A couple of weeks back I was railing about the lack of spatial understanding of Bangkok displayed by several of the major guidebooks.  The upshot of that, to my mind, is some rather weird recommendations as to where you should stay, places not necessarily well-placed to use either BTS or MRT rail systems.

That got me to thinking about relevant alternatives; and the canal ferry services came to mind.  Sure enough, although these are usually used by Bangkok commuters, they did rather hit the button for getting you around particularly the Klong Toey administrative area of the City.

Using the canal ferries also gives an additional dimension to your holiday, including that it is another way to meet ordinary Thais going about their everyday business:

Notes on Boat Service in Saen Saeb Canal
Piers: 27 Piers
Tickets: 5-15 baht by distance

1) Phan Fah Leelart (terminal, a bridge to Bangkok City Center)
2) Bo Bae (Garment market – second only Pratoo Nam and Pahurat [Bangkok Little India])
3) Wat Phraya Yang – (a temple near Yotse)
4) Saphan Charoen Phon (to Charoen Phon neighborhood)
5) Ban Krua (a Muslim community – the backbone of Jim Thomson’s silk business)
6) Saphan Hua Chang (with connection to National Stadium Skytrain Station)
7) Pratoonam (major BKK Garment Market, not far from Panthip and WTC, an interchange for Saensaeb Boat, used to have a water gate in the time of King Mongkut to feed the Royal lotus pond (the root of Pathumwan District), hence got the namesake from that thing)
8)Saphan Chidlom – near Central Chidlom, Siam City Bank HQ, Siam Commercial Bank (Phetburi Office)
9) Saphan Witthayu – near Vanich Building, in Wireless Road
10) Nana Nua – near Bumrungrat Hospital
11) International School – near Rueanruedee International School
12. Saphan Asok – near Japanese Embassy and Phetburi Station of Subway
13) Prasarn Mitr – in Sri Nakahrintharawiroj University (Prasarn Mitr Campus)
14) Watmai Chonglok – in New Phetburi Road
15) Phrom pak – a lane to Phrom Phong Station of Skytrain, and not far from  Thai-Italian Pier can be a substitute
16) Thon Lor – a road to Thong Lor Station – not far from RCA
17) Charn Issara – Charn Issara 2 Building
18) Saphn Klong Tan – near Klong Tan Intersection – used to be an interchange for Lad Phrao boat until 2000 (the year Boat service in Krung Kasem city moat and Lad Phrao canal went out of business)
19) The Mall 3 – (ram Khamhaeng Branch) near New Rama 9 intersection
20) Ram Khamhaeng 29 – near the defunct Welco
21) Wat Thep Leela – the main road from Ram Khamhaeng to Thai Cultural Centre
22) Ramkhamhaeng University – the biggest open university in Thailand
23) Saphan Mit Mahardthai – near Huamark Stadium – and can connect to Lad Phrao Road
24) Wat Klang
25) The Mall – the shopping center rival to Central (the main branch in Bang Kapi)
26) Bang Kapi – near bang Kapi district office, and Bang Kapi Market
27) Wat Sri Boonruean – terminal near NIDA

Mark Azavedo

http://www.2bangkok.com/ferries.shtml

Psirri reminds me of the Marais in Paris when it was a zone of transition – traditional workshops mixed with new bars, restaurants, yoga and dance studios.  The dissimilarities lie in Marais’ history as the Jewish Quarter of Paris, and its latter day association with the gay scene.

So bowled was I with Marais’ heady mix that it was my first choice for a fashion shoot.  Though, at that time, I spent most of my working life in Greece, I never remotely considered it.

I can barely believe my words when I now say Athens would be my undisputed choice. Psirri and nearby Gazi are so of the moment, so fascinatingly emergent, the first a major working class district of Athens, the latter the old gasworks.

Get to Psirri quickly before all the character goes. It will become ever more characterised by bars, restaurants and entertainment venues.  Also, some nice modern speciality shops.

It is still the talk of Athens that Psirri became designated as an entertainment zone, so pushing up property values and rents, making them unaffordable to the traditional trades.  The chatter is of corruption as a major property owner and landlord in Psirri was a government minister.

For the casual visitor, Psirri simply feels like the next step, a natural development from overdeveloping Monastiraki. In fact, ever onward and outward, development is moving into Thissio.

A great thing to do is an evening stroll in the park by Thissio station, under the watchful view of the Acropolis. There is a small handicrafts and collectables market to browse.

Gazi was much less contentious, acclaimed a wonderful use of the old gasworks. It is an exhibition and media centre, and, more particularly, an entertainment zone. Perhaps the most achingly trendy entertainment zone in the world? This is where you find Athens’ beautiful people or, to be more precise, Athens’ beautiful young people (the older ones focus on Kolonaki).

I am, of course, trendy beyond even Gazi, having so many allergies that eating out is near impossible. But, consistently recommended for all Athens are two Gazi restaurants, The Butcher’s Shop (for meats) and Sardelles (for fish). Hoxton is the usual bar recommendation.

In screaming the case for Athen’s new areas, I have to admit that on a spring evening, without the tourist crowds, Monastiraki was beguiling.

I stayed in the wonderfully affordable Hotel Aristoteles, chosen through our site.

Mark Azavedo

Mari is in Bangkok at the moment; and e-mailed me about new tram services in the City:

Chinatown

There is a new free Chinatown Sightseeing Tram starting at Soi Porisapa by Hualamphong Railway Station, where you collect your ticket from the booth.

You can stay on for the tour or get on and off with stops at Thianfa Foundation (Thianfa Foundation, Siang Gong Shrine, Wat Yuan Taladnoi), Old Market (Old Market, Bumpenchinprot Temple), Mangkorn Kamalawat Temple ( Wat Leng Noei Yi, Kanmatuyaram Temple, Leng Buai Yia Market), Kwong Siew Hospital (Guang Dong Shrine, Kanikaphol Temple, Da Feng Zu Shrine, Piangnarm Road), Traimit Temple-Ocean Circle (Wat Samchin, Yaowarat Road).

The Tram operates 11am-11pm weekends, with typically Thai confusion as to whether it also operates 5pm-11pm weekdays.

Rattanakosin Island

Information around the Rattanakosin tour tram is even less clear. It operates 10am-8pm, with tickets available from Democracy Monument and Sanam Luang (30 Baht). Tours, with multi-lingual commentary leave every 30 minutes from near the Grand Palace front gates.

The Tram loops around all the major attractions of the Island which is the Old Bangkok of the Bangkok Period. You cover such sights as the Grand Palace, San Luk Meung, The National Museum, National Gallery, Jurapong Mosque. and Pak Talong Flower Market.

To Hua Hin and Cha-Am

The new Southern Bus terminal is very far out of central Bangkok. This has led to new informal minibus services from Democracy Monument. There is huge confusion over this, but I’ve found the services fast and cheap.

The downside is very little information.  I’ve been told by a travel agent friend that they leave every half hour, or sooner when a bus is full.  There are no published timetables, so we don’t know when precisely the first and last buses depart.

Fare is 180Baht. They reserve the right to also charge for luggage, but I’ve never actually been asked to pay.

Departure is from an alleyway at the side of Century Mall/Plaza. All companies proved reliable. I remember one called 333.

Return from Hua Hin is from opposite the Esso petrol station.

Mark Azavedo

Wine lore has it that wines can only be produced either 30-50 Degrees North or South of the equator. Thailand, along with Brazil, India and Indonesia, is disproving that.

In the Thai case, as so much development, the starting point was a Royal Project, under the patronage of H.M.King Bhumibol, this in conjunction with Kasetsart University.

The first commercial planting of vines was at Chateau de Loei, in the Phurua Highlands, in 1991. The wines are produced under the guidance of Australian and French oenologists, with a Shiraz varietal the estate’s flagship wine.

Khao Yai, only two hours out of Bangkok, has the greatest intensity of vineyards, Chateau des Brumes Village Farm and Winery, PB Valley Winery and Granmonte Estate. You can visit on a day trip, but the National Park is worth a couple of days stopover.

Chateau des Brumes is an 80 acre property, specialising in French-style wines. They are made under the tutelage of Jacques Bacou, a French winemaker.

PB Valley, Khao Yai’s oldest winery, is an 800 acre estate planted to Shiraz, Tempranillo and Colombard. Since 2002, PB Valley Wines, made with the assistance of German Wolfgang W Schaefer, have been served by Thai Airways.

This estate is a particular favourite of mine for its extensive leisure facilities, as well as the wine. There is a large restaurant, with fabulous views, under the management of the lovely Nana, as well as produce and souvenir shop, together with simple, but attractive, on-estate accommodation.

Granmonte is PB’s neighbour. The property is set in 40 acres planted to Shiraz and Chenin Blanc, but also table grapes. Unusually, given the predominance of reds in the Thai offering, a favourite from Granmonte is the Sakuna Rose.

Winemaking at Granmonte is under the direction of Nikki Lohitnavy, Thailand’s first Thai female winemaker. Nikki (Visootha) is a graduate of University of Adelaide.

Granmonte is another winery with good leisure facilities by way of the Montino shop and VinCotto restaurant. The restaurant runs under the watchful eye of Sakuna Lohitnavy, Nikki’s mother.

Probably Thailand’s most ambitious and well-funded winery, coming out of the Red Bull fortune,is Siam Winery. The winery also, perhaps, boasts Thailand’s most known vineyard, the so-called floating vineyard at Samut Sakorn on the Chao Phraya delta, only 60km from Bangkok.

This vineyard harvests local grape varieties White Malaga and Red Pok Dum. The vines are planted on islands, separated by canals, Grapes are taken to the winery by boat.

Siam Winery’s main seller is Monsoon Valley. The grapes for this wine are now grown exclusively at Hua Hin Hills Vineyard. Again, Siam Winery has a talented overseas oenologist, Kathrin Puff, from Germany.

A visit to Hua Hin Hills Vineyard is a must for anyone staying in Hua Hin. You can stay in the hills area, but you will find yourself continually commuting into Hua Hin. The opposite commute makes more sense; and can be arranged at Hua Hin Hills Wine Cellar at Hua Hin Market Village at B200 for the round trip.

Hua Hin Hills is planted to Colombard, Chenin Blanc, Muscat, Shiraz, Tempranillo and table grapes. The Sala Wine Bar and Bistro has fantastic views out over the vineyard and great food at sensible prices (my lunch is in the picture).

The vineyard also has a nice shop. I did, though, balk at the elephant-back tour of the vineyard (though it was an elephant corral). That got me pondering the arguments that have raged in the Napa Valley, California over the balance of agriculture and leisure facilities.

Something that particularly excited me at Hua Hin Hills was the soil samples, loamy and slate. These are good vine soils; and particularly the slate must add character. This said, it must never be forgotten that these early successes for the Thai wine industry have been based very much from Thai pragmatism in welcoming overseas oenologists and technological innovation, particularly around irrigation and fruiting control.

My main worry for this embryonic industry is that the 200% excise duty will preclude a substantial bedrock demand for Thai wines in the home market.

Please contact us at marktimetravel@yahoo.co.uk for vineyard accommodation, accommodation in vineyard areas, wine and other Thai agritourism itineraries.

Mark Azavedo

Since 2008, George Town, Penang has been a World Heritage Site, along with Melaka, both port cities of the Straits of Malacca.  This dual award was the first for Malaysia; and contains a large part of both cities.

Penang’s citation speaks of two aspects.  The built environment is fabulously rich in colonial architecture, specifically British colonial architecture of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  The old town is a wonderful tapestry of different cultures, living happily side-by-side, constantly adapting, accommodating and influencing one another.  The mix has variously been Asian and European, with the Asian part of that being Chinese, Indian and Malay.  There has been genuine cultural exchange, arising, initially, out of maritime trade.

I spoke lengthily to a taxi driver who was fearfully proud to be Malaysian, fearfully proud of Malaysia’s achievements.  He was equally proud of his Indian, and specifically South Indian background.  He was unimaginably proud that the different ethnicities get along so well (implying that there was a model for other countries) and speak each other’s tongues.  He regarded Malaysia’s state educational system as a key achievement in this.

Little India is certainly a key area in Penang, if only as a place to take lunch!  It is a melange of street hawkers, small restaurants, Indian jewellery and music shops.  It has a different feel to most Little Indias and certainly a different taste, as the migrants here were mostly South Indian.

I was able to indulge my South Indian vegetarian tastes.  Firstly , I ate at a restaurant, a tasty meal for just over £1.  In fact, the idly were so good that, now in the mood, I indulged in more from a street hawker at 10p each.  Heaven!

Whereas Little India is always vibrant, busy, Chinatown is often rundown.  Specifically, it is very sad to see the rundown state of many of the shophouses.  This was commented upon by UNESCO as an area of concern.

Should you want to see the opposite, good conservation practice, not a hint of over-restoration, visit Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion.  In 2000, the Mansion won UNESCO’s Asia-Pacific Heritage Award for Conservation.

Cheong Fatt Tze was a highly successful Chinese trading entrepreneur who came to Penang in 1890, completing the construction of his opulent mansion in 1904.  The mansion is both lavish and well-considered.  The ambience just can’t be described.

There are two public tours of the premises daily.  But, better still, why not stay there?  Don’t expect corporate slick – the service can be quiet variable.  But staying in this wonderful building, amidst its lived-in antiques, is simply something unrivalled.

You must stay here at least a night or two.  By local standards, prices are quite high, but this will be among your lifetime’s best expenditures, even given heavy noise intrusion from the entertainment at the night restaurants next door.

I include an image of my room, Towkay.  Given very lengthy pre-warning, we can sometimes book rooms in Cheong Fatt Tze.  There are only 12 letting rooms; and the place is immensely popular.  Contact marktimetravel@yahoo.co.uk

At the other end of the scale, backpacker cheap, there are numerous hotels along Love Lane.  As the name implies, this was George Town’s red-light district; and these the by-the-hour joints.  Now my memories are of relaxed backpackers happily taking a coffee and fruits for breakfast in the sun.

To step-up the tempo somewhat – but Penang is never going to be Bangkok – go to Upper Penang Road in the evening.  This is George Town’s charming nightlife district. 

Finally, some words on navigating George Town.  The city is small.  You will be able to cover everything in the historic centre on foot.  Penang Heritage Trust, a hugely knowledgeable and important lobbying organisation, produce the best maps; and these are available free.  Additionally, the Trust has established a number of heritage trails, again with free guides.

Mark Azavedo

I’m in the pristine grounds of Nai Lert Park Hotel, close to the embassies of Wireless Road, miles from Patpong or Nana or any other of Bangkok’s fleshpots.

Note, those places are replete with stories of bar girls waving phalluses around in club doorways before the start of business to bring good fortune, a successful session.

Here it is Sunday afternoon. The gardens are quite famed botanical gardens. Young students take notes. Families photograph each other. A group of nuns take a constitutional amid the beautiful orchids. Scantily clad bathers laze by and in the pool. All a rather bizarre combination.

But nothing prepares you for the strange sight tucked behind the service entrance to the hotel, and next to a car park.

Here is something like a mushroom field of phalluses or lingams, spreading out under the branches of a ficus tree. There are lingams of all sizes, some upto several feet in length. Some are made of wood, some stone. In their midst is the Mae Tuptim Shrine, signified by a spirit house about which are offerings of fresh food and drink, all presided over by a plastic model or two of a Thai traditional dancer.

I’ve never seen anybody at the shrine, but certainly the offerings always appear to be newly placed. It is suggested that particularly women come here to pray for pregnancy.

For me being surrounded by phalluses is its own peculiar hell, for reasons I’m largely at a loss to explain. My only guess is that I’m offended by the redness of all about me.

Certainly, that the phalluses are mostly red has been a talking point. Thereagain, their presence at all has been a talking point, as has the whole question of who Mae Tuptim was. There’s also the matter of the relationship between Mae Tuptim and the phalluses.

Less of a question is how the Mae Tuptim Shrine came into being. It was likely built by Nai Lert as protection for his new hotel. Certainly there is a large concentration of shrines in another area of Bangkok, Rajaprasong, built by shop and hotel owners to protect their enterprises and bring well-being. These include Bangkok’s most famous shrine, the Erawan Shrine, associated with the hotel of the same name.

The peculiarity of all these shrines, in a Buddhist land, is that they are shrines to Hindu deities. Thereagain, animist elements are also in the mix for good measure.

Mae Tuptim shrine, or worship at it, embodies a similar multiplicity of strands. That said, of course, motives come down to the individual worshipper. In the face of dozen upon dozen lingams about the shrine, the obvious thought, “fertility”, may well be the truth for most worshippers.

There is a simple folklorist story supporting this that a woman came to the shrine wishing to become pregnant. She prayed and her wish was granted. To celebrate the birth of her child she returned to the shrine with an offering of a lingam. As they say, “the rest is history”, as others emulated her.

Equally, still keeping things simple, it isn’t such a jump from the idea of fertility to general good fortune.

The trouble is that for the Mae Tuptim shrine lingams and association with fertility may equally come out of Thai animist traditions.

The belief here is in spirits. These spirits may be appeased to create good. More specifically procedures are available through which the spirits will do your bidding.

The bright red of most lingams at Mae Tuptim Shrine has alternately been associated with pomegranate juice or menstrual blood.

The association with pomegranate juice sees Tuptim as a corruption of Taptim, Thai for pomegranate. The relationship with menstrual blood relies upon the Tantric belief that the most powerful time for sexual intercourse is during menstruation.

There is plenty of room for thought here, including what of the prominent virginal white lingam?

Whatever, remember that, having taxed your brain and camera, maybe improved your fertility or fortune, there is the beautiful orchid collection to see. Also, the Mai Lert Park does the meanest fruit juice cocktail!

Mark Azavedo

I spent a great few days in Macau last year.  For hotel quality to a price this is a fantastic destination. It amazes me the place is so little known here, when Las Vegas has become such a favoured destination.  Macau’s gambling took $10billion in 2007, against Las Vegas’ $6billion.

I’m no gambler, but the shere spectacle of the Venetian will be gawped at by all.  It is a replica of Venice, with its own mini St Mark’s Square.  Other major casinos are Wynns, Sands, Grand Lisboa. Equally, there are some very small casinos, especially at Fishermans Wharf.

I was amazed at the amounts ordinary Chinese families were spending in the casinos.  As for extraordinary Chinese families …  I was also interested that games of chance are massively favoured.  I sense that in the West we focus on games of skill – or at least like to think so!

No gambler, I went for the best available bet – the unfeasibly high exchange rates offered in the casinos as an encouragement to spend. I then ran!

I found a way to beat the house! I think!!

Macau Tourism are starting a major push for this fascinating destination. Go to www.macautourism.gov.mo   Also, go to www.olamacauguide.com, a favoured site of mine.

Mark Azavedo

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