Bangkok past to future

Monday, February 11, 2013 Bangkok

 The night before last, we discovered our new favourite restaurant in Bangkok. Anita had asked a group of young women tourists about good places to eat and they suggested it. It's only a 10 minute walk from our hotel. It's run by the Population and Community Development Association, which has been working in Thailand since 1974. At that time, rural Thai families averaged 7 children each and the population explosion was threatening the development of the country. The PDA started by delivering family planning information and distributing condoms. Then the AIDs epidemic began so their work became doubly important. In recent years, they have expanded their programs and won $1 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, recognizing them as the most effective public health program in the world.
Their philosophy is that talking about family planning and safe sex should be as normal as talking about buying vegetables in the market, hence the name of their restaurant, Cabbages and Condoms. They've expanded into education and micro business ventures in rural communities. They seem to be very effective at improving the lives of rural and urban Thai people.

 Anita is admiring a mannequin dressed in condoms.

Me with another condom model. There are displays of condoms all over. After dinner, each diner gets a condom instead of a mint. Other than this quirkiness, it's a very nice restaurant with excellent food and pleasant ambiance.

 We enjoyed a dinner of green curry and chicken plus chicken and lemongrass with rice.

Mona Lisa is smiling because she's ready for her date.
Yesterday morning we took the Skytrain, an elevated train system instead of a subway, on two different lines to get to the river that runs through Bangkok. From there we took a tourist boat up the river to the Royal Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.

 The Temple of the Emerald Buddha. There are so many buildings and shrines in the Royal Palace complex that it's hard to get pictures of them.

 Some of the smaller spires. Absolutely everything is covered in tile mosaics, all very intricate. This just goes on and on and on.

 A tourist pose.

 By the gardens of the Royal Palace with sculpted trees behind.

The Temple of the Emerald Buddha with all the roof lines and tile mosaics. It was overwhelming, especially in the 35C humidity.

 After the Royal Palace, we walked around the walls (a long way in the heat) and fortunately found a pineapple vendor who sold us a sliced pineapple for 20 baht (60 cents) that revived us a bit. Then we carried on to visit Wat Pho, a temple containing a huge reclining Buddha that's 46m long and 15m high. That's all that's in the temple. It fills the whole thing. Strange but impressive.

 More statues of Buddha. There are thousands of them in Thailand. The different poses and hand placements all mean different things.

 Anita framed.

Trying to get a photo between all the buildings and shrines. Hopefully this shows the extent of the mosaic tiles.
It was 3:30 pm by the time we were done. We had thought of going to Wat Arun, another temple across the river, but we were too cooked. We caught the boat back downriver to the skytrain station, came home for a shower and went back to Cabbages and Condoms for dinner.
This morning we took the Skytrain to the National Stadium stop which isn't far from the mansion of Jim Thompson. He was an American entrepreneur in the 1950's who sold Thai silk to the west. He built a mansion composed of old recycled Thai buildings, in the old style, and filled it with antiques. It's now open to the public. It was an interesting tour.

 Anita is sitting in the garden by the former garage, waiting for our tour to start.

 This man is spinning silk thread from silkworm cocoons cooking in the pot.

 Gathering the threads together. Yesterday we found out that in 1941, traditional Thai dress had been banned in favour of western clothing. The Thai queen in the 1960's revived traditional Thai style combined with western garment making techniques before her 7 month tour of the world, which gained her acclaim as the most fashionable woman in the world. Before long, business attire and uniforms such as those for flight attendants copied her style. So the traditional Thai fashion that we think we are seeing really isn't totally traditional at all. The King and Queen are revered here. They toured the country when they were young. While the King focused on the agricultural economy he tasked the Queen with helping families. She encouraged and revived the cottage industry of silk weaving allowing women to work out of their homes.

 Anita is amused by these pink taxis that are all over the place. Mary Kay gone crazy.

 A typical main street with the Skytrain overhead. Bangkok is a very modern city.

On our way home we walked through 3 big shopping malls. One of them, the Discovery Centre, has Ice Planet, a skating rink, on the top floor. The last one we walked through, the Siam Centre, had all kinds of fashion displays and things going on. It was like some futuristic movie. In some ways Bangkok is very western, but also very futuristic. There is construction going on all over. Once again, we got the feeling like we in the West are being left behind. Southeast Asia is where everything is happening.
Tonight we'll likely go back to Cabbages and Condoms for dinner and then an early night. We leave our hotel at 6:45 to get out to the airport to catch our flight to Vientiane, Laos. Although it would be possible to spend a long time exploring Bangkok, we don't feel like we've missed anything that would be important to us. We saw some significant sights and got a bit of a feeling of the place. Onward.