Reading Bangkok

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments I first visited Bangkok some 40 years ago. I recall it from that time as a green city, mostly two- and three-storeys, a skyline of trees, villas, small wooden houses and shophouses interrupted by the glory of gold and white prang — the temple spires — and a soft, civilised, unhurried place. The orange-robed monks were ubiquitous; so were American servicemen, as it was the era of the Vietnam War. I was vaguely aware of an ongoing communist insurrection in the countryside but the city was finely managed and presented. It was in every sense a good advertisement for the merits of military dictatorship. I did not visit again until 1996: the highway in from the airport presented a harsh city of grey-white concrete blocks, grey haze and a nightmare of gridlocked traffic. It took awhile to discover that the wonderfully complex, chaotic, magical city of older times was still there, underneath the environmental violence of rampant, unregulated “development”. I have now visited Bangkok more than 50 times; its beguiling complexity increasingly intrigues, as does the richness, the vigour of its life in the face of chaos and the mysteries that always seem to lie beneath its surfaces. This is unquestionably one of the great cities of the world. To understand these “mysteries beneath the surface” has provided the motivation for my continuing investigation of the city and for the writing of this book. I thank the city itself and all the people I have confronted over these times — in the streets, pubs, bars, universities, architectural offices; the policemen who have tackled me when I have ventured too close to the King’s motorcade and then befriended me; the yellow-shirt and red-shirt protesters whose rallies and uprisings I have ventured into; my Thai students; my French colleagues who have also tackled the incomprehensibility of Bangkok, but from another worldview; innumerable chance acquaintances. Some quite specific debts must be acknowledged. I have had numerous conversations over the years with M.R. Pumin Varavarn, Sumet Jumsai na Ayutthaya, Cuttaleeya Jiraprasertkun (Noparatnaraporn), Sidh Sintusingha, Eggarin Anukulyudhathon, Pasinee Sunakorn, Kasama xvii Polikit (Bootsita), Wandee Pinijvarasin, Sompong Amnuay-ngerntra, Nana Srithammasak, Boonanan Natakun, Sirima na Songkhla, Claire Parin, Kim Dovey, David O’Brien, and Darko Radovic. Their ideas and those of many of my other colleagues have inevitably migrated into the present text. As the book’s text has evolved, it has gained immeasurably from the feedback and input from a variety of readers. Two anonymous reviewers provided input of inestimable value. Drafts of the text have also been read by M.R. Pumin Varavan, Sid Sintusingha and Kim Dovey. While all these readings have given me angst (my wonderful ideas and stylistic wizardry challenged), the benefit has been immense. I could never adequately express my appreciation and my admiration for the effort that they have bestowed on the work. I am immensely honoured by the attention. The remaining errors and weaknesses, however, are entirely my own achievement. The photographs and maps are my own except where otherwise acknowledged. xviii Acknowledgments ...