“What is Bangkok like?” asked an American visitor rhetorically around the turn of the last century. Some sought to answer the question by evoking its “oriental” atmosphere or by relying on clichés like “Venice of the East”. Others insisted its contrasts and contradictions made an easy description impossible. Bangkok in the early decades of the 20th century was indeed a city in transition, mixing (as it did) east with west and tradition with modernity.
In Bangkok is a collection of texts which reflect the foreign experience of Siam’s capital at a time of often unsettling change, the foreigners in question being both long-term residents and short-term visitors. They lead us along Bangkok’s great river and its klongs, through its palaces and wats, and along its grand boulevards and commercial streets clogged with traffic. We learn how foreigners lived and worked in the city, or how they explored it as tourists. With them, we visit Bangkok’s shops and markets, its schools and hospitals, watch its sports and games, and attend its ceremonies and festivals. We sample Bangkok's vibrant night life, its notorious underworld, its squalor and its beauty. Above all, we meet Bangkok’s diverse communities and hear some of the unforgettable stories of its people.
In Bangkok draws on a wide range of sources including travel books and memoirs, novels and short stories, verses and inscriptions, newspaper reports and advertisements, and is richly illustrated with contemporary artworks and photographs.
