What a circus! What a din! Bangkok, with its motorway junctions perched high in the city centre, its endless avenues blocked by traffic, a sky train that has the good taste to air-condition its cars and the very bad taste to disfigure the city's main thoroughfares with grey concrete viaducts, and everywhere music blaring at the top of its lungs from its bars embracing the street... Bangkok is bustling. Night and day. It lives without time. It comes and goes, running non-stop. Three of us perched on tired mopeds, slumped in the back of tuk-tuks spewing clouds of black smoke, impatiently wedged into the back of a candy-pink taxi. The pavements are lined with wild stalls and the ubiquitous travelling caravans serving delicious, spicy Thai food.
It's strange, this contradiction between the frenetic pace of the streets and the softness of the pavements, where you shuffle your flip-flops nonchalantly, as you would on a South Sea island. The tropical climate, no doubt. And then there are the skyscrapers covered in gigantic advertising hoardings, the shopping centres selling all the major international brands - at prices that are exorbitant for Thai standards of living - and the local markets, such as Chatuchak, where you can buy top-quality textiles made in Thailand for next to nothing. There's also a Chinese quarter, clearly passionate about gold and, more generally, anything that glitters; and the Chao Phraya river, criss-crossed by overcrowded barges and bus boats... Finally, there's the omnipresent jumble of electric wires, tons of black sheaths hanging down, which you can sometimes touch with your hand, as they hang so low.
Oh, my! It's a city!
Oh my! Bangkok is a city... whose beauty will certainly never be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site - it couldn't care less, in fact - but which offers dreams of success to its 8.25 million inhabitants (14 million for the greater Bangkok area and, more likely, 18 million). "It's true that this city isn't very beautiful, says Mason Florence, American-born editor of Bangkok 101, a magazine packed with ideas and trendy addresses. But it's just as vibrant as New York, with the added bonus of islands of exoticism and hidden gardens where it's good to linger. As a result, the city as a whole has almost limitless creative potential.
The banks of the Chao Phraya River
Obviously, the first approach to the megalopolis is always a visit to the historic centre, on the banks of the Chao Phraya River, amid the peace and quiet of the temples and former royal palaces. This is relative tranquillity, as the area is very busy, not to say overrun by tourists. The tour operators make no mistake, scheduling their visits relatively early in the morning.Let's start with Wat Prha Kaeo and the Grand Palace. This building was constructed in 1782 by King Rama I, founder of the Chakri dynasty, and was completely finished just over a hundred years ago. Behind its walls, it hides a strange architectural mix of Victorian style for the lower part and Thai style for the roofs. There is, as you would expect, a throne room and large reception rooms. Royal portraits and objets d'art are on display.
But the main reason you come here, to the heart of Thai symbolism, is for the group of temples, including Wat Phra Kaeo, the palace chapel, the most prestigious temple in Thailand, historically linked to the founding of the city, and home to the famous Emerald Buddha. This is an opportunity, if ever there was one, to confirm that Siamese taste, in terms of both its monumental architecture and its statuary, is at the opposite end of the Western spectrum. Colourful, garish, intricate shapes, gilded columns, walls covered in ceramic pieces and broken mirrors, chequered patterns, stylised flowers, and also three-dimensional mythological creatures... all crowned by polychrome roofs.
As soon as you put aside your own plastic culture, you realise that this ensemble is not only sacred, but also sublime. At the centre is the Emerald Buddha, a 66 cm high jade statuette whose wanderings would provide the perfect backdrop for the most incredible adventure novel. Stories from the depths of the 15th century, thunderclaps, camouflage under stucco, elephants, journeys to Laos, intrigue and combat... It's all there! To light the flickering lanterns, frescoes recount the life of the Buddha. A Buddha who, of course, carries many occult powers, as everyday Thai life is particularly governed by superstition.
A moment of silence
Visiting a temple is never boring. Quite the opposite, in fact. But Bangkok has around 400 of them, and there's hardly any question of visiting them all. Even if a stop at a simple, quiet local wat, with two or three monks displaying the utmost serenity, is more of a soothing stopover than a cultural discovery. Nevertheless, a ten-minute walk from Wat Phra Kaeo is Wat Pho, a magnificent complex, the oldest in Bangkok, whose main temple houses a reclining Buddha. In the shade of the buildings are islands of greenery where the birds sing beautifully. With the silence at last, all that's left to do is deal with the heat. Or the torrential rain. Depending on the season...It's easy to forget - indeed, everything is done to make you forget - but Bangkok was once built on the banks of a river and on marshland. Hence the ancient canals, the khlongs, that criss-crossed the historic centre. There are still a few left, untouched by property speculation and forgotten by modernity. A few waterways that Bangkokians use daily, taking bus boats to get to work. Visitors, on the other hand, prefer the very exotic long-tail boats, very slender boats that run their engines at the end of a pole, a few metres behind them. It's fun, it's effective for raising the propeller in case of shallow water and, above all, it allows you to contemplate the landscape at water's edge. And what water it is! A sort of black ink broth, a mixture you wouldn't want to fall into, a liquid you'd think came out of a Coca-Cola bottle. Except without the bubbles. These khlongs are lined with wooden houses on stilts buried in the tropical vegetation, with colourful boats moored to their pontoons. Here and there, scenes of life in days gone by, women washing their clothes, children splashing about and fishermen teasing who knows what suicidal fish.
A boat again - or rather a reinterpreted teak barge - but at night this time, on the Chao Phraya, where you can hop on and off for a generous dinner and show. The show is everywhere on the banks of the river, from an illuminated pagoda to the Grand Palais, from a newly completed tower to the legendary Oriental Hotel, from royal barges to a building from the 1930s... The show is also on the boat, with a highly sophisticated show of traditional dances performed by graceful young girls. "We can, of course, privatise the Tahsaneeya Nava, says Derek Proctor, lord and master of the ship. We organise dinner shows and gastronomic cruises comprising four starters and six courses, drawing on the culinary specialities of each region. With, of course, a cocktail or aperitif and a round of Thai desserts".
At dusk, the roof bar
A cocktail to be precise. The must of the moment is to go to the terrace bar of a grand hotel at dusk, the most popular of which are those of the brand new Sofitel So and the Centara Grand. And it's true that, seen from the sky, Bangkok is to die for. Gone is the developing Asia, gone is the big mess. Bangkok has a Manhattan air about it, lining a forest of skyscrapers, embellishing its motorways with ribbons of car lights and, below the Sofitel So, it has the luxury of an exceptional green space, Lumpini Park, which could almost be mistaken for an ersatz Central Park.
Because, it has to be said, nature is a little lacking in Thailand's capital. From time to time, however, we come across oases spared the bulldozers and cranes. Like the soothing garden surrounding Jim Thompson's house... and what a house it is! It's actually several old teak buildings that the sulphurous Jim Thompson, a New York architect who had gone into the silk trade, had brought in from different parts of the country to assemble. This was in 1959... The result is stunning, exquisitely tasteful, beautifully furnished and filled with a collection of Khmer art, Burmese Buddhas, painted fabrics and Chinese porcelain. It is said that Jim Thompson used to invite guests to dine in Ming porcelain... Alas, he did not enjoy his house for very long: eight years in all. The man of taste, who incidentally was an officer in the OSS, the forerunner of the American CIA, mysteriously disappeared in Malaysia in 1967. His whereabouts were never found... Obviously, this house-museum cannot be privatised. But that's not the case with its delicious restaurant, bordered by pools where blushing Japanese carp frolic. A plunge into great Asian/Western taste for particularly successful corporate events.
The same good taste is also to be found at Blue Elephant, the restaurant run by Madame Nooror Somany-Steppé, which has spread from Brussels to Bangkok, as well as to London and Paris. The food is, of course, excellent, served in a sumptuous setting that, with its varnished floors, fans and chandeliers, is a nod to a colonial past in a country that has never been colonised. As the guest book testifies, the house has welcomed an impressive number of powerful people from around the world, including members of the Thai royal family and a number of international stars. And what's more! The vivacious chef is not stingy with her secrets and offers cookery classes for groups of around thirty people: "I'm happy to welcome groups. I've organised some really fun team-building events for French and American luxury companies.
As we all know, companies and agencies are on the lookout for new and unusual locations. The showroom of Cross Cultural Creations, whose international reputation has been built on the gigantic wooden tables it produces, is just such a place. The place wouldn't be extravagant if it were in New York... But a loft, there, at the end of an untouched alleyway, in the middle of Asia whose taste doesn't necessarily lean towards the post-industrial... Yes, the place is not ordinary. A major French fashion brand has made no mistake, organising an event there before the summer...Chiang Mai, the other kingdom
However, lovers of fine handicrafts should not hesitate to head north to Chiang Mai, where they will discover, along with some very fine works - 90 % of Thai objets d'art come from this city - an entire section of Lanna culture. The culture of this country, almost another country.Chiang Mai, then. Thailand's second city, an hour's flight from Bangkok - until 1920, it took days and days by boat, dugout canoe and elephant to get there - light years away from the thundering capital. At least as far as the city's historic centre is concerned, an island hemmed in by a quadrilateral moat of around 500 metres each. The atmosphere here is curiously provincial, and the old city, founded in 1296 by King Mangrai, is the easiest place in the world to explore: by bicycle. Even for groups, who can organise fabulous treasure hunts.
As in Bangkok, you have to be content with visiting just a few temples - Chiang Mai has 84 - or you risk overdosing and, to say the least, suffering terrible memory loss on your return. So we'll pick out three or four of the most interesting, plus a few buildings - some sublime, some completely out of place - set in infinitely relaxing gardens and discovered at the drop of a hat. Because, even though Chiang Mai is built at an altitude of 400 metres, it's still hot, very hot. In the dry season, in the middle of the afternoon, it's even like an oven... There's a kind of tropical torpor, which even the countless young people from all over the world - the backpackers, as they call them - avoid, unless they take refuge in the air-conditioning of a hamburger house, a pizza house or a fried chicken house imported from their own country.
By bicycle, then, and off to the temples, passing through imprecise lanes lined here and there with old teak houses. First up is Wat Phra Singh, or the Temple of the Lion Buddha, founded in 1345. This is the town's most important temple, which, behind a remarkably elaborate façade, houses an 8th-century Buddha of Ceylonese origin, as well as 17th-century frescoes and an original library. Then comes Wat Chedi Luang, a symbolic landmark for the city. Built in 1391, it was once home to the famous Emerald Buddha, now, as we have seen, installed in Bangkok. Finally, if you're not too weary of all the gilding, don't miss Wat Chiang Man, the city's oldest temple, built in the time of Mangrai. And that's all there is to it. As for the temples, you'll want to reserve yourself for Doï Suthep, on an excursion into the mountains, some fifteen kilometres north-west of Chiang Mai.
It's true that the place, perched on a hill, is very touristy, but it has been attracting crowds of pilgrims since the dawn of time, who can be seen in full devotion. The site? A chedi covered in gold leaf and housing relics of the Buddha, copper umbrellas that make it instantly recognisable, esplanades and courtyards, arcades where pilgrims can rest, bonzes dressed all in saffron, and several sets of large bells that are struck to attract the attention of the spirits and incidentally to let them know that you've taken the trouble to come all this way...
The artisans' route
The unreality of the place is further underlined by the evocative smoke of the incense and the landscape that dominates the Chiang Mai plain at over 1,000 metres. It's even downright surreal during the monsoon season, when the tall trees tumbling down the mountain become shrouded in mist, rather like a Chinese etching. After such a pilgrimage, there's no doubt that future reincarnations will be more merciful...
In the meantime, back to Chiang Mai and a diversion along the "craftsmen's road", where each craftsman specialises in bringing back souvenirs to last a lifetime. Almost all of them are lined up on either side of the same road, which runs from the east of the old town into the suburbs. They offer everything from the very beautiful and very expensive (everything is relative in Thailand) to the very ugly and very cheap. There are silk workshops that export for Milanese fashion, umbrella makers, lacquerers, silver smiths, wood carvers, ceramics makers and also major suppliers of objects and sculptures from nearby Burma. If you choose your antique dealer carefully, you're almost certain to come away with a well-crafted antique. 
For smaller purchases, in the early hours of the evening, you'll want to head off to the 'night market', which, like Bangkok's Chatuchak market, sells anything and everything in its huge covered market halls, which of course overflow onto the pavement. Real textiles and fake T-shirts, wonderful locally produced fabrics, design objects worthy of the chicest shop on Boulevard Saint-Germain and flickering Chinese pagodas. It's crowded, the music is omnipresent, the restaurants are packed and there are even traditional dance performances.The march of the elephants
Afterwards, as is tradition, you can always have a drink - Singha or Chang Thai beers being the most popular - on the terrace of one of the many cafés set up on the banks of the river, such as The Gallery, which once played host to Hillary Clinton. They are frequented by the local bourgeoisie, but also by foreigners passing through and expatriates. In any case, the atmosphere of the evening is guaranteed.
But Chiang Mai is not just about culture and handicrafts. It's also for what the surrounding country has to offer in terms of excursions, discoveries, green activities and sports that make you forget that you're at the gateway to the Golden Triangle and that the beautiful flowers still grown by the farmers are not necessarily well-intentioned.
As well as traditional massage and Thai cookery courses, and trekking in the mountains, which can be very physical for unprepared groups, the range of possibilities is wide open. You can set off by bicycle to visit tribal villages, try your hand at segway riding on signposted paths, fly over the region in microlights piloted by experienced pilots, catch a glimpse of gibbons on a 'tree-climbing-canopy' course designed by New Zealand experts, or - and this is the ultimate - spend a whole day, with the utmost respect for the animal world, with an elephant, who doesn't mind being looked after, bathed - oh, what a bath! -or for a walk. A lovely way to remember that the symbol of Thailand is precisely the elephant.
Special report - Thailand, Bangkok-Chiang Mai: from hyperurbanity to eternal Asia
- Thailand, Bangkok-Chiang Mai: from hyper-urbanity to eternal Asia
Thailand: practical guide and good addresses
