Tag Archives: Bangkok

Car Free Day 2009

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P1190487 We are a city that tries very hard.  This is especially true when it comes to being green.  We want badly to be green. 

We have added bicycle lanes… that parked cars block with impunity and that run down the middle of vendor- and pedestrian-filled footpaths. 

We stress the importance of public transportation, while dickering over the replacement of noxious, smoke-belching busses and the ever-delayed extensions of rail lines.

And we participate in Car Free Day.

While the rest of the world celebrates Car Free Day on September 22, which this year fell on a Tuesday, we found that a bit inconvenient and so instead celebrated it on the previous Sunday.

While the rest of the world emphasizes getting out of the car on onto your bikes, Car Free Day was just an excuse for those of us who already are cycling, to get together for what wasn’t much more than a publicity stunt.

While mayors and politicians in major cities around the world actually get out of their cars and bike to work or take public transit, our politicians were chaffered to the Car Free Day events.  Only a few people from the Ministry of Energy actually made the effort.

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While this may sound a little bitter, I assure you I’m not.  The (pre-)Car Free Day event brought together about 5,000 cyclists from around the city.  We met at Kasetsart University (originally is was going to be Sanam Luang, the large royal parade ground, but that had been under seige by the “red shirt” anti-government protesters the day before and we thought better of going there) for a group photo on the football pitch, organized into a map of Thailand.  This was dutifully reprinted in some of the local papers the following day, having absolutely no effect on the number of cars on the road on the 22nd.

This publicity stunt was reasonably well organized, but still required more than an hour of standing around in the hot sun.  I didn’t have the patience, since I actually wanted to ride.  So I snapped this picture after about twenty minutes.  It is meant to be the north third of Thailand.  Chiang Rai is kind of up near the goal posts.

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Everyone was in a jovial mood.  Many people who ride for fun have wonderful, unique bicycles.  There are several that are doctored in various ways, customized to express the personalities and playfulness of their owners.  We even had a few Victorian bicycles.  Can you imagine riding this in Bangkok traffic?

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On my way home, I explored a stretch of road I did not previously know about, heading along Thanon Prasert-Manukitch through the Lat Prao district to Thanon Ram-Intra.  I think I once drove out here but have never cycled in this area.

Two blocks from home, while riding along a street that was mid-way through repaving, my rear tire popped and I started to lose air.  Thankfully, I made it back home before the tube was completely flat.  This served as the necessary prompting to finally take my bicycle in for maintenance.  I’ve had it more than three years without any work done to it.

More about that later…

 

Around the City

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A few weeks ago we had visitors for a half-day, friends connecting through Krungthep on their way to Phuket.  They are one of those global couples – an Austrian working for a German company living in Singapore whose partner is a Korean doing research in Switzerland.  With only a few hours to show them a slice of the Big Mango, I took them to Ratanakosin Island – the “Old City” – for a self-guided audio tour.

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Above, a view of Ratjanatda Canal at Tanao Road near the Democracy Monument.  This neighborhood, filled with families who have lived here for many generations, is in the sights of the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority’s redevelopers.  They would like to “rehabilitate” this area to make it an arts and entertainment district.  Locals, as you might imagine, aren’t so keen on the government’s ideas and would prefer to undertake their own rehabilitation.

A small side soi – Phraeng Phuton – is described as the best-preserved heritage neighborhood in the city.  Residents restored the community and improved the landscape.  An open square in the center of the block is still used for public performances and plays, just as it used to be during the reign of King Rama V. 

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A local businessman has many antique cars, some of which are actually in superb condition, at what was one of the first automobile repair shops in Siam.  It was also the first driver’s license bureau in the city.  Above, one of the owner’s more recent acquisitions, a piece that is going to need a lot of work to restor.

Across the street was another interesting car, below.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Mini Moke.

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Walking through the monk accessories district (alms bowls, anyone?) at the intersection of Tanao Road and Bamrung Muang Road, I was reminded why bicycle riding in the old city is such a challenge.  There are actually these cool green bicycles available for hire and a corresponding green path taking you to various places of interest in the old city.  Fantastic idea.  Poor execution.

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We stopped by Wat Suthat, the tallest temple in the city and ostensible center of the universe.  Wat Suthat is considered the most finely-proportioned temple and is one of the highest-ranked royal temples.  The temple grounds spread more than 45,000 square meters and has the largest bronze Buddha image in the kingdom.  Construction lasted from 1807-1847 with King Rama I laying the cornerstone of the main sanctuary’s foundation. 

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Across the street from Wat Suthat is Kor Tor Mor Square, a large public square that also faces the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority’s headquarters, City Hall.  You see the red Giant Swing, which was rebuilt last year by an aging craftsman in northern Thailand.  The Giant Swing is part of a Brahmanist tradition and was used in ceremonies honoring the god Shiva.  There used to be an actual swing and young men would compete in a contest to bite a bag of coins from a bamboo pole while riding on the swing.  This contest was discontinued as deaths and injuries were too common.  In ancient Siam there were giant swings in all the major towns.  The original one here in Krungthep was nearly twice as tall.

And that’s your snapshot tour of Ratanakosin Island!

 

Wading Police

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Thai police come in for a lot of ridicule and scorn by locals.  They are variously seen as corrupt (random road stops to extract a few hundred baht in ticketless “fines”) and lazy (recent campaign at a force-wide weight reduction as there were too many tummies stretching the already skin-tight brown uniforms) by many residents.

There is no doubt that some members of the force aren’t the most outstanding examples of fine police work.  That’s probably true of any police force.  There are plenty of other members of the Thai police who, despite long hours, low pay and terrible working conditions (traffic police have the highest incidence of lung cancer in the country), do their best to keep traffic moving on the choked roads.

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It was on a rainy Friday afternoon a few weeks ago that I caught this snapshot of a traffic policeman, slogging through the recently-formed lake that was the expressway entrance toll plaza on Ploenchit / Rama I Road.  No doubt he was earning ever last satang of his salary that day.

 

Real Perspective

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Adjacent to the Surasak Skytrain station, there is an abandoned, partially-finished building that is a casualty of the 1997 Asian economic crisis.  At a prime location, for whatever reason nobody has stepped in to finish the building which was already being fitted out with duct work for ventilation – meaning all the structural work was complete.

The building is usually subjected to various graffiti.  Recently, though, I noticed that an entire floor’s worth of graffiti had been painted over and there was a new bit of word art.



Depending on where you stand, the parts of the word come together.  Perhaps the underlying message is that you have to have the right perspective in order to discern what is real.

Raising the Sidewalks of Krungthep

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As layer upon layer of asphalt gets added to the streets, the distance between the road surface and the footpaths steadily diminishes.  Once the torrential showers of rainy season arrive, this means ever more flooding that dampens the ankles of residents.  The Bangkok Metropolitan Authority, in all their wisdom, is addressing this issue by raising the sidewalks.  In the case of Sathorn Road, a main business artery, sidewalks have increased by about a foot (30 cm).

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Here you see a raised section abutting a section of the footpath that is at the old height.  The new section actually gains additional elevation behind the fence.  The green metal poles are a new addition, too, designed to prevent motorized vehicles (except motorcycles, I suppose) from driving on the footpaths.  They are still wide enough to allow street vendors’ carts to enter, though.

The problem is – and you can probably anticipate this as it is common to metropolitan governments the world over – the construction crew responsible for raising the footpaths isn’t responsible for raising any of the objects along the footpaths such as street lamps, signs and bus stops.

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The net effect is that bus stop seats that used to be at a comfortable sitting height are now at a squat.  Sure enough, another contractor is following the first one, tearing up the new pavers (which, a first for Krungthep, are actually on a cement base rather than just floating on a layer of sand and dirt), then digging out and raising the benches, shelters, signs, etc.

If I didn’t know better, I would think this inefficiency was an intentional way to spread a little largess.  Wait a minute…  would they do that?  Nah…

 

Lentils are Nice

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It has been a strange week full of lots of errands and events.  A friend was in town and his visit came to an unexpectedly abrupt end, so we had to get involved and help sort that out.  A trip to the old city to buy coffee beans from Mari Green Coffee early Sunday morning ended up with our car having a Denver boot put on it, requiring a trip to the local police station to pay a 200 baht fine.  Another friend was having troubles in his love life, the type that are so typical between people of different cultures but, despite being typical, are still heart-wrenching.  It has just been one of those weeks.

At my recommendation, a guest stayed at the Windsor Suites Hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 20.  This hotel is owned by a friend’s family, so I’m biased in my recommendation, but I find it to be a clean, comfortable, reasonably-priced hotel that is in a very convenient location.  Several of my visitors have stayed there and all have been pleased.  This guest’s room had a sweeping view which I stitched together from three pictures, below.  I know the stitching job is terrible – I didn’t use any fancy software for it- but the view itself was fantastic.

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On the weekend, while running our errands, we were sitting in some traffic in Yaowarat  (Chinatown) and, glancing in the side mirror, I spotted this man driving a motorcycle with an incongruous choice of stickers decorating it.  Playboy and Ghostbusters?

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Needing a quiet evening at home after several nights dining out, I prepared a caprese panzanella salad – the Italian style tomato, fresh mozzarella and bread salad – using a recipe from Joanne’s Week of Menus blog and a dish of Italian sausage served with lentils with fennel and asparagus.

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Both were very tasty and I thankfully have leftovers for lunch today!

 

Shh!! There’s a Queen in the House

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“Shh!!” reads some graffiti located on a rooftop adjacent to the Siam BTS Skytrain station, the interchange station between the two Skytrain lines and home to blaring TV advertisements all day long.  Of course, in this city of seven or eight million, there are few places where noise isn’t a problem.  Even at many of the temples, tape recordings of sermons or Buddhist songs play throughout the day.  If a denizen of the Big Mango was ever left alone with the silence of his or her own thoughts, they might freak out!

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Above, the view from the station platform to the adjacent building.  This is without using much zoom, so you have some idea of how close the building is to the platform and tracks.  It is a business, though, not a residence, so you wouldn’t expect the noise to be as much of a concern.

You know how I always say that I don’t leave home without my camera. Well, yesterday I did leave home twice without my camera, both times missing opportunities to photograph blog-worthy things.  The first was when my friend Paul and I went out for lunch at a tonkatsu restaurant on Sukhumvit Soi 39.  The building maintenance people were caulking a seam in the car park.  Unable to reach it, one worker balanced on the shoulders of the other while applying the caulk, a scene straight out of Cirque du Soleil.

Thankfully, Tawn had his Blackberry with him and was able to take a picture of the second blog-worthy thing.

We attended the opening night of the 11th Bangkok International Festival of Music and Dance, featuring the Ekaterinburg Opera Theatre from Russia performing Verdi’s La Traviata.  It is common for a member of the Royal Family to attend these events (although being an opera, there were already plenty of queens in the audience… Ha ha ha!) and sure enough, there was an unusually long delay as we waited for the guest of honor to arrive and the show to start.  While we normally see one of the various princesses, we were honored to have Her Majesty the Queen present.

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During the first intermission, we stepped outside for some air only to see Her Majesty’s yellow Rolls Royce limousine and the twelve identical cherry red Mercedes that drove her entourage to the Thailand Cultural Center.  Very impressive rides!

 

Filming a Dramatic Rooftop Chase

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Sorry – the video was locked on YouTube.  I have fixed that and you can now view it.

Hardly a day goes by when I don’t see something while I’m out and about that is worth shooting.  That’s why I almost always have my camera in my bag.  Case in point, after having lunch with Tawn the other day and walking up to the Ploenchit Skytrain station, I noticed some very bright lights on a rooftop.  Sure enough, they were filming a scene from a movie.

Turned out to be some sort of an action movie, based on the appearance of the main actor probably an Indian film.  Our hero in the dark suit was chasing across a rooftop, firing his revolver wildly at a thuggish looking Asian gangsta (go stereotypes!) holding a machine gun.

Quite a crowd gathered on the station platform and surround car parks to watch the action.  It looks like the filming was being done by a remote camera that slid down some cables (pictured below) from an adjacent building while the actors ran across the room, producing a sweeping shot.  A lot of work just for one shot that lasted a few seconds.

Over the next few days, they shot a few more scenes at the same location – or at least filmed different takes of the same scene – but nothing so dramatic as this.  I shot some footage and edited it down to a 90-second bit for your viewing:

I hope you enjoy it.