A Village by the River

Liz and I are sitting on plastic stools, at a folding table on the side of an alley, eating pad thai, and spicy stir fried squid with basil. It’s delicious. Scooters and tuk-tuks rush by. A few doors further up, a Thai man strums a guitar, crooning Glen Campbell’s “Like a Rhinestone Cowboy”. Welcome to Bangkok.

The name Bangkok comes from two Thai words, Bang – a village by the river and Makok – a type of olive tree, literally a village with olives by the river.  But that’s not the official name. Locals call the city “Krung Thep”. That’s a shortened version of the name King Rama I gave it when the city became his capital in 1782. The full version is the longest place name in the world according to the Guinness book of records. It’s a sentence actually. Translated it means, “City of angels, great city of immortals, magnificent city of the nine gems, seat of the King, city of royal palaces, home of gods incarnate, erected by Vishvakarman at Indra’s behest”.

I know, it’s confusing. But a village, Bangkok is not. Almost 20 million people live in the metropolitan area, about a quarter of Thailand’s population. It suffers from many of the problems that afflict other megalopolises – poor air quality, traffic congestion, crowding, infrastructure issues… And yet, it’s surprisingly comfortable place. At least that’s our first impression.

Liz and I decided to arrive 4 days before the start of our first tour, to have a chance to get over the jet lag – it’s a 12 hour time difference. Aside from adjusting our bio-clocks, we’ve been getting to know the city and surrounding area.

Yes, Bangkok has big city problems, but things work here. The streets are clean, the subway system is modern and efficient, neighbourhoods are walkable, delicious street food is everywhere and the traffic, while at times harrowing, still moves. I think the latter may have something to do with the deeply ingrained culture of courtesy. In fact, everyone we’ve met so far has been unfailingly friendly and polite. Almost alarmingly so. Happiness abounds – the Thai word for bathroom is “happy room” and beer and alcohol in general is known as “happy water”.

A few highlights from our first few days: Of course, I had to visit the fire station closest to our hotel. They were of course, happy to receive me. The highlight was a Fire Motorcycle – a BMW GS900 with an SCBA strapped on the back seat, two pressure tanks and a hose reel on the back. Why the hell we have one of those on Toronto Fire??

Sunset on the hotel rooftop terrace has become a ritual for us. Mid-day temperatures are in the mid-30’s and high humidity, but there is a lovely cool breeze in the evening. The lunar New Year is in a couple of days and the streets come alive in the evening. We love to sit on the terrace, watch the sunset, listen to the street noises drifting up from below, and then wander down to sample satay, prawns, noodles and all the many other delicacies offered by the local vendors.

And finally, we visited an ancient temple complex in Ayutthaya, an hour north of Bangkok. Even after centuries, there is a wonderful sense of calm that pervades the area. This head of the Buddha is about 700 years old. It was lost, buried under rubble for centuries. About 200 years ago a tree started to grow. The roots wrapped themselves around the head and slowly started to raise it up above the ground.

I’ve heard that a miracle is simply a totally unexpected event. This certainly qualifies. It struck a chord in me anyway. I’m not a Buddhist, but I lit some incense and a candle in the nearby temple and said a prayer. I’d do the same if it was a mosque. It never hurts to cover the bases.

I had a nice chat with a Thai gentleman later. We agreed that God/the Creator/the Essential reaches out and speaks to us in whatever voice we are able to hear. And all those who live and act in love are responding to that voice.

Here’s a link to the photo gallery.