Video of the neighbourhood
The 85-storey Baiyoke tower, the railway tracks and the elevated Airport Rail Link
Under the Airport Rail Link an undersized community soccer patch
Under the Airport Rail Link an undersized community soccer patch
A typical Bangkok breakfast on the run; a bowl of delicious soup that is reasonably priced,
available from a push cart, down the street from the hotel
This fellow had an impressive collection of caged songbirds
Women from the neighbourhood playing dominos
On the south side of the double tracks was the path through the community
It was here that i came for a chilled coke or beer, and communicated minimally,
with this friendly family and their neighbours
The store owners had an impressive garden but it involved crossing the
double railway tracks
The tiny store was opposite the garden, with trains rumbled between
Their majesties, the King and Queen of Thailand, on a clock face
IT ALL BEGAN in Vancouver with a China Airlines flight. After midnight on January 4, the Airbus took off and followed the edge of the Pacific for the next 13 hours. In Taipei and in a blur, i boarded a Jumbo for the next flight landing in Thailand, 3 1/2 hours later. It was 10 in the morning in Bangkok. The 25 kilometre train ride, from Suvarnabhumi International Airport, was quiet and comfortable, in a half full, air conditioned wagon. So began six weeks in Southeast Asia, which would include visits to Myanmar (Burma) and a return visit to Cambodia too. My stay, for this first whole week, included sleeping at the Best Bangkok House, which the travel agent in Vancouver had arranged. It was barely three star accommodation, given how cramped my room was. Truthfully though, i was comfortable and it was fairly mosquito proof too (with the windows closed and the air con on). Breakfasts consisted of vaguely western fare with white toast, tropical fruit, eggs and a Thai hot dog sausage. Travellers opinions on the The Best Bangkok House varied greatly – one even described the hotel as "scary." The only thing i found scary, were a couple of mildly disturbed young men, one an American and the other a Brit, who were fixated on alcohol and the sex trade. Please don't think this old guy here is on a rant about the young ones. I had similar views on the night life, as a young traveller, when last in Bangkok (in 1975). Well, their were a series of thuds in the night which barely disturbed my sleep. The next morning the American ended up being taken away by the Royal Thai Police, after having gone a drunken rampage in the room below mine.
Outside, was a world of contrasts too. Soi 13 ("Soi" means lane) was a narrow road that ran straight down to crazy, busy Petchaburi Road. It passed boutique style hotel high rises and mansions behind tall security walls. A few block to the east was the chaotically congested heart of Pratunam, a wholesale fashion district. Beyond the urban chaos rose the 85-storey, 304 metre (997 feet) Baiyoke Sky Hotel, where i would later stay at, on the last day of my trip.
Because my accommodation was at the end of the Soi, it was only a short distance to a pair of railway tracks. A short walk took me past a patch of stagnant water and between some low huts. All along the rail right of way, to the left and right, was a fringe of a little makeshift buildings. The settlement also included a couple of cramped playgrounds, some small gardens, a few tiny stores, a patch of intensive recycling, an outdoor restaurant/bar and even a modest stage. Much of this was makeshift too. Here was a community on the edge, while right next door were vastly better living conditions. Apart from seeing families living in crowded and unsanitary conditions, there was an unnerving spectacle, just outside their front doors. Trains passed through the community – just 2 metres away – with the rush of air and the jarring clatter of metal on metal. It was strangely disturbing to be watching this while sipping a beer, at the entrance to a tiny store that fronted the tracks. All there was between me and the passing rush of wagons was the communal path of broken concrete, at my feet. Other images that come to mind were men carefully driving off to work on their motor scooters, over the concrete slabs. Then there were uniformed children coming home from school or women playing a game of dominos, the store owner who showed me his oasis of a garden or the proud guy with his caged songbirds. These last impressions might suggest a certain tranquility, but one can only imagine that there is much hardship below the surface, as suggested by the third link below (about Children in the Bangkok slums). Greater Bangkok, is after all, a metropolis of over 14 million. Under such precarious conditions, just being able to survive and maintain some dignity, in the face of such poverty, must have been a challenge for the inhabitants of this rail track community.
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