February 2024

Two months in Bangkok

For the last couple of months, I've been living in Bangkok, capital of Thailand. Actually, Bangkok is not Bangkok for the locals. They call it Krung Thep. The full name of the city is Krung Thep Maha Nakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit, which translates to "city of angels, great city of immortals, magnificent city of the nine gems, seat of the king, city of royal palaces, home of gods incarnate, erected by Vishvakarman at Indra's behest". Beautiful, isn't it?

I rented a comfortable little apartment on the 21st floor of a high rise condominium built in 2017. The two top floors accommodate an entertainment complex. On the 37th floor, there's a games room, a meeting room, a theatre screening room, a golf simulator, and a small library. On the 38th floor there's a swimming pool with jacuzzi, a gymnasium, sauna and steam rooms. (I swam almost every day for the first couple of weeks, but the water was so painfully cold that I gave it up.) The view from my window is very pleasing, especially at night with all the lit skyscrapers. I am really enjoying my Bangkok humble abode.

Bangkok seen from my window

I have visited a few museums, of course. The National Museum Bangkok is a large complex (it was once the residence of the prince viceroy) housing an impressive collection of ancient artifacts from Thailand and the surrounding areas. The National Gallery shows Thai paintings and sculptures, both old and contemporary. The best museum I saw was the MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art), where I learned about artists whose names I had never heard and witnessed the strong influence of both Asian mythology and surrealist art in contemporary Thai painting. I also visited the Jim Thompson House Museum (he was an American operative for the OSS who settled in Thailand and became rich exporting silk), Sea Life Bangkok (10,000 square meters populated by sharks, penguins, starfish, jellyfish, seahorses, and many other marine animals), and Madame Tussauds Bangkok (I wouldn't visit the wax museum if I hadn't been forced to buy the ticket together with the one for Sea Life Bangkok, but it wasn't totally uninteresting).

Monk at MOCA

There are tens of thousands of buddhist temples in Thailand. I visited a few in Bangkok. Wat Traimit houses an enormous golden statue of Buddha. It's believed it was built in the 14th century, but only in 1955 its secret was revealed. While being transported, the ropes broke and the statue fell to the ground. With some of the plaster coating chipped off, people realized the Buddha was actually made of solid gold. It's 3 meters tall, weighs 5.5 tonnes, and it's worth about 250 million dollars.

Golden Buddha

Wat Pho is located just south of the Grand Palace, and houses the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand. The largest one is the Reclining Buddha, 15 meters high and 46 meters long, built in 1832. But the main attraction for me was the temple complex itself, with plenty of pavilions, halls, and gardens, all decorated in beautiful colors. I visited the The Grand Palace too, which is another large complex and also includes its own temples. It was the official residence of the Kings of Siam (and later Thailand) from 1782 to 1925.

Wat Pho

Reclining Buddha

Grand Palace

Wat Arun is one of the most famous temples in Bangkok, probably because of its striking silhouette on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River. The architecture and the decoration are phenomenal, in particular the main prang (that's the name of the conical towers in buddhist temples) all covered in colorful porcelain depicting gods, soldiers, and mythical animals.

Wat Arun

The other kind of temple very popular in Bangkok is the shopping mall. They have many and they are spectacular. Here are the ones in my neighborhood. Terminal 21: ten floors and the longest escalators in Thailand, up to 36 meters. CentralWorld: the 9th largest shopping complex in the world, 550,000 square meters of shopping area. Siam Paragon: international luxury brands, multiplex with 16 large screens, an opera concert hall, a bowling alley, and the Sea Life Bangkok aquarium in the lower floors. MBK Center: 2,000 shops, mostly local brands.

Any side trips?

I went to Ayutthaya, founded around 1350 to be the second Siamese capital (after Sukhothai and before Bangkok). It was destroyed by the Burmese in the 18th century, and now is a UNESCO World Heritage Site where you can see the ruins of many temples. There are some amazing buildings there, and I took many photos at Wat Chaiwatthanaram, Wat Lokkayasutha (with an older reclining Buddha, 8 meters high and 42 meters long), Wat Phra Si Sanphet, and Wat Mahathat (this one is famous for the Buddha head entwined within the roots of a tree).

Wat Chaiwatthanaram

Buddha head at Wat Mahathat

Wat Phra Si Sanphet

I took a day to visit interesting markets. In Damnoen Saduak, there was a floating market. Buyers navigate the canals while vendors peddle their wares either from the margins of the canals or from boats. In Samut Songkhram, vendors sell their stuff on both sides of the Maeklong railway, so close to the tracks that when the train comes they have to quickly pull up their awnings and move back their shop fronts, only to return as soon as the train has passed.

Damnoen Saduak

Samut Songkhram

On another side trip, I visited the Bridge on the River Kwai, famous because of Pierre Boulle's novel and David Lean's movie. The problem with the name is that Boulle knew the railroad ran parallel to the Khwae Noi River and assumed the bridge would cross that same river, but it was actually built over the Mae Klong River. When the movie became popular and the tourists start to arrive looking for a bridge that was not where they expected, the Thai government changed the name of that part of the Mae Klong to Khwae Yai, so now the bridge is officially over the Khwae River. I took a train that went from Kanchanaburi to Thamkra Sae, crossing the bridge on the way.

Tourists looking at the Khwae River

What about the food?

Well, I don't like spicy food. Chili peppers, jalapeños, malagueta, piri piri, these things just cause pain in my mouth and destroy any chance of actually tasting the food. Here they have something called Thai chili or bird's eye chili, and they put it in almost every dish. It's nasty. Thai chili can be five to ten times hotter than the hottest jalapeño. So I've been very careful and selective when ordering Thai food. I have to tell the waiter very emphatically that I don't want anything remotely spicy, and that doesn't always work (their idea of what's spicy and what's not is definitely different than mine). The dishes I've managed to eat in a non-spicy version were stir-fried rice noodles (pad thai or pad see ew, depending on the kind of noodles used) and stir-fried rice (khao pad), both usually served with chicken, pork, or shrimp. For desert, mango sticky rice, which is fresh mango served with rice soaked in coconut milk. That's a lot of rice.

But Bangkok has a surprising number of Japanese restaurants, and that's where I eat often. Also, my apartment has a well equipped kitchen, and sometimes I cook my own food, with a zero spicy certification seal of approval. I must also mention that in front of my building there is a gourmet burger shop that makes one of the best cheeseburgers I've had in my whole life, and I usually go there on weekends.

They also have some very good fruit here. Papaya, mango, mangosteen, melon, pitaya, are all grown locally and available everywhere. Sun dried bananas and coconut water are also a good addition to my diet. But my favorite local fruit is by far the watermelon: juicy, flavorful, sweet, possibly the best in the world.

Next destination?

In the beginning of March, I will move to Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia. And that will be a story for later.

Selamat tinggal! ("goodbye" in malay)

Swimming pool on the 38th floor