Several of my Thailand guide books explain Bangkok as a place where two extremes collide. My Nat. Geo traveler book says, “Here, the truly shocking, horrendous, and horrible exist alongside moments of pure beauty…walk slowly and you will see the magnificence of carved fruit among vendors selling copy watches, the girl smiling selling exquisite floral baskets next to an open sewer, a Buddhist shrine at a busy intersection, and perhaps an old Hindu astrologer predicting people’s fortunes in the middle of all this madness.”
I love this Nat. Geo description of my adopted city because it so eloquently describes my experience here. My neighborhood is a great example. It is mostly a working class area with a lot of rundown buildings, massive pollution, overcrowding, and streets with sleazy strip joints. Yet, if you peel back the layers of these streets, you see beauty. I see beauty everywhere when I look for it.
The other morning I walked behind a man with 2 heaping baskets of these deliciously fragrant flowers. Their perfume was able to mask the smell of exhaust fumes from passing tuk-tuks. On my bus ride home every day, I pass this old wooden house next to the Bang Sue Canal. It stands out in such a beautifully unique way amongst its surroundings of concrete. It seems like something taken right out of Bangkok’s rural past. Or the bats that swoop down from the huge trees that shadow my lane at night, and the banana trees hanging over the walls of homes, which gives new meaning to the term “urban jungle.”
My own metaphor for Bangkok is that it’s a treasure map where you have to follow the clues to seek out and find the jewels that are hidden beneath the surface. I’ve got 7 more months to find the riches that Bangkok has to offer.
Pic. 1 - tree on my street where bats live
Pic. 2 - wooden house on Bang Sue canal
Pic. 3 - Inside the store of the wooden house - old man works/lives there and he takes care of the stray dogs; another example of beauty
Pic. 4 - Bang Sue Canal
Pic. 5 - Banana tree in Bangkok
Pic. 6 - Frangipane tree in Bangkok
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