2009 Bangkok
‘Drawings from the City of Angels’
‘Difficulties exist. Just like being in a labyrinth. Everything seems unreal. Desires not yet fulfilled. No lucks.’
So says lucky scroll number 14 which I shook from a tin in Golden Mount Temple, Bangkok city: ‘The City of Angels’. Looking out across the city with an empty sketchbook before me, my pencil starts dancing and I begin a two week Odyssey into this labyrinth. Bangkok is a city of stark contrasts, from modern skyscrapers and shopping meccas interspersed with stunning, gleaming temples to street sellers and beggars carving out meager existences. Courtesy abounds as bowing Thais greet each other, ‘Sa-wat dii khrap; or thank each other ’Khawp Khun!’ Westerners, ‘ghosts’ to the Thais, drifting in and out to stock up at Sukumvit and Patpong markets where everything you desire can be purchased at the right price. Sad eyed ladies crowd the bars searching for the Westerner farang to end their misery. |
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Chinatown is a blaze of neon as I sit drawing a fortune teller who has no customers. For two hours he smiles at no one in particular.
Drawing in Pak Khlong market we made new friends amidst mountains of sweet coriander and herbs I’ve never seen before, while porters rushed by with new supplies of vegetables in huge baskets. At night the balmy streets are sweet with the spices from a thousand street stalls in every direction. And to capture as much as I can we walk on endlessly, sometimes leaping into expertly driven Tuktuks or onto riverboats down slim canals, weaving on through the labyrinth. As my sketchbook fills I realize that there is not enough time to depict these warm and beautiful people. Desires may remain unfulfilled but I feel very lucky to have been drawing in the streets of the city of Angels all the same.
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