Day One: Ratchaprasong

(Written July 5th, 2010)

July 4th (I think that was yesterday? Seriously I am so mixed up) I took a taxi from my friend T’s and went to meet W, a dear friend from college. Driving through the city in a taxi was kind of amazing. I had not seen Thailand since 2006. It all felt so familiar, and looked so different. It made me realize this country is what I remember when I feel like I recognize other places.

I laughed to myself when the driver put on a cd of “movie hits.” I was not expecting to hear a medley that included the “apple bottom jeans” song as well as a song from a kdrama involving “Ave Maria.” Oh Thailand. Such a hodgepodge of influences.

W and I went first to the Victory Monument. At this moment, in my jetlagged state, I am pretty sure this is where some protest stuff happened. Rallying speeches and such. There are rails enclosing the monument; I wondered if it was because of the protests but today my uncle said they are usually there. There are four giant portraits of His Majesty surrounding the monument. I didn’t realize this at the time I was there, so I will have to go back and get more pictures.

Fortunately there are “sky walks” for pedestrians surrounding the monument and I will be able to walk around the whole thing without worrying about traffic, which is INTENSE. I had forgotten how crazy it is! I have to make sure I look both ways carefully because they drive on the other side of the road here and I think at last count I have almost been hit by something five times. (To be fair, some of these times were motorbikes on the sidewalk. Traffic is fluid and knows few boundaries here.)

The Ratchaprasong intersection was… so normal. In a way, it was slightly unnerving. The last few months I spent following the protests frantically and there is so little left of them… Ratchaprasong was one of the main spots where the Red Shirts camped out, and it is also where, in the final, terrible days, they burned a mall down. It was very burned still. Through one of the openings we wondered if we could see bullet holes in a wall. It reminded me of when I visited Belfast would suddenly come upon bullet ridden walls, silent reminders of past conflict.

This is also the location of the Erawan shrine, which I’m pretty sure was a rallying point of some kind. (I have to double-check a lot of things.) There was a small but steady crowd of people at the shrine, intense incense and a cultural dance performance going on.

An interesting thing about this intersection is that it is right in the middle of some seriously high-end malls. There was a Louis Vitton store and I felt like it could have been in NYC. It was also fascinating because there were “Together we can” signs everywhere: a campaign rolled out by the municipality during the clean up process. There was a giant billboard in front of the burned out mall with this slogan emphasizing reconciliation for “One country, one people.” I thought it echoed Obama’s “Yes we can.”

But what was MOST interesting to me was the wall of graffiti in front of the fence enclosing the mall. The comments were an interesting mix – pleas for peace, anti-Thaksin (or Thugsin) rants, comments on Iran (?!) – in at least five different languages. (I counted Thai, English, Japanese, Chinese, and French. There were probably more but it was hard to linger because it was a busy sidewalk.) I took a lot of pictures. I’m still figuring out the zoom and focus, though, so I hope that I got some good shots! I think I want to go back and get more pictures anyway though.

I’m so glad I came and saw these places with my own eyes. It is so interesting that there is such a focus on unity with this slogan. I want to try and find one of the t-shirts. (The other thing that was really interesting to me is that there was a strong push to BUY THINGS at Ratchaprasong. I guess consuming = normality?)

The rest of the day we just did a bit of sight seeing. (Can I just say I love the Sky Train?! It is so clean and easy to use. And it’s a Sky Train! You can see so much of the city!) We took an accidental detour on a ferry across the Chao Praya river (we thought it was a river tour) for 6 baht. (Which is roughly ten cents, I think.) Then we got on an actual river tour and saw more of Bangkok from the river at sunset. I saw one of the palaces; I’m going to try and go there later this week.

Then we went to the “trekkie” farang district. (Basically, where the unwashed foreigners looking to find themselves congregate.) I know that “trekkie” means something else in the States, but we always called them that growing up because they were here, generally, to go trekking. It was pretty hilarious. I felt like a tourist to watch the tourists. Also, the music was a riot. I heard Pitbull, the Black Eyed Peas, Bob Marley, and the FIFA songs all mixed in with traditional Thai music.

So, conclusion to the first day: Bangkok, so strange, yet familiar. It feels weird to be so obviously farang again. I feel very tall. The sound of tuk tuks is so comforting. It’s been a long time since I heard them. Also, it is HOT. One of the reasons I like the Sky Train is for the aircon.