Bangkok [antikvár]

BangkokThe Impossible CityiiT^hey'd get straight back on the next X plane," blurts out the Australian. For years he has been urging his friends to visit his favourite city and now, in a sudden flash, he is worried Bangkok is not going to win any hearts."It's crazy. Every visit I love this place more and tell me mates they've just got to come next time. But, look, if they saw this they'd freak."Causing the outburst is the sight of snarled up traffic on Sukhumvit Road, one of the city's major thoroughfares and typically clogged with untidy bunches of cars, trucks and buses, metallic lines of frustration and impatience. Angry motorcycles weave in between and the air, already heavy with heat, fills with exhaust fumes as chaos threatens. Tension rises and falls maddeningly with stop lights on red for minutes, green for seconds.The dilemma of that Australian tourist is not exceptional and a love-hate feeling about Bangkok is experienced by most visitors at one time or another. It need not necessarily be triggered by the monstrous traffic though that is legendary it can just as easily be set off by the heat, the noise, the pollution, the potholed sidewalks, newspaper stories of blood-curdling crimes of violence or gruesome road accidents, or simply, it must be admitted, by the downright ugliness of the urban sprawl.It is all part and parcel of Bangkok. But so is, as thousands of foreign residents and countless travellers will attest, the city's uncanny ability to cast an irresistible spell, to captivate the visitor time and again with a charm that is all the more potent and endearing for its inexplicability.The answer to why Bangkok can capture the heart is not easily put into words. Many old-hand foreign residents are hard put for a reply when asked why they have stayed so 'ong. Some simply avoid the issue with pat responses such as 'work' or 'money'.Bangkok is an impossible city; impossiblein its traffic, its urban muddle, its enervating and monotonous climate and ultimately impossible to resist. It is a paradox. Most of its immediately apparent attributes are insults to common sense, yet finally there is the inescapable truth that it is an amazing and enchanting city, a thrilling place without parallel anywhere else.In part the attraction lies in the very paradox itself and Bangkok appeals to andfosters a healthy sense of the absurd, that in an age of computerized existence, is a vital component of any philosophy allowing for individual freedom. Carol Hollinger, a former American resident in Bangkok, wrote with disarming honesty in her delightful book about life in the city, Mai Pen Rai, and captured some of the spell the place does cast. Talking of the chaotic nature of even a simple foray into town she remarked: "To me it was a wild adventure to set out to a mundane party or on an innocent errand and to end up five hours later lost, hot, tired and desperate. I admit it doesn't sound like fun and it was never comfortable, but it was inModern and traditional Bangkok. A horrendous traffic jam (preceding pages) is an unavoidable element of city life. The opening of Parliament (left) and guardsmen (above) illustrate the survival of royal traditions.15