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BOOK
REVIEW
Deconstructing the 'Land of
Smiles'
Bangkok Inside
Out by Daniel Ziv and Guy
Sharett
Review by Sara Schonhardt
Welcome to the Land of Smiles, made famous
by its gilded temples, endless waterways and
floating markets.
The
phrase that has become synonymous with Thailand
began as a tourism promotion slogan and has drawn
its fair share of 
visitors. But the real Thailand, the one that lies
outside the pages of glossy travel brochures, is
imminently more intriguing and beautiful at every
turn.
At least, that's what authors and
intrepid adventurers Daniel Ziv and Guy Sharett,
are out to prove in their newly released
collaboration, Bangkok Inside Out, a book
that takes readers on an illuminating,
no-holds-barred journey through Thailand's chaotic
capital.
And prove it they do. In their
attempt to get to the bottom of the madness that
is Bangkok, they reveal the city's charms and
quirks in a way that is humorous, honest and
engaging. Coupled with prominent photography that
features humans - as well as two dogs and an
elephant - rather than monuments, the book is an
urban glossary of sorts, an alphabetized lexicon
for curiosity-bound residents and visitors.
Of course, one should not confuse
Bangkok Inside Out with that other genre of
non-fiction that travelers so often tote around;
Ziv and Sharett make it clear from the beginning
this book is hardly a "guide" to the City of
Angels, a teaming metropolis of nearly 10 million.
"Instead, it's a street level snapshot of
a 21st-century Southeast Asian city ... a snapshot
of ordinary people in their urban landscape; of
culture and pop culture" (p 11, an introductory
section titled "Rules of Engagement").
Ultimately, Bangkok Inside Out
focuses "not on 'must see' attractions, but on
the people and dynamics that make the city tick",
write Ziv and Sharett, neither of whom sees the
need to romanticize a city they say has an
abundance of romance all its own.
"Bangkok
requires neither sexual embellishments nor imagery
from its glorious past when its here-and-now is so
incredibly striking," they explain (p 11).
Starting with amulets, a tribute to
Thailand's fascination with omens and
superstition, and ending with the drug trade, in
an account of that "crazy medicine" known as Yaa
Baa, Bangkok Inside Out shakes out the
pockets of the city from A to, well, Y, and finds
some truly fascinating things.
From urban
elephants to ladyboys, from dog masseurs to
fortune tellers, the city portrayed on the pages
of Bangkok Inside Out is a young and
energetic one that arrests the senses for far more
than its traditional Thai images.
The book
takes readers into kickboxing gyms, super-slums
and Bangkok's most abundant attraction - the
ubiquitous 7-Eleven, so indigenous to the city
that "these 24-hour shops are an integral part of
the non-stop Bangkok existence" (p 122). With
punchy and comedic prose, the authors praise the
wealth of wonders to be found in Bangkok's more
than 1,300 7-Eleven convenience stores, or as they
refer to them, "florescent humanoid filling
stations".
There are other landmarks as
well. The infamous Khaosan Road, put on the map by
Alex Garland and, later, Leonardo DiCaprio, and
its imminently more friendly, charming neighbor
Phra Athit, with its "delightful stretch of modish
bars, pubs, bakeries and bookshops" (p 112). There
is Khlong Toey, Bangkok's so-called "Grade A
slum", and Nana, "where Africa meets Arabia".
Sights and scenes aside, Bangkok Inside
Out also tackles topics such as tabloids,
traffic and energy drinks. It uncovers the
phenomenon know simply as pha yen (cold
cloth), "Bangkok's idea of a cold shower on the
run" (p 109). It takes in everyday customs such as
tam boon (merit making) and more
ritualistic practices that include the sharing of
cheap, Thai whiskey, "typically downed with a
mixer ... rather than straight and accompanied by
an assortment of spicy bar snacks" (p 152).
To give readers an insight into Bangkok's
growing pop culture, Ziv and Sharett also reveal
some of Bangkok's more popular trends: indie rock,
gambling dens and the slightly more quirky DIY
dinning, conceptual dinning joints that provide
the ingredients and then tell diners to "do it
yourself".
From pastimes - the book delves
deeply into the wild world of karaoke, a pursuit
that has become so popular in Thailand these days
that "even some taxis offer passengers a chance to
sing their way to a dreaded dentist appointment"
(p 61) - to people: hollering food hawkers,
infamous kathoey (transgenders),
farangs (white foreigners) or their
mixed-race offspring, Bangkok Inside Out
reveals a city that is shaped by yuppies,
migrant construction workers and everyone in
between.
The authors don't claim to be
"insiders" or experts on the city, an impossible
task according to many, but it's obvious they've
done their research. In their effort to mingle
with people from various walks of life, they have
trudged through the crowded market stalls of
Chatuchak, Southeast Asia's largest market, and
shimmied down the shinning halls of the Emporium,
"a gleaming upmarket shrine to conspicuous
consumption" - the "one truly sanctified place for
Bangkok's high society", the so-called "movers and
shakers" of the country deconstructed on page 55
in a section of the book aptly dubbed
"Hi-So/Lo-So".
Like the city itself, the
book is laced with idiosyncrasies and anecdotes -
there's even an addendum: "Operation Ding Dong",
Ziv's and Sharett's "bold effort" to investigate
the uniformity of 7-Eleven branches in the city.
"Bangkok is a chaotic place," Ziv and
Sharett conclude in their introduction (p 11). And
indeed, the very sights, sounds and smells of
Bangkok (what book about this city would be
complete without a reference to Southeast Asia's
smelly "king of fruit", the durian?) unveiled on
the pages of Bangkok Inside Out reflect a
bit of that madness.
"But it's also a city
that's constantly bettering itself" (p 11). And
despite its choking pollution, gem scams and
sometimes fierce and always scruffy soi
dogs, the Bangkok that comes shinning through is
raw, quirky and at times even quaint. Like the
authors themselves, those pulled into the pages of
this book are sure to be charmed by the urban
experience the City of Angels has to offer,
whether or not those gleaming temples of the
popular imagination appear.
Bangkok
Inside Out by Daniel Ziv and Guy Sharett.
Equinox Publishing, Jakarta. ISBN: 9799796466.
Price US$19.95, 176 pages.
(Copyright 2005
Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us for information on sales, syndication and republishing.) |
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