Bangers’n’Cash

I’ve stored my panniers.

Temporarily.

They’ll resurface sometime in a couple of weeks, when I load up and head southeast.

It’s so good!

It’s time to re-discover Bangkok on an unloaded bike.

And on foot, bus, train and boat.

Bang Rak

I’m so happy to be staying in a part of Bangkok I don’t really know yet. Pretty much every time I’ve been to this city in the past, which is lots, I’ve stayed in the Bang Lamphu area, somewhere within cooee of Khaosan Road.

That area’s interesting, but it’s also completely jam packed full of Western travellers, which is great for awhile, but somehow it didn’t draw me this time.

So, instead, I’m in Bang Rak, a super interesting area with a fair chunk of different nationalities, particularly Indians and Burmese, and all the eating places, businesses and temples that go with that. And lots of Thais of course.

My nondescript little soi (lane)

I’m really close to a beautiful Hindu temple, Sri Maha Mariamman, there’s eating places everywhere, and it’s a complete cross of old school dusty old hole-in-the-wall shops, mixed with more expensive restaurants, shops and businesses along Silom Road.

Indian sweets, "sweet"being the operative word.

Bang Rak isn’t the ritzy crowded shopping central part of Silom Rd, but that’s just a 20 min walk away.

And so is the redlight district of Pat Pong.

In the other direction along Silom Road, heading west, it’s only a 20 min walk to the river and the local ferries.

Thai faeries

Somebody’s been playing Jenga with this building. So dangerous.

Back to dosa land!

My local metro station

My local mosque

My local Hate My Own Body clinic

I thought the saying was about leopards and spots?

Training from Ratchaburi

It was interesting getting here to Bang Rak.

The train was a breeze, a 3rd class classic coming all the way from Yala in the deep south, packed to the luggage rafters with Muslims.

Not surprising, considering Yala is a fully Muslim part of Thailand.

Before I knew it I was in the brand spanking new Krung Thep Aphiwat central station, ready to navigate all those crazy Bangkok roads to my guesthouse.

Outside it was crazy hot and humid. Once on the road my clothes were dripping wet in no time.

But, as we all know, in times of need, the universe always provides.

This time it provided me with a flat tyre in the middle of loads of traffic, only a couple of clicks from the station.

Great start.

It occurred to me that maybe something traumatic had happened to Bewdy when she was alone in the luggage carriage on the train, she really wasn’t into going anywhere, creaking and groaning and gnashing her chain teeth when we took off.

And she didn’t wanna talk about it either. Sometimes she can be so blocked up.

Maybe she’s got some trauma from the past, like having to deal with a pedal file, or something horrible like that.

Anyway I changed Bewdy’s tube on the footpath, without fuss. I pumped up the tyre nice and hard, only to discover that when I unscrewed my pump fitting from the tube it automatically also unscrewed the valve from the new tube, deflating it completely.

Great.

My brand new Thai tube is faulty.

There was no way I could get the pump fitting off without that happening, and it was the only tube I had.

After a little while of brain racking, my grey matter came up with an obvious solution.

I pumped up the tyre again, and then just disconnected the pump fitting from the pump itself, and taped it to the wheel spokes. It worked a treat. The tyre stayed inflated.

So off I headed back into the crazy traffic, and made it to my guest house without dying. It’s def trickier negotiating heavy traffic when your bike’s fully laden, with a big fat nice guitar sticking right out the back, threatening to behead motorcyclists without warning as I skit between lanes, which you need to do if you wanna get anywhere.

And then, to my sheer delight, it started to rain!

Perfect!

Not only is the rain cooling, but it completely cleans the air, washing all those particulates into the already polluted canals, so they can eventually drain into the polluted Bay of Bangkok at the very northern tip of the Gulf of Thailand.

I gotta say, I was so happy to feel the rain, it’s been months since I last did.

The temperature is suddenly almost 10 degrees cooler here than it was 2 days ago.

Take Me To The River

I couldn’t sit still.

Off I went exploring, from pretty much the moment I arrived in Bangkok.

On my pedes though, instead of my pedals, for a change.

I just wanted to get down to the river, which for me is the soul of the whole city.

The Nam Chao Phraya is a bit of a fave of mine. She’s in my heart. Over the years I’ve spent many hours on various boats and ferries on her swirling waters, or strolling on paths on her banks.

I’ve seen her flooding crazily, all sorts of things washing downstream, and I’ve seen her much calmer and softer, in hot dry conditions, like she is now.

Before the monsoon rains hit.

As I headed off it was peak hour, and not just for the traffic, but for me too. I was so excited to be back in this amazing city.

Bangkok’s greening up in parts

There’s homeless people about, maybe these poor souls are Burmese refugees.

On some roads in Bangkok at night, you see rows and rows of homeless people sleeping on the footpaths.

Just like Sydney.

Whiteness is the dream

The hustle and bustle of Charoen Krung Road.

Don’t look. Ok, you did anyway. Sadly, these are actually dried shark fins.

Bangkok used to be a swamp, which was drained by human-made canals, to provide habitable non-flooding land.

Trouble is, they keep blocking up and building on the canals, increasing the potential damage from flooding.

Not only that, but because the city’s built on the delta of the Chao Phraya River, with an average land elevation of only 1.5m above sea level, small sea level rises and extreme precipitation events are already causing chronic flooding in some areas.

Sea levels have risen 20cm globally in the past 100 years, and that rise is now accelerating. But around Bangkok, the local waters are rising at around 1.2cm per year.

So the waters of Bangkok Bay are moving north at an estimated 1.3 km every year.

That’s really a lot.

Sometime between 2050 and 2100, depending on extreme weather events and the extent of global emissions reductions, the whole of Bangkok will be under water, unless they build levies or walls around the whole city.

Sounds like a rather big project to me.

Wat Sutthiwararam

Glorious yaksa

Great old bus. Cheap and reliable. A ride costs between about 20 and 40c.

The concrete’s gonna win

Interesting concrete architecture. This is the Thai Muslim Women’s Foundation HQ, an organisation which supports orphans around the country.

A soi to the river. It ended up being a dead end, because the pier is closed for repairs.

The beautiful Wat Ratcha Singkhon

Can’t wait to get on one of these ferries

Voldemort and his crew, collecting alms.

And then, by complete surprise, I somehow ended up in an actual official real life Disneyland, called Disney 100.

It was so bizarre, and unexpected.

Suddenly I was in a completely different world, with theme park rides, really bad piped music of Disney movie hits, and a million shops and ritzy restaurants.

Hyper expensive private restaurant booths. One piece of Australian steak in this restaurant will knock you back AUD250. That's actually the truth.

I sorta felt like I’d inadvertently strolled into a super ritzed up Pacific Fair Shopping Centre at Surfers Paradise Lost.

Looks like she’s not in a twirling mood

But these guys are

And, of course, the prices were crazy inside as well.

Trying to slug people 75B (about $3.50) for one mango. Later that evening I bought over a kilo (3 big ones) for 30B ($1.20).

It may seem petty to you, but somehow when you’ve been in a place for awhile you acclimatise, including getting a good idea of what the rough price for everything should be. I think in baht now.

I mean, most places in Bangkok charge about triple the price of what you’d pay in rural Thailand. Bangers'n'cash alright.

But there’s enough poor here to sometimes be able to find cheaper eating and shopping places. You really gotta look around though, and you’ve got Buckley’s in some postcodes.

People soak their lower legs and feet in these tanks, and fish nibble them. Total exfollyation, if you ask me.

Despite the mega “development”, the river was still beautiful around there.

I’m collecting good weedshop names.

Some normal people ride bikes in this city! It makes total sense. It’s so easy getting around on an (unloaded) bike here, you can just zip right through the traffic, even in full congestion.

Gotta keep yer wits about ya though.

This was the hole in the wall where I ate. Another sweet old lady. It smashed Disney for six.

Perfect for cat parents

Yaowarat

One morning I caught a local bus to Yaowarat, an amazing part of the city.

It’s basically a massive Chinatown, a whole city in itself, which is not surprising really, considering that Thailand has the largest population of Chinese in the world, outside China. Over 10 million of the buggers in fact.

No offence.

Chinatown’s a complete maze of markets, alleyways, bustling commercial areas, temples, clan houses, dusty old shops, street art spaces, museums, and everything else interesting you can think of.

All day the markets are busy, and at night the main drag and alleyways are absolutely nuts with people coming out to eat everything you can’t imagine.

There’s so much to explore here.

The main commercial drag, Yaowarat Rd, during the relative quiet of mid morning.

Birds nest soup is made from edible birds nests, which are actually nests made by certain types of swiftlets (birds that, I guess, are a little smaller, maybe even a little slower, than swifts).

The nests are actually bound with bird saliva, which is rich in nutrients, and which has what is described as a “strong” flavour.

I’ve never tried it. I’ve been put off by the smell of my own dried saliva. Imagine a bloody bird’s!

This is what the nests look like:

My nest-shaped pre-brekky. Red beans, rice flour and sugar. Saliva-free, except an accidental tiny dribble, in anticipation.

Dried flowers for herbal tea

Seafood bits. Don’t ask me what bits.

Sea cucumbers

Abacus building

Vegan brekky spot

And their Wall of Fame

Fresh soya milk

Holes-in-the-wall

Negotiating the rabbit warren to the incredible Chinese Wat Mangkon Kamalawat

Raise the red lantern

China Gate

Buddying up with Wat Traimit

The Chinese in Thailand

There’s a Chinese Heritage Museum on the edge of Yaowarat, which documents the long history of Chinese immigration to Thailand, and it’s super interesting, if you’re into that sort of thing.

In 1767 King Taksin the Great moved the capital city from Ayutthaya to Thonburi (across the river in Bangkok), after the Ayutthaya Kingdom fell and split into warring fiefdoms. The city of Ayutthaya itself had been weakened by years of fighting those annoying Burmese.

Taksin immediately conquered all the warring factions and reunited Siam (the old name for Thailand), and his Thonburi Kingdom became the largest Thai kingdom that had existed up to that date. In territorial terms, that is. It gobbled up large swathes of current day Laos, Cambodia and Burma.

Maybe that’s why he was Great.

Or it could have been because his daughter had a daughter who also had a daughter. Then he would’ve been Taksin the Great (Grandpa), even if he didn’t do anything particularly special.

Anyway Thonburi, the new city right on the massive Chao Phraya river, was ideally placed for trade. Ayutthaya had already established strong trading links with China, and Taksin encouraged fullscale Chinese immigration to Thailand through major tax concessions.

The Thais got right into the junk trade.

The boats, that is.

The round windows on either side of the front of the junk were traditionally placed there for superstitious reasons - to appear as eyes on either side, and ensure the junk could always go in the direction required.

Wooden expression

Thonburi became a major port, the junks would commute between the new city and southern China, packed to their camphor rafters with produce and people.

When the even newer new capital of Bangkok was dedicated in 1782, just across the river and downstream a bit, in Rattanakosin, the Thai economy boomed even more bullishly.

Through all the turbulent years of civil wars, revolutions, invasions and famine that engulfed China over the next two centuries, Thailand remained a firm and steady trading partner, and the number one destination for Chinese economic and political refugees, and business people who wanted to make a buck.

Wat Traimit

This small but beautiful temple, tucked away on the edge of Chinatown, is famous because it houses a pure gold statue of the Buddha.

It just happens to be the largest pure gold statue in the whole world.

Oh for posture like this

Otis’ next palm weaving task

The statue is magnificent, although its grandeur can’t be fully appreciated from these pics.

You’ll just have to come here to see it yourself.

The statue was built in Sukhothai, a historical Thai capital north of Bangkok, sometime in the 13th or 14th centuries, and soon after was moved to Ayutthaya, the city which superseded it as the new capital.

At some point, to protect it from theft by invading Burmese armies, it was covered in clay, so it looked like an everyday run-of-the-rice-mill terracotta Buddha.

In the early 1800s, it was moved to Bangkok, after the city had been established as the new capital, and was installed in a temple. The temple itself fell into disrepair, like many in those days.

In 1955 it was moved again, and while they were putting it in place, some of the ropes broke, and it fell hard to the ground. Some bits of the clay broke off.

You’d think heads would roll over that major slip up.

But no.

The chipped clay revealed the gold underneath.

No wonder the ropes broke.

It was then examined by experts, which revealed that, in fact, it wasn’t just coated in gold, which they thought, but it was actually solid pure gold, all the way through.

5,500kg of pure gold, for that matter.

Which, at today’s prices, is worth a cool USD250m.

At that price I was gonna steal it, but it was a little bit heavy, and I couldn’t get enough air pressure in my back tyre to get anywhere.

There seemed to be very little security at the temple. I think it’d be a bit tough to get it out of there, unless you discreetly smuggled in a commercial crane and a semi-trailer.

There was an exhibition there about the golden Buddha’s history, which had some cute models.

You’d wanna make sure you’d sorted out the raft’s buoyancy, and that Buddha was right smack bang in the middle of the thing.

This is a re-creation of the friendly guys helping me get the Buddha to my bike.

When my back tyre wouldn’t inflate, someone lent me their truck. They even threw in a couple of extra golden Buddha gifts for me, for good measure. Thais are unbelievably generous.

Chao Phraya

It felt so good to get out on the river, in the relatively fresh air, zipping around on the local express commuter ferries.

The ferry’s such a great way to get around certain parts of Bangkok. It’s cool, cheap, full of great views, and, of course, you’re out of the traffic.

Besides the other river traffic, that is.

The river is still used as an important commercial waterway, and various barges and large boats plough through the waters, as well as all that commuter and tourist traffic.

First I headed to Wat Arun, the Temple of the Dawn.

It’s a magnificent sight, from any direction.

Wat Arun has been around since Ayutthaya was capital of Thailand. It’s believed that it was first built sometime in the mid 1600s, and has been through various stages of building and renovations over the centuries. The main distinctive stupas were built in the mid 1800s.

It’s a stunning place, and is rightfully regarded as one of the most iconic sights of Bangkok.

He looks pretty proud of himself. I don’t blame him, the place is quite an achievement.

It was packed with tourists when I was there, in the middle of a weekday. I’m glad I wasn’t there at sunset, it would’ve been even more nuts.

And I didn’t make the dawn by a long shot.

Many Chinese tourists deck themselves out in fancy traditional Thai clothes, which they hire, and then take and post photos of themselves at beautiful places like this. Apparently it’s the thing to do.

They do it all over the world, I’ve seen them at it in Japan and Korea, for example.

There’s also a more modern Thai wat there, which is beautiful.

Cute huh.

Bang Lamphu

Eventually I jumped back on the ferry and continued upstream, to the Phra Athit pier, to visit my old haunt of Bang Lamphu, and to check out somewhere to store my bike for a couple of weeks.

Bang Lamphu’s full of young travellers from all over the world, but mainly from Europe. Bangkok’s a major transport hub in the region, so young travellers exploring Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and even India, on the backpacking trail, often pass through here.

Most of them stay in Bang Lamphu, and, as a result, Khaosan Road, the main drag, is pretty nuts at night.

More about that later ….

Some of the surrounding streets are really interesting.

Khaosan Road mid afternoon is deader than death

It was hot

I met this candidate (#7), she was on the hustings

Phra Sumen Fort, right on the river, protecting the old city from invaders

Metro Purple Line extension to Bang Lamphu, under construction

Silom and Pat Pong

Silom is one of a number of mega-large shopping districts in this crazy city, and is jam packed full of upmarket brand stores and huge shopping malls.

Up Ratchdamri Road is the massive Central World Shopping Centre, and across the road is Gaysorn Village, the sparkliest mall of themall. The district of Ratchdamri is also the location of some of the most exclusive hotels and ostentatious richbitch mansions in the whole city.

Super massive glitzy shopping mall, packed with shoppers, even midweek, early arvo.

Silom also houses the infamous Pat Pong redlight district, which I first visited decades ago, to see with my own eyes what all the fuss was about.

In those days Pat Pong was a maze of laneways packed full of dark bars, doorways lined with scantily clad young women enticing men in, with suggestive words, looks and lip licking manoeuvres.

Yeah I went in to a few of those bars in those days.

I’d met a French guy, an older guy, who took me there, and who later bragged to me that he’d had sex with over 250 women in this city.

Whoopee for him.

Needless to say, him and I didn’t go home together that night. I eventually went back to my guest house, and he disappeared in a perfumed cloud of pussy dust.

I never saw him again.

Not judging, but, you know, we were into different things.

The performances inside those clubs were seriously out there in those days, especially for my relatively blinkered eyes.

Young naked or semi-naked women did all sorts of things on stage, like firing darts out of their vaginas, using springs that they activated with their vaginal muscles. They’d get the drunk and horny old farts hanging around the edge of the strip platform to hold inflated balloons, and then fire sharp darts at them. They often missed their apparent balloon targets and hit their real old man targets.

Or they’d hold paint brushes with their vaginas and paint pictures, which they’d then try to sell to the men.

On stage they’d strip, pole dance, lap dance, have baths and showers, and engage in live sex with young Thai men.

When they weren’t performing on stage they’d be wandering around the bar, trying to seduce the wealthiest of their targets, and making sure the drinks were flowing.

The thing that struck me at the time was that not once did I see one of the stage performers smile.

Not even a fake smile.

Their eyes were just glazed over as they looked into space. Their bodies were there, but they actually weren’t.

The other thing that struck me was that it was all so clinical and weird that it was completely the opposite of a turn-on for me.

I somehow became friends with a bunch of sex workers in Bangkok in those days, just from chatting on the street I think. They were mainly women, and I ended up staying with a couple of them for awhile, in their small, hot, run down and pretty messy high rise apartment.

They told me some horrific stories of abuse at the hands of both Western and Thai men. Sadism, bashing, cutting, you know, that sort of shit. You name it, they’d been through it.

Mostly, they ended up escaping into heroin and alcohol, which was diligently provided to them by their employers, partly to help them cope, but mainly to keep them dependent.

Sometimes the women came home from work in the early hours of the morning, drugged to the eyeballs, and told each other (and me) stories of what had happened that night.

Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I didn’t go into any of the bars in Pat Pong this time, even though I’m quite a skinny fanny-dart target and would’ve been safe.

But I did walk the streets.

Pat Pong has changed, but it’s also still the same.

Most of the bars are larger, and some of the streets now house massive multi-storey ritzy sex clubs, catering specifically for Chinese, Korean and Japanese men.

Outside these big establishments, the available sex-meat is right on display, in the form of actual young living women, with real brains and feelings (but not much money), who sit on cheap plastic chairs, and wait for their sex-bits to be purchased, used and discarded by vastly wealthier and older men.

This is sorta what the whole of Pat Pong used to be like, although it was super early in the night when I took this

The rainbow-light district

The more exxy high rise Asian strip.

At the butchers. I was trying to be a little discreet with my pic taking. Some of the women are so young.

There’s a big tourist night market at Pat Pong, for all those things you don’t need, but because they’re all a tenth of the price that you’d pay in the west you buy them anyway and then drop them at the op shop six months later.

'Xactly.

There’s also lots of legit massage places

Lumphini Park

So, I needed major repairs on my bike.

Bewdy was up for it.

Thijs had recommended a bike shop to me near Lumphini Park, the super friendly guys there replaced my whole cassette, crank and chain. And I bought a few spare parts. It was a cool AUD250 worth, ouch.

But even though the parts I got are ridgy-didj European brands, the whole lot was a fraction of the cost it would’ve been in the West.

I need Bewdy to be in her best condition and in good spirits for some long and potentially challenging cycling legs to come.

As it turns out, the guys there did an iffy job, and I had to get someone else to fine tune it all.

Lumphini Park is a nice respite from the noise of Bangkok. It’s good to just sit there and take in the natural world.

What I didn’t expect to see there, however, was wildlife. There was a whole army of amazing huge monitors, way fatter than the fattest Aussie versions.

Some of these guys were more like dragons, although it’s hard for you to see that from the pics.

What’s a city park without swan paddle boats?

Contemporary Arts

Yeah, Bangkok’s dripping with contemporary art and sculpture, much of it centred around the 9 storey Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.

No one else parked their bike on the median strip in the middle of the major road. But Bewdy insisted. She hasn’t had the chance to make many friends on this trip, so I went along with it.

These abstract landscapes by Apichart Pholprasert really capture Bangkok, I love them.

There’s a lot of pop-py sort of art, bright colours

I really wanted to touch her collar, which was real

Amazing photographic exhibition

Xi and Putin

And their mates

Trump getting in on the act

Obama and Modi et. al

Me chatting with a virtual farmer

Live art

Ratchdamnoen and the Golden Mount

Ratchdamnoen Klang Rd is a wide boulevarde full of monuments and nationally significant landmarks, and is always decorated with lots of grand royal pictures and temporary archways celebrating various royal events etc.

The boulevarde was built in the face of considerable protest, because local business people were evicted and loads of shade trees cut down to make the road nice and wide. The original intention was to make it the Champs Élysées of Bangkok.

But this is the real one

There’s no shortage of traffic on Ratchdamnoen.

The Democracy Monument, which was built in 1939, is a rallying point for protests against the government or military, and many important political events have occurred here over the years, including recently.

The irony is that when it was built, Thailand was basically a military dictatorship, and it was built to commemorate the Thai military taking power in a coup d’état against the monarchy.

However, introducing democracy wasn’t really part of the military’s plan at that time. They just paid lip service to it when naming their big new monument.

Staring down the barrel

The Thais put a monumental effort into things like these

Over the canal and down a bit is the beautiful Golden Mount Temple (Wat Saket), built on the only hill in Bangkok.

It’s not a big hill.

It’s a beautiful place, with gorgeous waterfalls and sculpted trees and plants.

Making merit on gilded bodhi leaves. You pay for the leaf, write your prayers, and the wat uses the money for upkeep.

I gonged the gong and dinged the dongs

This view reminds me of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, where the Dalai Lama used to live. That Palace is one of the most incredible buildings I’ve ever seen.

From the top, in any direction, you see city. For as far as the eye can see.

Magnificent Buddha images in the Shrine Hall

Another footprint from Buddha Yeti. The Buddha’s teeth are also buried in the chedi at the top.

Daring not to be different. Check out the elephant dacks and sarongs.

In 2001, the Taliban in Afghanistan destroyed the incredibly precious and very famous Bamiyan Buddha statues, after a decree by their leader. The statues, carved into a cliff, were originally built in the 6th century, and were massive - one was 55m tall, the other 38m.

What a bummer.

The statues were deemed to be idols, which the Taliban said were inappropriate in their country, despite Muslim clerics in pretty much every country in the world pleading with them to not go through with the destruction.

The pleas fell on deaf beards.

This is a replica, obviously much smaller.

A Man of 10,000 Men

Well, after almost five months of me mainly being on the road alone, my great friend Iain, who likes to say he’s from Australia, has arrived in Bangers for a Thai sojourn, on his way to visit his family in the UK.

We’re great mates, and have had some pretty epic adventures over the years.

He’s so driven and active that I’m convinced that he’s not just one person, but at least 10,000, all trapped inside a stocky Chinese-English body with only one head and three-quarters of a brain.

For example, in the time it takes me to repair a bit of roofing, he’ll build a whole house from scratch. Between one of my visits to his house and the next, he’s embarked upon and completed some major project/revamp on his property, like totally replacing his kitchen, or putting in a brand new pool and all that goes with it.

We’re different in that way.

But we’re also quite alike. In fact sometimes we’re so quite alike that it’s quite scary.

We’re both the victims of Catholic families with nine kids. We both got lost on the Asian hippy trail in the pre-internet days. We both have daughters who’ve been friends since school days. Our shared sense of humour is predictably teenagery and decidedly censorable.

So I left my own abode in Bang Rak, and rode off to an apartment I’d booked for us in Ratchadewi, a fabulous area full of working class Thais, Indians, Burmese, and Buddha knows who else.

The laneway to our place

Our apartment was on the 8th floor. The building was full of mainly Thais and Burmese, and some Indians, all working people, who appeared to be quite disinterested in engaging with the only 2 farangs around, us. Not sure why that was exactly, it’s normally the opposite in Thailand, away from the tourist spots.

The apartment gym. Classy.

Our room’s the first door on the left.

It was better inside than out.

Residential Bangers

I collected Iain from Suvarnabhumi Airport, we dropped his gear at the apartment, ate, and went to see live music at Saxophone, an iconic Bangkok jazz club.

Both bands who played were packed with amazing musicians, although the first had a vocalist who was a little juiceless, a Michael Bublé without the baubles, and the band chose to play classic old school covers that should’ve been banned years ago.

So when the second band kicked off with a fantastic uptempo contemporary jazz piece, Iain and I really got our hopes up, and ordered another beer.

But we were cruelly disappointed.

After their amazing first song the band then dived into a succession of Thai soft rock and love ballads, which they played to perfection.

The almost completely Thai audience swooned.

But we fled.

Chinatown In The Eve

One dusk I wandered the back streets of Chinatown, winding my way slowly off the bigger roads, into the quiet alleys and dead ends by the river.

Iain and I returned there another evening.

Around Talat Noi (the small market), there’s lots of street art.

Sari sari night

Pic of a pic

Caught in the art. These guys were lovely. It had taken them a week to paint this, so far. So many of the murals in this city are cartoon-y.

Disco-robics

Iain's really happy. A real coffee's on its way.

Wat wonderland

Back at the main drag, it was madness.

Rogue drummers

Greatest of all Time Footbal Club. Love it.

This girl is a child prodigy. She was playing a complicated classical piece as if possessed.

But listening to her possessed me.

Besides the other guy filming, almost everyone walked past her without a passing glance. Same as they would’ve done to Vincent Van Gogh, I guess.

Amber ales. Turmeric herbal drink, and Leo beer, which is a Thai beer made from Australian barley, of all things.

Pad Thai in an omelette pocket.

I very much look forward to la fin of this trade.

Sukhumwit

This large district has everything from substantial Arabic, Indian and Japanese enclaves, to huge restaurant areas, shopping plazas and a famous redlight zone, which spills out from the bars on the many sois right out onto the main road, Sukhumwit Road, in the form of a long succession of women and kathoeys (lady-boys, transgender) standing alone on the street, offering their wares to passers by. They’re everywhere.

It’s confronting.

There’s an estimated 250,000 sex workers in Thailand, and although prostitution is officially illegal, it’s right out there in the open, and it’s welcomed by the authorities because of the amount of money it generates every year (estimated at USD 6bn).

Police and government officials are paid massive bribes to turn a blind eye.

The industry really started up in the late 1960s during the Vietnam War, when American servicemen would be flown to Bangkok for R & R, after serving time fighting in the war. In Vietnam these men were already used to paying for sex, which they did regularly, as the local Vietnamese were very poor and needed the money.

Once in Bangkok the US soldiers sought the same services.

The industry is now massive. Sex can easily be purchased in bars, massage parlours, karaoke venues, restaurants, hostess bars, and out on the streets. Many women and men will solicit themselves privately, but most work for an establishment, where they may have some protection, but are also controlled.

Most of the sex workers come from Isaan, a generally quite poor region in the northeast of Thailand, or from poorer neighbouring countries like Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. Many are also trafficked from poorer regions of mainland China, and even from Russia and Uzbekistan.

Many of the young women are forced to become sex workers to provide income for their families, which both they and their families regard as their duty. Often the parents are not aware of the real nature of the work their children are engaged in.

Organised crime syndicates are, as expected, big players and big traffickers in the industry.

The exploitation of children is also rife. Although the Thai government has passed legislation greatly increasing penalties for pedophilia, to protect children under 15, and although there have been some high profile convictions of Western pedophiles in the past, it’s still a massive problem.

Western men can pay for sex with “consenting” 15 year old girls or boys with no repercussions whatsoever, provided they keep the money transfer hidden, which both parties want anyway.

Some countries (like Australia) have laws which prohibit Australian citizens from having sex with children (under 16), but circumventing these laws occurs regularly.

Where there’s a willy there’s a way.

As fucked up as that is.

Erawan Shrine, built to pay homage to Phra Phrom, the Hindu God of building. He has four faces, for protection from all four directions.

Arabic quarter

Sukhumwit Road, where you can buy anything

Hyper vigilant security guard

Soi 11, a hotspot for sex bars.

Yeah, we saw some live music. The musicians were amazing. But the vibe was super annoying. Iain and I both had young women poring all over us, engaging in fake conversations, sussing out whether we were in the market for sex, like everyone else in there seemed to be. And they tried to get everyone to drink constantly, at ridiculous prices, so the bar makes more money.

If you leave your drink on your table to dance, the staff take them away and resell them (if untouched). Or they’ll take your half finished drinks so you buy more.

Cheeky buggers.

We saw two local women who were completely unresponsive on the pavement. I tried to wake this one up. She didn’t move. I tried for ages to get this policeman to call an ambulance, he just motioned to me that she’d drunk too much, and then looked away and ignored me when I tried to explain that it could be dangerous for her.

She eventually moved.

It’s horrible to watch all this going on.

Citified

I’ve been in Bangers for a while now. It’s amazing.

But it's really confronting too.

And it gobbles up cash like there’s no tomorrow.

I’ve still got loads to tell you about this city, including how I did a really dumb thing, and immediately copped the ugly consequences right smack bang in my face.

But I’ll save that true and sordid tale for next time❤️