Bangkok Bits and Bobs

I saw most of the famous sights in Bangkok’s historic centre during my first two weeks in the city, and since then, I have been filling in occasional blanks. In early August, I set up a date close to the Grand Palace, as I realised I had not seen the Royal Clock Tower or the Drum Tower, and I wanted to view Wat Arun at sunset. On another date, I visited Lumphini Park, where I spotted several big monitor lizards and accidentally walked through wet cement in my excitement.

This weekend, however, I made a more concerted effort to go down my checklist. Once the weather cleared up on Saturday morning, I packed my camera and walked to Wat Benchamabophit, also known as the Marble Temple. Last time I visited this temple, it was hosting a big ceremony and I found it impossible to take good pictures or even to enter the main shrine. This time, the number of people was much more manageable, and the shrine only closed after I entered it (I had to exit through a side door and walk around to retrieve my shoes). The temple was inaugurated in 1911 and is famous for its Italian white marble, though its stained-glass windows are equally remarkable.

I walked home again from Wat Benchamabophit, as I had to go drop off my laundry that day under the threat of running out of clean underwear by Monday. Since the weather remained pleasant, however, I continued to Phra Sumen Fort. Standing at the northern tip of Rattanakosin Island, the fort used to form part of the walls that were erected to protect the island when it became the capital of Siam. Of the original fourteen forts, only two remain: Phra Sumen and Mahakan. Both forts now neighbour small parks, but the one by Phra Sumen seems more pleasant as the road is less busy.

From Phra Sumen, I called a Grab taxi to Mangkon Kamalawat Temple in Chinatown. At first, I was disappointed to find the exterior was undergoing major renovations, but when I walked in, I happened upon a raucous religious ceremony. Three long tables stood side by side in the main hall surrounded by monks in orange robes. At the head of each table, elevated above the rest, sat an abbot wearing a crown with tresses, which drooped from underneath a ring of panels depicting Buddhas in different-coloured garments. Unlike the regular monks, these abbots wore red cloths over their orange robes, which occasionally showed signs of slipping when they lifted their hands to ring their bells. This happened infrequently, and most of the ceremony consisted of chanting: the abbots recited from memory while the gathered congregation, all dressed in white, followed along with books that showed Thai transcriptions of Chinese characters.

Walking past various stores and cafes, I arrived by the six-road intersection with the Chinatown Gate. The gate stands just opposite to Wat Traimit, a tall temple with a golden spire and several smaller golden-roofed shrines. Within the main temple – which can only be reached after scaling four flights of stairs – sits a golden statue of the Buddha, surrounded by smaller statues of Buddhas and nagas.

On the following day, I continued exploring the southeast end of Bangkok. I took a Grab taxi all the way to Wat Yan Nawa, whose main attraction are two chedis carried by a boat-like structure. I arrived a little before nine when the complex was still empty, but as soon as I reached the “Boat Temple,” several buses full of visitors drove in one after another. Their arrival was shortly succeeded by the novices descending from their living quarters, and I later saw some of the older monks giving benedictions to visitors within the shrines to the side of the main square.

After that, I slowly made my way northeast, stopping by the Assumption Cathedral and the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple before arriving at Wat Hua Lamphong. From there, I called another Grab taxi to Wat Pariwat. Highly regarded among better-informed tourists, Wat Pariwat does not suffer from the crowding endured by temples closer to the city centre. It lies about half an hour’s journey by car from the Grand Palace, so most tourists never make the journey. Nevertheless, the journey is well worth it, as Wat Pariwat promises a singular experience. The recently built temple features a mixture of bizarre decorations, including portraits of real-world people like Albert Einstein, caryatids of made-up heroes like Superman, and statues of unusual zoomorphic guardians like crabs, sharks, and lizards.

Following an indulgent lunch at a nearby Chinese restaurant (I ate bamboo shoots, lotus roots, and grass jelly ice cream – whatever that is), I rode all the way back to the centre, alighting at Chulalongkorn University. The most iconic building within the university compound is the main auditorium, whose shape combines Western neoclassical features with the design of a Thai temple. Close to the university also stands the Erawan Shrine, a popular roadside attraction centred around a four-faced statue of Brahma.

Finally, I made a visit to the Jim Thompson House Museum. Dedicated to an American businessman who popularised Thai silk in the West, the museum building itself is a collection of teak houses, some of them brought by Thompson from as far away as Ayutthaya. The museum displays both the living quarters and some of the antiques Thompson collected during his time in Thailand. The upper rooms can only be visited with a tour guide, but the tour is included in the ticket and takes less than an hour.

Among the items on display at the museum are the silk clothes used in the musical The King and I by Rodgers and Hammerstein. The musical was a major boon to Thompson’s business and, consequently, Thailand’s silk industry. Interestingly, however, the same source material was deemed offensively ahistorical by Thai authorities when they refused to allow the 1999 film Anna and the King to be shot in Thailand. Instead, much of the film was recorded in Malaysia, where one of my taxi drivers said he worked as Jodie Foster’s bodyguard. He had only nice things to say about the amiable Hollywood Star, adding the observation that: “Some people say she is a lesbian, but she really is a woman, and very beautiful.”