Wednesday, April 25, 2007

A Trail of Two Cities Part I

Many contrasts, many similarities; one the capital of a country with an ancient civilisation which had absorbed much of Indian culture, religion and customs, which had never been a colony of European powers, has remained a monarchy throughout (though the King now is supposed to be a figurehead after the 1932 revolution which brought democracy to Thailand) and the other a modern city-country, hardly 200 years old, colonised by the British, occupied by Japan in 1942, resurged after WWII and after getting independence, steered by a visionary leader, rose to great economic heights and today a major South East Asian power. Four hundred ships pass through Singapore every day and it is the largest port in the world after Rotterdam. The similarities of course are that both are havens for foreign direct investment, hubs of banking and commerce, largest tourist centres after Paris and London. And both have only three seasons hot, hotter and hottest. Rains lash Singapore most unexpectedly and the skies clear equally fast. Roads dry up in no time, drainage is super-efficient.

Singapore is spick and span. NO ltter, all glitter. Buildngs look as if freshly painted, roads are without any potholes or uneven surface, traffic free flowing except during peak hours when there is an ERP charge of S$ 2 to 4 per vehicle as a disincentive to ensure that there is no choking of streets. There are cameras on the roads and in public places to catch vandals and those who defy traffic laws. Fines range from caning for throwing trash or peeing on roadside( no bobbitisation though) 1000 dollars for smoking in elevators, 100 dollars for not flushing the public toilets after use and death penalty for posession of drugs.( the last one is repeatedly announced by the airhostesses on the Singapoer Airlines filghts). Draconian, one may say but very much needed to instill discipline.

Bangkok, by contrast is more like our cities Mumbai or Kolkatta, a population of over a crore,(Singapore has 45 lakhs) a few beggars on the streets and traffic signals, roadside foodstalls which donot appear hygienic ( a contrast to the neat and clean foodcourts in Singapore). Milling crowds, massage parlours and foot reflexology centres where one can see hordes of foreign tourists reclining on chairs and getting their shopping-weary legs massaged. Traffic jams are common, one can never be sure of reaching the airport unless an extra hour is added to the reporting time. Taxi drivers donot know English and you are on tenterhooks whether they will take you to the right place or dump you in some godforsaken part of Bangkok. It is essential to carry the address of your destination written in thai language ( which to me seems to have a similarity with malayalam script).

I spent five days in Bngkok. The main attractions are of course the Emerald Buddha, the reclining buddha and the Golden Buddha ( 3000 kg of solid gold). The Emerald Buddha is to Thailand what Tirupathi is to us. The most sacred temple where no one is allowed into the elevated sanctum sanctorum on which the idol rests, except the priests and the King who personally changes the garments on the idol ( made of gold) thrice a year, one for rainy season, one for summer and one for winter, if one can call it winter.No photography is allowed here. Apart from this, there is the Royal Palace ( the king no longer lives there) and a miniature Angkor Wat style temple, a bodhi tree grown from a branch brought from the tree at Bodh Gaya under which Buddhha attained Nirvana. The Reclining Buddha is majestic,over forty metres long, cast in bronze with a gold covering and can be photographed. Around this temple there are scores of other temples and monasteries, yellow robed monks chanting and worshipping, guides explaining the architecture and religious significance to groups of german, russian and american tourists in their respective languages.

Bangkok has a great riverfront. One can travel by the hundreds of boat ferries for a nominal charge of 10 to 20 bahts ( Rs 13 to 26) Along both banks of the river one can see the huge temples, monuments and five star hotels. At every ferry point tourists hop on and hop off, thus saving time consuming journies by taxis. It is fun to ride in these boats and feel the fresh air and spray of water on one's face. There is a convention that buddhist monks sit on the seats on the left and ladies are not allowed to sit on these rows of seats.

From every road, every buildng and even churches, huge portraits of the King and Queen peer down upon the traffic. One swiss tourist got so fed up seeing the king's portrait at every step that he threw black paint on the portrait on King's birthday ( of all days) and was promptly arrested. The trial was held in camera and he was sentenced to 70 years in jail. So beware! It is another matter that the King subsequently pardoned the swiss tourist(incidentallly the king was educated in switzerland). The king is adored and veneraed by Thai people. They call him Rama and the old capital was known as Ayuthaya. The major arterial roads in Bangkok aernamed after Rama I through Rama IX. Murals from Ramayana ( Ramakian in thai) are painted on the walls of the quadrangle around the; emerald buddha temple. The pre-Buddhist Hindu influence is evident in a number of temples dedicated to Hindu Gods, the Nagas ( serpents) guarding the roofs of the temples, names of people and places.

Indian food was a problem in Bangkok. though there are umpteen so called indian hotels, none of them was up to the mark. All these hotels ( including the Dosa King and Komalas ) are manned by Thai staff and the only Indian there must be the cook hiding in the kitchen. Better to eat fast food at MacDonalds or Pizza Hut. If you want to try the exotic, I saw a costermonger with a wheelbarrow loaded with fried grasshoppers! Frogs sprawling on plates are on display at streetside joints.

Tourists shop like mad in Bangkok. there are hundreds of Malls, and you can get every item at reasonable prices. Bargaining is a must. Since the shop assistants have no or poor k nowledge of English, they use a calculator to show the price and you can show what you want to pay. A nod of the head horizontal or vertical will do the rest. Premium brands like Polo T shirts, Adidas etc. can be had for one tenth of the market price. Whether these are pirated or stolen from the factories is difficult to guess. (Thailand is a huge outsourcing centre for most multnational consumer goods and garments).

The Safari World is another attraction. One can spend a full day having breakfast with orangotangs, feeding tiger cubs ( drugged and with claws clipped - SPCA and PET to please note) and getting photographed, watching the dolphin show, and going in an airconditioned bus on a jungle trail of one hour seeing every variety of wildlife in its natural habitat. All for a stiff entranace fee of 700 Bahts (Rs 900) It is so hot in the park that one needs to carry a hand fan. Water atomisers are available from vendors at bahts 100.

And now for the Thai Massage. HOw can you return from Bangkok without experiencing the Thai massage? It costs 300 Bahts and lasts one hour, which is paid upfront to a receptionist cum cashier who issues a receipt.You sit on a sofa while your feet are washed in scented water and rubbed. Then, you are taken to the mezzanine floor (ground floor is for foot reflexology) where there is row of mattresses on the floor separated by curtains. You are given freshly ironed pyjamas and long sleeved shirt to change into. Then the masseuse comes and starts the famous Thai Massage. It is more like medieval torture. She pats and pounds and twists your arms and legs to every conceivable angle and posture, pulls the arm till it gets detatched from the ball and socket joint, presses the spine till the vertebrae start creaking like unoiled hinges, walks barefoot on your back and thighs and calf muscles as if kneading dough with her legs, tries to pull out your knee cap from its secure moorings, twists the ankles probably with the intention of transforming you into a clubfoot by the time the massage is over. Then the scapula, the occipitals and the cranium; treats them as if they are made of cast iron. All the time the masseuse ( whose name she gave as Pom) kept up the conversation, mostly small talk,in broken English, enquiring about my country of origin, religion, ancestry, language, etc( fortunately not my gender). At the end of one hour, I emerged from the massage, all in one piece, but badly shaken. For the voyeurs and the libidinous tourist there are other kinds of massage parlours, but these are in the alleys and bylanes ( Sois) which are best avoided by the faint hearted. Soliciting by streetwalkers and pimps is common in the Sukhomvit area and police swoop on these characters, round them up and take them away in their vans. Within minutes, another bunch of the ladies of the night descend on the street and it is business as usual! Sad as it is, sex tourism is one of the mainstays of the economy of Thailand.

The new airport is an hour's drive from the hotel. The airports outer appearance is drab looking like a row of aercraft hangars, painted gray. But inside, the airport can hold its own against Changi of Singapore. Passage is fairly smooth through immigration, etc in spite of the language problem and there is no separate airport for budget airlines. I counted at least forty airlines counters including the budget ones.

Well, that is it for now. I will continue my narrative in Part II, anon.

2 Comments:

Blogger therapy said...

why were you counting airline counters bhai?

1:50 AM  
Blogger vichchoobhai said...

comparing with amchi mumbai namma bengalooru and sadda dilli -shacks misnamed airports.

The civil aviation ministry needs therapy psychotherapy

8:33 AM  

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