Writing in 1900, the American consul residing in Bangkok marveled that only 35 years earlier there had been no streets in the capital, that all traffic was carried by boats. Even now, he wrote, "numerous canals still compete with the street traffic."
More roads were being built yearly, however, and -- as the author of this interesting book writes -- "just in time, too, because by 1908 there were more than 300 cars crawling around the town."
There were also trams; since 1873, Bangkok was to be traveled by a large and elaborate system of trolleys, driven by "daredevils of the streets," who raced each other and bet on probable winners.
Passengers had to wrap their durian securely to mask the odor, but drivers could do much as they liked, though they too had some limits imposed. "In the 1890s a driver inadvertently bagged a tiger that had been prowling near the slaughterhouses."
The trolleys were done in, however, not by the appetites of tigers, but by the needs of traffic. Something faster was thought necessary and the automobile burgeoned. Its depredations are amply demonstrated worldwide, but they are perhaps most visible in Asian cities: Seoul, destroyed for the convenience of the car; Beijing, rendered airless by its pollution; Bangkok, one big gridlocked traffic jam.
Nor does the damage limit itself to simple inconvenience. "The most dramatic changes have come at the century's end. Expressways and tollways slash through old neighborhoods, transforming Bangkok from a city where houses were paramount to one where the automobile rules." The problem now is not to return vanished amenities, but simply to cope with moving at all.Here the new Skytrain Monorail helps. It detracts nothing from the aesthetic mess of the city, but it allows you to get through the mess faster. And from high up, one can see something of what old Bangkok must have been like.
In many ways, as the author points out, "life in Bangkok 100 years ago, far from being simple and idyllic, was as chaotic as it is today." Thus, "it is curiously reassuring to . . . realize that despite 10 decades and radical alternations in the landscape, little has changed at a human level."
Then as now, Bangkok was an amalgam of the sterile -- if hygienic -- new and the insanitary -- if romantic -- old. In 1904, there were only 70 public toilets for the entire enormous capital. People used the klongs. They still do.
One "advance" seems canceled by another "retreat." Thai boxing has improved. In 1900, no one wore boxing gloves, the hands were bandaged and unscrupulous promoters would embed ground glass in the wrapping to increase damage.
Contemplating this, I was returning from the boxing stadium once, when I was suddenly advanced upon by an elephant. It was not attacking, but begging. Made homeless by deforestation and economic downfall, the beast was being led through packed streets by keepers who sold bananas at exorbitant prices so that one might feed the hungry and exhausted animal.All of the pathos and paradox of a century of change is wonderfully captured in this book through writings, maps and -- above all -- photographs. There are dozens of before/after pictures (ca. 1900/1998) that meticulously chronicle change, along with location-sketches.
The author likens his method to that of the stereoscope, a 19th-century invention that lent perspective -- two photos taken from slightly different angles but otherwise identical. He has printed the earlier photos (black and white) next to the later (color), and rather than spatial perspective he has given us temporal perspective. I have seen this done before, but never so accurately. The effect is most impressive and, as is the way with photos, most saddening.
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