The headlong pace and flawed
modernity of
BANGKOK (called
"Krung Thep" in Thai)
match few people's visions of the
capital of exotic Siam. Spiked with
scores of high-rise buildings of
concrete and glass, it's a vast
flatness which holds a population of
at least nine million, and feels
even bigger. But under the shadow of
the skyscrapers you'll find a heady
mix of frenetic markets and hushed
golden temples, of glossy
cutting-edge clubs and early-morning
almsgiving ceremonies. Most budget
travellers head for the
Banglamphu
district, which is just a short walk
from the dazzling
Grand Place
and
Wat Phra Kaeo and the
very worthwhile
National Museum
. For livelier scenes, explore the
dark alleys of
Chinatown's
bazaars or head for the water:
the great
Chao Phraya River
is the backbone of a network of
canals and a useful way of crossing
the city.
Bangkok is a relatively young
capital, established in 1782 after
the Burmese sacked Ayutthaya, the
former capital. A temporary base was
set up on the western bank of the
Chao Phraya, in what is now Thonburi,
before work started on the more
defensible east bank. The first king
of the new dynasty, Rama I, built
his palace at Ratanakosin ,
within a defensive ring of two
(later expanded to three) canals,
and this remains the city's
spiritual heart. Initially, the city
was largely amphibious: only the
temples and royal palaces were built
on dry land, while ordinary
residences floated on thick bamboo
rafts on the river and canals, and
even shops and warehouses were
moored to the river bank. In the
late nineteenth century, Rama IV and
Rama V modernized their capital
along European lines, building roads
and constructing a new royal
residence in Dusit, north of
Ratanakosin.
Since World War II, and
especially from the mid-1960s
onwards, Bangkok has seen an
explosion of modernization, leaving
the city without an obvious centre.
Most of the canals have been filled
in, to be replaced by endless rows
of concrete shophouses, sprawling
over a built-up area of 330 square
kilometres. The benefits of the
economic boom of the 1980s and early
1990s were concentrated in Bangkok,
which attracted mass migration from
all over Thailand and made the
capital ever more dominant:
Bangkokians now own four-fifths of
the nation's cars and the population
is forty times that of the second
city, Chiang Mai.
The City
Bangkok is sprawling, chaotic and
exhausting: to do it justice and to
keep your sanity, you need time,
boundless patience and a bus map.
The place to start is Ratanakosin ,
the royal island on the east bank of
the Chao Phraya and location of...
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