Synopsis
Only in a city with as much to offer as Thailand's City of Angels could a temple boasting a million Buddhas have remained overlooked by visitors. Bangkok is regularly listed as the number one city destination in the world yet take time to scratch just a little below the surface and you'll find stunning and intriguing (and sometimes downright bizarre) spots that remain virtually unknown to outsiders … and often to the citizens themselves. Frequent residents Narina Exelby and Mark Eveleigh spent over a year hunting down some of the city's most captivating secret spots – many of which even experienced local guides had never heard of.
This book will lead you to the place where people offer bacon and eggs to tiger temple guardians, and a temple with elaborate effigies of David Beckham, Donald Duck and Popeye. It will take you into the lair of giant monitor lizards, show you how to gain merit by sponsoring a coffin, or how to decipher, from a tree trunk, the winning lottery numbers offered by a beautiful female ghost. You'll also meet a unique community of outlaw flute-players, eat a communal vegetarian breakfast with Bangkok's Sikh community, learn about the traditional Thai pastime of “baldy-butting”, and meet a celebrated “healer” who goes by the name of Madame Breast-slapper.
Secret Bangkok is more than just an indispensable guide to the hidden face of the city: it is written also to offer fascinating background information for those who love to connect with the soul of a place.
About the Author
Written by local experts, our secret guides are intended both for the local inhabitants themselves and the curious traveller. The places included in our guides are unusual and unfamiliar, allowing one to step off the beaten track.
Six nerve-wracking hours dangling from a frayed cable in a Venezuelan cable-car sent Mark Eveleigh into free-fall on a career as travel writer. He first visited Bangkok back in the days when elephants still begged at the roadside bars in the backpacker ghetto around Khao San Road, and when it was still feasible to hitch-hike all the way from the Golden Triangle to Singapore. After working on more than 100 magazine assignments in Thailand (for Conde Nast Traveller, Business Jet Traveler, CNN Traveller and the inflight magazines for the likes of Kenyan Airlines, KLM, Garuda and Qantas) he still ranks Bangkok among the three most exciting cities in the world.
Narina Exelby is a freelance writer and editor who, in 2012, swopped stability in Cape Town and 15 years in the international magazine industry for freedom and life on the road. Her default setting has always been to seek out quiet spaces, but she is often surprised by the delight she finds in the rhythm of big city life – and has been utterly captivated by Bangkok since she first set foot in the city in 2013. Perhaps it's because her natural tendency is to gravitate towards places that exude grit and soul, and her continual search for beauty in unexpected places has left her dazzled by Bangkok. The deeper you look, the city constantly reminds her, the more astounding the stories you find.
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