THE BUTLER by SECRET RETREATS
Every Monday, I take you wandering somewhere in Thailand, in search of a place, a dish, an emotion, a singular experience — something that might kindle a spark in your eyes and awaken the desire to live through, or simply behold, something truly special.
Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit
Official & full name of the city called Bangkok in English
Hello, Bangkok!
Glass towers lining the great avenues seem to slice the sky with razor-sharp edges. Yet, in muted sepia tones, hidden away down quieter streets, old houses with flower-filled gardens keep watch beneath the shade of towering trees. Three-storey buildings joined shoulder to shoulder, relics of the 1960s and ’70s — the golden age of architecture — where, from the terraces, people fly kites, watch pigeons drift beneath the racing clouds, and remember Mitr Chaibancha, the untouchable icon of the silver screen, whose films still flicker through the nation’s collective memory.
The villas of that era stand as tributes to modernism, preserving the lingering voices of generations once gathered beneath the same roof, before all slowly faded into the dust of time.
Certain quarters of Chinatown are now undergoing sweeping renovations, their old crumbling buildings slowly shedding the scars of time. Yet the district still preserves its tangled alleyways, where the scent of engine oil and repair garages has replaced the drifting incense of Taoist shrines.
Venture farther from the centre and follow the canals by boat — the city’s long, winding veins — carrying you toward adventure. Here and there, one market gives way to another, according to the hour and the needs of the day. Human anthills pulse with restless energy: rounded handcarts creak past, tuk-tuks overflow with provisions, and life seems to spill endlessly in every direction.
New neighbourhoods of towering apartment blocks rise skyward, yet at their heart they recreate the feeling of villages. And true villages still endure, their wooden houses huddled tightly together. Scattered across this immense urban web, temples gleam beneath the sun, answering the chants of the monks. Motorbikes begin their daily ballet of deliveries; schoolchildren pass by in immaculate uniforms.
Handcarts rumble from one street to the next, while vendors selling desserts, soups, and every imaginable dish gradually transform the pavement into rows of makeshift restaurants rooted to the sidewalk.
And perhaps today, somewhere beside a canal, I will come upon a goldsmith melting gold in a tiny crucible by the water’s edge.
Bangkok is a vast sponge, drawing in everything that comes within its reach, transforming it through its own rhythms, its own codes, its own spices. Bangkok takes hold of our soul and fashions us another in its place.
Bangkok, I love you!
And you — what do you truly know of Bangkok? Have you ever sat at the edge of a street and watched the great cinema of the world unfold before your eyes? And your guests — have they ever allowed themselves the luxury of doing nothing at all, of getting lost simply for the joy of it?
Until next Monday,
