Blanchard's Oriental Travel Journal

One (day) in Bangkok, being compared to a barbers pole, Nok offers hospitality and the joys of getting lost down a soi-soi..

Saturday 11th November, Bourbon Street's Southern Comfort Apartments, Soi 22 Sukhumvit, Bangkok, Thailand

I've been lost down a soi-soi-soi before. ....And even in a soi-soi-soi-soi. In fact I've got lost in them so many times that I don't bother to count now...plus I've started to use the term "lost in a soi-soi" to describe any situation where you lose the main objective and get lost down some route that can only terminate in a dead end. The problem is that the experience is so interesting you forget that you're actually going some where you shouldn't really be. That's what happened today. But first some clarification...

For those who don't know how the Thais name their streets it goes something like this. At least in Bangkok, there are several main roads that radiate somewhat haphazardly from the central business district, following somehow the canals that have earned Bangkok the name of "the Venice of the East". These have tongue twisting names like Sukhumvit, Phetchaburi, Ploenchit and so on. Running off these roads are smaller lanes called "soi's" and running of these in turn are other lanes called "soi-soi's". ..And so on. One implacable truth about Bangkok is that the further you get from the main road the more interesting the voyage becomes. Bangkok of course is an initially depressing but, after a few visits, endearing collection of concrete blocks, old timber structures, new gleaming tall skyscrapers and heaps of construction lots. Heading in from Don Muang airport the new expressway transports you almost right into the centre of the city at about 20 yards above ground level. The helicopter view of the flood plain that is Bangkok is as bad as it gets. But the detail view is much more interesting and the more soi's added the better. Now I once met somebody who lived on Soi 104 Sukhumvit Road, (not to be confused with Sukhumwit Road further up the road), and Bangkok legend for the visitor who doesn't get further than the cheap clothing stalls on Sukhumvit and the somewhat dubious entertainment at Patpong, dictates that nobody really knows where Sukhumvit Road ends and they stop counting the number of sois. Most say it finishes somewhere near Cambodia.

Well, back to the story... Anybody who has done business here knows that another immutable truth about Bangkok is that you are always caught between a rock and a hard place re getting from one place to another; ie: it is always quicker to walk and it is always too hot to walk, especially in your new Hong Kong tailored suit and briefcase weighed down with samples. Today I ditched the suit and put on my shorts, long socks, leather sandals and cotton shirt I picked up yesterday after furious haggling in Suriwongse and walked. I had to go to a travel agent which was going to extend my stay for me. ..and no they couldn't do it over the phone..but that shouldn't be news to anybody who travels in Asia. Looking at the map I saw that just walking along the main roads seemed illogical as it seemed quicker to walk as the "crow flies" as they say. So I started walking, taking a right around Sukhumvit Soi 6. The surroundings changed quickly with more trees, the roadside stall food becoming cheaper and grand old Thai houses nestled behind concrete fences with the ubiquitous twin newspaper boxes bearing the signs "Nation" and "Bangkok Post". Sleeping dogs lay in the middle of the sois with tongues hanging out while enterprising tuk-tuk drivers did everything they could to make sure that they didn't stay lying. Like the rest of the Bangkok populace though, a 2 inch miss by a Tuk Tuk driver seems a wide margin for error.

Down the road a piece there seemed to be a dead end so I took a left down a soi-soi and then a right down a soi-soi-soi so I was still walking in the right direction. Further down the road a piece the soi as I knew it stopped. And there in front of me was one of Bangkok's famous canals, with an enormous river life going on. Many boats going up and down populated by gaily chattering Thais going home after work, house owners harvesting whatever it was they were growing at the bottom of canal-front back gardens; and birds (yes they do survive here) darting in the water presumably hoping to spear a fish (yes they must survive too) and invariably coming up with some plastic garbage.

It struck me as I gazed out at this relaxing scene that this must be what Bangkok must have been like say some 20 years back. The further you get from the main roads the further you go back in history. and again you wonder on whether it is all worth it as you think of the great commercial mess back at Sukhumvit. ..and the gentle happy faces just 15 minutes walk away. and still a stones throw away from the expressway.

I did eventually find the travel agent ..And then they couldn't take my gold card ..only Visa...So I walked back to the hotel along the highway...and not the byway. ...Life is too short to dally when you've got bills to pay and targets to achieve...

A friend of mine called Rod who for years in visiting Thailand had been mystified, not to mention slightly distressed over why so many Thais burst into uncontrollable giggling fits when he introduced himself. It took 3 or 4 years before a Thai friend enlightened him with traditional Thai modesty that his first name when translated into Thai meant something that was "cylindrical", or maybe even like that, he said, pointing out one of the many Barber's poles outside a Barber shop. Relatively slow on the uptake and labouring under the normal reticence of Thais to express themselves with even a modicum of vulgarity, he eventually understood and now calls himself something completely different in Thailand. "At least its better than being called Mr. Rot in Singapore", he confided...

Saturday 18th November, Bourbon Street's Southern Comfort Apartments, Soi 22 Sukhumvit, Bangkok, Thailand