The Venice of the East.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 178, 30 July 1932, Page 13 (Supplement)

The Venice of the East.

Bangkok has been described ns the V enice of the East and the description is an apt one, especially at night witli its lighted river-craft crossing and recrossing the river, which could pass for a slightly wider Grand Canal. Quite a feature of the city life arc the early morning markets held on the river and surrounding canals to which one goes shopping in boats. Hero one experiences the novelty of the colourful East at its highest. One day the luxury

liner “Malolo” called fur a few hours

to give its American tourists what tu me would have been merely a tantalising glimpse of Bangkok. A special performance of national dancing was arranged for their benefit at the pula tiul Phya Thia Hotel, four miles out. Thither 1 also repaired to find the hotel courtyards swarming with tour ists and many curio stalls and pedlars out to catch the American dollar. After tea we watched ten young Siamese girls being “made up” for the dance, live of them being dressed as boys. AH the costumes arc gorgeous, being mostly of gold with glittering jewels and rich colours, while gold-pointed crowns like slender temple spires, quivering and shining with every movement, are poised on their heads. It is traditional that the faces of the dancers be painted a smooth pale pink, and with scarlet lips and black arched eyebrows, they acquire a more or less uniform and expressionless appearance. After doing a little posing for the battery of cameras on the lawn they entered the pavilion and danced and sang to an accompaniment of native music played on gongs, ft was all most exotic, and, as with training, their elbows and wrists seem Io become universal joints, their arms appear Io writhe like snakes.