Bangkok Diary

Welcome to Bangkok - the concrete jungle. Last time I was here, I didnt get enough time to move around. I didnt get anytime in this trip also, but still made the most of it.

This is the view from Nonthaburi, a small suburb on the other side of Chao Phraya river, which is now part of Bangkok. Here is an interesting trivia of the name Bangkok. Though we foreigners use the name Bangkok, the actual name of the city is Krung Thep. Bangkok is just a part of the big city. The the city's full ceremonial name is "Krung Thep Maha Nakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udom Ratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanu Kamprasit", which translates to "The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukam"

Infact the full name of the city is the longest place name in the world. I do not know how the connection of God Indra etc come into the picture with respect to Thailand. In the new airport there is a huge replica of the Hindu mythical story of Samudra Manthan, the gods and the asuras churning the ocean using the snake!!!How the hell did the Thais come to know of this story and why is it so important for them to keep it bang in the middle of the new Suvarnabhoomi airport. Beats me.




The once place which I could go was th water-ways inside the city. I could catch a glimpse of them in my numerous taxi-rides, but couldnt take it. A James bond movie, I think the "Man with Golden Gun" has a nice boat chase etc in it.

And another surprise is that there is no local car company in Thailand. So all the cars are foreign. I think its pretty sad for a country like Thailand. They have the technology, the manpower and other resources, wonder why they still dont have a local car!!!


Well talking of the good infrastructure this country has built we should look at the long term vision there rulers had though you can say that, even after doing so much there is so much of traffic jams inside the city. But to think that they completed those expressways running above the city that connects most of Bangkok in and around 1995 and they have a double network of overhead transit system of trains - The MRTS and BTS.

The picture below is the new station they are constructing on the Nonthaburi line. Once this line complete, they will have farther more connectivity and hopefully the traffic constraints should reduce. The trains are much better and bigger than the LRT in KL. There is only one issue I have with the stations, they dont have any toilets! Ya so they must have saved a lot of money on that. I had to rush to the nearest mall to relieve myself:(


This picture below is taken from the Wikipedia, awesome picture this is of Bangkok and the skytrain!

The new airport is not connected to the train system but the way work is progressing in Bangkok, maybe by middle of next year that will be operational too. But unlike the old airport where you have to bargain with the taxi drivers outside the station to get into the city, here the pre-paid system is very tourist friendly. Last time I had to wait for close to 2 hours for my visa on arrival. I had to wait in a queue, fill a form, submit it along with my passport and photo and wait for my turn to be called. This time it took less than 5 mins and all you have to give is the passport and photo, no more lousy forms etc. Pretty efficient I should say.

The airport is still not completely finished in the sense that you can still see some painting jobs to be done etc. The number of shops inside the new airport must be double or triple of what you have in KLIA but I think they should have made it more spacious as the passages are a bit narrow. I have a complaint though. In the old airport there was a Nike showroom, form where I picked up my Argentine and Brazil jerseys. This time I walked the nearly 3 km long passageways leading to all the gates, trying to locate the sports shop. It seems there are no more shops/sports shops selling any football jerseys. Too less!


Talking of the coup and its after-effects, the city seems to be quite normal. There are posters of the king hanging from a lot of buildings. It is the year of the King's 60th Bday and hence this show of wishes. I remember seeing a program on TV in which they showed what all good the Thai monarchy has done to the people of Thailand. So the vote for the best monarchy in the workd should go to the Thai King and family. Much better than the ones in this country. I havent seen anything good coming from the words or deeds of the sultans of this country.

Thaksin the ousted PM seems sold some 49% stakes in Shin Corp a telecom company to temasek Holdings, which was illegal and to top it, it seems our man amended the laws just prior to the sale and saved on taxes for a sale of close to $ 1.8 Bn in stakes!!! And this is what basically led to the coup happening as the whole country was witness to this drama being unfolded.

But the other side is that it seems Thaksin for all his evil deeds also had a good side. He was the one who planned the new airport to rival the local challenges from KL and Singapore. UNfortunately he could not even attend the inauguration of this airport. He introduced a scheme where any Thai citizen could go to any government hospital for treatment of any ailment (from fever to cancer) for 30 Baht (which is equivalent to Rs.30). How I wish they do something similar for the numerous health centres in rural India atleast.

And talking about food, well South East Asia is not a place for the vegeterians. If you want to enjoy all sorts of meats this is the place. I didnt go to the place where they have grasshoppers, that would have been too much for me. This is a local roadside place selling nice fish and meat for the people who want a quick bite.

I didnt try it though, but the green curry chicken is my favourite with a-dish-i-forgot-the-name of, which is basically chicken which is roasted inside coconut leaf (I think). Thats heavenly!

I landed in one of the designer planes of Air Asia. The Man U one!