Bangkok: Second Impressions

Rich, Zach and I headed back down to Bangkok to extend our visas, but Rich and I took a few extra days there for some more sightseeing. My initial plans to do some more tourist-style sightseeing were partially thwarted by the rains- I wanted to go see an island north of the city on the Chao Praya River, but it was under water! So my journey to Ko Kred has been postponed indefinitely (for now). I also didn’t do too much traditional sightseeing because having received my family’s itinerary for December when they visit (yes! So exciting! Mom, Dad, Al and Gram will come!!!), there wasn’t too much for me to do that I hadn’t already done in September or would do with them.
These realities left me with a good deal of time to kill and so I decided that I would become more acquainted with the lesser-appreciate aspects of the city. Step one was to start walking- Bangkok is notoriously unwalkable and pedestrian unfriendly so I decided to test this reputation and take in more of the city on foot. Yes, the heat, bad sidewalks, crazy traffic and air pollution tried to get me down, but I persevered.
One of my great finds was the Suan Pakkad or “Lettuce Farm” Palace, aptly described in guidebooks as, “a forgotten gem.” The palace used to be a royal residence, and sprung out of the royalty’s desire to allow the public to view a private collection of Thai artifacts. Situated in the northeast of Bangkok, the palace is a green haven of art and architecture. There is a modern building housing Bronze Age pottery and tools from a site in northeast Thailand called Banchaing. Some of the pieces are absolutely beautiful (sorry, no photography was allowed inside the buildings), but the craziest part is how they were discovered: a Harvard anthropology student literally tripped over a log and landed face-first into shards of painted pottery he recognized as being very old. This led to multiple excavations uncovering glass and bronze jewelry, broken and intact painted pottery, and bronze tools; plus over ninety skeletons. My favorite was the diorama depicting the initial “discovery.”
The other artifacts are housed in eight wooden houses that provide examples of traditional Thai architecture. The finds include everything from rocks and semi-precious gemstones, to Thai instruments, to masks used in a Thai dance called “Khon,” which depicts episodes of the Indian epic Ramayana. One building is known as “the lacquer pavilion” and has exquisite examples of gold-on-black laquerware. The scenes are both from the Ramayana and from the life of Buddha, and the technique allows the same accuracy as pen and line drawings. There weren’t too many other tourists around when I visited and I had the opportunity to peruse the collection at my leisure and up close. The site is landscaped around a pond, and there were even some resident turtles by one fountain. Also, there was one relatively small royal barge on the property (the rest of them are housed in the Royal Barges Museum on the river).
I spent the majority of Sunday wandering around the center of town visiting parks and shrines. The Erawan shrine earned a reputation of granting wishes, and is adorned with so many offerings each day that waste management crews remove the flowers by the garbage can-full. There is a constant onslaught of incense and dancing by women in Thai dress and acrobats. It was a noisy place for an afternoon snack, but Sunday was pretty much devoted to people-watching. I also had the opportunity to find a fertility shrine (let’s just say I won’t post pictures) and one outside a huge shopping mall that seemed to be devoted to elephants (though as all of the signage was in Thai, I can’t be sure). Sunset found me in Lumphini park watching “dta krow,” a game that is much like 3-3 volleyball over a badminton net, except you are only allowed to use your feet and your head. (I can hear my sister saying, “so not really like 3-on-3 volleyball at all,” but if you see it, the comparison works.) “Dta krow” is pretty big in PKWS, so I’ll try to get some photos and a better explanation up soon. Lumphini Park is one of Bangkok’s largest greenspaces, and is the site of mass tai chi exercises in the early morning hours, and mass step aerobics in the afternoons. And by mass, I mean I watched at least 150 people dancing together to American remixes. I witnessed something similar in Chum Phae one evening on a smaller scale- this seems to be something quintessential Thai. The other event I was around for was story time. I sat on reed mats surrounded by Thai families and the under 5 crowd to dramatic tellings of such classics as Little Red Riding Hood and The Very Hungary Caterpillar- they mean it when they say these are translated into so many other languages! Unfortunately, the canal taxi stopped its service west an hour earlier than I had anticipated and I was left to adventure in the public bus system . . . but transportation in Bangkok deserves its own entry so I’ll leave that story untold for now.
I also did some “trashy tourist” things in Bangkok. I saw Tropic Thunder and Quantum of Solace. I was a mallrat for several hours. I ate Western food. You have to understand I live in rural Thailand for most of the month every month and when I get out of the sanctuary garlic bread and pancakes with fruit and ice cream really do look like the best things on the menu . . . One pleasant consequence of this trashy tourism was that Rich and I discovered a rooftop bar on top of one of the high-class megamalls. Known as the “Heineken Greenspace,” there are only three drinks on the menu: coke, water, and Heineken. The views were fabulous though and since we were dressed to visit the NRCT (National Research Council of Thailand), Rich and I actually looked like we belonged! (Photos coming soon.)
Soon enough it was time to come back up to Phu Khieo for our next big push with work- we won’t have more than 2 days off in a row between now and Christmas but I’m sure we’ll entertain ourselves somehow. Tomorrow I’m off to Khun Kitti’s rice paddy again- this time for the harvest!