Bangkok: City of Angels. Joe Cummings

      

      A mural depicting a battle scene from Bangkok’s past. Murals depicting pivotal moments in the city’s history were often painted on temple walls.

      BANGKOK

      CITY OF ANGELS

      Photography by Bill Wassman

       Text by Joe Cummings

      Published by Periplus Editions, with editorial office at 61 Tai Seng Avenue #02-12, Singapore 534167.

      Copyright © 2005 Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.

      ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

       ISBN: 978-1-4629-0877-6 (ebook)

       Printed in Singapore

      This book is dedicated to the memory of Bill Wassman who passed away in March 2003. Despite battling against cancer, Bill kept on traveling and doing what he loved—shooting pictures—until the last week of his life.

      All photographs by Bill Wassman except the following:

       Luca Invernizzi Tettoni: Pages 4, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 24, 25, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 36, 37, 38, 41, 47, 51, 53, 60, 62, 69, 71, 72 (top left, bottom left and bottom right), 73 (top left, top right and bottom right), 76 (bottom left), 77 (top left and top right), 84, 85, 86, 87, 91, 95.

      Masano Kawana: Page 6

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      Giant ogre-like figures known as yak guard the grounds of many larger Bangkok temples.

      Wat Benjamabophit, more commonly known in English as the 'Marble Temple' because its walls and floors are built of white Carrara marble.

      CONTENTS

Thailand’s Megatropolis	4
Historic Bangkok	20
The Venice of the East	34
Royal and Religious Sights	46
Visiting Bangkok Today	66

      THAILAND’S MEGATROPOLIS

      "He wanted to go to the East; and his fancy was rich with pictures of Bangkok and Shanghai, and the ports of Japan: he pictured to himself palm-trees and skies blue and hot, dark-skinned people, pagodas; the scents of the Orient intoxicated his nostrils. His heart but with passionate desire for the beauty and the strangeness of the world.”

      — Somerset Maugham

      Painted with ads, the Skytrain speeds along an elevated railway in central Bangkok.

      A spectacular view of Bangkok at night. The city’s rapid development continues unabated, albeit tempered by a growing awareness of the need to balance the concrete jungle with natural greenery. This has led to the development of “pocket parks” in undeveloped parts of the city.

      Bangkok—the name explodes off the tongue, filling the mind with steamy images of the archetypal Southeast Asian metropolis. Emerging from the air-conditioned airport, the thick, jasmine-scented air immediately envelops your body, and the oceanic reverberation of distant traffic fills your ears. Your heart beats perceptibly faster, sensing that this is a place you'll not easily forget.

      Swept along by the vehicular current into the heart of the capital, you soon find yourself lodged in a labyrinth that draws together the essence of everything that is sacred and profane in Thailand. Turn left and enter one world, walk right and experience yet another. Time contracts as you realize just how overwhelming your choices are. Gilded temple spires, gleaming shopping malls and ornate skyscrapers stand alongside tented noodle stands and blanket-on-the-pavement palm-readers. Night falls and huge glittering discotheques fashioned to resemble UFOs and Roman palaces vie with massage parlors drenched in red neon for the attention of the orbiting inhabitants of a city that never sleeps.

      Whether native or newcomer, virtually every Bangkokian you meet has a story. Although no doubt a majority find themselves here owing to the simple fact that they were born in the city, a healthy percentage of the population hail from other parts of Thailand and from around the world. Some migrate for the promise of work, others for the promise of a life in new and exciting circumstances.

      Illuminated temple buildings combine with light-festooned trees, a fading sunset and the blur of vehicle lights to produce one of Bangkok's classic dusk scenes.

      The Victory Monument, commemorating the end of World