Secret Bangkok

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 outsidersand 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.

Auteur
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.