Bangkok: Venice of the East

The one activity every tourist should do in Bangkok is to hire a long-tail boat and take a ride down its mazework of waterways and canals or khlongs. Best, have a dinner on a river cruise down Chhao Phraya river - an unforgettable experience. History has it that during the reign of first five Chakri dynasty kings (the current dynasty is Chakri), the lion’s share of public works involved building extensive waterways and canals to link its new capital Bangkok to various cities and temples of importance. Khlong Damuen Saduak is a major tourist attraction with its esoteric floating markets, which in historical times provided housewives with daily fresh supply of vegetables and meat, it now caters pretty much to ogle-eyed tourists (watch out for the blog covering this). In facts canals was the primary means of traveling until 1861 when newly arrived European merchants and diplomats signed a petition requesting King Rama IV to provide roads so that they could enjoy horse-riding – the king acquiesced but with a warning to the local people. The King said ‘Whatever they (the Europeans) have invented or done which we should know of and do, we can imitate and learn from them, but do not wholeheartedly believe in them’. Funnily, despite Thailand’s far greater experience of foreign tourists and industry than India, because it was never colonized by the west, it still holds its cultural identity far better than India does. You would not be surprised if a hip 21st century teenager, who is a trans-sexual gay, dabbling in western culture, to respectfully bow with folded hands when he is introduced to a guest (like we were) and continue to live with his/her family which accepts him. Old wine in new bottles.

Portuguese priest Fernao Pinto was the first to use the epithet ‘Venice of the East’ referring to Ayuthaya but that’s what Bangkok looks like from the boats today and the phrase is apt for it too. In 1855 British envoy Sir John Bowring noted in his reports ’The highways of Bangkok are not streets or roads but the river and the canals. Boats are the universal means of conveyance and communication’. Another adventurous Italian nobleman Salvatore Besso wrote in 1911, ‘The Venice of the East – the capital still wrapped in mystery…in spite of the thousand efforts of modernization amid its maze of canals, and in spite of the popularity of the reigning monarch … from the crowded dock-raods of the river, which reminds me of Giudecca (Grand Canal of Venice), across the intricate mass of.. the Chinese quarter.. which whilst resembling Canton, is still more Ventian. Were it not for the queues, almond eyes and odours, decidedly Oriental, the illusion would be very often be complete…’