Bangkok (Lonely Planet) - Andrew Burke [58]
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GET LOST & FIND BANGKOK
Think of the ‘sights’ described in this chapter not as the only things to see in Bangkok, but rather as an excuse for exploring some of the city’s most colourful neighbourhoods. These are your destinations but much of the most interesting travel is what happens in between, who you meet and what you see – especially if you get lost.
Every block will reveal something you’ve never seen before – blind troubadours with portable karaoke machines, soi dogs wearing T-shirts (who does dress these stray dogs?), vendors selling fresh pineapple, grilled meat, everything plus the kitchen sink. And, let’s be honest, there will be some things that are all too familiar – most likely another 7-Eleven store. To add to the excitement, you have to deal with Bangkok’s notoriously dodgy pavements, which can be as traffic-clogged as its roads. Look forward to sidestepping a mass of humanity while ducking under huge umbrellas and canvas awnings pitched right at the level of your forehead, before having to squeeze through a bottleneck at a stall selling desserts that look like tacos. It’s fun, really, and more so if you take the occasional air-conditioned breather.
Most neighbourhood sections in this book have a walking tour and these are designed to be followed as strictly or loosely as you like. Or just invent your own, remembering that getting lost is the best gift Bangkok gives to visitors.
Bangkok’s best neighbourhoods for getting lost in are its oldest districts. The maze of narrow streets, hidden temples and unconstrained commerce in Chinatown is a good start. Banglamphu boasts several village-like areas where modest communities live much as they have for decades. Those alongside Khlong Lawt, Khlong Saen Saeb and Khlong Ong Ang are a hive of old-style activity and the klorng-side paths are often shaded and usually free of motorised transport. The columns and ornate facades of the warehouses and shops near Tha Tien show off the success of wealthier businesses, while the suburbs along the other side of the river in Thonburi are perhaps the best of the lot – as local as you like and barely a tourist anywhere. So go on, liberate yourself from the constraints of trying to follow a map, and go forth and wander.
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Sao Ching-Cha is two long blocks south of the Democracy Monument and outside Wat Suthat. Despite no longer being used, the Giant Swing was recently replaced with a newer model, made from six giant teak logs. The previous version is kept at the National Museum.
DEMOCRACY MONUMENT
Map
traffic circle of Th Ratchadamnoen Klang & Th Din So; air-con 79, 503 & 511, ordinary 2, 15, 49, 59, 60 & 70
The Democracy Monument is the focal point of the grand, European-style boulevard that is Th Ratchadamnoen Klang. As the name suggests, it was erected to commemorate Thailand’s momentous transformation from absolute to constitutional monarchy. It was designed by Thai architect Mew Aphaiwong and the relief sculptures were created by Italian Corrado Feroci who, as Silpa Bhirasri, gives his name to Silpakorn University. Feroci combined the square-jawed ‘heroes of socialism’ style popular at the time with Mew Aphaiwong’s Art Deco influences and keen sense of relevant revolutionary dates.
There were 75 cannonballs around the base, to signify the year BE (Buddhist Era) 2475 (AD 1932); the four wings of the monument stand 24m tall, representing 24 June, the day the constitution was signed; and the central plinth stands 3m high (June was then the third month in the Thai calendar) and supports a chiselled constitution. Each wing has bas-reliefs depicting soldiers, police and civilians who helped usher in the modern Thai state.
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WHAT’S SO LONELY ABOUT THE KHAO SAN ROAD?
Thanon Khao San, better known as the Khao San Rd, is genuinely unlike anywhere else on earth. It’s an international clearing house of people either entering the liberated state of travelling in Southeast Asia or returning to the coddling bonds of first-world life, all together in a neon-lit melting pot in Banglamphu.