Turning Bangkok inside out

Turning Bangkok inside out

Ehito Kimura, Contributor, Jakarta

Bangkok Inside Out

Daniel Ziv and Guy Sharett

176 pp

Equinox Publishing

Equal parts insight and wit, Bangkok Inside Out give readers a
unique view into Thailand's pulsating capital city. The guidebook
consists of short reflections and sleek photos that together give
readers an honest glimpse of urban life in Bangkok.

Some themes will be familiar to residents of Jakarta: the
cultural melange, the urban cacophony, the trendy nightlife, the
nightmarish traffic.

But readers will quickly find that Bangkok has flavors all its
own.

Amidst a prominent Buddhist culture that reveres the Monarchy
lies a thriving kathoey (transgender) subculture. Roaming the
streets aren't just cars and buses, but urban elephants and mangy
mutts.

Many Jakartans will recognize Daniel Ziv's handiwork here.
Ziv made his mark by founding Djakarta!, an English-language
monthly that covers the city's social and cultural life, then
went on to write his bestselling and widely acclaimed Jakarta
Inside Out.

Jakarta Inside Out was notable for its original layout and
design. Ziv chose some 60 topics on the city -- from "Asongan" to
"Wartel" and wrote a few punchy paragraphs about each. He then
placed a large eye-catching photo alongside every mini-essay.
Each two-page spread tackles one topic, but taken together, they
form a tapestry of this complex capital.

Bangkok is another ideal place to apply the Inside Out
formula.

Ziv, with co-author Guy Sharett, take on the City of Angels
with the same enthusiasm, grit and humor of the original. The
result is a book worthy of its predecessor.

The brief essays in Bangkok Inside Out are a joy to read.
They're sprinkled with anecdotes -- see "Operation Ding-Ding" --
bits of history, social commentary and political analysis. The
writing is light, hip, funny and smart.

Only the puns are bad, and they're supposed to be.

The photography in this book is also impressive.
Photojournalist Sasa Kralj captures city life from the mundane
(construction sites) to the outrageous (Jumbo Queen Pageant).

The photos also reveal the city's yawning economic gap (the
lofty "hi-so" nightlife vs. Khlong Toey's slums) its cultural
diversity (in Bangkok, bule are called farang) and the everyday
activities of its residents (street food anyone?).

Let's be clear here, I have my gripes.

What, no section on tuk-tuk, those lovable three-wheeled
rickshaws that sputter along the congested streets? Yes, farang
means foreigner, but tell the reader it's originally a reference
to the French! And a whole spread on "sounds"?

I guess Bangkok has distinctive sounds but come on, how about
those tuk-tuk?

These shortcomings, of omission and of commission, are
admittedly a little subjective. And to be fair, Ziv and Sharrett
have done an outstanding job choosing their topics to show as
"real" or "true" a picture of Bangkok as they can.

Academic training compels me to put words like real and true
in inverted quotes, but the authors should be commended for their
honest and evenhanded efforts to portray the city in a variety of
lights.

Bangkok is an amazingly complex and contradictory city, and
Ziv and Sharett are ideal guides. They don't just know the city
inside and out, they are also simultaneously insiders and
outsiders.

Said differently, they know the beast but they keep their
distance, and it makes for a refreshing, engaging and candid
perspective.

Ziv's closing essay, "My Weekend at the Grace Hotel (a stay at
the notorious Soi Nana)", reinforces this point.

Overall, this book is a must-read for anyone wanting to
understand the urban megapolis that is Bangkok.

But don't read Bangkok Inside Out cover to cover. Flip
through, skip around, take in the essays and absorb the photos.

In short, enjoy it.

The reviewer is a PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin-
Madison Department of Political Science, and worked in Bangkok
from 1997 to 1999 at a research non-governmental organization. He
presently resides in Jakarta, where he is conducting field
research for his doctoral thesis on Indonesian politics.