Descending into Bangkok is as if submerging into a sea. Up in the air, the view below twists the order of nature as a massive cloud spanning across horizons rests upon the surface of the city landscape while the sky above a clear blue. As the plane lands, the haze becomes more evident as buildings are filtered by a blanket of creamy air, its dirty colour only slightly betrayed by the spectrum of a shrouded sun. The sprawling metropolis houses over 14 million people, with an addition of over 20,000 motor vehicles (net) to the roads annually. Even though the hotel was only about 15 km away from the airport, it took us up to an hour to trudge through the horrific traffic which was glorified even more by traffic stories told by the limousine driver along the way.
I did not like the scene one bit.
But only in a glance.
Because upon a closer look, if one could push past the traffic, the weather, the pollution, and the dirt; one would discover, as I did, what a gem the city beholds.
From experience, I never thought that traveling with the family was a great idea, let alone the idea of traveling with two families - both Lily’s and mine. And in many ways, it really was a bad idea. And yet, we somehow survived and live to tell the tale of how we boated our way through the canals of the floating market, haggled our way to get the ‘chip chip best pri’ in all our shoppings, learned that Starbucks is not necessarily a cafe outlet, and gazed at the city lights from the 64th floor at the Scirocco rooftop bar.
Our first stop was the floating market, which the one (of a few) we visited was a good two hours drive out of Bangkok central. As skyscrapers grew shorter and trees grew taller, so did the skies begin to open up to a clear blue, and before we knew it, the roads gave way to canals where boats replaced cars. The floating market, much to my surprise, was an actual market. While there were tourists-focused stores selling handcrafted souvenirs and the likes, the heart of the market was actually a real market where villagers would buy their daily needs. The experience in itself was amazing! All seven of us boarded a long speedboat which jetted its way through the narrow canals of the river village, walled by houses on stilts. The idea was that some of these houses doubled as stores where we may ‘dock’ to buy (without actually getting off the boat), while other stores sell directly from their boats as well. From souvenirs to clothes, accessories, food and desserts, and even household appliances - the floating market had them all!
Shopping in Bangkok - be it at the floating market or the streets of Sukhomvit, and even the great MBK- is a skill to acquire (and one that would probably take you far in life). I must admit I am absolutely hopeless at haggling for prices, and hence am glad we had our parents and Sher to do the fighting for us. And with that, it is amazing to see just how low the prices can get; and just how high a margin most stores would otherwise be making. Just when you think the asking price seemed fair (as compared to prices one would pay for any product here), dad snaps back at 30% of it. After an almost ferocious battle of wits, one would generally arrive at an agreement of about 50% of the original asking price. Now, given that the store is still obviously making a margin out of this, one just has to wonder where all our money’s been going to all this time living in the developed world.
In preparation to travel, Lily found a rooftop bar in the city which we decided to add to our personal checklist to visit. Occupying the top floor of the Lebua hotel and crowned with a golden dome, one would have thought it is a well-known spot in Bangkok itself (they even filmed movies, including Hangover 2 there). Apparently not. On our last night, finding our way to Scirocco turned out to be a hilarious adventure as our efforts were lost in translation. Combining my Win, Lose or Draw skills on a piece of paper and Lily’s patient translations (“See-row-ko!” Res-tor-ren!” “On. The. Roof!”), we managed to compromise with a mall security guard by just asking him to point to the closest Starbucks instead (which would have a wi-fi connection, enabling us to google the bar). As his eyes flickered with the familiarity of the name, he clenched a fist and exclaimed, as if in victory, “Oh! Starbucks! Yes, yes, come!”.
Finally, after a gruelling 5 minutes of deciphering each other, we were getting somewhere. The guard walked us out towards the streets, ready to point us to the cafe which would have been right around the corner, but only to bring us to a group of school boys hanging out in the mall and asking them for help instead.
“Starbucks!”, he grinned.
I don’t know how that worked, but the teenagers turned out to be of great help, not just helping us locate the bar on their phones, but also taking the courtesy to call to confirm for us. Like I said - gems.
From the top of the city, looking down, the darkness hides the dirt, the mess, the noise, and even masks the obvious pollution in the air. One couldn’t tell how an ultra-modern shopping mall, architected as if an airport terminal could rise right next to the darkest of lane-ways, reeking of waste. Jazz floats in the thin air above and the rich wine and dine without a worry of what they will return to below. Again, I wonder how the nature of this world is twisted.
Bangkok is like a palette with different colours smeared all over. Some colours remain pure, but most are mixed; resulting in either something beautiful in between or something dark and dirty. The painter smudges across the palette and creates a new shade everytime he dips again. In the same way I know that when I return in a few years, the city will be a new one to discover all over again. It is a city that doesn’t sleep. The food is hot. The air is sticky. The streets are dirty. And the people are kind.
It is a mess, but with heart.
And the next time I go, I’m going to make sure I pack a lot of Eno!
