Bangkok

A big city

Because it’s a central hub in Southeast Asia we actually stayed in Bangkok three times during out trip. First in the west side (near Wutthakat station), then the east side (near On Nut station), and later in the March we stayed in the north (near Wat Nonthaburi).

Our first stay we arrived right before New Year’s and had an uneventful New Year’s Eve, saw some fireworks in the distance from our Airbnb apartment. Maybe because we were coming from the small confines of Luang Prabang, we were surprised by Bangkok. In Southeast Asia, Jakarta still has the highest population while Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City, close in size, are both tied for second.

(Note skip this paragraph if you find population stats boring, for some reason it fascinates me): I haven’t found a reliable reference for the size of these three mega cities, since all of them are growing rapidly — and I won’t cite any sources. Roughly… Jakarta has 10 - 11 million (metro area, over 30M), while Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City have populations between 8.5 and 9.5 million,. Ho Chi Minh City has a larger metro area population nearly 20 million, compared to Bangkok about 15 million.)

So Bangkok is huge and growing in all directions. In the north we could see a huge new highway line being constructed, and in the west another commuter train line. Yet Bangkok has remarkably good infrastructure. Our only point of comparison in Southeast Asia was Kuala Lumpur (only 1.5M). Compared to KL, Bangkok seems to have a longer history of development and greater investment in infrastructure.

But the infrastructure is a mixture of old and new. We rode old rickety city buses with creaking wooden slat flooring, and onboard fare collectors with little encoded tickets, and on the same bus you will find newly mounted LCD screens to inform passengers of the upcoming electronic card system. The subway systems of Bangkok were clean, new and efficient, though a little expensive if going for a long ride. However the central train station was quite old and the train cabins could really use an upgrade.

Some sights

It felt like we didn’t visit a lot of the sights in Bangkok, mostly we were just exploring big city life. Some highlights…

Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen

Walking distance from our Airbnb apartment, this royal temple complex houses a large multi-level museum inside the enormous white stupa that is visible all around the surrounding area. The top level of the museum has a large surreal green glass pagoda and painted ceiling, while the lower levels exhibit collections of gifts and donations to royal monks over many decades — statues, sculptures, jewelry, clocks, old classic cars. The sizable educational complex nearby attracts local monks, nuns and foreigners seeking to learn the meditation practices of a famous deceased abbot of Wat Paknam.

Ceiling of stupa in Wat Paknam

One of the statuettes in collection in Wat Paknam museum

Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchawaramahawihan

We arrived by river ferry at Wat Arun, one of the more famous temples in Bangkok. The temple is meticulously adorned with inlaid ceramic pieces to create patterns and sculptures covering every surface of the structure. The original temple on the site was uilt many centuries ago and has gone through a series of changes and restorations so it was hard to say how much of the current temple resembles the original.

Wat Arun

Wat Arun details

Jim Thompson House

Jim Thompson was an American architect born in 1906, after WWII he settled in Thailand and became a heavily influential silk merchant. He brought pieces of traditional Thai homes from different parts of Thailand to be reconstructed on his property in Bangkok to serve as a exhibit to his special collection and his personal residence. The guided tour was quite interesting though it focused more on the structure’s artwork and architecture, not much about the silk pieces that made them possible.

From the Thompson House collection

A city with many faces

On New Year’s day we took the subway to a shopping mall in Silom, one of the districts with a large percentage of Japanese residents. The shopping mall was our destination for some Japanese New Year’s activities: mochi pounding and tasting. Outside the mall you can find several Japanese restaurants, shops, markets and of course lots of Japanese people.

Actually sometimes Bangkok had a little of the feeling of being in Tokyo, glassy skyscrapers towering over clean, well-groomed parks and streets, and a ridiculous number of 7-Elevens. In other parts Bangkok has the mixture of grunge, historical character and diversity of New York City. Then in another part you will find the familiar smells and sights like a Chinatown in any other city.

But then seeing motor boats speed along the wide Chao Phraya river and the crisscrossing canals that interpenetrate the neighborhoods, bringing along floating markets, cruising crocodiles, and snakes! – taking it all in Bangkok feels authentically Thai and yet completely unlike anywhere else in Thailand, unlike any city in the world.

One of the river boats speeding past

When the sun is up, hot and hazy Bangkok can have a business-y feel to it, but when the sun sinks low everything seems to change. Shop doors close, gates come down and then the vendors come out to claim the sidewalks, setting up tables, cooking food, selling prepared food, fruit, desserts, new and used clothes and shoes, shoe repair, watch repair, etc. etc. etc.

By night, all of Bangkok starts to feel like one big interconnected night market, filling every stretch of sidewalk, every alleyway, every open patch of dirt. Unused fields are quickly claimed for night markets. In east Bangkok we went to the Rot Fai Train Night Market (by my estimate it covers an area of about 10 soccer fields), packed with vendors and strolling buyers — mostly Thai locals.

Still, in seeing many sides of Bangkok, in looking back, I wonder how many we missed.