Suppose that you're anxious to explore Southeast Asia. Yet you don't want to
get caught in the middle of a military junta suppressing the populace
(Burma/Myanmar). You don't want to run afoul of the law if you happen to play a
song by a Jewish composer (Malaysia). You don't want to be killed by unexploded
ordnance (Vietnam). You don't want to be psychologically scarred by meeting
people whose entire families were killed by the Khmer Rouge (Cambodia). You don't
want to be out of reach of Western comforts (Laos). Where does that leave you? In
Thailand, the best country for beginners to Southeast Asia. Thailand has a per
capita income of around $7000 per year, an extensive network of paved roads, a
comprehensive mobile phone service, and quite a few world-class hotels, resorts,
and restaurants.
Bangkok itself is a sprawling mess of a city, rather like Los Angeles:
pollution, heat, and traffic (plus the added bonus of high humidity). For a
photographer, however, it is notable as (1) the home of some important temples
and palaces, and (2) the gateway to the rest of Thailand.
Old Royal City
Start where the rest of the tourists start: the Royal Grand Palace and
associated temples. Be careful to leave your heavy artillery back in the hotel,
however. Signs in several places prohibit the use of video cameras and still
cameras with film larger than 35mm--if you wanted to see a Hasselblad with a red
X through it, this is the place. Hauling out a tripod would definitely be a good
way to attract the attention of the ubiquitous guards, many of whom carry
automatic rifles.
Just south of the Grand Palace is Bangkok's oldest and largest temple complex:
Wat Po. Most of the structures date from around 1800. The main temple (Bot) is
billed by Carl Parkes as "among the most elegant in all of Thailand and a
masterpiece of Thai religious architecture." Tough to photograph, though, given
the close quarters. The 46-meter long 15-meter high gilded Reclining Buddha is
not to be missed though. Security is a lot less heavy in Wat Po than at the Grand
Palace.
After touring all the sights within the Wat Po complex you're probably tired.
Stop at the massage school against the eastern wall and treat yourself to a
one-hour session.
With a new spring in your massaged feet, walk two blocks north and then two
blocks straight west from Wat Po to the river. Grab the city ferry (2 baht or
about $0.05) across to river to Wat Arun. If you've still got the energy and it
isn't a Monday or Tuesday, take the ferry back across and catch a taxi or tuk-tuk
for a 5-minute ride to the National Museum.
Damnern Saduak Floating Market
If you liked The Man with the Golden Gun (1973)
, you'll love the floating market and long-tailed
speed boats at the Damnern Saduak floating market, about a two-hour drive west
from Bangkok. The authentic local-to-local action takes place starting at 0500.
Busloads of tourists from Bangkok begin arriving at 0930 and disfigure the scene
to a large extent. If you're serious about photographing the life of the canals
and the Thai-to-Thai floating market, you should probably stay overnight at Ban
Sukchoke Resort (+66 32 253044, fax 254301) and catch a boat to the market in the
first light.
Kanchanaburi
If you're on a bus tour, Kanchanaburi is where you stop to see the Bridge on
the River Kwai, made famous in Pierre Boulle's novel
and David Lean's movie (1957)
. If you're touring Thailand at a civilized pace, Kanchanaburi is where
you'd stop for a week to take some boat rides, visit waterfalls in the local
national parks, take a train ride on the railway whose construction killed
100,000 people.
The Allied War Cemetery is just a few minutes away from the bridge itself.
Nakhon Pathom
The first Buddhist settlement in Thailand was here in Nakhon Pathom, 54 km
west of Bangkok, in the 6th century A.D. Any bus tour to the west of Bangkok will
bring you back through this town to see the the world's largest chedi, 120 meters
high and built starting in 1860.
Shopping
If you've got only a few hours in which to accomplish a lot of shopping,
concentrate on the area near the World Trade Center mall, just east of Siam
Square. The mall itself contains the Isetan Japanese department store. Across the
street is Narayana Phand, the largest handicraft emporium in Thailand. Between
the Regent Hotel and Grand Hyatt Erawan hotels is the Peninsula Plaza with high
fashion boutiques and Asia Books, where you can find a lot of English titles.
If you've a special interest in antiques and reproductions, stop at the River
City shopping center, which is indeed on the river and right next to the Sheraton
Royal Orchid Hotel.
Hotels
If you're young, poor, and in love with crowds and noise you'll want to stay
in one of the famous backpacker guesthouses on Khao San Road, a short walk from
the sights of the Old Royal City. To get a room, the guidebooks caution that you
must arrive early in the day. The sidewalks are so packed with oversized
foreigners shopping for trinkets that you'll literally be forced into the street
if you want to get from one end of the block to another. If you're interested in
peace, quiet, or authentic Thai culture, however, you'd do better to stay in
absolutely any other part of the city.
If you're old and rich, most people would tell you to stay on the river in the
Oriental Hotel where you can still see the ghosts of Somerset Maugham and Conrad.
Take the advice if you don't mind the fact that the these ghosts today are mostly
obscured by mobs of fat New Yorkers clamoring for help from the concierge. Locals
aren't fond of the Oriental, claiming that the rooms are tiny and not worth the
price.
If you want to avoid Bangkok's horrific traffic and get to and from tourist
attractions via the river, stay at the Shangri-La, just a few blocks downriver
from the Oriental. This is a much more spacious hotel than the Oriental and
nearly all the common areas and restaurants enjoy views of the river.
Any hotel built around a koi
pond is my kind of place and as an added bonus the Regent Bangkok (not the "Indra
Regent") is in most respects what you'd expect from the Four Seasons chain. The
one area where the Regent goes way beyond expectations is the 25-meter outdoor
pool. An area where it falls short is Internet connectivity. Their Web site
advertises "Internet connection" in the rooms so you arrive expecting to plug an
Ethernet cable into your network card and blast away at 1.5 Mbits. Instead what
is delivered is 28.8K modem-based connectivity. At $15 per hour! The throughput
actually delivered was closer to 2K bits per second and it took two or three
hours to download a batch of email messages. If business requires you to work in
the center of town, or if you love shopping malls, the Regent is a great choice
at about $170 per night.
Restaurants
The good news for gourmets is that McDonald's is well-established in Thailand.
The bad news is that KFC is even better established.
Even when you can't find a McDonald's, the quality of food is uniformly very
high and prices are quite low. Food and water safety are quite good but Thais
don't drink tap water. Bottled water is readily available and absurdly cheap.
Given that a meal in the fanciest hotel costs only $10-20 per person, there isn't
much reason to take a chance on a dirty restaurant.
Guidebooks
For cultural background and a personal perspective, pick up Bangkok
Handbook (Carl Parkes; Moon). Dorling Kindersley Thailand
contains a large Bangkok section and thumbnail photos of all the
relevant sights.
No matter how many guidebooks you have, Bangkok will defy your attempts to
orient yourself. The solution is to immediately buy a good map. Nelles Maps's
Bangkok is excellent. Guidebooks will tell you to get Nancy Chandler's or "Groovy
Map and Guide of Bangkok".
Real Books
The classics are Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim (1900) and Somerset
Maugham's The Gentleman in the Parlour (1930). A more modern, if
twisted, perspective is provided by Spaulding Gray's Swimming to
Cambodia. The action in Alex Garland's The Beach moves very
quickly from Bangkok down toward the islands beloved by European backpackers. But
if you can't sleep on the plane, this is an involving book.
If you're coming to Thailand because you've gotten sick of paying $400/ounce
for good dope back home, 4000 Days -- My Life and Survival in a Bangkok Prison
(Warren Fellows) will put you
right off the idea.
Getting There
There are no nonstop flights to Bangkok from the United States. If you fly
from the West Coast you'll connect through Japan, Korea, or Hong Kong. If you fly
from the East Coast, you'll connect through a European hub. A relatively painless
way to make the trip from the East Coast of the US is a morning British Airways
business class flight to Heathrow. After an hour or two, you connect in the same
terminal to an 11-hour nonstop bound for Bangkok. If you get yourself a first
class seat on this leg, British Airways gives you a seat that folds completely
flat for sleeping. Go to sleep immediately upon leaving Heathrow because it is
4:00 am Bangkok time as you pull away from the gate. You'll arrive at 4:00 pm
Bangkok time. If the BA plane is full, there is a Qantas flight that leaves at
about same time (10:00 pm) and Qantas first class also has the flat seats. [For
more airline choices, see
the
photo.net guide to international airlines.]
Whichever coast you start from, unless you're in first class and doped up with
sleeping pills, the trip will seem endless. If you've got the time, you should
probably stop for a few days in one or two places along the way.
A taxi from the airport to downtown is only about $10.
When departing you might want to consider allowing yourself an extra 30
minutes or hour at the airport. You'll find an inexpensive foot massage
concession on your way to the gates.
Getting Around
Taxis in Bangkok are cheap, with a 20-minute ride seldom costing more than $2
or $3. Unfortunately, the 20-minute ride might only take you four or five blocks
in rush hour. Fortunately, all taxis are air conditioned. Unfortunately not all
taxis have meters and negotiating with taxi drivers is annoying--wait for a cab
with a "Taximeter" sign on the room. If you like the sensation of movement you
may prefer to take the Skytrain, an elevated rail system, or river
boats.
Survival
American and EU citizens don't need a visa to visit Thailand for up to 30
days. If you're going to stay longer, obtain a visa beforehand from the Thai
consulate in your home country. In theory you'll legally obliged to arrive with
at least US$250 in cash or traveler's checks.
The time in Bangkok is GMT+7, i.e., seven hours ahead of London and therefore
12 hours ahead of New York. Thus if it is 9:00 am in New York, it is already 9:00
pm in Bangkok.
Electricity in Thailand is 220V at 50 Hz. Mechanically, the standard plug
seems to be like the European two rounded prong plugs. Most laptop computer and
digital camera power supplies can function on this power and at most you'll need
a mechanical adaptor. Business hotel rooms often are equipped with an
American-style plug near the desk.
The country code for Thailand is 66. If you're European or are an American GSM
tri-band mobile phone owner, you'll find excellent GSM coverage throughout
Thailand. Keep in mind that they use the European frequencies of 900 and 1800 MHz
so an American Voicestream phone won't work unless you've had the foresight to
get a special multi-frequency model.
Money is the baht. You can get cash with an American ATM card from just about
any bank machine. The exchange rate was 44 baht per dollar in March
2001.
Going Beyond
Thailand is a bit larger than California and packed with 60 million people.
Hedonistic Eurotrash throng the beaches of the south, many of which are indeed
beautiful and some offer fine coral reefs to boot. But educated seekers of
culture tend to sing the praises of the hilly north, centered around the city of
Chiang Mai. In fact, if your time is limited you might want to skip Bangkok
altogether and just get to Chiang Mai as quickly as possible. According to a
friend of mine, who has made this trip five times, the best way to go from
Bangkok to Chiang Mai is by train: 2nd class air conditioned sleeper car. This
leaves Bangkok around 6:00 pm and gets into Chiang Mai in the morning.
Learning Thai
The Thai language is a challenging tonal language like Chinese. If you want to
amuse yourself by learning it, certainly the average Thai will be amused as well.
Just remember that with tonal languages bad pronunciation means that you're
speaking different words.
Snapshots
More
Text and pictures
copyright 2001
Philip Greenspun. These photos were taken with
a Nikon D1 digital SLR and 17-35/2.8 lens (whose
effective focal length is multiplied by 1.5 due to the small imaging sensor in
the D1).
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