So after scanning loads of film, I’ve gotten a few thoughts together on my visual trip through Bangkok (with a side trip to Ayutthaya.) And oddly, I find myself remembering my first trip to Bangkok in 1997. It wasn’t so much that we didn’t have a great time and make new memories as this was my second trip to Bangkok with Yukako. We had a great time on both trips. But something made me hark back to times past.
I had already traveled to Central America in the mid 90s (Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala) before so I was comfortable being on the road, backpacking, and sleeping in places that were…well…lets just say hot water wasn’t included, ever. Central America is like Mexico, only poorer. However, Bangkok was different. Its an ancient tropical, exotic city. Century old temples surrounded by modern glass sky rises. Beautiful women, spicy food, and white sand beaches. BKK seems to be the hub to all of Asia as when I got off the flight, I saw multi-hued turbans, saris, sandals, dashikis, burquas, I mean it was like being James Bond, international traveler. I couldn’t get over it. It just blew my mind. Don’t forget, San Antonio is a long way from Bangkok.
So after escaping the airport late at night and getting suckered by a taxi driver, I got dropped off near Khao San Rd, the back packing mecca of South East Asia. And with U2’s Pop album being the background of this trip, inside this bustling Asian capital, I found banana pancakes, white kids with dreadlocks, Jimmy Hendricks posters, unshaven legs, old European men with very young (and many times, older and more “worn”) Thai ladies, European football games on the television, and cheap booze. I heard Dutch, Hebrew, Ozzie, Japanese, German and Brit all being spoke at once in one place. Funny at the time, I remember being really the only American in many of the guest houses or places I stayed. I was alone in a very non-American spot.
After a few hours, I realized I wasn’t in Thailand or Asian at all for that matter if I stayed around the backpacking district. Disco music, fake designer clothes, cheap souvenirs, and cheap dates. I actually don’t recall ever seeing that many Thai except those shadowy types like unscrupulous tuk-tuk drivers selling rides, girls, and drugs, and those others who who were willing to sell whatever to get your dough.
Backpackers, like I’ve mentioned in past posts, tend to associate themselves with some odd subculture or those just full of absolute wanderlust…as if they are running away from themselves or something else where ever they came from. I mean, its not a new for people to leave where they are from. Its just sometimes in the backpacking crews, you find people who live out of their “backpack” sustaining themselves on nothing more than a few dollars a day and trying to integrate themselves into whatever culture their passport stamp says. These types grow the dreadlocks and hang out trying to pretend they are gaining some great knowledge by going to some temple in some faraway place thinking they are bridging some unique world by being more open than those who don’t travel. Sure we gain something but vacations and travel all have to have an end date. Perpetual travel is tough and it makes you odd.
Some are very friendly when in the backpacking districts yet there are others who, once outside the safety area, would rather pretend they are not Euro/White/Amer whatever and would rather ignore you than face having to speak their native tongue to one who looks lost.
I found that nasty wanderlust to be harmful at times as it can be infectious…dashing to new places every other day is fun…yet the routes are well traveled and to find something new that someone hasn’t already written or photographed is sadly eroding due to the mass publication of travel. But those on the road too long tend to be strange as if their time away has made it harder to return to normalcy. Being in a place like Tokyo or Bangkok can make you into a “rock star.” You, the foreigner, become the exotic one and people tend to offer you flattering amounts of attention (yet much of it is due to the fact that your wallet is bigger than most locals in a poor nation.) Often I would and still see young males who couldn’t date a beauty back home (read–total nerd/dork whatever) to save their lives yet you’d find an Asian beauty queen at arm clinging to every word. Are they paid, who knows? But its much easier to date your English teacher than to actually have to study.
But once I walked away from the tourist district, I found what I traveled across the world to see. I found the Asia I sort of figured I would find. Golden Buddhas, god-like statues and shrines, orange robed monks, incense, odd bits of food, smiles, confused looks, more smiles, different smells, sounds, touts, colors, and heat.
I found ducks and pig parts hanging in windows, smelt old buring oil cooking odd bits in an old dirty woks, got surrounded by thousands of people on a busy street in what seemed like a unbelievably hot summer afternoon. I remember my clothes being stuck to my body. It was so hot. That beer or Coke washed down so well cause it was so hot.
I remember seeing a drunk, or maybe he was a drug addict passed out in some strange corridor of Chinatown, head down, a pool of blood at his feet. The blood was so deep red. It was dripping out of his mouth and puddled at his feet.
Chinatown, Bangkok Oct 2009
I looked for that negative of the drug addict as I did remember snapping that photo, alas, so many years have passed…and maybe my memory is more of an imagination and that negative is truly a negative. Writer Audrey once said to me she didn’t like taking photographs of places she traveled too as she felt those images would replace the real memories of what she experienced. Maybe my memory of that early morning walk in Bangkok’s Chinatown are worth more as a memory than that negative I’ve been searching for.
These women, at the Erawan Shrine off Sukhumvit Rd are part of a dance troupe that will perform for a fee in order for your prayers to get answered. For some odd reason I found this place holds some odd significance for me. I don’t remember why I went there other than I remembering I rode on the back of a motorcycle to get here. The bike zipped in and out of traffic scaring me to death but the ride from the Peachy Guest House on Prah Athit Rd was probably only .20 cents or so. I remember taking this photograph and thinking I was the only person in the world at that moment reflecting on this performance. I didn’t know why they were there nor do I recall much more than the bike ride. I do remember it was July of 1997. I walked back a bit towards the guest house area and remember stopping at some dump of a place to eat some cheap meal of noodles or curry. The locals didn’t know what to think of me. I think they were surprised I ate there food and didn’t ask for banana pancakes.
I guess this shrine just struck me. I found men dressed in business suits, well heeled women, and the likes on their needs, incense in hand, placing garlands of flowers around a statue that looked like the Indian god Brahma, a multifaced god.
This picture is of the same Erawan Shrine but taken in October 2009. I don’t know which one I like. I don’t know if I like any of them. I don’t notice the difference of what I saw or how I captured it. Its what I saw.
The other memorable spot in Bangkok I always seem to visit is Wat Traimit. It brings back memories of my father who, during his service time in the Korean War, spend R&R in Bangkok. He recalls his visit to a shrine with a five ton Buddha status made completely of solid gold. His recollection of this palace gave him a faraway look, the look of a Spainard dreaming of gold in distant lands. I guess its that Latin blood in his veins…and in mine. I think it was more of his dreams of his youth…innocence…yet innocence lost to the Army and the Korean War.
The picture above is modern, Oct 2009. The temple is being remodeled and expanded making way for more worshipers and visitors. The actual heavy weight Buddha wasn’t on displace when I was there this past month sad to say so I might have to go back and show my respects from myself and my father.
Taken in July 1997, a golden face at the temple. The statue is actually covered in gold leaf as worshipers placed this upon his face. Who he is was is a mystery to me.
