Note: Javascript is disabled in your browser.
To see the gallery in all its glory, you'll need to enable Javascript.
Introducing Bangkok
Bangkok is excess in all of its unrestrained glory. Bigger, better, more: the city is insatiable, a monster that feeds on concrete, shopping malls and diesel exhaust. The city demands that you be in the present and in the moment, not necessarily for a religious epiphany, but because the city is self-absorbed and superficial, blissfully free of wrinkle-inducing self-reflection. Smiles and sà·nùk (the Thai word for ‘fun’) are the key passports into Bangkok society. A compliment here, a joke there – the demands of social lubrication in this megalopolis are more akin to a small village than an anonymous city and a necessity for survival.
Advertisement
As Bangkok forcefully kneads out of you all demands for order and predictability, you’ll understand the famous Thai smile. It is the metaphorical brakes on the urban overdrive. Packed into these concrete corridors are religious spectacle, unapologetic consumerism and multi-flavoured hedonism – corrupting and purifying souls within footsteps of each other. A tragicomic confluence of human desires and aspirations best viewed through a detached smile.
Of the famous and infamous attractions, Bangkok’s best feature is its intermingling of opposites. A modern world of affluence orbits around a serene traditional core. Step outside the four-star hotels into a typical Siamese village where taxi drivers knock back energy drinks and upcountry transplants grill chicken on a streetside barbecue. Hop the Skytrain to the glitzy shopping malls where trust-fund babies examine luxury brands as carefully as the housewives inspect produce at the open-air markets. Or appreciate the attempts at enlightenment at the city’s famous temples and doorstep shrines, or simple acts of kindness amid the urban bustle.
You can jump between all of these worlds – wining and hobnobbing at a chic club, eating at a streetside market, getting plucked and pummelled into something more beautiful, or sweating profusely on a long unplanned march. Bangkok is an urban connoisseur’s dream come true.
Last updated: Sep 28, 2009
Tips & articles
-
Top spots for a medical adventure
4 December 2009
Want it modified, enhanced, drilled out, implanted or just plain alleviated? Whatever your bodily need,...
-
Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled Laos itinerary
4 November 2009
Luang Prabang makes a wonderful introduction to Laos, and with increasing numbers of direct flights from...
-
Your favourite destinations September 3rd-11th
14 September 2009
You may have noticed around the Lonely Planet website that you can save your favourite places. The destinations...
