Streets of Bangkok

I was in Bangkok last month and it was my first time in Thailand and my first time in Asia. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and one week is certainly nothing more than a brief introduction. Bangkok itself is a city of 8 million people and has that overwhelming urban feel. Massive new buildings are right along side old. Smog is a big problem and you see many people wearing protective cloth masks over their mouths and noses. New York seems to be condensed into Manhattan, and London sprawls in every direction. Bangkok in that respect is perhaps more like London, also with the river winding through it. Traffic is a major problem, with delays of literally hours if you get stuck in an automobile at the wrong time of day. It's my intention to write a few entries about this trip, covering the river, the temple complex at Wat Po (in Bangkok), the hotel I stayed in, and also my day trip to the ancient capital city of Ayutthaya which is two hours north of Bangkok by train. But for now I just thought some pictures of streetscapes would be a good introduction.This is just one of the many temples in the city. This one struck me because of how it contrasts with the neighborhood around it.

This was a bit more in the Chinatown area.

The markets there were quite incredible to me. SO much for sale! Anything under the sun can be bought there and in bulk, and most of it seems to be VERY cheap.

This picture was taken in an area of one of the markets in Chinatown where things for funerals were sold. I was astounded to see shirts made of paper that were golden, which are meant to be burnt as offerings to the deceased. Many "articles" are available made of paper in golden color for this purpose.

This picture reveals a more modern side of the city. Several years ago the government decided to tackle the traffic problem by building a skytrain (a monorail more or less, with two lines crossing through the city). What struck me about this view was the ability to see the different "layers" of the city: monorail above, elevated shops just below the track but still above, then the street level complete with a garden on the median. On the sidewalks in this neighborhood there was also a street market which was selling clothing, touristy things, etc. Not far away was one of the city's biggest shopping complexes, the MBK plaza, which is a multistory mall which rivaled anything I've seen in New York or London. Overall I was struck by the combination of old and new (what's old seemed very old, but what was new seemed VERY modern), the size of the city, and the "Asian-ness" of it, which I can only elaborate on as the exposure to a non-western alphabet, the way the markets are organized (everything in bulk under awnings), the presence of temples and shrines to ancestors, and just being in a totally different geographic area and climate. It was fascinating, I'd love to go back! I'm also quite curious about the north of the country which I hear is mountainous and has good climbing, and also the beaches in the south.

Wintry Dutch Day

I think this will be my most diary-like blog entry to date! All previous blog entries were about my travels, so far through Scandinavia and East Africa. But on this cold December day I am sitting here at home in Holland and thinking how amazing the light is, unique to this country I'd say (this coming from someone who has lived here 5 and a half years, so not a native!). The picture above is Vermeer's View of Delft. What I find so striking about some of these Dutch masters is how if you go to where they were, they were really just painting exactly what they saw. The light here IS that unique.

I bicycled around today, going to the market and running various errands and i really found the winter sky just incredible. The weather here is usually wet and cloudy. Add a lack of light due to a late sunrise and an early sunset, and you get a remarkable result of pastels and mist. The light can play strange tricks due to the fog and mist and at times it looks as if the daylight is escaping from strange source behind a cloud while not appearing to come from above. Due to the northern lattitude here the hours of sunlight in the winter are indeed limited, reaching it's "darkest" around December 21. What i find bizarre is waking up while it's still dark and by the time the middle of the day is here, the sun appears to be setting already. Yesterday I noticed a street light that went on at approximately 2 PM. And when the clouds do manage to clear for a while, due to the northern latitude again, the sun is at such an angle that it seems to shine directly into your line of vision.

In any case, this leads to higher coffee consumption, stronger desire to sleep. My plan as soon as this is written is to curl up in a ball by a warm spot and take a nap!

I've been making a list of blog entries that I should do, including my recent trip to Thailand, a concert I conducted in, and wrote a piece for, and then also a little photo-tour of my appartment which I moved into last April. Check here again soon for the update!