Bangkok off the beaten path
There are certain parts of Bangkok where foreigners tend to congregate, Silom, Sukhumvit, Kao San. You don’t have to go far from these hubs to see a very different aspect of the city.
I live close to Sukhumvit road, the main drag as it were of Bangkok. A place where you might see almost as many foreigners as you do local Thai people. A train runs above it on an elevated platform. The carriages are clean and super cooled, to the point that when you go back outside your glasses fog up as moisture in the air condensates on the cool lenses. Next to most stations is a gleaming shopping mall, with luxury brands from across the world, high end dining and private lounges for big spenders. EmQuartier (my favourite) even has automated parking, you drive your car onto a platform where it is then taken away and stored for you.
Back on Sukhumvit road and underneath the train, hoards of motorbikes zip around 6 lanes of cars and ancient buses that pour out toxic smoke. The sound is deafening and somehow it’s even hotter along this road than normal. I decide to take a walk in the opposite direction, and get away from the downtown bubble.
With every hundred meters that passes things become progressively quieter. After about 800 meters I approach an area that runs along the canal. Little alleys branch off the main road. There’s still some modern apartment buildings along these alleys, and walled off villas, but I also get a chance to see how much of the population lives. Whole families live in tiny apartments, from which they seem to be overflowing, with clothes and other items hanging from the balconies. Meanwhile people gather in the streets. They sit in crumbling plastic chairs around a little street stall selling BBQ chicken skewers and other bits and pieces. They seem to be at ease with each other, talking and joking around happily. I see a two story house for rent, they are asking for only slightly more than my apartment a few hundred meters away. Further along a basic room is offered for what I spend just on utilities.
The locals shop in an open air market, set up in a vacant block. Towards the entrance I see a woman wearing a headscarf cutting up a huge piece of beef rump. A pile of steaks is strewn on a wooden board next to her. For half a second I think about buying some before remembering it’s been sitting out in 30 degree heat for who knows how long. The seafood is more concerning, as it’s sitting in not enough ice. Not nearly enough.
Entire families commute to these local living quarters on motorbikes. One family pulls up at the market and I’m shocked to see Mum, Dad, an infant and two young children jump off the same bike! They just keep fanning out the side, like one of those old coordinated Broadway shows. I also shudder. Every time this family goes out, they are in mortal danger on that motorbike. There’s not a helmet in sight. But what choice do they have?
Later I continue on to the canal. Once every few minutes a high-speed ferry flies along, it’s like the water version of those ancient busses, but much faster. It’s packed to the brim, and while it touches the bank for a few seconds people rush to get on and off. An attendant scales the side of this long and low lying ferry to collect the fare from those who have just boarded. I’m told it only costs 10-20 baht. Little houses line the canal. Some have store fronts, like a local 7/11. I feel a little uncomfortable walking along as I can see right into peoples homes. Again no air-con in there, people leave their doors and windows open to catch some of the breeze. I see elderly laying around in the living rooms, watching TV or just not doing much at all.
Sometimes I want to be like one of those adventurers, travelling to remote places, getting into the local life, but in reality I struggle. Along the canal I realise the place stinks of effluent. And I accept that there’s no amount of adaptation my gut could go through in order to eat the local food.
Yet people live here their whole lives. I wonder if they would move if given the choice. I suppose my home city of Melbourne is like a kind of paradise in comparison. But they have community here in a way that we don’t. In Melbourne the streets are beautiful, but also empty and lifeless. I guess the locals may take the community aspect for granted, in the way that I took clean air and water for granted in Melbourne.
I can’t help thinking though that a country has to provide its people with clean air and clean water, as a minimum. These are the fundamentals of life. And I find it hard to understand how any other development, like a gleaming shopping centre, can be built before these basic human needs are met.