The Streets of Bangkok

Flood info and updates

2011-10-25T21:55:00.004+07:00

Hello 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 @streetsofbkk.

Here's what I got so far:

Thai-language website with lots of info.

A publicly-editable google document collecting info and tips, in English.

All stories tagged 'flood' from the Bangkok Post can be found here. In English. Anyone got a good Thai-language equivalent?

A post about some free flood-related iPhone apps - post in English; apps in Thai.

On Twitter, use/search for the hashtags #ThaiFlood and #ThaiFloodEng

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.

To all in Thailand: hope you're safe and dry, good luck, and lots of love.

Amphawa: just magic

2011-07-30T18:09:00.003+07:00

A while back I did a post 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.

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.

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?

Not just foi-thong; foi-thong in ceramic boats. With a paddle for cutlery. Place could not be more charming if it was shaped like a kitten and knew how to waltz.

... 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.

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:

Behind the Buddha image is Rattanakosin Island, bursting with detail.

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.

Krai Tong, hero from folklore, diving down with his magic spear, cloth, and candle to defeat the Crocodile King Chalawan.

Detail from one of the courtly-life scenes. A lady and her maid, presumably, but looking rather excellently sapphic.

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 this post). There are also buses to and from the city.

Weekly Photo: mis-en-scene

2011-07-24T17:56:00.002+07:00

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.

Weekly Photo: river lights

2011-07-18T11:23:00.003+07:00

The view downriver from Patravadi Theatre's restaurant/performance space.

And here we go

2011-07-15T14:21:00.006+07:00

Hellooooooo 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).

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...

A bit of dusting, a bit of new furniture...

2011-06-24T17:34:00.004+07:00

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?

But first some announcements. The site has a couple of new features now - if you look at the top you'll see an about page and a write for us 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 guidelines if you're interested. We also have an email address now: thestreetsofbangkok [at] gmail [dot] com.

Finally, Streets of Bangkok is now on twitter! Follow @streetsofbkk 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).

Have a lovely weekend, everyone, and look out for new content soon!

The Temple Fair

2010-11-19T20:47:00.004+07:00

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 ngan wat the likes of which it's hard to come by in the city, 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.
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

‘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.

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.

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.

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.

Hiatus

2010-07-13T07:18:00.004+07:00

I'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.

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.

For now, check out some photos from Gavin Gough's upcoming 'Photographer's Guide to Bangkok': Bangkok Transport System (BTS). As he says, the BTS is "enormously photogenic". And doesn't that book sound exciting?!

Weekly Photo: Treelift

2010-06-20T09:49:00.002+07:00

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.

Speaking of tree-planting, check out this blog: Plant a Tree - Bangkok. 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.

The Iron Faries

2010-06-19T16:53:00.006+07:00

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 The Iron Fairies, 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).

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):

Recommended.
The Iron Faries is located at 395 Soi Thonglor, Sukhumvit Road. Open 6pm-2am. Turn up early to ensure you get a seat!

Weekly Photo: Christmas is coming?

2010-06-13T23:24:00.001+07:00

Good to see that the new indoor section at Siam Square is ready for Christmas...

Silom Walking Street

2010-06-13T14:49:00.004+07:00

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!

The Bangkok Post reports 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."

Photos from yesterday:

Glowing Lights in the Night

2010-06-08T22:09:00.004+07:00

I went on an impromptu Chinatown wander tonight, having been at the opening of On The Edge, an exhibition at ARDEL'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:

Weekly Photo: Spiritcat?

2010-06-07T08:30:00.003+07:00

Couldn't resist this cat, sneaking its breakfast from early-morning offerings left out for spirits.

Every Bridge tells a Story: A Klong Lod Walking Tour

2010-06-04T14:43:00.000+07:00

The 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.

You can, coming from the river with a map, join the canal at any point. It starts at Pak Klong Talat, 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 Wat Pho and Saranrom Royal Park are on the way, both of which are worth seeing and compact enough to be explored well in a short amount of time.

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.

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).

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.

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.
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).

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.

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.

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.

See also: Wat Pho (at night)

Things to do in Bangkok in June

2010-06-02T21:00:00.004+07:00

A 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.

Enough of that, here's some stuff to do in June:

Weather

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.
Location: everywhere!

Art

First, an event - First Friday #7 at Attic Studios - this time with a timely 'make art, not war' theme. Bound to be as fun and full of interesting people as ever.
Friday May 7, 7-11 pm, Sukhumvit 31.

And some exhibitions: Thai Puppetry, an exhibition featuring traditional and contemporary Thai puppets.
Thailand Cultural Centre exhibition room, until June 7

Wonderful Thai Friendship at WTF café and gallery, featuring 13 local artists.

ARDEL galleries have several interesting ones, including All About Her by Bussarapong Thongchai (until June 30), in which the artist examines her relation to gender roles in modern Thai society.

History

Not June-specific, but the National Museum Volunteers 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?
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.

Volunteering

The Little Light Project, a programme that promotes volunteering at the Bangkok School for the Blind, is holding a day of activities 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.

Sales

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.
Dasa Book Cafe, Sukhumvit (between soi 26 and 28). Daily 10 am to 8 pm until June 10 .

And at the Bull's head, Nancy Chandler's Thailand (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.
Sukhumvit soi 33/1, June 5, 11am-5pm.

Out of Town

For several interesting festivals and events country-wide, including the Phi Ta Khon festival (oh oh I so want to go to that festival one day!), check out Talen's nifty event calendar.

Weekly Photo: Graffiti Mural

2010-05-31T09:01:00.004+07:00

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.

Weekly Photo: PANDA

2010-05-24T22:52:00.002+07:00

Graffiti at a construction site on my road

Staying In, Mostly

2010-05-16T17:08:00.003+07:00

Well. 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.

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.

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:

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 @RichardBarrow, @georgebkk, @tulsathit, and @aleithead.

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:

Walking Tour: Talat Noi, Sampeng and Pahurat

2010-05-05T16:47:00.001+07:00

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

The walk in map form:

View Chinatown walk 1 in a larger map

Things to do in May

2010-05-03T13:45:00.005+07:00

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.

Festivals
The annual Royal Ploughing Ceremony – 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.

I’ve also just discovered (via Catherine of the excellent Women Learing Thai) Talen’s very useful calendar of events throughout Thailand, which features a lot of festivals. Outside of Bangkok this month are Isaan's Rocket Festival and the Chantaburi Fruit Festival, which both sound worth attending for anyone able to travel out of town for a few days.

Art
May has plenty of ongoing and upcoming exhibitions for art lovers (see BAM!). Also a couple of art events:

First Friday #6 at Attic Studios, always worth going to for the atmosphere, art, free demo classes, mingling with friendly arty people, and decent drinks.
Friday May 7, 7-11 pm, Sukhumvit 31.

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!).
Saturday 22 May, 9 am-4 pm, at the British Club, Silom soi 18. B2400 including workshop, lunch and refreshments. Email for more information.

Lectures
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'
Thursday 27 May, 7:30 PM, The Siam Society, Sukhumvit Soi Asoke. B200, free to Members & Student

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).

Weekly Photo: Khlong with Fish

2010-05-02T22:32:00.002+07:00

Evening in the old town, near Sala Chalermkrung theatre.

Klong Toei: A Night Stroll

2010-05-02T19:30:00.003+07:00

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.

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.

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!

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 last time 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.

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).

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.

Of Monkey Kings and Benjarong Temples

2010-05-01T16:45:00.007+07:00

This building is the Sala Chalermkrung Royal Theatre - 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 Khon (the traditional Thai masked dance-drama) show is performed there.

It's not cheap - 1000 or 1200 per ticket - but as this is one of the few remaining chances to see a Khon 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 Chinaworld, 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 Rajabophit, 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 benjarong colours; a chapel with a traditionally Thai exterior and a Gothic interior; and a beautiful royal cemetery. The temple's wooden gates are all decorated with carvings of European-style soldiers.

Follow the canal the other way and you'll find Romaninart 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 soundtrack of aerobics classes carrying over the whole of the grounds. There's also an outdoor gym.

Back to the theatre for the show, which was complied from the scenes in the Ramakian featuring Hanuman. 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. Hanuman's stories are my favourite in the Ramakian - he's born from a cursed woman standing on one leg and Pra Isuan's 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 Thotsakan 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 embellishments (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.

If you're not too tired after the performance (as I was, with all the walking I'd done beforehand), you can wander down Triphet road to Pak Klong Talat, the all-night flower/fruit/veg market, or Saphan Phut night market, selling second-hand clothing and other fashion items.

Getting there: Sala Chalermkrung Royal Theatre is on the corner of Triphet and Charoen Krung, accessible by bus numbers 1, 8, 48 and 73 along Charoen Krung, or by express-boat to Sapan Phut (N6) and a short walk, or on foot from most places in Chinatown and Rattanakosin Island. Here's a map from their website.

The Streets - Night

2010-04-29T15:39:00.000+07:00

This post is not about a particular walk; it's something of a follow-up to my walking manifesto-of-sorts, something of a nod to Charles Dickens' Sketches by Boz and the essay 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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Markets on Train-Tracks; Markets on Boats

2010-04-27T17:29:00.006+07:00

A day trip for the whimsical and adventurous

This trip goes through a couple of little provinces south of Bangkok, but it's close enough and can be done in a day from Bangkok, so I'm putting it up here.

Some time last year, while chatting online to my friend Alex, she told me of a market she'd heard about that takes place on live train tracks, south of Bangkok. Being of a travelling and fantastical bent as we both are, this was high on our list of places to investigate during her stay in Thailand, and so off we set on a rainy morning: skytraining over to the Thonburi side of the river to hurry through the wet in search of Wongwien Yai railway station.

The station is tiny, train waiting right alongside the road, surrounded by market and boasting (in the mornings, at least) a fine selection of hot breakfast options along the platform. After buying our tickets for Mahachai (10 baht a head) and investigating the various food stalls, we sat at a khanom jeen seller's table and were able to hop from there straight onto the train when a departure announcement blared over our heads. (Note to anyone planning to do this trip - pick up a train schedule at Wongwien Yai, which has times for the Mahachai and Mae Klong trains - useful for thinking ahead and avoiding long waiting periods in middle-of-nowhere places).

The Mahachai train passes bursting greenery, tiny lopsided rows of houses, more markets, highway junctions, temples, little stations (some of these attached to temples), old wooden homes surrounded by water and little bridges. Our ride was pleasant, after the rain, watching the cooled-down land run past.

Reaching Mahachai (which I can vouch for as a wonderful place for a seafood lunch, from previous visits), we made our way through its sprawling market - selling all sorts of sea-creatures, fresh-water beasts and amphibians, dried and gulping-fresh and all states in between - to the harbour, where ferries were coming and going. According to our photocopied Lonely Planet page, we wanted the ferry to Bang Laem, so we asked around and boarded it - then waited an hour for it to depart, watching the other ferry make several trips back and forth across the harbour. When our ferry did eventually cross the water (with an increasingly agitated dog that had wandered onto it), it took us to a pier that led straight up to Bang Laem station, where another 10 baht got us a ticket for the next leg of our journey, to Mae Klong - though the train wasn't to leave for another hour.

An aside on that note - I'd advise anyone making this trip to check the time of the ferry, and if it's a long wait to either have a nice lunch in Mahachai, or get the more regular ferry and seek out a motorbike taxi to Bang Laem.

There are, however, several temples near Bang Laem station, so Alex and I took a meander around the station to see them. One was setting up for a fair, another had a Chinese cemetery attached. Then back to the station and onto the train, snacking on i-teem boran, passing through fields and salt flats, lulled by the motion and humidity into snoozing. As we trundled towards the end of the line we passed market-awnings pulled out of the train's way, still bare centimetres from the windows, held tightly back by shopkeepers. Disembarking, we hurried back the way the train had come, hoping to see the market setting itself back up... and found those same awnings on long poles, extending over our heads, making a shady corridor of the tracks. Produce was piled up on the ground, right up to the rails. It almost looked like an ordinary, undisturbed market alley, apart from a few tell-tale signs - the rails under our feet, well-stocked tables cosily close but resting on rollers, easy to pull back.

We went for a stroll about Mae Klong town, returning to the market in time (we thought) to see the train departing again. The market was as we left it, so we assumed the train had not yet been through - until we saw the station, empty. It was hard to believe the market had cleared - awnings, tables, vendors, shoppers and all - and restored itself in the time we'd been away; maybe the train had vanished into the air instead, or been eaten by the market. I was sad to have missed the sight of it setting back up behind the train, but have since found some youtube videos: this one of the train going by, filmed from the market, this one from the back of the train as it goes through.

More market pictures (my camera gave out after this, sadly, so no pictures from the end of the journey):

Near the market several large blue songtaew were parked, and we, asking how to get to our next destination, Ampawa, were directed to the number 1. This took us over canal-crossed land (and super-steep bridges) to the town of Ampawa, whose floating market makes a refreshing change from the tourist traps that Bangkok's floating markets have become. Ampawa is a tourist destination too, but one frequented by Thai rather than farang visitors, and it shows. The covered market sells kitsch countryside souvenirs like wind-up toys and old-fashioned sweets, and the floating market itself consists of boats that each cook and serve one or two dishes - we sampled the pad thai, prawn fritters, grilled scallops and Thai iced tea, perched on stools at the top of a steep flight of canal-side steps.

Ampawa's main temple also reportedly has some very fine murals (a particular cultural fetish of mine) which I didn't get the time to check out. It also looks like a charming place to stay for a night, with tiny guesthouses, little bars overlooking the canals, and the promise of fireflies at night - I guess I'll just have to go back...

But we needed to get back to Bangkok. There was a bus parked in the temple grounds, and knowing there are regular buses between Ampawa and Bangkok, I asked the driver if he was heading city-wards. He said yes, but this particular bus had been hired by a tour group - but after a quick chat they offered us a ride. There weren't enough seats for everyone - Alex was given a plastic chair in the aisle - and the group gave us both bottled water. We drove under the sunset through the salt flats, stopping at a market by the highway so members of the tour group could buy fruits and freshly-dried sea salt. On the road again, the tour leader raffled off Buddhist amulets, seat numbers picked from a hat by various tour members. It was a lovely, unexpected ending to the day. They dropped us at Central Rama II from where we took a bus to Silom, and a tuk-tuk back to mine. Silom was lined with police trucks and razor wire - something I'd almost managed to forget about during the day.

Resident or visitor, if you haven't taken the train to Mae Klong yet, go. It's cheap (the whole day cost me under 300 baht, including transport, two meals, snacks, and souveniers) and easy to do from the city but feels like a different world.

Silom and the Redshirt Camp: Snapshots

2010-04-26T11:37:00.012+07:00

Yesterday I happened to be on Silom, and so walked up the road to take a look at the Sala Daeng redshirt camp. This post is for pictures and observations, not political commentary - there's plenty of that to be found elsewhere online; this post is only intended to document what one person who lives in the area saw, on one afternoon. For any friends reading this outside of Bangkok, I will say this - I felt comfortable walking there because I know the area well and it was the middle of a calm afternoon, and I took these pictures in part to show that while not uniformly pleasant, the atmosphere in Bangkok right now is not the nightmare some outside observers must imagine it to be (and remember, there are plenty of unaffected areas).

As I walked up Silom I passed soldiers stationed on corners and outside banks, cafés, 7-11s. Some alert, some reading papers or dozing in their vehicles.

I glimpsed some of them moving in Patpong, under a sign saying PUSSY. Around Patpong, the usual stalls selling t-shirts, handbags, garish art and wooden frogs/Buddhas/dancers/phalluses were still going, though there was only an occasional browsing tourist - for the first time in my life, I found the sight of them heartening.

Under Sala Daeng station were more soldiers, and plenty of coils of barbed wire cutting the street into sections. Several businesses were closed, but not all, and the open cafés had a fair few patrons. The barricade on the other side of the road was certainly impressive:

I noticed some press guys and ordinary pedestrians, slipping round the side, so followed and found myself in the red camp. It was transformed from the place I'd seen a week ago - signs of people camping out there for a while were apparent, with a toilet bus and piles of litter; the pavement alongside Ratchadamri was a street market, protest gear interspersed with stalls selling food, shirts, underwear. Passed a bus stop converted into a red gear shop, and a TRUTH TODAY coffee stand:

Down at the front of the camp, the protesters had moved quite a way back from the barricade, and people were milling about in the space in front of Lumphini park, listening to speeches on the large speakers or lining up for food. A foreign reporter spoke straight-faced and serious to a camera, while a man with a crude political puppet posed behind him:

On my way out I saw flyers depicting PM Abhisit stuck on pillars with the eyes scratched out; a man shifting a sack of rubbish passed me and said, 'he's a demon'.

I went back to Silom after that, to sit in Coffee Society and write. My fellow patrons were looking up news stories on their laptops, or watching the soldiers on the pavement outside. A French press photographer wearing a helmet, facemask and padded vest came in, ordered an urgent expresso, and left his gear (as well as some cheese) with the staff as he went outside for a smoke. Later he came back and requested his cheese, telling the staff it was good stuff from France and they should try some - that moment won for most surreal of the day.

As it started getting dark and Silom started filling up with riot police, I left, walking by the bamboo fortifications to catch my bus home.

Weekly Photo: Get Out Of Town

2010-04-25T21:56:00.003+07:00

A rainy morning at Wongwien Yai station; the 9:40 train to Mahachai; a breakfast market. The start of an adventure that I'll write up here in full next week. Glorious - but don't take my word for it, get on that train and get out of town for a day.

Brief Update

2010-04-19T14:19:00.003+07:00

Starting a walking blog shortly before demonstrators took to the streets throughout the city, and deciding to feature night-walks at a time when the saftey of walking around at night is looking a lot less certain, aren't the most practical things I've ever done. But as I type, things are quiet, and of course there's much of the city that's still unaffected. So I'll be seeking out some peaceful places to walk and explore, and writing those up, because a few of the posts I currently have drafted are in spots that could be volatile. That said, my next post will be a canal walk in the old town, because it's an interesting walk and was mostly quiet the last time I did it.

I was in Chiang Mai for Songkran, which is why it's been quiet on here of late. Since getting back, I've walked through the redshirt camp in front of Lumphini, which was quite sleepy at noon yesterday (activity including a teenager charging his phone from a dangling power extension cord while listening to music on it, and a man buying an iced coffee), though I noticed a cardboard memorial (slightly rain-sodden) with messages painted on it and a picture of a tank, which hadn't been there before - presumably for the victims of the clash with the army.

A friend who visited Silom today reported that there were soldiers hanging round and barbed wire on parts of the pavement, but seems like the redshirts have decided not to march on Silom as they had planned. Bangkok does feel more tense than when I left it, but peaceful at the moment.

Weekly Photo: Condom-Lantern

2010-04-17T22:15:00.003+07:00

Condom-lantern at Cabbages and Condoms, totally unique Thai restaurant on Sukhumvit soi 12. The decor includes lanterns like this, figures with stylish condom-outfits, and hanging baskets of condom flowers, plus fairy lights and lush trees - the overall effect is quite beautiful and romantic; the sex-positive and queer-positive vibe is warm and fuzzy-making, too (their shop sells posters and postcards depicting various sexual positions between a mix of hetero, gay and lesbian couples, labelled 'OK' 'condom needed' or 'don't swallow' as appropriate), reflecting one of my favourite aspects of this city.

Weekly Photo: Pavement Creature

2010-04-11T11:00:00.002+07:00

Seen on Thong Lor - on a bridge over a khlong, a root jutting through the pavement, embellished into a lizard/crocodile sort of beast.

Weekly Photo(s): Ooh-Ahh, Magic Bus

2010-04-05T18:08:00.003+07:00

In Old Bangkok, down by a bat-haunted canal, traditional mythology is still alive and gleaming on the side of a tourbus:

...and just down the road, not-so-traditional mythological figures:

The Night Temple

2010-04-02T08:43:00.007+07:00

As soon as I heard Wat Pho had extended its opening hours to 9 p.m. I was itching to pay it a night-time visit. I'll never get tired of Wat Pho, which has an edge over most of the temples in Bangkok for me because it's just weirder: the dimensions of the Reclining Buddha obscured by thick pillars and leaping suddenly out, surely too big to be contained in that chapel; stupas mosaicked with ceramic instead of mirrors, in picture-book colours. A courtyard full of Chinese ballast statues, cartoonish faces, unreal bodies, mad expressions. My favourite are the hatted and bulb-nosed European stone giants that guard the inner gates - they even manage to be surreal when described on dry tourist information sites, as "four pairs of Marco Polo".

Night just makes it more unreal. To start with, when I went down at sunset yesterday, I wasn't sure if it was open - most of the gates were shut, and the signs outside said it closed at 5 p.m. Then I found one last open gate, beyond which the ticket booth was still selling tickets (B50) and another sign said that the temple closed at 6 p.m. I wandered around the grounds for a while, and they were still letting people in when I left, some time around 8. Seeing it without crowds, and with stray night breezes gusting through the courtyards, was pleasant and a little creepy. It wasn't as well-lit as I'd expected, which made going through the statue-filled grounds all the creepier; I couldn't stop thinking of Miyazaki's Spirited Away and expecting lanterns to glimmer into being and the stone creatures to come to life. A few buildings were lit up golden among the shadow-spires; a few stray cats and dogs kept me company.

After that I walked out and away to the river to Saranrom Royal Park, which has in its lifetime been a palace garden and a zoo, and has a monument to a drowned queen, some lovely haunted-looking trees and good night-time people-watching.

In all, an excellent evening out for a loner flâneur with an overactive imagination.

Wat Pho is located on Sanam Chai road and Maharaj road next to the Grand Palace. Admission 50 baht, 'polite dress' required (no shorts). Very close to Tha Tien express boat pier.

Things to do in April

2010-03-31T15:40:00.005+07:00

Thank god it's nearly Songkran. I have never actually experienced the festival in Bangkok, as I usually go to Chiang Mai at this time of year, ~~but conventional wisdom has it that Sanam Luang is the place for cultural festivities, Khao San for kerayzee party times. I don't know if protests are planned for the holiday this year?~~* It seemed to get pretty nasty last year (going from the news - I was in Pai at the time, where people were wearing red and yellow without a thought for the political implications and everyone was too stoned to pay attention to the news), and I hope Bangkok's streets get a good Songkran in 2010. Have fun and stay safe!

*ETA I've just heard that the festival will mostly be happening on Silom now? Keep an eye on the news...

As for the rest of the month, a few ideas:

Culture
The Museum of Siam has an exhibition on Luk Thung music and the culture surrounding it. Looks like fun, and in keeping with the festive spirit! The Museum of Siam (also called the Discovery Museum) is a slick multimedia edutainment type venture, and a very pleasant place to spend a hot day. Very close to Wat Pho and the Tha Tien express boat pier.

I’m going to be featuring night-time walks and activities here through the hot season, and am really excited by the news (which had passed me by until now) that Wat Pho has extended its opening hours into the night. The old buildings, the forts and temples of Old Bangkok are gorgeous at night, and the chance to explore one of the city's oldest temples sans sun/crowds sounds great. I haven't been able to find much news on this apart from a Bangkok Post feature, but will go check it out as soon as I can.

Theatre
!RIGHT NOW! The Alliance Francaise is hosting a week of Thai and French theatre. It started yesterday and is going on till April 3. An intriguing mix of cultural and stylistic influences.
The Alliance Francaise is on Sathorn Tai, walkable from Lumpini metro station.

Art
There should be a new BAM! out soon for art fanciers, so I may do an art post when I've got my hands on a copy. For now: Unhidden, photography by Police Captain Surat Osathanugrah with a focus on everyday objects. The mundane objects I see when walking or riding songtaews often strike me as having a beauty or strangeness of their own, so this will be an interesting one for me.
On till April 24, at Bangkok University Gallery on Rama IV.

And this Friday (April 2) at Attic Studios is the fifth in their successful monthly 'First Friday' events. Lots of art scene people, but it's not pretentious at all, and with heaps of atmosphere and booze and good art. This month the evening will be featuring work by a young photographer, Coco Anantawat, plus a sculpture session with guest teacher Gavin Fifield. Sometimes they have live music, I don't know about this month.
Starts at 7pm. Attic Studios is at 24/1 Sukhumvit soi 31.

Weekly Photo: Street Fish

2010-03-28T22:44:00.003+07:00

I stayed at work late the other night and this was the first thing I saw when I came out onto the street. The suspended fish looked like they were floating in the air, maybe making their way home past the stalling traffic as I was, or just starting their night. Sort of moment you could believe you stepped out into a different version of the city than the one you left, one where fish float about their business instead of lying passively on restaurant tables. The three deity-figures looking on from the back of the shop were another nice surreal touch.

Art Miscellany: Cosmopolitan Edition

2010-03-25T13:48:00.005+07:00

There's not a whole lot of rhyme or reason to my choice of art exhibitions/events to recommend here - for something more comprehensive, look for BAM! in cafés etc, or look listings online (I just found the Thai Art Exhibition blog, which is good for country-wide stuff as well as Bangkok) - but here are a smattering of appealing arty things, all walkable from skytrain stations (er, except the last, because that is in New York).

Another Side at La Lanta Fine Art -an "international exhibition of contemporary art that explores visual artists' understanding of the unconscious as it can be expressed by dreams", including painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography and video installation. I haven't had the chance to see this yet, but it looks good. I love exhibitions where a mix of artists interpret a theme - the links and contrasts always fire up the creative bits in my brain, and this looks especially likely, with dreams as the subject matter.
La Lanta is at 245/14, Sukhumvit 31, close to Phrom Pong skytrain station. Ongoing till April 30.

Ending very soon (why do I always notice these things late, despite being on the lookout for interesting art?) is Trans-Cool TOKYO at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, an exhibition of works from the collection of Tokyo's museum of contemporary art. Looks worth making the time to check out in the next few days. Contemporary Japanese art is always a good time.
On the 9th floor of BACC, right by National Stadium skytrain station. Ends March 28.

And if, by some chance, you're in New York and reading this, there's an exhibition by Pinaree Sanpitak on at Tyler Rollins Fine Art. I was lucky enough to go on an art tour that included a visit to Khun Pinaree at her house, and she is so lovely and down-to-earth and her work so beautiful. It's fantastic that she's being featured in a NY gallery. The exhibition's called Quietly Floating and is on till April 17, and after that is Karma Cash & Carry by Jakkai Sirbutr (April 22-June 5). I saw a lot of the works that will feature in Khun Jakkai's exhibition at H Gallery earlier this month and they are well worth seeing. Again, it makes me so happy to see brilliant new Thai art being shown in New York. I just wish I could go...

Weekly Photo(s): Redshirts!

2010-03-21T19:43:00.004+07:00

Well, I finally saw me some protests. Yesterday I was travelling by skytrain from Saphan Taksin to Siam. At Saphan Taksin the platform looked out on a stream of bikes and pick-ups bright with red shirts, red bandanas, red fluttering flags. The riders grinned and waved at the waiting passengers. From of the train window I could see the streets below, the red convoy continuing almost all the way to Siam station. Every time the train stopped and the doors opened we got a blast of honking, cheering and the rattle of plastic clappers. Looking down as we went over Silom and Rama IV roads I saw pedestrians, saw workers from offices and from construction sites waving and clapping from the pavement. The city below the train route was exuberant; it felt surreal and special. Not everyone is welcoming the Redshirts, and there has been negative impact on some businesses (a problem especially for small/independent ones), but this is a far cry from the dangerous situation a lot of English-language sources were predicting. Where it goes from here remains to be seen.

Recommended reporting from bloggers who got closer than I:

Red Shirt Protests: Day 8 from Gavin Gough
Red Shirts in Bangkok: Signs of the Time from womenlearnthai.com (with translations of banner slogans)

On a different note, I'm way slower than I intended in making the walking-journal and walking-guide kind of posts I started this blog for. A combination of factors - life being incredibly busy, those kinds of posts taking longer to create than I'd imagined, and the protests meaning I can't always easily get to the places I want to check out. But I'm working on it, and here's what's coming up:

A khlong-side walk in Rattanakosin
Walking at night (a series of posts)
A peek inside the National Museum

And I'm open to requests, if anyone wants to know my thoughts on walking in a particular part of the city.

'Red March' Continues

2010-03-16T11:26:00.007+07:00

More photos from days two and three of the red shirt protests are up on Gavin Gough's blog - whatever your take on the political situation, this is great photography and worth a look.

My corner of the city has gone from slightly quieter than usual on the weekend to completely normal this week, and all I know about the protests is what I hear from friends who live in affected areas. They describe it almost like a high-spirited street parade, masks and waving flags, office workers coming down to the street to cheer the protesters on. Then there are the news reports, including ones on the UDD's (United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship) threat to splash Government House with 1,000 litres of blood (to be contributed by its supporters) unless Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva steps down. Some are outraged by this, calling it a terrible waste, others are saying it will probably be fake blood or pigs' blood that's used. It also appears that two soldiers were wounded by two grenades thrown yesterday, but I can't find any clear reporting on that incident. As ever, it's hard to tell what's really happening or what will happen - but at least the general atmosphere still feels far from real large-scale bloodshed.

A Different Take

2010-03-14T07:54:00.004+07:00

Photographer Gavin Gough has some photos of yesterday's protests up on his blog, and he describes the atmosphere:

The atmosphere today was celebratory, almost carnival-like. There was plenty of music and although the song lyrics were unmistakably pro-Thaksin and anti-Government, everyone managed to have a good sing-along. As for tomorrow, well that’s another day…

The pictures are great, check them out here.

How Not to Panic

2010-03-12T12:12:00.003+07:00

Mass anti-government rallies are set to happen this weekend, with red-shirted protesters coming in from the country and the city under heightened security. I'm not going to pretend this isn't a problem, but neither is it cause for widespread panic and paranoia. My parents tell me this attitude is the British war-time spirit, the knowledge that Life Goes On seeping down the psychology of generations, but it seems more like the Bangkok spirit to me. Or maybe just common sense. Come rain or shine or civil unrest, the city has to keep working, keep playing.

I know I'm speaking from the shiny, air-conditioned safety of the expat bubble. I don't like the bubble, but I acknowledge the privilege that inhabiting it gives me, and I'm trying to stay conscious of that while talking about political situations here. But I'm always disappointed when influential foreign organisations or figures exaggerate the danger. I often hear expats talk patronisingly about how rallies like this one harm tourism and the daily functioning of the city, but so does panicking!

Anyway, my advice is to keep an eye on the news, adjust whatever plans you had for the weekend accordingly, and then carry on with them. The Bangkok Post and the Nation will both have regular updates, and here's a map of protest hot spots.

Avoid travel by car as much as possible, because the roads that aren't closed will be super-congested. Walking is fun! The skytrain and metro will get you around swiftly. If you do want to stay in, invite some neighbours round for a movie night, as we're doing in my soi (a good chance to watch some of the Oscar winners/nominees, in highest-quality night market DVD format). I'm also taking the opportunity of a day off work to stay in and do some writing. But if I decide to go to the cinema, or out dancing, later, I doubt it will be the end of me.

Tomorrow I'm still planning to do front of house for BCT's Pinocchio, which has a fantastic director and cast and still deserves an audience - go! It's at the British Club, near enough to Chong Nonsi skytrain station for travelling there and back not to be a problem, and the club itself is a very relaxed, sheltered space. Check their website for more information.

Have a nice weeked, everyone, and don't panic.

A Walking Tour: Up Old New Road

2010-03-08T16:08:00.013+07:00

If winter happened at all this year (it did in Chiang Mai, I know, I was there, but apparently not so much in Bangkok), it’s definitely over now, with the sun unrelenting on the glass and concrete towers, and the Emerald Buddha having been changed into its summer costume. I recently wrote about hiding from the heat, but enough about that: the pavements are still there, and as worth walking as ever. There are areas that will be more pleasant to walk in than others, though – places near the river, or shaded by big trees, or populated with cafes and other oases. So I present my first walking guide: Charoen Krung or New Road, the oldest road in Bangkok.

A bit of history: In the nineteenth century Western residents in this city of waterways petitioned for a road, blaming their ill health on not being able to take carriage rides in the fresh air. Construction of the ‘New Road’ began under King Rama IV in 1861. The completed soil road ran along the east bank of the Chao Praya and much of its route is the same today, with its commercial and multicultural history still very visible all along it. This walk focuses on the central stretch of the road, between Saphan Taksin bridge and Chinatown – north of the area I cover here are Yaowarat and Rattanakosin, which need their own entries. It would be impossible to cover every point of interest, and as well as the places mentioned below are plenty of smaller temples and shrines, plus hotels and restaurants for every budget, vendors of all sorts, tailors, jewellers, galleries, cafés, gallery-cafés, and so forth.

Saphan Taksin is a good place to start, and can

be reached by skytrain, express boat, the 1, 15, and 75 buses or the 1256 songtaew. The area under and around the skytrain station is open and often breezy, with decent street food, a small park and a Chinese shrine. Coming up from the river or out of the station onto Charoen Krung, I turned left and went a little way down to Wat Yannawa, or 'Temple of the Junk'. This boat-shaped temple was built under Rama III when trade with China was blooming, as a monument to the Chinese junk. There are stairs inside the boat-building leading up to the 'deck' and and a cabin with statues and incense.

A more recent piece of economic history: on the other side of the road from the wat is the creepily beautiful Sathorn Unique building, a 47-storey tower half-built and abandoned in the ‘97 economic crisis. Frilly balconies, ivory-white two thirds of the way up and then unpainted weathered grey, metal rods fraying out. There are quite a few ghost constructions like this in Bangkok, slowly disintegrating. People squat inside, or visit to graffiti the walls.

Back past Saphan Taksin and you're in Bang Rak, one of the original districts Bangkok was divided into. Districts were often named after what was made or sold there. Was this literally 'Love Village', or is that a coincidence, the spelling having evolved as place names do from something different? The covered market here sells dry goods at the front, dark interior smelling of spice, then becomes a fish and meat market - not for the squeamish.

Further up the main road, straight through the Assumption College grounds, is Assumption Cathedral, a building that touches several points in Bangkok's history - commissioned by a French missionary in 1809; refurbished after damage from the Allied bombings in WWII - and a few in my own (I was in a nativity play there as a small thing). As a lapsed Catholic I have an uneasy relationship with churches, especially ones built by missionaries, but on purely architectural grounds it's gorgeous. The area around is full of flaking colonial-age grandeur; a shortcut through the car park and down an alley that could have been sliced out of Italy (complete with elevated corridor-bridge between two buildings) brings you to the Oriental hotel, established in 1876 and visited by Joseph Conrad and Somerset Maugham - part of the modern hotel is still called the Author's Wing, and the Author's Lounge is a veritable paradise of macaroon-coloured palm-fronded pristine indulgence where the flaneur can rest her weary feet before heading back out to the real world.

Out of the hotel and left, up the street, left again and past the O.P. shopping plaza brings you to a street of green-painted shutters and weed-sprung concrete facades, at the end of which is the Old Customs House. Designed by an Italian and built in 1890, it was known as the southern gateway to the city by foreign merchants coming upriver from the sea, who would have to stop there. It's now used by the Bang Rak fire brigade, who park their engines there, but you can still wander round and look at its crumbling elegant front, which faces the river. Back up the street there are tiny alleys leading into Haroon Village, a Muslim community with shaded streets and a small mosque. This was the first mosque I've ever visited in Bangkok where the building was divided between women and men's sections, and not realising this at first I went in through what looked like the main entrance only to be tutted at and told to go around the back. A few years ago this would have sent me off in a huff, but if urban exploration has taught me anything it's that you see and hear and learn and think a whole lot more if you stay curious and stay patient. Inside it was quite beautiful and calm, and the people there were happy to show me around.

Beyond the Haroon Village, Charoen Krung carries on past the imposing General Post Office, and you can carry on to Captain Bush Lane (named after a British ships' captain employed by the Siamese court in the nineteenth century; Bush later became an admiral and is buried in the protestant cemetery further south on Charoen Krung) and River City shopping centre, where you can embark on river tours, or take the express boat back to Saphan Taksin. Or carry on up to Chinatown, or the Rare Stone Museum, or the Bangkokian Museum (the home of a local family preserved as it was during WWII, recommended).

I found myself a pavement café with no name down a shady soi that did a very decent toastie and banana-coffee shake. I'd recommend it but, well, no name.

View A Walk up Old New Road in a larger map

Weekly Photo: Taxi tribe

2010-03-06T23:21:00.004+07:00

This motley crew was riding atop the taxi next to mine in a traffic jam this evening. The awesome, I have no words for it.

Things to do in March

2010-03-06T12:04:00.004+07:00

It's March, only the start of the hot season, and already sweltering. Here, then, a selection of goings-on to distract from the heat, most of them air-conditioned.

Theatre
BCT's upcoming production Pinocchio should be wonderful. Interactive fairytale storytelling theatre in the round? Yes please! I'm a BCT member so this is a bit of a plug, but I sincerely recommend this for anyone with kids or the young-at-heart. Show up early at the British Club (Silom soi 18), where there will be a food and drink for sale, plus a bouncy castle and pre-show craft activity.
Tickets are 200 baht and can be bought in the lobby of BNH Hospital on convent road. Show times are 1:30pm and 4pm on Saturday and Sunday, March 13-14 and March 20-21.

Local History
The Rattanakosin Exhibition Hall opens to the public on March 9. This interactive museum will showcase the history of Rattanakosin Island, Bangkok's earliest incarnation. It sounds very high-tech and immersive, and the press pictures are gorgeous - it will be interesting to see how this sleek edutainment compares to the experience of exploring Rattanakosin independently. It will certainly be less sweaty.
The Exhibition Hall also promises monthly events and activities, and a library of rare books about Rattanakosin. There's a Bangkok Post article about it here, worth a read.
Tickets will be 100 baht for the 'promotion period' (though the press release doesn't say how long that lasts) and 200 baht thereafter, 50 baht for kids. It is located next to Mahajesadabodintr Pavilion Court on Ratchadamnoen Klang Avenue.

Books

The Bangkok International Book Fair runs from March 26 to April 6. There are hundreds of booksellers and books in several languages, publications you wouldn't normally find in Bangkok, and some good discounts. Good for hunting out special interest books, or just browsing. It's at the Queen Sirikit Convention Centre (which has its own metro stop), free to the public, open 10am-9pm.

Music

The Bangkok Jazz Festival, a 6-day event featuring artists from everywhere, starting at 6pm.

March 9-14 at Central World Square. Outdoors, but there should be fans and plenty of cold drinks available.

Film

I really wish I'd heard about the Japanese Film Festival earlier - it ends tomorrow. This year's theme is 'emerging Japanese female directors', which is intriguing and exciting. There are two films showing on each day of the festival, and as I'm writing this there are still three more showings - One Million Yen Girl today (at 4pm), and The Mourning Forest and Dear Doctor tomorrow. The screenings are at Siam Paragon and tickets are free, to be collected one hour before the showing.

Art

Most of the exhibitions mentioned in my last post are still going, and I've also spotted an exhibition of surrealist and fantasy art by HSH Princess Marsi Paribatra, in the Hall of Mirrors in Siam Paragon, open 10am-9pm until March 29.

Art spaces and current exhibitions

2010-02-27T13:06:00.004+07:00

I've been looking at art in the city today and am full of joy and fire from it, so here are a few of my favourite art spaces along with current exhibitions that I've enjoyed or am planning to check out.

I've chosen things that are a) free (except Eat Me, because that's a restaurant) and b) easy to get to from a skytrain station. There's so much more out there, so if you like art and don't already know about BAM! (Bangkok Art Map), look out for it in galleries and cafés. It's a free monthly guide to what's happening on Bangkok's art scene, with exhibition listings and a map showing where they all are. But here are my picks:

Thavibu - Solid by Pinaree Sanpitak (13 Feb - 31 Mar) and Bangkok Station by Therdkiat Wangwatcharakul (13 Feb - 7 Mar)
These are my two favourite Thai artists and I was so excited to discover they both have exhibitions at the same gallery right now. Pinaree does amazing sculpture and installation work in varied media based on a breast/stupa motif, always elegant and ever-so-slightly strange. Solid features both aluminium and Murano glass sculptures. Therdkiat is known for his oil paintings on aluminium sheets, showing scenes from daily life in Bangkok's streets, the grunge and the transient beauty.
Thavibu is on the 3rd floor of the Silom Galleria Building, 919/1 Silom Rd. I've never been there but it looks easy to get to from Surasak BTS station. Open 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. Tue-Sat; noon - 6 p.m. Sun; closed Monday.

A joint recommendation: H Gallery and Eat Me. H Gallery specialises in contemporary Asian art and often shows work with a deep sense of aesthetics and relevance. Its current exhibition is Thai Contemporary Art, featuring several artists, including Jakkai Siributr, whose textile and mixed media pieces play with spiritualism and materialism and are a bit breathtaking. I'm trying not to gush, but really, if you're in Bangkok go see this. He manages to make art that's fragmentary and cohesive at once. I'm in love.
H Gallery is on Sathorn soi 12 (round the corner from Chong Nonsi BTS station), open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. except Tuesdays ("Tuesdays by appointment or by chance", the website says).

Eat Me is a a restuarant which also exhibits art and is curated by H Gallery. As a restaurant it's great, has the nicest vegetarian options of any upmarket eatery I've been to, awesome deserts (English breakfast tea-flavoured ice cream!), and a wicked mars bar vodka that sometimes comes out at the end of a meal. Their current exhibition is Transit 7, photography by Glen Wexler, January through April. The photos run around the walls on a continuous backlit strip, and are of the things I wish I could capture - glimpses by roadsides of the passing-by world, quirks of city corners, buildings, rooftops.
Eat Me is in soi Phipat 2, off Convent Rd. (close to Sala Daeng BTS station), open evenings, check website for number to call for reservations.

The Thailand Creative & Design Center, on the top floor of Emporium shopping centre, has an exhibition of Japanese bamboo handicrafts (28 Jan - 25 Apr; 10:30 a.m. - 9 p.m.). The exhibition includes information on the history and technique of bamboo weaving in the city of Beppu, tables with bamboo strips and instructions so visitors can try their hand at the craft, and stunning examples of basketry. Some of the pieces look more functional than others but all are artistic, and the range of shapes and textures and styles that can be created with just strips of split bamboo is impressive.

Khlong Toey street opera

2010-02-24T15:10:00.005+07:00

I went on a night-time wander in Khlong Toey district. Though the main city roads aren't known as pleasant walking spots, the edge of Rama III that runs alongside the Khlong Toey slums is certainly interesting, a strip of thick pavement, flyover-roofed, where the community unwinds in the evening - I passed groups of friends chatting outside shops (watching me as I watched them), a caged-off court where two middle-aged men in vests played table tennis, and a mobile whiskey-shop.

I came to the corner of Rama IV, where there's a Chinese temple, and there on a stage painted with neon rabbits and peaches an opera was being performed. As I approached I got a glimpse into the backstage area through a doorway spilling yellow light, where headdresses hung from the ceiling and boys were painting their faces white and red. I stayed to watch a bit, alongside a small audience of old ladies. This was at one end of the temple's packed courtyard - the rest was filled with round tables, where men sat listening to the results of a raffle being announced. The opera (lingering courtly scenes, more pacy wilderness scenes with shouts and fighting, drums, thin melodic strings) and the raffle (with gongs, and cellophane-wrapped baskets of oranges or packaged foods) clashed with each other in the air.

Friends have told me how they've also stumbled upon Chinese street opera this time of year, in backstreets in areas with a Chinese population. I'm glad I found this, though sad that most of the people at the temple seemed to be ignoring it. Still, as I watched, more people wandered in through the gate, whether from the market or the slums or other passers-through I don't know. Not sure how long it's going on till, but it might still be there, worth a look if you happen to be in the area.

See also
Khlong Toei: A Night Stroll

Weekly Photo: Soi 4

2010-02-21T23:35:00.003+07:00

Friday night on Silom soi 4, popular gay nightspot.

Chinese New Year, Yaowarat, 14 Feb 2010

2010-02-21T17:55:00.007+07:00

Last Sunday, just after midnight. Wending home from the Rain Dogs goodbye party, down soi Suan Plu, where families set up glowing pavement shrines on red tables, with statues, heady incense, oranges, peacock feathers, sweets, recorded chiming music. Gunpowder smoke overpowering the petrol-smell of the roads, firecrackers set off in abundance in the middle of the night.

Last Sunday, late afternoon. I took the express boat from Saphan Taksin to Rachawongse pier, and walked in the direction of Yaowarat Road to watch the spectacular performances celebrating Chinese New Year festivities - and they were spectacular, when I eventually reached them, but the festival beckoned from every side-street on the way, so I digressed and dawdled the last of the daylit hours away. A shrine tucked down one soi, bright and crowded. A covered market of dried fruits, gold nugget-shaped chocolates, sweets inside golden fish, with people heading further into the gloom of stalls, towards a temple. A little street with food carts, a woman stirring peanuts in a great roasting-pan, coffee stands.

The main road, heaving with crowds, hung over with red lanterns and yellow banners, lined with food stalls (20-30 baht a portion for everything I sampled). Men and women went about with huge bunches of novelty balloons, toy drums, dragon puppets. I reached the south end of Yaowarat as it got dark, walked under a glowing canopy of lanterns, saw a troupe of flashing snapping lion-dancers perform in a small crowd-clearing, came at last to the stage by China Gate. The acts included opera, acrobats, dancers from all over China, puppets, drumming - and, incongruously, some Thai pop stars that the audience screamed and waved flashing signs for. The performance that sticks in my mind most was a group of dancers in elaborate Chinese Opera gear, whose masks changed multiple times throughout, going from red to green or a feline-featured full-face mask to a black and white half-mask. The changes seemed instantaneous - perhaps a mechanism in their costume that pulled each face away too fast for us to notice? I don't know, but it was amazing.

Yaowarat Road is always worth a visit, especially at night with its neon and street food, but at festival-times it's nothing short of magical.

Singha Golbal Carnival

2010-02-15T14:11:00.007+07:00

On Ploenchit, Feb 10 - Mar 14

Aesthetically this is nice, especially at night: glittering reeling rides surrounded by high-rises and malls and the rushing road. But it's very overpriced. 50 baht gets you in, and then you buy non-refundable tokens like oversized bronze coins at 25 baht each; most of the rides that adults can go on are four tokens, so 100 baht, per ride (my friends and I very much wanted to go on the teacups and creepy-faced caterpillar train, but alas, only kids were allowed). The ferris wheel (again, beautiful, carriages like tiny hot-air balloons, peppermint-striped) was fun and gave a good view of the whole carnival and the rides - which could have been a wonderful fairy tale of a place, with its old-school rides, if only there were some crowds and stalls selling hot food. I also went on the flying swings, which were worth the three tokens for the wheeling cityscape view. We spent the last of our tokens on the win-a-giant-Disney-animal games, seemingly designed to be impossible to win - the least difficult involved using a light leather ball to knock heavy metal cans off a stand with a rim.

The verdict: quite fun, though if it was cheaper there would be more people and hence more atmosphere. The Loy Krathong fair at Wat Saket is far better value, with ten-baht attractions and a tiny ferris wheel that takes you round and round forever, and you can hardly move for food and atmosphere - but you'll have to wait till November for that.

Getting there: walk down Ploenchit road from Central Chidlom or Chidlom station, find the lights and music...

Next up: Chinese New Year festivities on Yaowarat Road

Weekly Photo: Lumphini Park flashmob

2010-02-13T15:06:00.005+07:00

I'll try to do a weekly photo on here - something that speaks for itself...

Good night, Rain Dogs

2010-02-10T11:00:00.003+07:00

One year ago:

It's dark and I'm in the Khlong Toei district, wandering over gleaming silver railway tracks, under a flyover, trying not to be hit by the taxis that shoot across this five-way junction. My friend Kevin's theatre collective is putting on a show in a bar called Rain Dogs, and the directions he gave me led to this knot of road and rail and pavement. I hate admitting I'm lost, but eventually I give in and call him up. He directs me to the furthest end of the junction from where I am, down a narrow strip of pavement fenced off from the foot of the flyover, lined with derelict shops, smashed windows, piles of swept rubbish. I must have gone wrong again... no, there's a light ahead, and a leering papier mache giant by a white wall.

The wall says RAIN DOGS. The bar crouches against the flyover, secretive, but it opens up like a friend's house when you step through the gateway. A garden with wooden chairs and tables to sit on, a dance room with wide open sides, ceramic tiled floor, turntables, the bar through another door in a low-lit room with mismatched armchairs and lamps. The actors are still having pre-show drinks/red bull; the night is hot and crackly. In the dance room, a long swathe of red cloth and wooden swings on knotted ropes hang from the ceiling in front of a screen with black-and-white circus imagery projected onto it. The show: Narkok - Burning Down the Big Top - a wordless grotesque movement-filled extravaganza mixing circus magic with the Buddhist conception of hell. The audience are all given white balloons that a cackling ringmaster snatches and bursts; clowns bounce together like blow-up dolls; a man bursts slick out of a barrel and dances on the dangling chains he climbs - later he stalks the crowd breathing fire and licking his gasoline lips. We are shunted from bar to dance room to outside and back in again, and it all ends with a girl in a rolling cage, fire, the baying crowd, the city night tangled and howling all around us. Walking back out at the end of the night, the midnight metropolis felt like an enormous big top itself.

That was my first visit to Rain Dogs. There were many more - an interactive art exhibition, where the artist taught us his craft and a poet insisted on writing verses on the back of every picture I did; screenings of odd films and documentaries; a late night walk on which I got lost until I found that junction and slipped down the side, to sit by the empty dance floor and leaf through a pamphlet of poems someone had left on the table; even regular club nights with DJs and dancing.

Last Saturday:

The place gutted of furniture, turntables atop a crate. Upstairs, on the balcony with friends, looking down on the garden which is more crowded than we've ever seen it. They've all come to wish the place farewell. After problems with neighbours and money the bar has closed. I'm deeply saddened by this - I was looking forwards to doing a post on here telling everyone to visit it. But the leaving party went on all that afternoon and deep into the night; it went out with a great bohemian roar. Here's hoping the people behind one of Bangkok's real gems start something equally wonderful in the future.

I leave you with a clip from Narok:

Things to do in February

2010-02-06T10:44:00.004+07:00

This is a month of red things, with long shining dragons below skytrain stations, Chinese lanterns, love-hearts and strawberries. When I was waiting for a bus to work the other day, the air around the street-market smelled of the usual early-morning grilling chicken and charcoal smoke mingled with velvety perfume from the stalls selling rose bouquets. It's a fun month, with lots going on, but as ever the things that get the big publicity are sales in the giant malls or hotel promotions or big nightclub parties. How to find the cheaper and more interesting diversions? Word of mouth, scouring the internet and boring small-print bits in the Outlook section of the Bangkok Post, or just happening to catch sight of something in the street. I've done a bit of research on likely-looking February happenings, and here present them, in case anyone needs ideas...

Celebrate Chinese New Year

This falls on the 14th of February (a Sunday) this year, and there's bound to be something happening at China Gate in Chinatown on the night. There have been puppet shows and lion dances in past years, and the area is lovely to wander through at dusk, with the lanterns glowing and stalls selling festival treats all along Yaowarat road. Look out for packets of mixed seed and nut brittle and pink and white sugared roasted peanuts.
Getting there: take the metro to Hua Lampong; China Gate is a short walk across the canal and down Thanon Mitaphap Thai-China. This is the symbolic beginning of Chinatown, and the bottom of Yaowarat road.

There are also Chinese cultural shows at Central World on the 6th and 7th (this weekend), from 6 to 8 p.m., showcasing various Chinese performing arts. Nearby is Central Chidlom, which I think has already had its New Year celebrations, but there was a giant lion head sitting in the car park when I went by last night, with red curtains drawn across its maw, which is quite intriguing.
Getting there: both Centrals World and Childom can be reached easily from the Chidlom skytrain station.

Also, Valentine's Day

This year, Chinese New Year is also Valentine's Day. There are all sorts of dinner and hotel promotions all over town, if that's your kind of thing. A lot of nightclubs are also doing Valentine's parties. An alternative is the final night of this year's Concert in the Park series at Lumpini park. These are free open-air concerts by the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, usually featuring a mix of classical pieces and showtunes, which run from December to February. It's a nice atmosphere with good music, and you can take a mat to sit on and a picnic (no alcohol in the park, though, unless you're very sneaky). Starts at 5:30.
Getting there: take the skytrain to Sala Daeng or the metro to Lumpini or Silom. I live nearby and so often take the 62 or 67 bus or the 1240 songtaew.

There's also a fun-fair being set up near Central Chidlom. I glimpsed a romantic-looking ferris wheel from the skytrain and tried to find out about it online, but to no avail, so I wandered down there last night and found a sign saying OPEN TO THE PUBLIC 10 FEBRUARY! I'm guessing it's linked to Chinese New Year or Valentine's or both. Looks like fun.

Eat strawberries!

The strawberry season has started. They're grown in Chiang Mai and brought down to Bangkok and we all go mad for them. Expect strawberry-themed specials in restaurants and cafes, and strawberry-sellers in street markets, especially in Old Bangkok and Chinatown.

An assortment of other things worth checking out...

An art exhibition that caught my eye - a photographic interpretation of Thai folktale Khun Chang Khun Phaen by New York artist Bruce Gundersen at the wonderful Patravadi Theatre's gallery. Open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Follow the link; Patravadi always has lots of interesting stuff going on.
Getting there: From their website: From Taksin BTS Station, exit at Exit 1 gate
Take Chao Praya Express boat from Taksin pier to Wanglang (Siriraj) Pier
From Wanglang Pier, turn left on Soi Wanglang (the Family Mart is at the corner of Soi Wanglang)
Walk about 600 metres, you will arrive at Patravadi Theatre.

And another - Urban Lines by Mark Schultz, also photography, at Face restaurant. This features retrospective pictures of Bangkok's development. Open 11 a.m. to 1 a.m., through March 10.
Getting there: 29 Sukhumvit soi 38, near Thonglor skytrain station.

A book fair at the Siam Society with 'books and journals and postcards and t-shirts and more', TODAY (February 6) from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. I'm not sure if this is mostly books to do with Thai culture and history or a general book sale, but in any case I will probably be there later, feeding my insatiable book habit.
Getting there: 313 Asoke Montri road (Sukhumvit 21), close to Sukhumvit metro station and Asoke skytrain station.

Flâneurism

2010-02-02T20:29:00.000+07:00

Bangkok is hot tarmac and concrete and metal, swaddled in carbon monoxide. In the hot season the canals reek. In the cool season there’s sometimes a breeze, but we haven’t had much of a cool season this year. It's polluted and blazing-bright, and I have a pale complexion which means I don't get on well with the sun. Still, I walk all over the place. Because the air-conditioned cars whose exhaust I trudge in might look tantalising, but how much of the city are the people sitting inside them actually experiencing? I don't walk everywhere all the time, because I'd probably die, but I hear people saying that Bangkok isn't a city you can walk in for pleasure, and I disagree entirely. I really recommend it, and have put some vaguely-organised thoughts on walking together in the hopes that it will encourage someone, somewhere, to go for a stroll.

Why I walk

I walk because the life of a city is in its streets. I walk because that's how you notice the points at which the world breaks away from the pavement, the odd things in shop windows, the art on the walls, the character of a certain street or district.

I walk because it's an interesting way to get to interesting places. I walk because sometimes you have to get hot and sticky and lost before you find the best things. Because travel by foot, even if you don't actually reach your destination, reveals an entirely different landscape to the one you think you know. I once, rather foolishly, decided to see if I could walk from my workplace on Charoen Krung to the Phra Kanong district, by cutting across the land in between, following the river. I got hopelessly lost and ended up going in a giant circle. But along the way I found myself walking, on elevated ramps, through a village-like community built over canals and surrounded by fields, right in the thick of the city. As I walked past an open doorway where an old woman sat cutting betel-nuts, I heard her call into the house, in Thai: 'hey, hey, a farang! Fetch Grandma, she has to see this! Aw, too late, Grandma missed the farang...'

I walk because the best language school is the school of alley-chats and pavement-shops. I learn Thai faster and better by walking in it, trading in it, asking directions, or for coffee, or where the hell I am. Treading it into my own brain.

I walk because, frankly, the street food in Bangkok is delicious, and the only way to find the best grilled squid or a new kind of technicolour dessert is to roam the pavements, sampling. It's certainly not weightwatchers' fare, but you're getting exercise at the same time, right?

A sweet seller on Chan Road

How I walk

By leaving my house and exploring the streets around it, turning whichever corners I haven't tried before. Or picking somewhere that looks interesting, travelling there by bus or boat, and wandering.

I never, ever go walking without a fat water-bottle, a camera, and Nancy Chandler's map of Bangkok. This is the most wonderful map in the world and perfect for the urban explorer, covered with little tips and recommendations and quirky details. You can buy them all over the place in town, or online.

I feel I should add the usual sorts of advice and warnings - wear sunscreen, cover up, don't let the touts fool you. But my real advice for walking in the city is just - have a sense of adventure.

Where I walk

Not everywhere is ideal for strolling. There are great swathes of concrete highways and ring-roads, knotted flyovers, without much to see, and little shade. (Even these, I think, are interesting to walk through a little, to see how different - how huge, almost alien - such places look when you're not in a car. But maybe that's me trying to justify myself after stumbling onto a long stretch of road and having to trek along it in hope of finding my path again.) There are lots of good places for walking, though. I want to write up walking tours of some of my favourite areas, but sometimes it's good to just get lost, in places like...

Old Bangkok. The most famed Bangkok sights are here, as well as plenty of temples and museums, and there are preserved canals with ornamental bridges, fascinating markets and cheap shops selling all sorts of things (I went for a walk along a canal there once, having scoured the posh malls in town for a ukulele with no luck, and lo! across the road was a row of musical instrument shops, one of them selling a whole range of very fine ukes). There's also Khao San road, of course. This area needs several blog posts of its own, but it's a great place to go exploring in general.

Chinatown. Again, needs its own post(s), but getting lost there is my idea of a good time.

Backstreets, side-streets, market streets in any part of town. You never know what you'll find. Sometimes nothing, sometimes absolute gems of hidden places. Canals, too, are great to walk alongside when you come across them.

Parks. Lumphini Park is vast and wonderful, with different activities taking place all day and great events throughout the year. But there are parks of varying size throughout the city and if I pass one, I'll walk through, just for the chance to be somewhere green and shady, with people to watch, and wildlife, and strange statues.

When I walk

November through February is the best season for walking. Night, and early morning, are the best times. Most of the time I get around by public transport, but even a short walk is worthwhile, whatever the season or time of day. It's interesting to go by foot along the same street at different times, and see how it changes...

That's all for now. Expect more area-specific guides in the future, and information on street food and other things that occur to me.

What's this?

2010-02-02T18:33:00.000+07:00

This is a blog dedicated to wandering around Bangkok. My aim is for it to serve as both a record of my experiences and an inspiration for other urban explorers, whether residents or visitors.

How qualified am I to do this? Who knows; I'm certainly not an expert on local geography, history, society or anything, but I'm madly in love with Bangkok and have spent most of my life here. I moved to this city when I was three, grew up here, left to study in the UK and then came back. Since returning, I've been going by foot and public transport all over town, scribbling down the things I see, learning scraps of local history, getting lost and looking for new spots, sights, sounds, flavours, experiences, puzzlements, lessons and other city-things. And writing about them in notebooks that nobody sees.

But I'm posting them here now, and maybe people will see them, and maybe even find them useful. If I write about a place I'll include whatever practical information seems relevant.

And pictures.

Allons-y!