straight into Talat Noi, an old quarter with a real mix of ethnicities and architectures, where the oil and grease from heaped used car parts mingle with the scents steaming from food-vendors' carts. The mechanics' and car-parts shops are an evolution of the blacksmiths that originally plied their trade here. Go down soi Duang Tawan to see labyrinthine piles of motors in store-rooms behind mossy brick walls, vast trees bound in coloured ribbons, tiny alleys down to the bright river, birdsong from old-fashioned cages that hang from every roof-tip. In a car repair yard is the entrance to the Jao Sien Khong shrine, full of wonderful 3D mosaics of dragons and tigers. This area is an absolute must during the Vegetarian Festival in late October, when it becomes a thronging market of meat-free treats and sweets, and the Chinese shrines crowd with people and offerings and incense and entertainments.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S-E8lyI5V7I/AAAAAAAAAKk/WVV0tMWHDys/s640/IMG_3102.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S-E8lyI5V7I/AAAAAAAAAKk/WVV0tMWHDys/s640/IMG_3102.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a>Carry on to soi Phanu Rangsi, then turn right and then left onto Songwat road. On your left is Wat Prathum Khongkha, which dates back to the Ayutthaya period, and where the stone on which royal executions were once performed (by beating the person to death with a sandalwood club in a velvet sack) is still preserved. The rest of Songwat is a pleasant walk lined with a jumble of old and new facades, spice shops, rice warehouses. At the corner with Rachawong are some of the oldest remaining houses in Chinatown, with beautiful wooden walls and windows. Turn right and then left onto Sampeng Lane, the narrow shopping street that sells everything you never knew you needed. The lane is covered and some of the open shops blast air-con into it, so it's a nice place to walk if you don't mind small crowded spaces. Vendors come through, sometimes taking up the whole width of the lane with their carts of fruit or juice or steamed peanuts. Sampeng cuts across several roads, each interesting in their own right. Turn left on Chakrawat road to find Wat Chakrawat, where the architecture is a mix of Thai and Khmer, collections of Buddhas and assorted spirits and deities cluster in shady rockeries, and a fenced-off pond hosts crocodiles - supposedly; I saw none when I was there.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S-E8mHMCnUI/AAAAAAAAAKo/ikPt2VG3tjA/s640/IMG_3125.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S-E8mHMCnUI/AAAAAAAAAKo/ikPt2VG3tjA/s640/IMG_3125.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a>Across Chakrawat road and down Soi Bhopit Phimuk past the spice shops and ice shops, you'll reach a canal that marks a loose border to the Indian quarter. Little shops selling sweets line the canal, and tucked in dark air-con-freezy rooms are Indian restaurants. It may be around lunchtime when you reach this spot, so stop at the Royal India (I recommend the vegetarian thali). Then, across and right on Chakraphet raod is Pahurat cloth market, which as well as fabric sells dancing costumes, temple goods and offerings.<br /><br />From Pahurat it's a short walk down to the river and Saphan Phut pier, where you can get the express boat back downtown. Or if you're not walked out, there's plenty more in the area to check out. The Old Siam mall and Sala Chalermkrung theatre are on the block next to Pahurat, and there are charming canals and temples to explore nearby, as mentioned in my post on the theatre. Or down by the Saphan Phut is Pak Klong Talat, the 24-hour flower market (though I think all these things are best explored in the evenings).<br /><br />The walk in map form:<br /><iframe marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?client=firefox-a&hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=101289174591507435302.000485d382ac7768ef529&ll=13.7363,100.506063&spn=0.014591,0.018239&z=15&output=embed" frameborder="0" height="350" scrolling="no" width="425"></iframe><br /><small>View <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?client=firefox-a&hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=101289174591507435302.000485d382ac7768ef529&ll=13.7363,100.506063&spn=0.014591,0.018239&z=15&source=embed" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255); text-align: left;">Chinatown walk 1</a> in a larger map</small>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-77140664348852353922010-05-03T13:45:00.005+07:002010-05-04T00:24:10.830+07:00Things to do in May<div>Moving from the hot season towards the monsoon is always a relief, and we’re already having some cooler, wetter days. Come rain or dehydrating shine or redshirt road blockades, the city’s always ripe for exploring, and so The Streets of Bangkok has more walking guides coming up – but there’s plenty to do that’s sheltered from the weather, too. Here, a mix of indoor and outdoor activities and events to enjoy.<br /><br /><strong>Festivals<br /></strong>The annual <a href="http://www.thailand.com/travel/festival/festivals_bangkok_ploughing.htm">Royal Ploughing Ceremony </a>– the ancient celebration that marks the start of the rice-growing sesaon – is coming up on May 9. Head to Sanam Luang and witness rituals both Brahminical and Buddhist to predict and ensure the abundance of this year’s crops.<br /><br />I’ve also just discovered (via Catherine of the excellent <a href="http://womenlearnthai.com/">Women Learing Thai</a>) <a href="http://thailandlandofsmiles.com/">Talen</a>’s very useful <a href="http://thailandlandofsmiles.com/events-calender/">calendar</a> of events throughout Thailand, which features a lot of festivals. Outside of Bangkok this month are Isaan's <a href="http://www.thailand.com/travel/festival/festivals_bunfai.htm">Rocket Festival</a> and the <a href="http://www.laemsing.com/chanthaburi_thailand.html?id=8">Chantaburi Fruit Festival</a>, which both sound worth attending for anyone able to travel out of town for a few days.<br /><br /><strong>Art</strong><br />May has plenty of ongoing and upcoming exhibitions for art lovers (see <a href="http://www.bangkokartmap.com/">BAM!</a>). Also a couple of art events:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=113406552032970">First Friday #6</a> at Attic Studios, always worth going to for the atmosphere, art, free demo classes, mingling with friendly arty people, and decent drinks.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Friday May 7, 7-11 pm, Sukhumvit 31.</span><br /><br />One-Day Watercolour Workshop with Louise Truslow - I have to mention this one, as my mum is running it, but as she's a successful local artist and a great teacher I can also honestly recommend this for anyone interested in watercolour painting (including beginners). These workshops always go down well with attendees, and it's a nice chance to spend a day at the very pleasant British Club (especially as the workshop fee includes lunch and refreshments!).<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Saturday 22 May, 9 am-4 pm, at the British Club, Silom soi 18. B2400 including workshop, lunch and refreshments. </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.blogger.com/louise@louisetruslow.com">Email</a><span style="font-style: italic;"> for more information.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Lectures</span><br />This looks interesting for people interested in Southeast Asian art, history, and literature - 'The preamble of the Ramakien', a lecture from the Siam Society 'on the Iconographic comparison between the mural paintings of Cambodia and Thailand by Vittorio Roveda'<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Thursday 27 May, 7:30 PM, The Siam Society, Sukhumvit Soi Asoke. B200, free to Members & Student<br /><br /></span><span>This month's list feels like rather a small one, but as ever it's not exhaustive - flick through your papers, click around online, talk to people, and go out and do something that catches your eye. This is a good city to be out in... despite the climate (literal or political).<span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-33799364878843731222010-05-02T22:32:00.002+07:002010-05-02T22:36:10.120+07:00Weekly Photo: Khlong with Fish<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S92asV3dAQI/AAAAAAAAAKc/oLHiN-X1Y6M/s512/IMG_3044.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 384px; height: 512px;" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S92asV3dAQI/AAAAAAAAAKc/oLHiN-X1Y6M/s512/IMG_3044.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a>Evening in the old town, near Sala Chalermkrung theatre.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-89045719493770763082010-05-02T19:30:00.003+07:002011-05-10T06:24:14.094+07:00Klong Toei: A Night Stroll<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S9qIeHV6kxI/AAAAAAAAAJc/pS1ODTXNXuk/s512/IMG_2708.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 350px; height: 465px;" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S9qIeHV6kxI/AAAAAAAAAJc/pS1ODTXNXuk/s512/IMG_2708.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a>I live near enough to Klong Toei to walk there, going along the edge of Rama III, under the tollway - a route one might assume to be devoid of interest unless one were to actually try it. The strip of ground between the Klong Toei slums and the road is used by the local community for all sorts of purposes, and walking along it at night when the air and city breathe easier shows an aspect of Bangkok life that is both everyday and illuminating.<br /><div><br />Now, being able to get lost even in familiar places is a particular skill of mine, and not one I regret - it makes life more interesting, after all. When I strolled this way recently, I forgot to stick to the Rama III pavement, and wandered up the verge of grass at the foot of the tollway. When I got to the booths I took the footpath past them, guessing that there would be a gap my fellow explorer and I could squeeze through ahead, to take us under the flyover (and thus along the way I was trying to reach). Not so - we met solid wall; a dash across the road when no speeding car was close and a climb over a fence were needed before we could get to the underbelly of the flyover. How adventuresome! I thought, and forgot to hitch up my skirt in the fence-climb, resulting in it snagging, ripping, and holding me there, not quite able to reach back and un-snag myself.<br /><br />Good thing I had a wandering-companion in the form of Alex. She unhooked my skirt, and commiserated with me over the long gash in the fabric, but not for long - we were intrepid lady-strollers of the night! And so, onwards!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S9qNjSz1lRI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/TJwckZjw2rM/s512/IMG_2741.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 350px; height: 465px;" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S9qNjSz1lRI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/TJwckZjw2rM/s512/IMG_2741.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a>This in-between space - with a row of houses crammed against or atop one another on the one side, walls of wood, concrete, corrugated iron, and anything else it's possible to build a house from; the road, with its taxis and motorbike-taxis and trucks on the other - is used for a wide variety of purposes. Walking along it you'll pass mesh-enclosed squares of ground - here a car-repair stop, a paint-stripped pick-up left half-suspended on a winch in front of high piles of spare parts; there a playground with a gate to keep children from running out to the road, and a library of magazines, comics and slim books kept in one corner in a single old wooden cabinet, two cats keeping watch from benches beside it. The downstairs parts of several houses are shops selling snack-foods and drinks, and tiny alleys slip between sections of housing with spirit houses in varied states of repair stationed at their entrance. Out of the light of the housing-area, on a crumbling elevated walkway over dark silent railway line, and past the deserted Chinese shrine that <a href="http://thestreetsofbangkok.blogspot.com/2010/02/khlong-toey-street-opera.html">last time</a> I visited was so loud with colour and song, we stumbled into an otherworldly alley of red lanterns adorning gloomy shut-up shopfronts, a line of tall Chinese deity statues watching parked cars, and a long walk to the end of the cul-de-sac where a tiny garden-fringed shrine sits under a roadsign at a flyover junction, brightly-lit and surreal, fairy lights hanging from above and tinny Christmas carols playing into the empty space.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S9qIf7KyXoI/AAAAAAAAAJs/DtBp1BjYFEk/s512/IMG_2731.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 350px; height: 466px;" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S9qIf7KyXoI/AAAAAAAAAJs/DtBp1BjYFEk/s512/IMG_2731.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a>And past that, through the desolate shell of a day-time market, to the still-bustling Klong Toei market, which unfolds inwards from the pavement into a maze of high-heaped produce, great basket-trolleys and shoppers squeezing past each other, steaming ice-trucks. It's a good thing I'm a fairly non-squeamish vegetarian, as a few steps into the fresh meat section we were greeted with the sight of pig's heads stashed under stalls festooned with various pork cuts, and a few steps further we passed a truck piled with shapes I didn't quite register until a pair of men slid into my vision, walking right past me with half a pig's carcass hoisted on their shoulders (halved lengthways, just in case you were wondering). Examining the lesser-known vegetables on an adjoining alley was more to my tastes - you can find all sorts of intriguing roots, gourds, seedpods and flowers that the supermarkets don't stock, as well as all the things they do at much lower prices; the range of spices and fresh chillies is impressive too. I purchased a couple of gourd-things that looked remarkably like pears to sample (and can report they're okay, marrow-like when roasted, pretty decent in soup).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S9qNj3YMyhI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/kC4QHujyhgg/s640/IMG_2749.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 600px; height: 450px;" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S9qNj3YMyhI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/kC4QHujyhgg/s640/IMG_2749.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a>This is a low-key, atmospheric walk that I'd recommend to anyone in the area who wants to walk off the stress of the day, or anyone interested in absorbing local nighttime ambiance, with the bonus of unusual fruits and vegetables to take home and experiment with.<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-43931711678510402162010-05-01T16:45:00.007+07:002010-05-01T18:24:41.118+07:00Of Monkey Kings and Benjarong Temples<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S9vw-jcTeXI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/2m9K3kNc1xI/s640/IMG_3077.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 600px; height: 450px;" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S9vw-jcTeXI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/2m9K3kNc1xI/s640/IMG_3077.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a>This building is the <a href="http://www.salachalermkrung.com/khon.php"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Sala</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Chalermkrung</span> Royal Theatre</a> - Thailand's first cinema, built in the early 1930s by HM King Rama VII. It still shows films occasionally, but nowadays is more frequently used as a theatre: every Friday and Saturday night at 7:30, a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Khon</span> (the traditional Thai masked dance-drama) show is performed there.<br /><br />It's not cheap - 1000 or 1200 per ticket - but as this is one of the few remaining chances to see a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Khon</span> performance, and as far as I can find out, the only regular one, I went along yesterday evening and bought one. I went early to give myself time to explore the area around the theatre, and it's well worth a look. Mementos form various stages in Bangkok's development are clustered there, at the northernmost end of Chinatown. On the same block is the Old Siam mall, in a European colonial-style building, with a Thai 'food village' on the ground floor, and nearby is <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Chinaworld</span>, originally the first of the now-ubiquitous Central department stores (worth a peek for the car-elevator up to the car park). Just up the road is one of Old Bangkok's preserved canals, with paved banks, little bridges, lined with shrines and homes, evening food vendors grilling catfish and boiling soups. Follow the canal left to Wat <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Rajabophit</span>, built in 1869 under HM King Rama V. This is an incredible temple: architecture that dwarfs the visitor, compactly built in a space that seems to small to contain it (yes: it's bigger on the inside); walls of ceramic tiles in the traditional <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">benjarong</span> colours; a chapel with a traditionally Thai exterior and a Gothic interior; and a beautiful royal <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">cemetery</span>. The temple's wooden gates are all decorated with carvings of European-style soldiers.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S9wFk7l3PnI/AAAAAAAAAKU/qSoeHMPbzEg/s512/IMG_3069.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 375px; height: 500px;" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_UksMPeItGqM/S9wFk7l3PnI/AAAAAAAAAKU/qSoeHMPbzEg/s512/IMG_3069.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a>Follow the canal the other way and you'll find <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Romaninart</span> Park, formerly a prison site, and still retaining watch towers, part of the prison wall, and a museum. It's pleasantly breezy in the evenings, though not entirely peaceful, the thudding <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">soundtrack</span> of aerobics classes carrying over the whole of the grounds. There's also an outdoor gym.<br /><br />Back to the theatre for the show, which was complied from the scenes in the <span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Ramakian</span></span> featuring <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Hanuman</span>. The dancers perform highly acrobatic moves, accompanied by a live Thai orchestra and narrators who also deliver any dialogue in time with the characters' motions. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Hanuman's</span> stories are my favourite in the <span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Ramakian</span></span> - he's born from a cursed woman standing on one leg and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Pra</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Isuan's</span> divine weapons as blown into her mouth by a wind god; seduces a mermaid and has a "fish-tailed monkey" for a son; tricks the demon-king <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Thotsakan</span> into giving him his heart in a box - on one level this is fun storytelling, on another, a chance to see a traditional Thai performance with only a few modern <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">embellishments</span> (flashing lights and some sound effects). The audience was tiny, which is sad; do consider going, as it's a different sort of evening out in a historically rich corner of town, and you'd be supporting the preservation of one of Thailand's most important performing arts.<br /><br />If you're not too tired after the performance (as I was, with all the walking I'd done beforehand), you can wander down <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Triphet</span> road to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Pak</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Klong</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Talat</span>, the all-night flower/fruit/veg market, or <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Saphan</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Phut</span> night market, selling second-hand clothing and other fashion items.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Getting there: <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Sala</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">Chalermkrung</span> Royal Theatre is on the corner of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">Triphet</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">Charoen</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">Krung</span>, accessible by bus numbers </span><span><span class="text"><span style="font-style: italic;">1, 8, 48 and 73 along <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">Charoen</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">Krung</span>, or by express-boat to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">Sapan</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">Phut</span> (N6) and a short walk, or on foot from most places in Chinatown and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33">Rattanakosin</span> Island. <a href="http://www.salachalermkrung.com/location.php">Here</a>'s a map from their website.</span><br /></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7568431625011566891.post-90844040765082036642010-04-29T15:39:00.000+07:002010-04-29T15:45:12.951+07:00The Streets - Night<em>This post is not about a particular walk; it's something of a follow-up to my </em><a href="http://thestreetsofbangkok.blogspot.com/2010/02/flaneurism.html"><em>walking manifesto-of-sorts</em></a><em>, something of a nod to Charles Dickens'</em> Sketches by Boz <em>and the </em><a href="http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/dickens/charles/d54sb/chapter9.html"><em>essay</em></a><em> therein on walking London's streets by night, and something of an introduction to the night-time walks I'll be posting here. Moments are compiled from many walks I've done, most of those from before the red-shirts moved into several of the areas mentioned, so it may not reflect the current night-time landscape perfectly... </em><br /><br />To see the streets of Bangkok in all their changeable, pulsing glory, you need to walk them on a soupy summer night, when the pavement is releasing just enough of its heat to make long walks bearable, without letting the smells and spills of the day go. In shopping districts the malls shine beacon-like over their coming/going customers, though the dark is light-hazed with endless glowing bulbs and neon strips. People go shopping on a night such as this, seeking all the air-conditioning they can find – others dine in street markets. Some simply wander.<br /><br />In the evenings the street corner smells of noodle soup. You can taste it, warm, on the cooling night air, before you get there. It smells liquid, salty, coppery. Breathing has flavours, even in the deserted places: the pavement in day-market areas must have soaked in some of the lime, blood, soup, sauce, and soap-suds that are slopped over it every day; it smells sour now. But there are jasmine smells on the warm breeze, and from a street-mouth, the hot scent of just-shampooed and blow-dried hair.<br /><br />Sounds are brought into focus, too, as visual details fade to blue-black. The soundscape of the city between sunset and dark is full of things: motorbikes rumbling past, the clatter of a spoon on a bowl in a gated house, the rattle and squeak of metal shop-shutters rolling down, end-of-the-day talk, a motorbike revving at a repair shop, soi dogs, twang of a guitar on a curb-corner, the city-village lanes lighting up, a family watching lakorn or Star Trek in the open front room of their house, a canal edging between compounds, the creaking pedals of the squid-vendor on his bicycle cart.<br /><br />The night brings hidden things to view as much as it hides things. In backstreets the glassless balcony-backrooms of tiny apartments are illuminated from the inside, exposing their contents – crockery, food, laundry. Between concrete panels the stairwell can be seen, a pair of shadow-figures running down to the street. On the pavement, a street restaurant laid out like a home: cooking unit and tables, tiny television showing a soap opera, books and someone's knitting left half-done on one of the tables. The dried squid vendor comes by again, ringing his bell, wares pegged on a rack affixed to the bicycle's back. He stops for a customer, unpegging and warming two squid in the tiny charcoal stove, feeding them through the ridged mangle to slice them, and passing them over in a newspaper bag. He goes on, past a drink vendor's cart glowing fuzzy magenta as its keeper serves passers-by.<br /><br />Markets lie just off the pavement like wide open mouths with glowing yellow tongues, fill up the spaces below bridges, selling billowy shirts, roasted chickens, green egg noodles with sliced pork, toys, doughnuts, cake, soaps and detergents. The shadows under flyovers make hot day spaces into corners of a playground - the netted cage for kids' after-dark football lessons; the toddler crouching by the flower bed next to a noodle-stall, copying mum by scooping the soil out of the bed and onto the concrete bricks with his borrowed ladle.<br /><br />In tourist hotspots the streets are setting up for the night, putting on their makeup and cheap market stalls and neon. The traffic stops and starts and stalls and flows and comers and goers in a Silom all-night café come and go. A man talking to somebody on his laptop, white headphones next to polished wooden earrings, body wiggling almost imperceptibly: very subtly flirting. A pair of young Thai men drinking icy water, one flipping through a magazine of muscle-rippling guys in tight underpants. A white-haired man with a face mostly composed of eyebrows and nose leans against the wall opposite, eyes closing and opening to gaze at the street as he shifts restlessly; expression alive with some wistfulness or regret, looking at the young blond man standing in the door talking to the waitress. Briefly, a party of four young French tourists sit and laugh at each others' stories of the day and then leave; a young pale couple replace them - the younger farangs emerging as the heat diminishes. A Japanese lady sits silently, cigarette fretting away its smoke in the ashtray. Ceiling fans keep this spot cool and keep the street-fumes away, but everyone smokes.<br /><br />A t-shirt seller is setting up his stall in front of the café, between a tree and a pair of telephone boxes: tables with rails and racks tied upright with string around them, a white strip-light hooked onto one of the poles, an extension cord plugged into a socket bound to the tree's trunk, tapping power from the pylons tangling above. A man walks up, grubby and worn, makes a wai to the folk in the café and mimes eating, hunger obvious in his cheeks and eyes. No one responds, and he turns, makes an exaggerated, exasperated gesture and walks away shaking his head. The t-shirt seller rearranges his shirts in different patterns.<br /><br />Seven o'clock. The street has gone very quiet - a few shoppers drifting by, casually browsing stalls. This space is the lull between sunset's activity and that of the late night - still, there's a purpose in the step of a few of the men heading further down the road, whether to the jammed sweat- and vest-clad muscle of soi 2 bars or the ping-pong shows of Patpong it's hard to tell. The road hums with wheels and engines; a moustached farang walks past looking about him disdainfully, as if he wished he could avoid all physical contact with the street.<br /><br />Above the street, receptionists and secretaries left hours ago by their bosses shut down the offices. A woman sits behind the reception desk and reads tarot cards for her colleague, who turns off the computer and does her make-up. They'll go for dinner on a street corner beneath flashing go-go signs, and then dancing in some less tourist-frequented part of town.<br /><br />Not far from here, a Muay Thai stadium: a roped-off ring and tiered wooden benches. Air thick with bells and incense and the thick heady scent of tiger balm, as if the whole place had been rubbed in it. Women sell milky iced tea, orange in colour. The fights are fairly low-key tonight - the big fight's in two weeks' time - but the adrenaline can still be tasted on the air, among the tea and smoke and tiger balm smells. The boys aren't faking, at least - the fight starts stylised, moves executed for the dance-like quality of them rather than to inflict pain, but when they get warmed up the blows are serious. An ex-cop bookie, with a voice hoarse from a lifetime of smoke and shout, goads a pair of foreigners into placing bets, and gives them each a can of Chang. 'You be my good luck charm,' he says to the blonde woman, who wins, to her gentleman-friend's chagrin.<br /><br />Upriver, among the temples and palaces of the old town, tourists party all night on on Khao San road. A troupe of identically-built rugby lads (with different hair-bleachings to mark them apart) loom into a bar.'Where's the beers then? Where's the beers?' they say. A furious katoey waitress, mid-tirade about customers and superiors blaming her for everything, is jolted by one of the rugby boys as they hulk their way back out, too impatient or perhaps bewildered to wait to be served. Music mingles from different sources, a glass smashes, pool balls clatter.<br /><br />But in a park on the riverbank, under Rama VII Bridge, local kids escape the noise and grime and sheen of Khao San to sit with sweethearts, practise guitar, watch the boats go by all gaudy and gold-twinkling (one rent-a-party boat blaring karaoke out across the waters). The peace is underlined by passing motorbikes, soft-lit by the old white fort glowing nearby. A group of young women and topless men, all dreadlocks and tight dark musculature glistening from dancing, are teaching children their moves. These are members of the breakdancing team that represents Thailand in championships – they practised here long before their international successes, and still come to the park to teach poor kids from the area.<br /><br />One o'clock! Drinkers stagger from closing bars to still-open ones, or into waiting taxis. The never-closing flower market sill shines, receiving fresh produce in vans from the country; other night markets have left only skeletal remains and scents, cockroaches glinting underfoot. The stalls in this slum-side market are bare, nothing to mark them out, but by their smell they were pork-butcher's stands. Next to them, there's a single shop still open - a bakery full of sweet, coloured breads, glowing. Other lights shine from narrower alleys, angular tin-and-wood ways guarded by sleeping dogs.<br /><br />Office blocks and high hotels keep watch from above, always a few yellow window-eyes open even in the lowest depths of the night. They reflect in the blackened khlongs. Night-scenes are doubtless still playing behind these window-eyes, and under bridges, and in clubs and houses, but a description of all of them, however illuminating (or intriguing), would require a volume, and all we have is a blog-post. So, for now, we drop the curtain.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1