Content area
Full Text
asia special
Welcome to one of the most fascinating destinations in Asia, writes John Wright
HIS name was Lamgi and he was five years old. He came begging at the back door of a restaurant by the Saen Saep canal, the artery that arrows west through Bangkok's CBD towards the Grand Palace and the mighty Chao Phraya River.
I heard him before I saw him. He was calling out for food and, in any other circumstance, I might have ignored him. But then I saw him and all the things I'd learnt about not encouraging beggars went out the door.
"Twenty baht OK?" I asked his minder, and he gave me a nod and a bag of sugar cane and I offered it piece by piece to Lamgi's outstretched trunk with a growing sense of wonder.
Later, I'd see more of his kind working the restaurants and bars off Sukhumvit Road, bailing up tourists and moving so surely through the crowded streets that it seemed almost natural to see elephants roaming the heart of a city of seven million people. But where do they park these animals when the night shift's over?
It has a big history with elephants, this country and kingdom known once upon a time as Siam. At the entrance to the beautiful former royal residence called Vimanmek Palace, you'll find the Royal Elephant National Museum and learn about the Origin of Auspicious Elephants, and inside this teak palace -- a popular tourist attraction which can get unbearably crowded -- you'll marvel, perhaps, when you see how many of these creatures died to provide its former occupants with a treasure in ivory.
Bangkok is a remarkably vibrant and dynamic city, one of the most fascinating destinations in Asia.
Two days before my encounter with Lamgi, I'd got involved in the world's biggest water fight -- the Thai New Year Songkran Festival - - around the backpackers' strip known as Khao San Rd.
I had stood there among thousands, drenched and covered in the wet powder Songkran revellers plaster one another with, and been entranced by the chaos and good humour and the fun of it all. My children would have loved it. You don't know what wet is until you've seen Songkran.