Full disclosure: the Hangover 2 formed almost all of my pre-arrival perception of Bangkok. Thankfully, that was not my experience.
I came to Bangkok to eat and get cheap massages. I succeeded on both counts, and was pleasantly surprised by the rest of what Bangkok had to offer.
My first full day was spent sightseeing: the palace, Wat Poh, Arun Wat. Everything was so shiny that it was hard to see in the sun. I was surprised by how close together the buildings in each complex are. Individually they are quite large and would be impressive; together they are crammed in so tightly that it is difficult to appreciate the buildings in isolation. This may be intentional so that one doesn’t place a higher value on one building than the complex that it supports, but I still kept finding myself wishing that I could see each for its own merits.
The next day I took as a rest day since I was pretty beat up from the heat and sun the day before. I planted myself in one of the malls and got some good people watching in. Later I saw the new Bond movie, Skyfall. I was very confused when buying the ticket at the counter because I didn’t understand what the girl was asking me. She kept showing me a seating chart for the theater; I finally worked out that you buy a particular seat, the same way you would for most other venues in the US.
My final day in Bangkok was spent wandering around, starting at the Independence Memorial, past the zoo, palace, Golden Mount, Ratchanatda temple and the Giant Swing. I’m not sure why it is called the giant swing. I was expecting something pretty epic, but it was basically just a gate, not a giant swing set 🙁 I walked through what appeared to be the Buddha market district on my way back. It was shop after shop of Buddha statues of all sizes and colors.
My hostel was located near the red light district so there was always good people watching. In particular, at night you could plant down at any street facing bar and see lady boys strutting around, as well as the female prostitutes and, primarily, older white men. In fact, I was kicked out of a bar one night because we didn’t place our orders quickly enough for their taste and we were informed a group of prostitutes needed the space.
Unfortunately, this scene has been pretty common everywhere I’ve been so far. Most of the time they are young Asian prostitutes and older white men; occasionally the two are married. I was told that it was becoming such a problem that the Cambodian government enacted rules regarding the age difference between a native and foreigner attempting to get married. I have yet to see an Asian man and white woman (I have seen plenty of Asian American men who, after eavesdropping, are definitely American). It is something that really bothers me every time I see it and I’m still trying to reason out why. I’m normally okay with letting people do whatever they want to as long as it is not harmful and non-destructive. It’s definitely not the age difference since I have no problem with couples with large age gaps and I don’t think it is a racial thing because I don’t think I’d think twice if I saw the same couple walking around in the US. I keep getting flashbacks to my history textbooks and their images of old colonial officials. I think it is the implied power differential that exists that is very unsettling to me.
I’ll update this post once I have my pictures. They are currently zipped up on my memory card and I can’t access them.