Bangkok Post: Day 10

Today was a day to catch up with some social visits in Bangkok. Before he shifted to the heart of the city, my mama used to live near Samutprakan which is a little on the outskirts of the city. When I first came to Bangkok in 1993, I was a first grader and stayed with mama for 2 months at his earlier residence. I have fond memories of that place; a nice, peaceful place decked with row-houses on either side of the street. It was called (and is still called) Fortune City. Many Indian families used to stay side by side here and there was a whole gang of children of my age group there. We kids had a blast that time and I remember that time very vividly.

Now most of the families have shifted, some have returned to India. One of the families still lives there and we visited them today. Driving through those much aquainted lanes to arrive at their house was itself a nostalgic feeling for me. I could, even after 15 years visualize how we used to play in those lanes, go cycling on the main street with a small river flowing down on one side, the bridges linking the streets at the 'still familiar' locations and the electricity wires overhead still continuing their typical buzzing noise!! Not much has changed there since I had last waved the place a goodbye!

We revived those memories & had a sumptuous north-Indian lunch with them. After lunch, mom & I had planned to go to the "Ancient City", a place almost a few kilometres away from their house. The Ancient city is a huge sprawling area where traditional Thai culture, lifestyle, houses, places of worship and works from the mythological traditions is depicted. We traversed much of the campus on bicycles & I freaked out on photos. Capturing the traditional Thai architecture, their temples (temples are called wats in Thai), art forms like wall-paintings, sculptures through my lens was a marvelous experience. Since Thai mythology has much of the borrowings from Indian mythology, Ramayana, Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu and many gods and goddesses were sculpted or made into statues. Even the names of gods & goddesses bear a great deal of resemblance to their original Hindu names. For example, Saraswati is called Surasawadi in Thai mythology. Many such resemblances can be found. This place is a must visit for all those interested in Thai culture & its manifestations.