Bangkok, Thailand

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Doing a (roughly 400 word count) “destination guide” for my birth and childhood home of Bangkok, is like attempting to do a paragraph review of Dostevesky’s “Crime and Punishment.” But, away we go!

There are a zillion tourist books and writings about Bangkok; some good, some bad. What a lot of them miss is the Bangkok that has evolved over decades and has been experienced by westerners like Earl and I over multiple years of living, leaving and returning to this amazing city.

There are the old Wats (temples) of our youth like the incredibly famous Wat Phra Kaew which houses the Temple of the Emerald Buddha and is adjacent to the ancient Royal Palace. Nearby there is Wat Pho housing the reclining Buddha. But, as we discovered on The Good Road, there is a newer temple called Wat Paknam on the west side of the Chao Phraya River. A super interesting, modern cement pagoda called the Phrarathchamongkhon Stupa houses traditional and modern art versions of the stories of the Buddhas. The basement of the stupa is a museum of gifts to the temple ranging from an old Mercedes-Benz to antique film cameras and teak furniture. The museum is an antique aficionado’s dream.

Restaurants dot maps of Bangkok in all varieties, menus from hundreds of countries and with all sorts of thematic ambiances. One of the most surreal restaurants is the iconic Cabbages and Condoms Restaurant on Sukhumvit Soi (street) 10. C&C is an homage to famed Thai Health Ministry icon, Mechai Viravaidya, who is credited for single-handedly preventing massive HIV AIDS infection rates by popularizing condom usage in Thai society in the late-70’s in hopes to keep population sizes manageable. The variety of delicious Thai food cooked by excellent creators in the C& C kitchen must be experienced.

In my old neighborhood near Rama IX, Chandrphen Restaurant was the Thai-Chinese eatery of my youth and is still going strong. It is as good and as reasonably priced as it was in the 1980s. Family run for generations, Chandrphen has the most delicious Chinese barbequed chicken in Bangkok. If you want to experience a side of Bangkok that most foreigners never go to, venture into the slum near Chandrphen called Klong Toey. It has the friendliest people and some of the best street food in the city.

Chatuchak is Bangkok’s biggest market with around 15,000 stalls and 11,505 vendors and seemingly has everything. It can be overwhelming, overcrowded and has some disturbing sections with questionably traded animals. If you want to experience a more modern environment with various floors named for famous global cities, Terminal 21 on Soi 19 is filled with all kinds of restaurants, boutiques and coffee joints. And, in terms of location, it has its own stop on the Skytrain (BTS)at the Asok Station with direct access into the shopping center.

Finally, for overviews of the city everyone gravitates to the overpriced hotel rooftop bars popularized in films and videos in the west. Don’t get me wrong, those views are stunning but the cocktails ain’t cheap even by New York standards. For Earl and I, we buy tickets to the 88-story Baiyoke Tower’s revolving viewing platform. Go at dusk and watch the lights of the city come alive at a critical juncture in downtown’s super highway intersections. You are likely, as we have been, to experience the views with robed buddhist monks because, like us, they can’t afford to spend $50 on a Vodka martini at the high-falootin’ places!.

EAT, DRINK & HAVE FUN

Wat Paknam

A super interesting, modern cement pagoda called the Phrarathchamongkhon Stupa houses traditional and modern art versions of the stories of the Buddhas. The basement of the stupa is a museum of gifts to the temple.