The Streets Are Alive in Bangkok

SouthEast Asia - Thailand

April 1, 1996

The Streets Are Alive in Bangkok

The D&D Inn turned out to be a good recommendation. Our Bangkok room is clean; there is a Western-style toilet; there is even a TV with a few English-speaking channels. The bed is a bit hard, more like a brick; but that gives us a chance to put our air mattresses to use. (I hate lugging around things we don't use.) It's peaceful hee in our sixth floor room. But outside, it's another story.

Bangkok is crowded; it is noisy; it is alive. It is a city with no end. and from the ninth floor of the New World shopping center the view proved it; it sprawled on forever. But Bangkok is also a travellers' mecca. The Thai to foreigner ratio on Khaosarn Road is probably 4:1. For travellers, this is the road to be on. It is a place where airline tickets can be booked to anywhere. It's a place to shop, to eat, to sleep, to just hang out. And a lot of people do 'just hang out'. At every hour of the day we have seen people glued to their chairs in restaurants and cafes, eyes fixed on TV screens. To go out to eat is to hear the sirens of 'The Force', or the screams of 'Braveheart'. Video movies play non-stop. To see a particular movie, one need only wander the streets until a restaurant is located advertising it on its daily movie board, then nudge in between everyone else and veg.

The travellers we've seen here are a unique lot. It takes only a glance to distinguish them from the locals. Nose rings, eye-brow rings, lip-rings, belly-button rings, bell-bottoms, silver chains, peace symbols are all tell-tale signs. Even from behind it's hard to miss the beads dangling from a head of corn-rowed hair. "That actually doesn't look too bad on her," I commented to John. But when the tatoo-chested man turned around, I changed my mind.

We spent our first day in the city wandering around like everyone else. We did our laundry, got some money exchanged and booked air tickets to Nepal. We had to look carefully for a good travel service; they all gave us different stories on flights. The best air fare included, in sall print, an overnight in Bangladesh. Thanks, but no thanks. With these chores completed, we battled taxi and took-took traffic to make our way over a few blocks to the shopping center. We had one more errond to run. John needs new boots. Our new rule for a trip like this is to leave home with brand-new footgear. His were one year old before we left and the treads now, after wearing them continuously for five months, are non-existant. But the mall proved fruitless.

Name brand is a mis-nomer. In Thailand there are no copy-right laws so beware those familiar designer signs and labels. Look closely and you will see that the names have been changed slightly to protect the innocent. Cover Mark makeup replaces Cover Girl, Overland replaces Timberland, Benellon replaces Benetton, Guest and Live Strauss and Co. jeans take a keen eye to notice.

But the problem of buying John boots wasn't brand name, it was size. "Huge," one young man said when he looked at John's feet. He held his arms outstretched; the one that got away. Thai feet are small and a size 11D would be big enough for two of them. Finally though we located a pair of HiTec's and, as they say, if the shoe fits, buy it.

Despite the basterdizing of Western name brands, a true taste of Thailand can be had. And by a taste, I do mean a taste. Street vendors sell caramelized rice cakes, peanuts, deep fried seafood patties, broiled squid and boiled eggs. Roasted nuts, fruits, flower rings, dried herbs and seaweed line the sidewalk tables. "Hey anyone for some fried roaches?" Looking at it all got the gastric juices flowing so we followed our noses to an outdoor restaurant and ordered up some Pad Thai "Hold the spicy sauce please. And no bugs."

Our second afternoon in the city left us touring the Royal Temple. Traffic is much too heavy here to bother with road transportation, so we took the more popular mode of river boat. The boat whistle signals, Get Ready, Get Set, Go. Boats pull up just long enough to bump the dock and pull out again. You've got to be quick or risk doing the splits over some pretty grey, grim water.

The Royal temple is impressive. The mosaic tile work is beautiful and the roof tiles shine everywhere in red, green and yellow. Enormous stone statues guard gates and doorways. We walked around the temple for as long as we could before the intense Thai heat drove us back to our hotel. Temperatures of late have hit 40 C.

We've been in Bangkok three days now and we're finding that to be enough. The air here is horrendously polluted and with each breath our chests are aching. We contacted a friend of a friend, Suwanee, and today we are off to Korat, 300 km northeast. We are told we can visit Dunkwean, a pottery village, witness the creation of Thai silk in Pak Thong Chai and visit the Korat excavion sites. Suwanee's sister and brother-in-law will be here to pick us up in an hour. Time to log off and pack up once again.