As I was at the Anna International airport in Chennai checking in my luggage for the flight to Bangkok, I spotted some one right behind me talking to an American tourist guiding him about Bangkok. He turned out to be a professor of philosophy and frequents Thailand to lecturing on Buddhism. His general guideline was to learn few words like Swadeekrap for greeting and Kop Kun Kan for thank you. All my flight I tried to digest these words but never came to its perfection till I was actually using them.
I had no trouble from the airport to reach my hotel at Sukmevit, Soi 11, as my fare was metered correctly. No haggling, no cheating. This was something very unusual to me as in India taxi drivers are notorious to fleece the tourists.
I stayed about ten days in Bangkok and had a good overview of the city. Life is fast phased. There is lot of fun an excitement for every one here. People are friendly and the development reflects on their gait. Their character seem to me was based on honesty and self integrity.
Comparing to India’s size, Thailand is much smaller but their infrastructure looks way ahead of India any of the Indian metropolis. It can be easily compared with any of the western city. The roads are a treat for driving with orderly lane system and full of flyovers. I could see the development work going on at very many places in the city. The work was on progress for BTS sky train line that would be connecting the main city with the airport. I think in a years time would be completed. Bangkok is a shinning example of infrastructure development. I think the policy makers from South Asia must visit here to see what development really means.
Tourism is the main source of income of Thailand. They have added color and much fun fare to it. The presentations of Thai dance -drama are a treat to watch. There are lots of bars, pubs, massage centers every where in Bangkok. The city is a shopper’s paradise. There are very big molls like Siam paragon, MBK, Pentium plaza and Dixi. Goods are cheap especially on the road sides. All brands of watches from Omega to anyone one can get on the road side. However, one may be excited at buying something for the price bargained, but if this work for more than couple of hours, it could be a worth bargain!
All in all Thailand particularly Bangkok offers the return for your money from the tourists’ angle. There are eating places, the road side food sellers, fruit shops all must reminds of India. There is life on the roadside much after the regular shops get closed. There are evening bazaar, followed by the night bazaar and the morning bazaar. Life does not stop in Bangkok. There is little crime on the street and every one seems to be safe if not secured in this city.
The most disturbing part about Bangkok is its traffic.Even traveling from one place to another is a great problem in terms of time and speed. However even then every one observes the discipline on the roads there. Despite bumper to bumper traffic, there is perfect orderliness. The noise pollution is kept to minimum. The sky train, the surface and the underground train has decongested the road to some extent. Then there are waterways inside the city where boats ferry people from one place to another. I had an opportunity to ride one such from Pertunam to Boobay. The boats are mechanized and travel at quite a high speed.
“TUK TUK,” the auto rickshaw of Bangkok is something one should not miss to experience. The tuk tuk drivers are a character in themselves, very friendly and very talkative. However, tuk tuk are not cheap as one may assume, some time it could be more expensive than the taxi fare. The other mode of transport is the motorcyclists which takes people from one place to another on the pillion. This reminded me of Goa, where such motorcyclist are called Pilots. The great part of these motorcyclist is their dare devil act. Within no time they can take to reach their destination and no marks for guessing how?
Coming from Bodh Gaya, the place where Siddharth became Buddha, it was a delight to see the celebration of Buddhism in Thailand. There are lot many Buddhist temples in Bangkok. One can find the statue of Buddha in every nook and corner of the city. The people generally fold their hand once they see the Buddha statue. I could see Buddhist monks moving on the street. One of them was seated on the back of a truck with large sized statue of Buddha and begging for alms. I was amazed to hear the shloka; Budhham, Saranam Gachami being played on the sound system at the magnificent Ancient city campus in Bangkok. I chanted this sloka all along my sight seeing trip since it was very haunting for me. The ancient city showcases Thailand in its original form.
On thing that struck me most was that people here worship elephants. I saw elephant statues at many places. Near the Ancient city there was huge elephant statue with two faces making a huge impression on the passerby. I saw a Ganesha statue in gold and people praying it. I also saw some one taking elephant on the street and people giving alms to him. It reminded me of India where cows are worshiped in the similar way.
Thailand’s economy thrives on tourism and tourists from all over the world come to Bangkok for different reasons. One of the greatest attractions for them is sex. It’s a paradise for those looking for sex. It won’t be in correct to call Bangkok the sex city of the world. One can find street girls in many places in Bangkok. There are umpteen numbers of bars and bar girls calling you for drinks and ready to give you company. The Patpong area is famous for its bars, discos, neon lights, girls and sex shows. There are two sides one for the gays where men seek men; the other for the strip tease shows. This place remains over crowded all through the night and one can witness the celebration of sex in its highest form here.
“Pataya,” is another fun city of Thailand. A beach town that is less than three hrs of bus ride from Bangkok. It’s much quitter place as compared to Bangkok but there are lots of attractions here. The tourists throng here for relaxing. There are water sports like speed boating motor cycling in the sea. Every one loves swimming at the Pataya beach. The walker’s road is main place in Pataya. There are many attractions here besides shopping. Then the coral-island is a huge attraction in Pataya.
One thing that makes Southeast Asia is so different from South Asia is the involvement of woman folks in the day today life outside their homes. They are dominant force on the city’s landscape. They outnumber men in the buses, trains and every other place one can imagine. I saw this in Seoul, Hanoi and Singapore. My idea was reinforced in Bangkok as well. This aspect is some thing peculiar to the Southeast Asian countries and key to their development.
Thailand has been seeing a lot of development. The reason this is the country thrives on tourism. Over the years they have developed their country keeping in mind to attract the tourists. However, my general impression is there was a mismatch between the infrastructural development and the human development. The people seem to be not all that affluent compared to the country that showed signs of opulence. I was told that there is stark poverty in the countryside of Thailand. All such people make a beeline to Bangkok to earn their living. There is some ugly fall out of the tourist’s economy on Bangkok as well. This stark reality one can see below the surface and has to delve deep into it.
On the whole Bangkok is one of the most exciting places in the world. No words can describe it; one has to be there to experience it!
Syed Ali Mujtaba is working journalist based in Chennai. He has taken his PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He was a Jefferson fellow in fall 2003. He blogs at Mujtabas Musings.
Great article, can’t wait to visit, though life keeps me too busy. Also, I need to get to Japan one of these days. I’m just fascinated by them. Anybody been?
Dear Friends:
In the last couple of decades Bangkok and its coastal resort cities on the ocean have been converted into dens of extreme sexual and immoral perversion. Wealthy sexual tourists from all over the world including Europe, North America, Middleast, Japan converge on Thailand to indulge in grotesque sexual perversion with young girls, young boys, drugs etc. The poor girls and boys of Thailand are exploited every day in these dens of perversion. Pedophilia, prostitution, pornography and extreme perversion has become the major attraction of these “addas” (flesh pots). Well educated and well to do people who claim that their communities/societies/nations are culturaly and morally superior come in large numbers to these dens of sin to exploit the poor people who are forced to surrender to these “rakshas” (demons), in order to keep their body and soul together.
Thailand is an ancient nation with lots of cultural heritage, beautiful archeological mounuments, temples and other ancient sites. But unfortunately now the wealthy of the globe are exploiting this nation for their exploitative carnal desires.
Thailand’s cities and resorts like Bangkok and Phuket have become the shame of humanity that has made so much material, scientific, cultural progress over the centuries but at the same time the beast and demon in man has found new ways to exploit his fellow human beings. Regardless of what religion we follow or whether we are atheists, gross immorality and exploitation of fellow humans must cause serious concern to all of us.
In these cities in Thailand if you stay in hotels, along with the food menu advertisements with nude photographs of young girls and boys are furnished in booklet form and when you turn on TV these photographs with phone numbers appear. In the subways, trains, buses and taxis you see the same type of advertisements.
All the material progress in cities like Bangkok, Singapur, Hongkong, Tokyo etc is very praiseworthy. But along with that we have men exploiting women and their bodies and trading in them without batting an eyelash. That has to be the low point of humanity.
The mark of humanity is that man progresses not only in material terms but also in basic moral terms. A frew elements about humanity have remained absolute from Day One. Not exploiting someone’s helplessnes (majboori), poverty, need to survive, basic human dignity. Over the millenium the gods and saints of various religions on earth have emphasized that virtue must overcome sin; some religions tell us that God took human form to suppress evil practices in society; other religions tell us that God sent prophets on earth; others tell us that God sent “his son” to save the world.
“jinhain naaz hay insaniyat pur woh kahaan hain?
agar yeh dunya mil bhi jaaey to kya hay?
mairy saamnay say hata lo yeh dunya
jala do yeh dunya, jala do yeh dunya….”
Kaleem, It seems you will in relity burn down everything. Only point to add is morality is man made. Ultimate Judge is God and not Man who judges people by its own standards. So for some people meat eating may be immoral but for some its perfect way to add proteins.
By the way have you been to Bahrain and seen the life style of some shaikhs?
Mahesh,
The poem lines I quoted are from the well known Hindi movie Pyasa by Guru Dutt in the 1960s. There was no Muslim theme in that movie; the movie was a satire on the exploitative society that exploits the helplessness (majboori) of the poor and deprived men and women; that forces poor women to sell their bodies just to keep their and their families’ body and soul together.
I did not quote morality from any religion whatsoever. Reports about grotesque flesh trade, sexual exploitation of girls and boys as young as 9 year old occurring in Bangkok and Phutek in Thailand have been published in the major newspapers of the world like London Times, Manchester Guardian, New York Times, Washington Post and top media reports like CBS’ renowned TV journal “Sixty Minutes”. Those are my sources of information.
If the ultimate judge is God and not man why did the whole world bring to justice and punish the Nazis for perpetuating holocast on large number of European jews? Why do civilized societies bring to justice and punish pedophiles, drug pushers, those selling pornography, why is molestation of children punished, why is violence against women punished? Surely such acts can in no way be compared with “meat eating”. From ancient times every civilized society has maintained reasonable standards of moral behaviour. Have all those people been wrong and we should let society be no holds barred, free for all in all respects?
Your reference to the Sheiks of Bahrain indicates that since I am a Muslim you are pointing out those Muslims who commit such awful acts. If you read my initial comment you will see thast I did identify “men from middleeast” as one of the perpetrators of this awful occurrence. All of us should be able to criticise immoral acts without making it a religious taunt on the writer’s religious faith.
Kaleem, I have not pointed to the author or to any religion. My point was to question morality.
The issue with all morality is that it judges people by standards that do not point a finger towards it. So West Judges today the east by its own standards. Some Terrorists claim religion to kill innocents and judge others by their own standards.
Now coming to question as to why society punishes people or holocaust perpetrators. If Hitler had won the World War II what would history had been written as? My question to you about Bahrain sheikhs was definitely because you are a Muslim and you answered well. However let Thai people be the judge of their own morality and not west or me or you.
When British found in Indian forests some ancient Hindu temples depicting all sorts of Sexual positions they considered Hinduism as a mean and evil religion. But all those temples were signifying was that one can only reach God after it has cleansed and risen above sex. It signified the world on outside and God in inside.
West always believes that they are good and everyone else outside is evil. They also have their good points but again they can not be the judges based on fact that they are demi gods. Do you know what west thinks about permission of multiple marriages in Islam or Shariah’s interpretation of Triple Talaq or women beating? Those beliefs are also considered highly immoral for some but then many might have perfect explanation of these facts. That’s why Morality is man made and this is man’s Chance to play God and moral police.