The Hidden Verdancy of Bangkok

Posted on 6 March 2013 by christao408

The thing about Bangkok is, it isn’t a very pretty city. Being in a tropical climate, I always expect that it will be a lush, verdant city. Even though I’ve lived here more than seven years, I still have that expectation somewhere in the back of my mind. The reality, though, looks a lot like this:

At least, that’s how it looks from the street level. The buildings are built close to the roads, with only narrow footpaths that are only occasionally dotted with trees. Those trees are usually subject to harsh pruning by laborers armed with sharp saws and little horticultural knowledge.

Over time, my understanding of Bangkok’s relative verdancy has evolved. What I have come to see is that the city has a lot of green space, but that most of that green space is not public. Sure, as you walk down the alleys and streets, you may see some trees and bushes. For the most part, though, they are on private property, peeking over high walls. As a result, you walk in the full heat of the tropical sun.

Compare this with Singapore (pictured above) or even Kuala Lumpur, cities with mature trees lining the public footpaths, providing shade, cleaning the air, and making the city more pleasant. Now, don’t worry – I’m not about to turn this into a Bangkok-bashing, Singapore-loving entry. I just find the comparison to where our greenery lives interesting.

When you rise above the street level, as in this view from the Conrad hotel in the particularly lush Wireless Road neighborhood, you can see that there is quite a bit of greenery in Bangkok, although as mentioned before, much of it is not visible from the streets.

In fact, some of the grander houses live in a lush, tropical paradise. Except for the high rise buildings looming overhead, you would think you were in a jungle!

Sukhumbhand Paribatra, elected this past Sunday to a second term as governor of Bangkok, has promised to radically increase the amount of park land. By most estimates, Bangkok has less than one-tenth the amount of green space per resident compared with an average city. Let us hope that some of this green space can be expanded out of parks and into our everyday lives.

View of Waikiki

Posted on 24 June 2012 by christao408

While in Honolulu, we stayed at the New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel. Located close to Diamond Head on the south end of Waikiki, the New Otani is situated across from Kapiolani Park. It is a good value for many reasons. Its biggest selling point for me, was the view.

Sunrise from our balcony.

This position is ideal because the hotel is quiet, set apart from the touristy, shopping mall busyness of Waikiki. Plus, you look back at the entire beach and skyline and take it all in. If you were staying in Waikiki proper, you wouldn’t have so broad a perspective. Here are some of the pictures I shot during our two nights at the hotel.

Kapiolani Park with Diamond Head in the background.

Graceful palm trees backlit by the setting sun.

Other visitors stop to capture a picture of the sunset.

A trio of pictures from our balcony at different times of the day:

Just after sunset, I spotted the moon above the palm trees.

One final nighttime shot, in black-and-white.

Food in LA: Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner

Posted on 24 June 2011 by christao408

One of our dinners, per my sister’s request, was at Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner restaurant at Knott’s Berry Farm amusement park in Buena Park. Knott’s Berry Farm is “the other amusement park” in Orange County, located just up the road from Disneyland. Jennifer requested that we go to Mrs. Knott’s as she had fond memories from a visit there when we were children.

The history of Knott’s dates back to 1920, when Walter Knott and his family sold berries and preserves from a roadside stand.

In 1934, to make ends meet, Knott’s wife Cordelia (1890–1974) reluctantly began serving fried chicken dinners on their wedding china. For dessert, Knott’s signature Boysenberry Pie was also served to guests dining in the small tea room. As Southern California developed, Highway 39 became the major north-south connection between Los Angeles County and the beaches of Orange County, and the restaurant’s location was a popular stopping point for drivers making the two hour trip in those days before freeways.

These days, the wait for dinner is still long. Admittedly, we were a larger group than normal – about 10 people – but the wait was still about an hour.

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Prices have gone up over the years (by about 100 times) but the menu remains pretty much unchanged. Frankly, this was more food than I wanted to have, as I was more interested in the boysenberry pie than anything else. Walter Knott was responsible for naming and popularizing the boysenberry, a blackberry, raspberry, loganberry hybrid cross-bred by Rudolph Boysen of nearby Anaheim.

The interior of the restaurant, made up of several medium sized dining rooms, looks very run-down, badly in need of a makeover or, at least, a deep cleaning.

Buttermilk biscuit – okay, but not nearly as flaky or tasty as mine.

Rhubarb compote served chilled as a starter. Very, very sweet.

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Very sad salad. “Farm fresh”? Pathetic, really.

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The main course itself – three pieces of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and corn. The food was okay, although I found the chicken a bit oily and, like pretty much all chicken in the US, the meat lacked any discernable flavor.

The dessert – the boysenberry pie with ice cream – was pretty good. So good that I managed to not get a picture of it! But overall, the meal proved the conventional wisdom that things are better in our memories than they are in real life. At least I was surrounded by family, so in good company for an otherwise mediocre dinner.

A nearly full moon climbs over the structure of GhostRider, the park’s wooden coaster.

Beautiful Sunset

Posted on 12 January 2011 by christao408

This afternoon I had to go to a photo shoot. I’ve been invited to publish some of my entries from this blog on another site, one that is Thailand-specific. To keep a consistent look and feel, the editor asked me to stop by the office and have their photographer shoot a new head shot for my profile. No worries – I’m not going anywhere, just broadening my audience.

On the way home, I noticed that we were in for a gorgeous sunset. The weather has been cool thanks to a system dropping in from China and the breeze, which had been strong the past few days, was very calm today leading to hazy but cloud-free skies. I stopped by Benjakiti Park next to Queen Sirikit Convention Center and shot this picture. It was a beautiful sunset.

Loi Khrathong 2007

Posted on 25 November 2007 by christao408

Above: Thousands of khrathong float in the lake at Benjasiri Park.

Saturday was Loi Khrathong, an annual festival in Thailand that ostensibly has its roots in the animist past, where all things have a soul or spirit and those spirits deserve our respect. Water is central to Thai life and Thai mythology, and the “mother water” (the literal translation of the word mae nam – river) is venerated in the Loi Khrathong festival.

You also see examples of animism in many old, large trees that will have colorful ribbons and strips of fabric tied around the trunk. Often there are small offerings left there, too. The spirit houses you see on almost every property are another example of this. Because the construction of the buildings has disturbed the spirit of the land, a house is built where the spirit can live. Food, drink, and incense is offered to the spirit every day.

While its roots are in the animist past, for all practical purposes the modern-day celebration of Loi Khrathong has more in common with St. Valentine’s Day, for Loi Khrathong is especially a day for lovers and, the morality police report, the most popular day for young people to lose their virginity. As such, there is a public relations campaign in advance warning young people not to be in secluded or dark areas on Loi Khrathong, and threatening “love motel” owners who do not actively check the age and identification of all guests.

Right: Full moon over the lake. The Emporium is in the background.

After attending a performance of “A Christmas Carol”, presented by Bangkok Community Theatre and starring our friend Justin Brook as Bob Cratchit, we headed to dinner at a Chinese restaurant famed for its Peking-style roast duck. Located next to the Emporium, it was just a short walk to Benjasiri Park. This is the same park I walked by on Thanksgiving and saw the legless beggar crawling along on his belly, teaching me a lesson not unlike those taught to Scrooge by the three ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future.

Below: Post performance with Justin “Bob Cratchit” Brook. From left to right: Tawn, Roka, Justin, Chris, Markus and Tam.

Above: Our Peking duck has arrived, served in the style I’m accustomed to with the crispy skin served with small pancakes, plum sauce, green onions and cucumber. The rest of the meat arrives later in another dish. Markus was convinced that this was not authentic based on his experiences eating Peking duck in Beijing, so he proceeded to SMS two different friends in China who could validate and add authority to the question of what was truly authentic Peking duck. I’m not sure why the question needed to be answered at that moment, but the answer seems to be that in Beijing the meat is served at the same time as the skin. Anecdotally, most everyone I’ve spoken with on the subject has said that the Peking duck in Beijing is a disappointment. Anyhow…

Along the sidewalk a hundred vendors were selling khrathong, most made with somewhat environmentally friendly banana tree trunk, a few made from illegal styrofoam bases, and a good number made with bread bases – fish food! They sold nearly universally for 50 baht, a fair price if you consider the time put into making them.

Below: Chris shops for khrathong. Below that: Bread based options.

The park was lit up for the evening, fluorescent lights casting their eerie blue glow and the fire department’s search and rescue units having set up several light towers with bright-as-daylight tungsten lamps. Thousands of people were around the lake, many of them families, and while there were many people it wasn’t crowded. There was always room to go to the side of the lake to loi (float) your khrathong.

Video shot by Pune of our launching. It goes vertical for a few moments when she forgot that she was shooting film, not photographs!

After launching our khrathog we walked around the lake to see the full moon. The festival is held on the night of the full moon in the twelfth lunar month, usually the second half of November. Two years ago it fell on my birthday, which was fun. It was difficult to get a really good shot of the lake and the moon, since the moon had climbed quite high into the night sky.

Some more shots from our evening adventure:

Below: At the shallow end of the lake, people tear through khrathong searching for money. It is customary to place a coin on your khrathong (along with a hair) and so children and the less fortunate are known to go after the khrathong to search for money.

christao408

The adventures of an expat American who moved to Bangkok for his husband.

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