Thailand is currently in one of its nearly regular periods of military dictatorship.  A couple of days ago, they made some headlines by censoring a NY Times story on the poor state of the economy.   I bumped into one censored web page on my phone pretty quickly also (A rare recording of A Hitler’s normal speaking voice).

Anecdotally, coming in from the airport, the roads looked OK, (not northern Europe smooth and new) but at least comparable to NY.  On the way to the hotel I passed a Lamborghini dealership, two Mini dealers, a Porsche dealer and a vintage Mercedes shop with three cars on display worth at least a couple of million dollars alone (2 Gullwings and a Mercedes 600), so I have to assume some people are doing at least Ok.  Then the driver turned on the radio, blasting static from the back speakers, which scared the shit out of me, much to his amusement.

The Hotel has an impressive rooftop bar with great views of the city, which is a huge metropolis,, but less lit up than expected.

Walking around, you see considerable evidence of wealth, but also signs that you are not in the first world and all isn’t well.  The public transport system seems to consist of the elevated subway (skytrain), which looks nice, and busses, which look pretty terrible.  Many major cities around the world have beggars and homeless, not least my hometown, but the presence of very young children here is distinct from home.  In the arab neighborhood, many women and beggars are covered head to toe in Islamic dress.  One beggar in a chador smacked a toddler with her cup; haven’t seen that at home.

Walking down the main drag near my hotel, which is under a skytrain line, the city appears better lit at street level than the view from the bar indicates.  There’s the bustle and heat the city is famous for.   

Some of the relatively subdued skyline might have to do with the Generals failing to jumpstart the economy.  Tourism is a big part of it, and some may have already been rattled by the most recent coup.  The recent deadly Islamic terror bomb blast has people on edge. 

The latest coup was against the most recently elected Prime Minister, the sister of Thasksin Shinawatra. The precipitating event was mismanagement of some agricultural subsidies, but behind that was the army’s belief that she served as a surrogate for her exiled brother.

Shinawatra is a telecoms billionaire and populist politician, sort of a cross between Silvio Berlusconi and Venezuela’s late Hugo Chavez.  He gained great popularity in poorer regions, especially the North, through massive wealth redistribution programs.  He was also known for heavy handedness in the drug war, in dealing with the Islamic insurgency in the south, and in other areas.  Depending on ones perspective, he was overthrown to preserve the prerogatives of the elite, or to prevent the country from becoming a populist basket case like Venezuela.  The latter hasn’t occurred, but Shinwatra’s party has won several elections since he was removed, and the country is still deeply divided between his supporters and opponents. 

A unifying figure is the long ruling (70 years) and revered King, in whose name both sides claim to act.  However, his reign is inevitably nearing its end. There have been various murky and sinister maneuverings in the Royal family, with formerly favored members and associates being removed, secluded, and in some instances disappeared or “falling off buildings” while in custody.  The fraught succession, along with the military dictatorship, contributes to some sense of unease.

I was sitting in a coffee shop catching up on some reading (lazy trip) and left around 9:00PM  Across the street there was a growing haze of smoke and lights of many emergency vehicles, along with sirens of many more arriving.  Police were animatedly directing traffic and pedestrians, waving arms and blowing whistles.    Several ambulances were among the vehicles.  Heading back to my hotel a couple of blocks away, I asked a couple of G4S security guards if they knew what was going on, but they either did not or feigned not to know enough English to answer.  I think this was just an “ordinary” car accident or fire (though it’s a nasty one if so) but given the threats to the city, and the number of sirens still wailing as I write, who knows.

The next day I checked with the girl at the hotel coffee shop if she knew of anything happening up the street the previous evening,, and she didn’t, saying that these things are pretty normal for Bangkok.  So I guess it was a “routine” car crash and/or fire.

Managed to get a little more sightseeing in.  Took the Skytrain to the river and a boat from central pier to pier 13.  From there I did a good amount of wandering around small streets which seemed more authentically representative of day to day life, though Thailand’s pervasive tourist and expat businesses were still represented.  There were small shops selling birds, food, spices.  One street had a suitably gritty looking little Thai Boxing ring and workout equipment, with a few of the last guys you would probably want a problem with doing what looked like a light practice..

Heading back past the middle of town, in front of the defense ministry building, a tuk tuk driver asked me where I was going.  I’d heard these were often unscrupulous and the answer was nowhere in particular, but since I was pretty hot and tired of walking around, I assented.  Also, I’ve never ridden in a tuk tuk before.  It’s kind of fun, but a little goes a long way.  They’re slow, bumpy, noisy and not too easy to see out of since the canopy is actually pretty low over the raised seat.  This driver was a little shady, and after an expedited tour of a couple of sites, he deposited me at a tailor with which he would get a commission on sales. 

If you look them up, James Fashion gets at best mixed reviews.  Though not the out and out scam some claim, with their scheming tuk tuk sales force and high pressure Glengarry Glen Ross sales tactics, it’s close.  You could look at it I was scammed into buying a sports coat; I prefer to think I successfully avoided buying several suits, shirts and ties.  The coat itself is nice enough, but there’s enough evidence of halfassedness that I’d be annoyed had I paid more.

Notes on a trip to Bangkok without mention of its notorious sex industry would be conspicuously incomplete.  At work, when I mentioned where I was going, there was  a unanimous and instantaneous response from the mostly younger guys I work which wasn’t food, or boxing, or even girls, but “ladyboys”.  It’s true that you will see more of them than most places, though my home neighborhood of Greenwich Village, at least in summer, makes a passable attempt at keeping up. 

There are three main red-light districts, and plenty on the web about all of them, so I’ll just give cursory impressions-  Patpong is a combination of tourist oriented market and red light district.  It’s a few blocks, with one focused on the Japanese market.  This is also where some of the infamous “shows” are located, generally up a narrow, dodgy flight of steps.  Nana plaza is the middle of a larger, but more diffuse red light district, in that it also has more nearby “regular” seeming bars and restaurants.  There seem to be a relatively high proportion of crossdressers, or ladyboys here.  Then there’s Soi Cowboy, which though its only one block, (though it spills over to nearby streets, is simply the most concentrated venue for vice and prurient interest anywhere. 

I asked the hotel concierge to arrange a city tour for me, so I would be sure to catch the main sights and have some context for them.  My guide was an older gentleman with good (not great) English.  He was too old to drive and guide at the same time, so he also had a younger coworker to drive us.  He either spoke next to no English or was happy enough to pretend not to.  My guide was nice and pretty knowledgeable, but could also be surprisingly bossy and, though he proved at least as durable as me overall, occasionally his age showed through, especially when falling asleep in the car.

He was a devout Buddhist, and had been a monk for a month.  (According to him, all Buddhists are supposed to be a monk for some time, and one can be a monk for as short or long a time as one feels called to be).   Religious discussion was amicable, but somewhat limited- “For Hindus, cow is god!” – an assertion he confirmed with a rather perplexed Indian visitor to the same temple. 

The tour itself was comprehensive and impressive.  I wont go into detail on the palaces and temples since images are worth far more words than I’m willing to type and are readily available, but  scale and scope of them is remarkable. While Thailand is obviously very old, the current monarchy is only about as old of the United States, (the current King is the ninth)and most of the major structures we visited are from since then, primarily the nineteenth century.

They impress both in scale and detail.   Condition is preserved through frequent, often painstaking restoration, often done largely by hand.  The Golden Buddha, which is solid gold according to my guide, illustrates this well, with imposing size and recently refreshed hand painted patterns.  Statues of Buddha can be differentiated from those of monks by the representation of a flame over Buddha’s head.  In front of the golden Buddha were offerings from worshipers, including packets containing the purple robes worn by the monks.  He explained that the color of the robes were geographically specific, with orange for Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.  We saw some Burmese in dark red, and Tibetan in brown.  Nuns wore white.

There were two palaces, one in a pure Thai style and one reflecting European, specifically French influence in its style. One contained a recently renovated museum, with samples of Royal crowns, dress, swords, gemstones and other accoutrements.  I learned here that the Thai flag’s colors are red for the blood of their soldiers, white for Buddhism and blue for the king.  When double-checking this fact, I found that like much else I saw, the current Thai flag isn’t as old as you’d think – 1917.  The yellow we see often associated with the monarchy is because that is the color associated with the day of the present king’s birth- Monday.  In Thailand every day has an associated color, and since the prince was apparently born the same day, yellow should be associated with the monarchy for some time to come.

The much larger but concrete reclining Buddha makes up for lack of precious materials in sheer scale.  There were several instances where the number 108 came up.  It’s a sacred number in Buddhism (and some other religions).  Next to the giant reclining Buddha are 108 bowls, and you’re supposed to drop a small coin (made available for the purpose) into each while thinking well of friends, family etc.  Fair enough, and there is a somewhat meditative aspect to the repetitive task, but I wondered how many people did it more than once, and how many were Thais. 

The colossal Wat Arun was under restoration and largely covered with scaffolding.  It was still impressive, and I was able to climb the first flight of steps.  I hope to return and get closer to the top, though even with a railing, its steep and high enough to be a little daunting.  The restoration of the intricate detail on this mammoth complex is being done by hand. 

I saw other temples as well, whose names escape me and whose description would be largely repetitive – beautiful hand made detail, impressive scale, and historic and cultural significance.  I was nonetheless relieved to get off my feet and a bit of a breeze when the tour turned to a boat ride on the main river in the city (Chao Phraya) and the canal system.  It was notably cooler (there are three seasons – winter, which is hot; rainy, hot and wet; and summer, hotter).  I had heard of the canals, but it was far more extensive than I had imagined.  After passing through a lock the wooden boat sped through miles of canals.  They had all the characteristics of streets- signs, streetlights, and you could see piping for fresh water.

One of the striking things was that obviously poor dilapidated houses (I asked if they sometimes collapsed– apparently occasionally they do) were very close to upper middle or even clearly wealthy homes.  Those often had both canal and street access.  This was a recurring theme; while far from egalitarian wealthy and poor seemed less segregated on the canals than many places. My guide emphasized that this was also true for cremated remains in Buddhist temples.

On this tour we also saw some of the boats used for an annual royal procession.  They were long, thin rowed boats; they call them barges but they looked more like elaborately decorated shells.  There was also about a third of an older one, which I was surprised to learn had been destroyed by a bomb in WWII, since I had thought Bangkok largely escaped the fighting.

On the way back to the hotel the guide pitched additional business.  The floating market seemed interesting, so I signed up for that the next day.  It was a bit out of town, so on his recommendation we got going at around eight. 

The first stop was the train market at Maeklong, a town about an hour outside Bangkok and the last station on a namesake rail line.  The market’s so named because it is literally right on normally active tracks, and when trains come everyone, sellers and shoppers alike, needs to scramble out of the way.  There was no imminent need to worry about this though because when I visited the trains weren’t running.  My guide said they should be in a month or so, but if that were an over/under, I’d take the over.

In any case this was a real, bustling, crowded market; plenty of tourists but more going about the business of buying and selling daily necessities.  You couldn’t help but be impressed by the variety of food on offer- all sorts of fruits and vegetables, some more or less like what we have, some more less so.  There were some very nice looking fish and prawns, beef and pork, and some pretty sketch piles of offal.  Also squids, sausages, mush for sausages, and bbq frogs on a stick.  After seeing the market, my guide bought me a late breakfast of pork and duck over rice which both tasted better and upset my gut less than I thought it would.  Still it was pretty hot and I was pretty happy to get back to the AC in the Camry and off to the floating market.

The ride to the market was on a distinctive boat with the engine on a long shallow tiller.  Driving one of these well looked like it took more than a couple of hours of practice, and the ride through the canals was entertaining.  Hitting a low branch knocked a mango into the boat. 

The market itself was more of a mixed bag.  This was less of a real market and more like an airport gift shop times a thousand on water.  The hard sell was a little tiring as was the constant jam of little boats, though that’s also part of the appeal.  My guide directed me to the shops he had the best deals with, but they were all mostly pretty similar- Knick-knacks, shot glasses, tea things, elephants, almost comically bad paintings. I turned down about ninety-nine percent of pitches and still bought a bunch of stuff I didn’t really want.  There was some good looking food at both floating vendors and restaurants, but I had to pass on most of it.

My guide convinced me to go for an elephant ride before heading back.  I know those elephants don’t have the best conditions, and it wasn’t really on my list of things to do, on the other hand, it seemed worth doing once.  It was, once.  I’m not expert in elephant body language but it didn’t seem like they could be having too great a time, nor much reason they would be.  On the other hand, it’s probably an easier time than they used to have hauling lumber.  The ride was more herky-jerky than I expected, it was interesting to see how the driver steered (a foot on top one ear and the other behind the other ear), and the elephant waded through some kind of deep water.

The real elephant was pretty big but not compared to the enormous copper ones at the Erawan museum.  This unique structure (distinct from the Erawan Shrine which was bombed in August) is a little out of the way on the edge of town but worth a visit since your not likely to see much like it anywhere else.  It took ten years to build the 3 story copper elephants.  Inside there is an impressive staircase and stained glass ceiling leading to the second story, which contains the builder and owner’s collection of apparently priceless ancient Buddha statues.  Unfortunately, the space in which they are displayed is less beautiful and more reminiscent of the era in which it was built (late 60s?) than the rest of the museum, but the overall effect is still unforgettable.  The surrounding park has a tortoise, who’s lived there as long as the museum’s been open.

Jim Thompson worked for the OSS in the Second World War.  Following his service, he returned to Thailand and made his name and fortune rebuilding the Thai silk industry.  It isn’t clear whether or to what extent he maintained ties to the American intelligence community.  In 1967, with Southeast Asia particularly turbulent, he visited to Malaysia, went for a short walk (evidenced by the fact that he left cigarettes and medicine behind) and never returned.  No body or conclusive explanation for his disappearance has been found.

His mansion is now a museum.  Thompson constructed it of 6 traditional Thai homes imported from the countryside and reconstructed near where he bought his silk.  It is filled with Thai and regional treasures and artifacts.  Visitors can explore the grounds and take an interesting tour, though at about a half hour, one can’t help think it is a kind of cursory overview of the collection.  There’s a nice restaurant on the grounds as well.  Well worth a visit.

Towards the end of my visit I went to the tallest building in Thailand, Baioke Tower. At least I thought so at the time and so it was still advertised.  According to Wikipedia it’s been superseded in 2015.  In any case, the views were as beautiful as you’d expect, and the multicolored lights are fun.  There are several dining options as well.  However, I was surprised how crowded it was, and getting around the building was surprisingly a pain in the ass.  In all pretty tourist-trap like, and unless interested in views and tall buildings, as I am, then perhaps not a high priority visit.

In all, it’s clear why people find the city and country as beguiling, if also sometimes frustrating, as they do.  I intend to return to both, as both the city and country, each slightly larger in size and population than NYC and France respectively, have much I’d want to revisit and more to see.