Simbiosys
Wednesday, May 11th, 2005Yesterday evening I went to Bangkok’s China-Town.
The chinese quarter of Bangkok is a narrow place, full of allys that run into each other, with street merchandise of all sorts, especially tropical fruits and sea-food (doomed lobsters and crabs are waiting in huge PAILAs for the customers, whereis shrimps have the luxuries of ice while waiting for their turn on the grill). I went on and on exploring the market, with the restaurant signs offering bird-nests and shark-fins, looking at the tropical fruits - some known to us, like pineapples, lychees and rambutans, and some yet to be discovered by the west - like Durian, a large fruit that smells like sewage (no, I didn’t taste it) and is now at high season.
BTW: Anybody knows the english word for DUCHAN? There were plenty of them, some with ezoteric things such as snake skins and love liquids.
The china-town is an extremely thilthy place. My journey was cut at once, when a large rat crossed the street. I seemed to be the only one who noticed (or cared), but after observing this rat (it was really, really huge. and fat, too. especially in the tail. even now, I forgot to capitalize my sentences just because of the thought of it. shiver. uuuhhhh.) I caught the closest Tuk-Tuk and went straight back to Khaosan area (at least here, the rats hide).
Another sight of Bangkok: there are no garbage cans in the streets here, not even in important places like the king’s palace or major shrines. Just another sign of how this city, which tries to look so western, still belongs to the third world.
Today, after waking up early and viewing the rice-growing ceremony (described in a different post earlier), I gave some laundry at the hostel (not that I really needed, but I thought it will be a good idea) and went to look at the city. I found out how tuk-tuks achieve their gasoline: there are jewellery stores that pay the drivers (and fill their gasoline) if they bring them customers. Knowing that, I caught myself a nice driver, and in exchange to looking in one jewellery store I got a free ride for half a day (he was really grateful). Though I didn’t buy anything there, the store really is impressive. They give you free drinks at the entrance (They will probably reconsider this in light of the amount of fanta I drank there) and in the first hall they have some 50 people working on gems and diamonds, making the jewelleries. The second hall is full of persons with monoculars and microscopes observing gems, and the third room is an exhibition full of beautiful rings, necklaces, and all sorts of metal-and-stones jewellery. I actually enjoyed very much just looking at it. The prices start at 1000$, so I guess the fact that I look older than the normal backpaker did help them to treat me so well.
The fact that I spent some 15 minutes enjoying the precious jewelleries earned my driver free gasoline (he proudly showed me the coupon, after waiting for me outside in the sun), so he took me for free for half a day, and waited for me outside the Marble-Wat, the Golden-Mountain-Wat, and until bringing me to the king’s palace (where I let him go, because it’s walk distance from my hostel and because I wanted to stay there a long time). It may seem like I took advantage of the driver, but actually most of this was his suggestions, and when I tried to tip him - he refused. So it wasn’t explotation, it was simbiosys (between me, the driver, and the jewellery store).
Looking at all the temples I could clearly see both the colonial influence on Thailand (the marble temple, for example, is made of marble that was imported from Italy, and the style of the building is also very Italian - it could fit without any problem anywhere in Europe) and the eastern influence on Islam (corollary: budhists pray on the same position like muslims, they don’t wear shoes inside temples, they have carpets, and if the temple wasn’t filled with gold and budhas one could easily mistake a praying budhist to a muslim - only the budhists don’t try to kill anyone whenever possible). The budha sculptures, as I mentioned in an earlier post, are made only at specific positions, which all have a religous meaning. Today I decided I like the ‘Budha calming down the ocean’ position (it really is the name of as position), in which Budha stands with his two hands raised at front, calming the ocean. In the marble temple, to my surprise, the budha sculptures on the galleries were not made of gold, but of black wood. They also had there a japanese-style budha, with a wooden sun around its head.
After I had enough temples (the king’s palace hasn’t changed since my last visit here, they still have wonderful statues and wall paintings; the emerald Budha is dressed in a different dress now, if I remember correctly from my last visit), I wandered through a university campus here in Bangkok. It was very nice, I met some students (campuses are always fun, and they are the same anywhere in the world, and I really like them) and enjoyed the atmosphere. I also went to see some market by the river, but it was too crouded for me - maybe because I was a bit tired after waking up so early for the morning ceremony.
I came back to Habad house, used a bit of the free internet here (I didn’t pay anything for internet in Thailand - it is available for free in Habad house, at my hostel, and even in some restaurants) and went to rest for an hour. Now I regained powers and I’ll go to look for something to do in the evening. Tomorrow my flight leaves at 11:30, so I won’t have much time in the morning.
