I've been having huge cravings for the great street food in Bangkok

Sometimes, if you’re really lucky, an opportunity comes up to do something you couldn’t otherwise justify.  You need a good excuse, a valid reasonable explanation, for doing something that might otherwise be out of reach.  And I was exactly this lucky when a former colleague of mine was having a surprise going away party and I was invited to attend.  Yes, I had a great excuse to go back to Bangkok.

After spending about four and a half years living in Bangkok and only having left there back in May you might think I didn’t need to go back so soon – or at all.  But Bangkok has a special magnet – an urban charisma – that you can’t ignore.  Once it gets under your skin you are hooked for life and for better or worse I think I’m there.

Life on the river has everything an homesick ex-pat wants

Hot spicy fish cooked on the street ready to attack passing taste buds

And Bangkok was waiting for me with all its dynamic character, raw beauty, complex challenges and current political turmoil.  For a city with between nine and 14 million people – depending on who you ask – in the fastest growing part of the world it has all the elements that make for a fascinating visit.   I was staying with a good friend (thanks Damo) and joined about 200 other people for  a whale of a time at a surprise going away party for a much respected former colleague.  But after catching up with so many old friends, the live band, the speeches, the hugs and handshakes, the late night cigars and the dreadful morning after it was time to revisit a few of my favourite haunts.  Because you never know when you will be back….

My Happy Place in Bangkok is Lumpini Park, a tranquil island of green trees, spacious lawns, tranquil lakes and fresh air set amongst the skyscrapers and deafening traffic of downtown Bangkok.  And so on two mornings while in Bangkok I went for my customary early morning run, not so much for the exercise but more to relive this peaceful oasis and take in all the familiar sites of people going about their early morning Tai Chi, walking, meditating and socialising in the shade of the park’s vast trees.  Every city needs a Lumpini Park.

Elegant swan paddle boats waiting for action in Lumpini Park

Life on the river includes luxury five star hotels and locals eeking out an existence

My other favourite place in Bangkok is the Chao Phraya River which flows about 400 kilometres from northern Thailand and provides a key geographical, political and historical feature of the city.  Today the banks of the Chao Phraya are lined with temples, hotels, markets, hospitals, the royal palace, skyscraper office buildings and derelict homes on crumbling stilts.  It is the central artery of the city and is clogged with barges carrying goods up and downstream, ferries moving people on their daily activities, smaller boats moving tourists between hotels and attractions, fishing boats, long tail boats and even the occasional row boat that locals use for their personal needs.  The Chao Phraya has it all.

I took the local commuter ferry as far upstream as it would go to the northern suburb of Northaburi and enjoyed a walk through their covered dry and wet markets, mingling shoulder to shoulder with the locals as they go about their chores of buying clothes and food for their family.  On my return I got off near Khao San Road, made famous as the haunt for young backpackers (and the place I stayed when I first visited Bangkok in the late 1970’s) and I wandered through the markets and streets, stopping for a beer in one place, a spicy Khao phat gai in another.

Colourful vegie markets of Northaburi, always good fun to visit

Thousands of protesters peacefully block the main street near Democracy Monument as they try to force the government to resign

No surprise that I made it to the shopping mecca of Bangkok – MBK – and wandered past many of my favourite temples along the way.  On another excursion I walked past Democracy Monument which had been overtaken by many thousands of protesters who were following the recent Thai tradition of taking over major streets, landmarks and buildings to protest their opposition to the current government.   Thailand, bless their heart, is still struggling with finding a balanced and workable democratic system that all major parties can live with, more or less.

My time in Bangkok was too short but it gave me a much needed fix on my cravings for its vibrancy, its colour, its people and its culture.  Viva la Bangkok!

A quiet peaceful scene in Lumpini Park