Bangkok, The City of Angels

How do you describe Bangkok?

In trying to write this post I’ve sat here and looked at a blank computer screen for 20 minutes.

How do you describe any city?

In my work with Northwest Leadership Foundation, Center for Transforming Mission, and other influences like Pastor Ron Vignec, I’ve learned to recognize cities as living, breathing things much loved by God. And much like each individual person reveals something unique about the character of God, cities (as conglomerates of people) can reflect Godly traits and personality as well as the way people fall short of their potential.

Bangkok is a city of between 10-12 million people. The official census says 6 million but for many reasons, including how census questions were asked, this is not accurate. Over the last four trips to Thailand (this time being my fifth) I have come full circle with Bangkok. My first trip to Thailand (when Duncan was testing me out to see if I could love Thailand and thus if I was marriage material :) ) we walked outside of the airport at midnight tried and failed to find a taxi so we took the only available vehicle option - two motorcycle taxis. My taxi sped off into the night with one of my hands tightly grasping the handhold on the back of the motorcycle and the other arm hugging my suitcase to my body, trying and failing to make it more aerodynamic. My driver, having heard Duncan speak Thai assumed that I could also and kept turning around and asking me questions that I believe were about our destination to which I couldn’t answer. We sped along on a 4 lane road, deserted except for food carts being pushed home and then. . . an elephant (with his/her mahout) ambling along. While there were many other events and feelings (namely the sheer busyness and chaos of this huge city) that threw me into culture shock in the following days, I think this story of my first ten minutes of introduction to Bangkok summarizes it well. The first time to a new country is incredibly overwhelming if you don’t understand customs, culture, religion and language.

The second and third times that I visited Bangkok were through my work at Northwest Leadership Foundation. These trips provided an excellent opportunity to partner with another organization on excursions to experience, see, feel and hope for Bangkok. Finally the last time I was here was on vacation where Duncan and I spent one week in Bangkok exploring and meeting up with people who call this magnificent city home.

These trips were building the foundation that I have come to rely on now. Living in this city (even for a short while) is and will be an amazing adventure. As with any honest relationship, I love Bangkok and I hate Bangkok. There is a kind of indescribable beauty here that I have not experienced in other cities but this is coupled with some of the ugliest and darkest things I have ever witnessed. There is a heaviness to Bangkok that cannot just be attributed to its humidity or chaos. This heaviness, I believe, is directly related to Thailand’s and more specifically Bangkok’s position as a center of human trafficking and its huge sex industry. Thailand is not alone in harboring people (traffickers, pimps, mamasans) who make a living off of selling others, in fact, I think you would be hard pressed to find a country that did not harbor, willingly or not, such individuals. However, there is a difference here. Thailand for the most part tolerates these injustices, especially the sex trade. Like most evils of such magnitude in any country, it is accepted (because what can be done?) or at best it is ignored. These are blanket statements that do not accurately reflect the heart of every Thai person, but as an outsider, the blatancy of the sex trade speaks volumes.

Prostitution is illegal in Thailand, but walk down one of the notorious sois (small road) in Bangkok and you will pass beside bars and brothels that house 1000’s of prostituted women, children, and men. It is not hidden, in fact it is advertised, sometimes with glossy menus set up outside the brothel, not listing food but tricks.

How do they operate so openly if it is illegal?
Bribes, economics, lies, desperation, apathy, indifference. . .

Eventually this blog will have many postings on Thailand, some silly, some showing great beauty and innovation, some day-to-day descriptions of how things work, but I feel it is accurate to start out our thoughts on Thailand with the background on what consumes us the most and will receive many more postings – the sex trade (and human trafficking).


Andrea