A major clampdown on elephant/mahout activity in Bangkok has just been announced.  You could now be fined upto £200 for feeding an elephant.

That said, as sorry as you feel for the mahouts, it is commonsense not to support this activity anyway.

Elephants are emphatically not cuddly things out of Jungle Book.  Generally they are rather cantankerous and unpredictable. They become more moody, less predictable in inappropriate environments.

Traffic-filled, highly urbanised, Bangkok is certainly an inapproriate environment.  The elephants become unhealthy, particularly suffering respiratory diseases.  Sudden death is not unknown.

There has been a major incident in Bangkok, when an elephant ran amok.  Presumably smaller incidents are everyday occurrences.

If you want to help elephants and mahouts supporting elephant conservation and repatriation charities is the answer.  Also support elephant-focused tourism projects.

These projects are seen as the great hope in Government circles.  The elephants can’t stay in urban environments.  Their place, and that of their mahouts, in the logging industry is not going to come back.  The mahouts have to have an income.

All this said, I’ve been fairly uncomfortable with the touristic uses of elephants.  That, though, is not to say that elephant centres can’t be fun, with particularly good reports on the centre at Lampang.  People seem to love being a mahout for the day!

Mark Azavedo

Picture Copyright and by kind permission of Tourism Authority of Thailand.

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

I love Berlin; and had a very happy commute a couple of weeks back, reading Alison Grinter’s article “Trend Setting” in TNT magazine.

The article focuses on the new East/West divide in Berlin, the East being capital of cool in a super-cool city.

Alison and TNT magazine have kindly given us permission to link to this not to be missed article. Please click here.

24 September 2009 – 24 January 2010

What would we do if the Messiah came to the world right now ? Would the governments headed by members of the three Abrahamic faiths hand over their reigns of power to the Messiah ? Indeed, what would the governments, religious authorities, armies and laymen do in such a situation ? Would people feel this was the fulfilment of a prophesy or Armageddon ? What would followers of non-Abrahamic faiths or atheists do ?

These are the sort of questions Moctezuma and his council of advisors must have faced when the Spanish first appeared on the coast of Mexico. The Spanish appeared in the year, manner and in the way the Mexica expected their nemesis, Lord Quetzalcoatl, was suppose to appear, spelling the end of their world as they knew it. This was no messiah of deliverance, he was expected to destroy their way of life – and the Spanish did do that !!

By the time the Mexica realized the Spanish were no Gods but only all too human, it was too late. New diseases, new weapons, new animals, new alliances, new religion and new political ideas destroyed the Aztec empire.

Some of the best remains of their splendid civilization are exhibited at the British Museum at present. Fantastic works in carved stone, fine gold and iconic mosaics made of turquoise and semi-precious stones are beautiful to see and very thought provoking. What we can see on display is all that managed to survive the iconoclastic missionaries and greedy Conquistadors. Its amazing to think what the bigger, better pieces must have looked like !

There are paintings showing human sacrifice, ceremonial weapons covered with precious mosaics, wooden drums, model of the central space in Tenochtitlan, stone animals in realistic and fantasy shapes, books written by Aztec and Spanish on the life and times of the Mexica people etc etc etc. There are objects from various tombs, temples and palaces of the Aztecs.

There were some Pre-Spanish paintings, with fantastic colours, shapes and designs that seem curiously modern ! For example, there is a painting of New Fire ceremony, reminiscent of the lighting of modern Olympic torch ceremony. There are the political manifesto style paintings showing the king having “the common touch”, visiting different parts of the empire. It was fascinating to see the king, royal family and aristocrats offering their own blood for various sacrifices. Seeing these, it’s easy to understand how the idea of “the son of heaven shedding his own precious blood for the good of the world” must have resonated with the Mexica people.

Black décor, erie music, and plenty of pictures of blood letting, skulls, death masks, weird serpents, ideas of obtaining strength by drinking human blood made this seem like a Gothic vampire’s utopia !

The exhibition is extensive, interesting and very thought provoking. Don’t miss it for the world !

This article is copyright Bhagwat Shah and appears by kind permission of the author.

I guess Bangkok has the reputation for making you feel different about yourself through the surgical option. I found something cheaper than Bangkok’s bargain basement surgery rates. Something I could afford. Something I was more inclined to. Something equally effective. Bangkok tailoring.

That said, not any old Bangkok tailor, but Jesse and Victor Gulati, the father and son team of Rajawongse at 130 Sukhumvit, by the Landmark Hotel. Assuredly not tailors to the tourist trade. More tailors to the diplomatic community.

Jesse and Victor work very closely with the US Embassy, dressing ambassadors down to marine guards.

These have recommended the Gulati’s tailoring to visiting politicians, though the recommendation to George W Bush was from Dad, George Bush. Other famous names from the USA political community that have been dressed by Jesse and Victor include Sen.John Kerry, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and Nancy Reagan.

For Nancy Reagan they also produced a fabric backdrop for a television appearance that matched her dress and earrings.

She must have been one mightily persuasive lady. I don’t see Jesse and Victor often deviating from their brief of classic quality tailoring. They precisely give off an air of doing what they do best, doing it to perfection and in an atmosphere of measured calm (quite something in the freneticism of Sukhumvit).

Tailoring is a very serious issue at Rajawongse, though Jesse and Victor are happy to laugh and joke about other issues, discuss their travels, give recommendations. At all times you are addressed by your first name; and that is remembered.

When it is time for a measurement or fitting, a hush descends. The attentiveness made me feel good, the results even better. I literally felt different about myself. Silly really, as I hadn’t changed. Presumably the underlying thought was I can’t be so odd that I can’t be accommodated!

I had shirts made. For my big collar size, the arms are always too long. The body billows, unless I buy slimfit – then it’s too tight!

With Jesse and Victor I received perfection, and in the finest Egyptian cotton. Victor allowed himself a moment of wry humour at the fitting: “It could have been made for you, Mark”.

And the cost of perfection, of feeling good about myself, 1000Baht (approximately £18). A lot cheaper than surgery, even at Bangkok rates!

Mark Azavedo

http://dress-for-success.com/

Having spent the umpteenth hour of my life browsing in the food hall of Central Department Store, Chidlom, I decided it time to announce it as a tourist destination in its own right. The place is truly fantastic, an oriental Harrods food hall; and you can have an extraordinary self-service lunch there, very cheaply, too.

Alternatively, around the nearby Ploenchit/Wyatthu intersection, down Wyatthu and between Ploenchit and Chidlom there are many very good stalls for lunchtime street food. This is an office workers area.

Why not take your spoils to nearby Lumphini Park for a picnic lunch. Lumphini is one of the world’s great urban parks. Walk through to Silom , including walking on to Surawongse. These streets and the Sois between them are a major shopping area. You’ll also find the infamous Patpong here (boy do I hate that market – go to the real thing at Chatuchak at the weekend BTS Skytrain Sukhumvit Line Mo Chit). You can walk on down to the river.

A quick cut down to the river is by taking BTS Skytrain down to Saphan Taksin. If you are flush you’re hopefully staying at the (Mandarin) Oriental or the Peninsula. If not, it’s still a lovely area with OP Place my favourite place for a coffee and antiques browse. If you get off two stops before Saphan Taksin at Surasak, the Blue Elephant Restaurant and Cooking School is right there.

At the opposite extreme to all this loveliness, for a huge Tesco, available without a car, take BTS Skytrain Sukhumvit Line to On Nut. Why go to Tesco on your holiday? Well, truth is that it’s often massively cheaper than elsewhere. Also, you don’t have to haggle prices.

I know what prices should be but, frankly, can’t be bothered to haggle down to the minimum. I just go for a token first round to not look too stupid. It’s not that Thais are great at haggling either, it’s just that they can handle the heat. You’ll find being cool well worth the lack of negotiating effort.

If you use On Nut Tesco, there is a night market there too.

If my references to street food are not to your liking a very cheap restaurant, where you can eat for around £1 is Santa’s in MBK Centre BTS Skytrain National Stadium. Another cheap place I found recently, where the food is very good, worthy of dinner, is C Cup on Sukhumvit Soi 8. 

A suggestion for the Bangrak area (Silom, Surawongse, etc) is the basement of the Bangkok Gem and Jewellery Tower, 322 Surawongse (or Surawong) Road, again an extremely cheap place for all the local office workers, but not way off the tourist track.

In all this super-cheapness, don’t forget the sheer value of the lunchtime specials at the (Mandarin) Oriental.

Finally, in all this discussion of food and drink, a plea. I’ve noticed an increasing number of foreigners eating and drinking on BTS Skytrain. This is banned. Thais obey the ban, regarded rather quizzically at first. It is disrespectful to do differently. The superb condition of Skytrain 10 years on is testimony to the value of such rules.

PS: Suan Lum, Bangkok Night Market/Bazaar is still there, contrary to some reports. It is next to Lumphini MRT; and is, in fact, expanding.

Mark Azavedo

Yet, for all this extravagance, it was all held in abeyance to the whim and pleasure of the Great Mogul !  The emperor in Dehli could grant lands, titles and gadi to whoever he pleased.  Sons of royal lines stretching back to antiquity lined up to be generals and governors in the employ of the Emperor.  One particular painting reinforced how even the proud Maharanas of Marwad were forced to bow before a mogul prince.  Having given their daughters to the Emperor, other Rajput princes stood, heads suitably bowed.

The next room dealt with the rising power of the East India Company and culmination of this in the Imperial Darbars of the British Raj.  As the time of the Moguls came to an end, the Indian princes and kings shifted their dependence and loyalties to the Company !  They could have declared their independence at this point, but instead, they preferred to have someone lord it over them !  They asked the British to keep peace between each other, guarantee their borders and provide security to their state !!  They invited a third party to mediate in their internal quarrels and gave up their own independence to hear someone else pronounce “justice” for them.

The British used this opportunity to expand their influence and later their territories.  Any prince or king who did not follow their “treaty” to the letter was heavily punished with fines and even confiscation of their lands.  Kings could no longer marry or adopt sons without British consent !  Traders became the political agents mediating between princes and later became the defacto rulers of the land ! 

In 1857, there was an opportunity to get rid of both the Moguls and the British, but, the sepoys went to the Mogul emperor and most of the royal princes helped the British.  Result was the abolishment of the house of Timur and ending of the Company rule.  Indian princes were now to be ruled by the British Raj !  In 1877, at a glittering assembly of Indian royals, a foreign queen became the “Empress of India”.  Celebrated in a room size painting, the scene was poignant with irony as proud men sat on gilded thrones, accepting a woman as their liege-lord when their own women still lived in strict purdah !  Subsequent Durbars were even more impressive.  In 1911, the reigning Emperor came in person to accept the pledges of his loyal royals.  Proud princes bore the train of the royal mantel as their fathers bowed and walked backwards to honour the King Emperor !!

Fantastic costumes, jewels, letter written in gold ink by the Rani of Jhasi, video footage of the great Darbar of 1911 and more paintings.  This room houses some fantastic gifts send to the British royalty as tribute by “native prices and chieftains of India”.  Note the irony of how kings and maharajas were demoted at a single stroke to native princes and chiefs ! 

In addition to the taxes and fines paid to the British governemt, silver thrones, palanquin encased in carved ivory, jewelled sword with a scabbard covered with 719 large diamonds were gifted to the British Kings by the kings of India !  Victoria and Albert Museum writes with sad irony that what the Indian princes got in return for these extravagant gifts were only Bibles and dictionaries !!  British clearly felt that the poor benighted natives of India desperately needed the civilisation offered by their new religion and modern education.  What a slap in the face it must have been for haughty rajputs kings and princes, to get bibles and dictionaries as return gifts for all the diamonds and jewels they offered their British overlords !!

Change in style of the royals was evident from the objects on display in another room. Kings no longer dined in gold and silver.  They no longer drank from jade cups.  Instead, they used expensive glass marketed as “Belgian crystal” !  Palaces were now of the new Western styles.  A 15 foot photo showed the different styles of palaces, stretching out in to the countryside outside the town !

The last room showcased the elegant, Eton educated Maharajas of the 20^th Century.  Diamond necklaces designed by Cartier and Van Cleef, Art Deco furniture, princes and princesses posing in Indian and Western outfits with great sense of style and showmanship in both !  A huge Rolls Royce stood in the middle of the room to show the sophistication of the ultra modern rulers of India. Their genuine desire to live in the past whilst bringing modernity of education and good governance to their people was touching to see.  Many died in the two world wars to show their loyalty to the British Raj.

It all came to naught though.

Princes had not learned from their history.  Their bards recited the long list of royal heritage going back for 100 generations, but no one was listening to the lessons of this millennium long history.  Princes forgot that you have to rule to be royal.  Gallivanting in Europe and bathing in champagne makes you rich, but not royal.

At independence of India, in 1947, the princes were once again poised at the brink of history.  To declare independence of their own or to give up everything they stood for, so that India and Pakistan could be “whole nations” and not be “moth eaten”!  Having abdicated any meaningful sovereignty for so many centuries, they did not know which way to turn.  Most took the advise of their Viceroy and gave up their kingdoms – 563 of them – to the two new nations.  Only Kashmir and Hydrabad tried to remain impendent.  Pakistan forced the hand of Kashmir, making it embrace India in a desperate hurry after an ill-concealed invasion.  Hydrabad was unceremoniously absorbed into India a few years later.  The greatest insult was yet to come. 

In less than 24 years after having voluntarily signed over their lands to the new Republic, princes and kings of India found themselves exposed again.  Daughter of the man they gave their kingdoms to, unilaterally took away their privy purses and rescinded even their titles !!  Indira Gandhi’s persecution of the princes was mean spirited and in breech of the constitution and promises made by her own father.  Yet, no one protested.  No one rose up to challenge the breech of faith.  There were no more loyal subjects to fight for the royals !! 

Staring poverty in face, the princes have on the whole reinvented themselves as “heritage hoteliers” now.  Palaces, once the preserve of the privileged few, can now be rented by the hour !!  Indeed, how the mighty have fallen !!

What remain are the glittering remnants of the past.

Exhibitions like these help us learn lessons from shards of history.

This article is copyright Bhagwat Shah and appears by kind permission of the author.

A visit to Yaowarat, Bangkok’s famous Chinatown, is sometimes better made after the Chinese New Year, as during the celebrations for that festival, the streets are crowded and restaurants are full. Like Mardi Gras in New Orleans, or Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival, the revelry in the streets continues, but quiet places for contemplation can still be found hidden away in side streets. And, of course, food from every province of mainland China is on offer in Yaowarat.

Chinese Temples in Yaowarat
There are Chinese Temples that pull in devotees, especially on the occasion of the Chinese New Year. The Year of the Pig doesn’t promise all sweetness and light and perhaps this is why the air is so thick with smoke from joss sticks. Wat Mangkorn Kamalawat, Wat Kalayanamit, Chao Poh Sua Shrine are all busy with people praying and making offerings to their ancestors and holy spirits.

On Trimit Road is the Trimit Temple which houses the famous shrine of the Lord Buddha cast in gold, a metal that has always held a special place in the hearts of the Chinese. Called simply the Golden Buddha, it supposedly weighs five and a half tons and is the heaviest Buddha statue in the world.

Surprisingly, the Golden Buddha was hidden inside a plaster cast for several centuries until 1954, when workers trying to remove the heavy sculpture found a code on the base of the statue relating to its contents. They broke the plaster cast and this unveiled the statue.

Gold Shops in Chinatown, Bangkok
In Yaowarat Road lie the Chinese gold shops for which the area is famous, and if you are of a mind to buy some gold, then this is as good a place as any. The gold is sold by weight which can be found in the daily paper, but there is the added value of the workmanship which is the extra charge. It is expected that you will barter and you should sttart by offering half the price asked and then settle for three quarters, or whatever you feel you want to pay. Buy what you like, pay what you can afford should be your motto.

Visit the museum on the upper floor of the first gold shop to open in Bangkok 130 years ago, Tang Toh Kang,but an appointment may be necessary (02-224-2422) In the downstairs shop, they still use many of the tools used in the early days of the shop, while embracing some of the more technically advance tools as well.

Yaowarat is an island of Chinese culture in the modern city that Bangkok has become, and should not be missed.

This article is reproduced by kind permission of Mari Nicholson, its writer. Mari is a well-known travel writer, who specialises in Thailand.

In the (fashion) photographic days, Helmut Newton was my major influence. I´ve been in Berlin to the Helmut Newton Foundation, paying homage.

Specifically, I wanted to see the mammoth Sumo project (the exhibition continues through to January 2010 – so you´ve plenty of time to catch it).

It doesn´t disappoint. It was fascinating to see such a large body of work. Paris was Newton´s highpoint. He was clearly excited by the city, making wondrous explorations of “la zone” as well as photographic technique.

Above all, though, Vogue France simply commissioned in an adventurous way – hard, hard-hitting, graphic, sexy images. By comparison, the American Vogue images look soft and pale.

Alongside Sumo is Private Property. In this section is a video installation of Newton at work, shot by June, his wife. It is simply unrivalled as an insight into the photographic process. I want it on continual “loop” in my home!

What of the rest of my time in Berlin? Spent almost entirely in the creative, alternative, high-immigration zones of Kreuzburg and Mitte. Think Oranienburgerstrasse and surrounds in Mitte and Oranienstrasse and surrounds in Kreuzberg.

Tacheles “art centre”, in fact a loose co-operative of creatives, on Oranienburgerstrasse is a highspot. Good restaurants are there too. Nearby is Hackescher Markt, a great market on market days, and always a wonderful area for eating out and catching the buskers. Close to Hackescher is Museum Island.

Generally, Germany does BOHO/Alternative well, especially Berlin. That said, my preference is Hamburg, where a weekend in the St Pauli and St George districts is a weekend well spent.

What you will never find in Hamburg, though, is the Berlin Wall!  Particularly worth a visit is East Side Gallery, on Muhlenstrasse near Ostbahnhof, a 1.3 Km preserved section of the wall, decorated with paintings.

It is periodically restored; and the latest restoration began on 14th April 2009.  You can go and watch the artists at work.

This said, my preference is for flipping through a hole in the wall to see the spontaneous artwork that has appeared over the years.

The other advantage of doing this is that, in summer, this is one of the areas by the River Spree that is turned into an artificial beach.  Hit the sunloungers, unless someone has put a towel there first!!

Hotel City 54 was a real find. Doubles are in fact apartments with a small separate kitchen and huge, well-appointed, separate bathroom. All for Euros 42! Go to Hotels search at www.marktimetravel.com – availability is at booking.com

Mark Azavedo