The City of Squalor

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This weekend, after much internal debate on my part, we went to go see The Hangover: Part II. I was homesick enough to crave seeing Bangkok, even if only on the big screen. I'll admit, I was also a teeny bit curious to see the Wolfpack's latest midadventures.

All in all, the plot and the depiction of Bangkok were as crude as I expected. Chow set the tone in the opening scene when he said, "Holllaaa - the city of squaaalllaa". The dark underbelly of this sprawling city I call home was shown in its most caricatured form. That being said, the guys did their job eliciting surprised guffaws and disgusted gasps out of the audience.

When I got home, I started searching for photos showing Bangkok's je ne sais quoi that makes me love it so much. Bangkok, as with other urban areas of its scale, is a city of contradictions.

Here is a great photo of downtown Bangkok's activity, accompanied by a short poem that describes this chaotic city so well.

Within the chaos though, are the tiniest details that can blow your mind away but are ta-ma-dah, or average, to most Thais. Here is a photo that makes me smile. And below are two of my own photos, aquarium fish for sale and an offering of sushi to the spirits.
 

 

My one actual point of contention with the movie - where was the traffic?? As Stu, Alan and Phil zip across the city in a tuk tuk to meet Kingsley, their early morning commute is never interrupted by traffic. It must have been too mundane of an obstacle at that point...

Two images of Bangkok's crippling traffic below. Deepens my love for bokeh and the BTS!

courtesy of 27147 and byJosh on Flickr.com