Bangkok, continued

We had about four hours to explore Bangkok before we needed to leave for dinner with Amira's home stay family in Rayong Province, about 3 hours away.  It was just enough time to visit the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre and the Mah Boon Krong (MBK) shopping mall.

So, in the interests of supporting public transportation we took a tuk-tuk to the Skytrain. (I like saying that phrase - took a tuk-tuk - it's kind of onomatopoeic, don't you think?) The tuk-tuk is a small truck with an open rear bed and a couple of benches.  It proceeded to take off at the speed of light amidst what appeared to be an emergency evacuation of the city.  Hordes of vehicles of every description jockeyed for position in the four lanes of traffic, jerking in and out of lanes with total oblivion as to what already possessed that particular spot on the road.  Those 20 minutes in the tuk-tuk had me holding on (well, sitting there, since there was really nothing much to hold on to) for dear life.  I could not envision that we would survive without collision - the odds, as I saw them, were completely against it.

The Skytrain was a kick, however - clean, timely, and efficient.  The stations were like mini-malls themselves.  Every conceivable consumer product was offered, including a Victoria's Secret-type of lingerie boutique catering to the "lady-boys" that Thailand so admirably accepts and even esteems.

It was a quick train ride to the Art and Culturel Centre, a 7-story building that seemed largely vacant and uninhabited except for the sixth floor.  Featured there was a contemporary Thai art exhibition that could have stepped out of MOMA.  There were several pieces I would have gladly spent a small fortune on (if I had one, of course, and if they were for sale) but one piece in particular was to prove so beautifully and painfully prophetic of Thailand's dilemma that I include it below.  It was called, "Memory of Country II" and is by Tinnakorn Kasornsuwan.

The poignant pertinence of this particular piece of art was immediately evident to me.  Chiangmai, where we had intended to go after Koh Samet, is in an emergency state owing to the air quality from the smoke from slash-and-burn fields in the north.  The air is so compromised flights are being cancelled and the city is supplying 600,000 air masks.  Thailand is a paradise being paved (to quote Joni Mitchell) - a paradise that is being deracinated.

But enough pathos (the cure for which is, evidently, to judge by the West, shopping).


Before I continue, let me note that however much consumerism is a purported palliative, I do not go to malls.  If I managed to hit the Tacoma Mall twice last year it was two too many.  The MBK was Mall to a factor of 10. It was six stories of mayhem - a vertical madhouse.  Every floor was a cacophony of color, sound, and action.

 

Every square inch of the entire six warehouse-size floors was packed to the gills with consumer goods.  There were hundreds of small stalls, tables, stands, and cubicles, my favorite being the one below, where the owner's darling (and very patient) children were happily occupying themselves with a TV so tiny it was nearly unidentifiable.  

Shopping finished, it was time to hie ourselves in the direction of Rayong Province to have dinner with Meresy's home stay family.  With a sigh of relief we left Bangkok. Our relief was  short-lived, since, of course, in order to leave Bangkok we had to...drive on the roads, in traffic.  It was an obstacle course that once again I was not certain we would survive.