Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Long and dusty is the railway travel from Chumphon (South ) to Bangkok.
3rd class wooden seats, slow paces and every tiny village is to a stop-over!
Little fans have the difficult task to cool passengers and sellers, every one singing what he/she is selling : mango with spicy sugar, rice and sauce packed in bamboo leaves, brochettes …
Bangkok is the un-challenged capital of Thailand, modern, frenetic, traditional, crowded, jammed … Still calmer than some others we have seen, like Kuala Lumpur.
Maybe this calm comes from the water of the numerous canals and rivers, which are every where, every building is close to water. Inhabitants and delighted tourist take alike the boats like a bus : same price, same frequency, no traffic jam!
Away from the noise of the streets, more easily accessed by boat, is the Jim Thomson house. More houses, because he moved piece by piece magnificent traditional Thai house in Bangkok. This are red tekk-wood on stilts. Jim Thomson was an American citizen who became a millionaire after the 2nd World War by reviving the Thai silk industry. He was a true passionate about Thai culture, and he spend his fortune promoting it abroad, collecting the finest pieces. I can’t stop myself to think that if all American (and other) millionaires where like him, we would know a lot more about foreign cultures, and maybe we would have more knowledge and respect for it.
The national Museum is less interesting. What a display of crude nationalism, and even royalism! Thailand is a monarchy, and the king H.H Rama 9 is widely loved by its subjects. After one month in Thailand, we haven’t see one (not one!) restaurant without his picture. And everybody has to stand up in front of his picture before before each film.
The true love for the king is very tangible, and way too obvious in the room for the monarchy, where Rama 9 is almost presented like the ultimate human being (artist, intellectual, sportsman …). The way the museum explains the last 2 century history shouldn’t be as much influenced as it is!
Let’s be clear, giant portraits everywhere in Bangkok, OK, deformed history in museum and juridical harassment of the opposition with the alleged charges of lease-majesty , NO.
Bangkok is also a city grown too fast, victim of its modernity, with its tourist-ghetto like area, full of rip off, tuktuk (3 wheels little car) drivers ready for anything, and dancers bars.
Bangkok, a frenetic city, tiring sometime, always full of people, and hidden nice places…
J’aime les 2 dernières photos, spécialement la luxuriance de la nature sur l’avant-dernière.
Et puis le reportage son est complètement décalé : un peu genre “the Twilight Zone” !
Prendre le train en Thailande c’est aussi une lecon de vie, on redecouvre des reflexes qu’on a plus forcement en Thailande, comme l’anecdote authentique qui suit:
Sur la banquette d’a cote une jeune femme (25 ans) et un couple de petit vieux paisible, ils ne se connaissent visiblement pas. Passe le marchand de glace. La jeune femme s’achete une glace, et en achete aussi pour le couple de vieux, puis les aide a ouvrir les glaces, et les debarassent des dechets.
La scene se repetent une banquette plus loin, une autrer personne partage ses friandise avec ses voisins …