700-word piece about the multiple levels of Bangkok’s roads.
The easiest way to get into the centre once you have touched down in Bangkok, is by train. Taking the train and then the Skytrain from the airport into and through the city of Bangkok, you may be forgiven for thinking you have been through three or four different city centres. The buildings rise to skyscrapers flashing with colourful lights and advertisements, then the buildings drop to 2, 3 or 4 story traditional buildings. They rise and fall like this numerous times as you race above the city. This contrast is what makes Bangkok Bangkok. The contrast between the streets alive with life: street food, markets and bars wedged into every available space to the grand indoor shopping centres: clean, futuristic, corporate, and secure. The contrast in the levels from the street to the skywalks to the Skytrain to the varying heights of the towers that climb above them is something to behold. The highways and main roads packed with back-to-back vehicles, to the back roads that barely feel a tyre. The crowded seedy streets often doubling as markets, but full of strip clubs and sex shows to tingle any which person’s fancy, to the Buddhist Wats, quiet, still, and peaceful.
Bangkok is one of the biggest cities in the world, capital of a country on the rise economically, but in no rush to westernise, or let go of its traditional ways. This is not more evident than in its street food that is everywhere in abundance, and always engulfed by customers. McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Starbucks may have set up shop with the same unnecessary frequency that they do in many major cities, but in Bangkok, a street vendor will be right outside, with their home-made, traditional recipes wafting straight through the door. Many with their own plastic chairs and tables close by. I am sure there are laws and restrictions to where vendors are allowed to set up, but, to a tourist’s eye, it looks like everywhere is up for grabs. A small corner area between buildings that would usually be empty in other cities, there’s a market in Bangkok. Under the bypass in a place normally full of litter, in Bangkok that’s an outdoor bar. It may be one of the biggest cities in the world but there’s never enough space. Another very traditional element of the city that is being preserved despite continuous modernising are the Wats. Little pockets of traditional Buddhist buildings and temples surrounded by leering 21st century towers. If your tired of the hectic, busy roads of central Bangkok, jump through the grandiose arches that lead to the graceful Wat grounds.
Wats and venders are for those who traverse the streets, but to get from A to B in this city, street level is only one of many levels to choose from. Catch the Skytrain and swoosh through the city 4 or 5 stories up in the air. Get off in the Siam area and walk between the enormous air-conditioned indoor centres along the Skywalk, never once having to even contemplate the roads below. If your hotel is in one of the more built-up areas of the city, you probably have a covered walkway that leads from the 3rd or 2nd floor of your hotel to the train or shopping areas. Below ground is the metro, because the options of taxi, Skytrain and Skywalk are not sufficient for a modern Thai capital.
Despite the many transport options, the streets are still very, very busy with vehicles. If the train doesn’t go where you want to go you can get a taxi, a tuk-tuk, a scooter, or the cranky, old buses that you will probably never see a tourist get on. Rather than swooshing, you will almost certainly be crawling along in traffic. All these vehicles, constantly traversing the city does affect the air quality however, which is poor. It may take you a while to realise that your lungs haven’t suddenly decided to pack it in, but that’s just how it is.
All in all, Bangkok is a city for many, the big spenders, the street dwellers, the seedy and the shoppers. All walks of life have a level to themselves in Bangkok.
Jake Garrett 