Talk:Bangkok

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To-do list for Bangkok: edit  · history  · watch  · refresh
  • Expand:

History
Economics

  • Add or Improve these sections:

(Some topics are briefly mentioned in other areas but plaese give these thier own section)
Introduction
Communiation/Media
Geography
Crime
Tourism (after changed from hotels)

  • Change:

Hotels to Tourism and then improve tourism

  • Other:

Add references and sources

Thanks. Felixboy 20:26, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] HELP NEEDED

HELLO TO EVERYONE WHO LOVES TO DISCUSS ABOUT BANGKOK, I'm a Bangkokian and a very proud one i must say. I have been do a heck load of editing, a HUGE heckload of editing on the Bangkok website. I need everyones help to give me really accurate information and continue to edit this page until it reaches an equilibrium with the readers and editors. Sometimes I have sketchy info thats in the top of my head and is distorted, please help me correct. Also, for the wikipedia guys, I have no idea how ot upload pics so u better find pics for my grand city. PLease, itd be really nice, pics of the skyline, like a really nice one, i suggest www.skyscrapercity.com and go to the Thai forum and talk to the guys for their copyright. Other pictures can come from say, the clubs of Bangkok, Vertigo, Sirocco, Bed Supperclub. We're the biggest party city behind London and New York so you should get clubs up there. Another thing is the tourism, why is there nothing. We've been on the top 10 tourist cities for like 50 years in a row so more tourist information. I've gotten you guys started. I would also like to thank the wikipedia editors for creating a gorgeous article about current events. GUYS, my fellow Bangkokians, KON KRUNG thung lai (CITY PPL), u need to get cracking n help me edit my city. We're getting hampered by Tokyo and Hong Kong n Singapore. Its a lot of work, i've gotten u guys started. START EDITTING.

[edit] Changed "Chinese run pawnshops" to "pawnshops"

To call pawnshops, that fence stolen goods, "Chinese run" is a primitive form of relative Orientalism: it attempts to re-present the homegrown crime as somehow from abroad, from an "orient", here China. The fact is that sinoThai are Thai in the modern sense, not "Chinese" unto the next generation, and no more likely to be crooks than Tai people.Spinoza1111 06:51, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The song of Krungthep Mahanakorn

I've found a link of the song Krungthep Mahanakorn in http://www.hawaii.edu/thai/materials/, but I've no idea if this was sung by Asanee-Wasan Chotikul.

Yes, it is. -- Lerdsuwa 06:49, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] IPA transcription for full name of Bangkok

Can someone provide the IPA transcription for the full name of Bangkok? 128.12.20.195 04:00, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Population

I would love it if someone can write some more info on the people of Bangkok, including numbers, but also proportion of nationalities. Etc. And anything else that would be interesting. The article seems incomplete without it. Astrophil

It's hard to say exactly how much Bangkok is getting more populous. It all has to do with mobility. Some people are moving out to nearby provinces aided by a boom in car registrations, but generally not too far beyond city limits, as traffic is crushing. (This is not Tokyo with excellent public transport) Then again, tons of multi-story (30 stories is not uncommon!) condos have been under construction and are being built near transportation areas, especially now since urban rail is getting popular. Most likely, the 2000 census was an undercount, as there are countless homes/shacks with little more than concrete paths to them, locals a house away have no idea how to get to the other house, and a census here would be a daunting task indeed, thai people are resourceful though, with the new mega-apartments and condos and megamalls, more shantytowns are being replaced with proper housing, making counts a bit easier. I highly doubt the figures for 2549 (2006) that Bangkok has simply 5.672 million, especially since the 2000 census counted 6.355 million, and Bangkok is getting denser all the time, but let's not get too carried away, maybe 7-7.5 million seems about correct. (not including nearby provinces). Including suburbs, 9-10 million is about right.

[edit] Subdivisions of Bangkok

I know that "amphoe" is used to describe administrative subdivisions of provinces, but I think "keht" is the more commonly used name for subdivisions of Bangkok. - erzengel - 1423 UTC - 23 Apr 2003

+Bangkok

 -Keht
    -Kwang

+Other provinces

 -Amphoe (Um-per)
    -Tambon
       -Moo Baan (village)

[edit] Population discrepancy

There are two different numbers as to the number of inhabitants on the site: in the opening sentence, it's 8,538,610 and later on in the statistics table the number changes to 6,355,144.

[edit] Symbol in Thai version of name

I think that the second Thai version of the name at the top of the article, technically, should also have the symbol ฯ at the end as it is still a shortened form (but often the symbol is missing in both these shortened names). I will check this when possible. I'll also see if I can convince somebody to translate the article into Thai as it seems a shame not to have it in the 'correct' language :-) --KayEss 18:47, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Officially, the symbol ฯ is to be used only with the first one. Although the second name was a shortenned one, it is considered correct without the symbol. - from a Thai

[edit] Coastal city?

In what way is this a coastal city? If it's listed as coastal I hope London is too... --KayEss 18:23, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)

A part of Bangkok i.e. part of Khet Bangkhuntien is in fact on a coast line -- a fact that many Bangkokians don't know either. The beaches in Bangkok are unfortunately muddy and hence do not make a popular tourist attraction. -- Jakris 12:13, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Question about name

Does Krung mean "city" and Thep "angels", or is it the other way around? —Lowellian (talk)[[]] 12:22, Nov 15, 2004 (UTC)

It is that way round, yes. --KayEss 14:13, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Uh, sorry, confused by your answer. By "that way round", do you mean the former or the latter? —Lowellian (talk)[[]] 08:27, Nov 16, 2004 (UTC)

The former. Mark1 06:00, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] BangkokRecorder.com

The link to BangkokRecorder.com is not appropriate for this article. Please stop adding it. If you want to advertise your website there are plenty of other places where you can do so inexpensively. I am the registrant for Bangkok.com yet it would never occur to me to tag an encyclopedia article about the City of Bangkok with a link to Bangkok.com. Take a look at the links that have remained on the article by consensus to get an idea of what sort of link is acceptable. Thanks. --AStanhope 17:32, 13 Mar 2005 (UTC)


(Comment by BangkokRecorder.com: "We have found this wikipedia entry by accident. In no way do we condone spamming or the posting of the link of our site where its not appropriate. We did NOT do so and we are defnitely NOT trying to advertise our site here. We kindly ask the person who was doing so to stop posting our link as it is not appropriate here. Thanks.")

[edit] Intellectual property discussion

I find the somewhat lengthy discussion of copyright issues odd in an article about the city. You don't see such a discussion, for example, in the article about Vancouver, Canada, which also faces this "current issue".

Agreed, it's hardly of major significance to most residents, who are likely more concerned about the homelessness and illegal immigrant worker situation and probably consider it a good thing. Traffic and the stalling over infrastructure, especially mass transit and the airport, are far more important than that, but it gets about three lines. NPOV is also questionable, it reads like something put out by the BSA themselves. Maybe we need to delete it entirely or reduce it to a brief mention, after all this is rife all over Asia and not just Bangkok. --Legalizeit 08:05, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Photowars

Might I be so bold as to suggest something with the two new Bangkok photos that are being added and removed at an alarming rate. I think that we can find many more pictures of Bangkok and there is undoubtably reason to have many more pictures of the city available, but there must be a limit to the number within the article. If the new pictures could be uploaded to Wikipedia commons then we should put a Commons link on the article going to all of the pictures that we may want. I do think the two pictures in question are great pictures, but there is no copyright information on either of them. As it stands they are likely to be deleted quite soon. It'd be great if the person who uploaded them could put them on Commons with copyright information and then we'll link to that gallery from this article. I know I have a few pictures I'd like to put up too :-) — KayEss | talk 18:04, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

The link to commons is definitely worth adding, as Wikipedia is not a photo album and commons already has many photos of Bangkok, many of them already prepared for articles yet to write. We only need to decide wether we want to link commons:Bangkok or commons:Category:Bangkok. However what is much more disturbing are the comments by the anonymous user, which are a clear violation of the no personal attacks policy, and that about such a minor issue. andy 16:11, 17 August 2005 (UTC)
Indeed it is sad, and as you say, over something so trivial. — KayEss | talk 06:24, 18 August 2005 (UTC)

I'd like to point out that one of the photos (2nd one from the top)is actually overlapping some of the text. I don't know how to fix that so I'll leave that up to the more qualified among you. - T. Desloges (6 January 2006)

Which browser are you using? And what resolution? On my IE6 it looks fine (in any resolution). −Woodstone 17:59, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
It's fine for me (Firefox, tried various text sizes). The causes of text/picture overlaps are very mysterious though. Mark1 18:40, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bang Makok

"called Bang Makok ("place of olive plums")" - I know this snippet is included in one of the more popular Thailand guide books, but is it actually true, or just one of the many common myths originating in those books?

The Olive plum (Cassine melanocarpa) appears to be native to Australia. The Thai for 'plum' is still 'plum'. And as far as I've been able to ascertain, the original site was, and is, called Bang Kok. TheMadBaron 19:44, 6 September 2005 (UTC)

Wasn't the original name "Ban Ngok"?--193.27.50.81 12:05, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

The makok is actually Spondias pinnata (L.f.) Kurz, according to the Thai Royal Institute's dictionary. However, there seems to be no real evidence concerning the origin of the name Bangkok. The Phra Racha Wang Derm Restoration Foundation says here that it might have derived from Bang Koh (Koh meaning island, perhaps referring to the geography carved out by the canals). This site offers a more extensive explanation, but unfortunately doesn't give references. Paul C 15:53, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Question about a book

I wonder if anyone more familiar than I with the city has read Bangkok 8, a 2003 mystery novel by John Burdett? If so, could you comment on its authenticity or lack of it? I've only visited there a couple of times, and not for some years, but the flavor of Burdett's version of Bangkok seems very true-to-reality. . . . --Michael K. Smith 19:25, 9 September 2005 (UTC)

I just went through the article and took care most of the grammar problems and such. 134.114.59.41 06:23, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] City Photo Guide link

Dear BKK topic editors,

Based on Astanhope's suggestion, I present Bangkok City Photo Guide for your consideration for inclusion in the Bangkok article.

  • Bangkok City Photo Guide [1]

Here is a list of reasons why I think a link to this site will add value to the article.

1. It provides unique content about Bangkok organized by area and category to help visitors and locals navigate the city.

2. It empowers local businesses of all sizes with free internet presence.

3. It provides realistic views of Bangkok's tourist destinations.

4. It includes satellite maps (where available) and/or street maps in every listing.

5. It contains minimal and unintrusive advertisements.

6. It is an ongoing project, which will continue to grow and include other areas of city.


I apologize for rushing in with a link directly in the article and await your decision.

--Cityphoto 13:44, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

  • Mark - I asked Cityphoto to do precisely this on the Talk page and he did so eagerly. The question/conversation revolves around the link. It should be here for the sake of the conversation. I've restored it for now. Perhaps once a consensus about the link in the article proper has been reached we can nix it from the discussion here. Thx, Khon Dii! --AStanhope 14:03, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

IMHO we don't need any external photo links - there is wikimedia commons with many free photos of Bangkok. Wikipedia is NOT a web directory, and if we include one then why not another? andy 13:06, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

The main difference is that City Photo Guide is not just another collection of Royal Palace photos. It's more like photo yellow pages with local business listings and maps. --Cityphoto 16:56, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Population (again)

I see this has been raised twice before on the talk page, but with no resolution. We currently have three different population figures (in the lead, infobox and Demographics section)- the different numbers seem to be for province v.BMA, and 1990 v. 2000 census. Obviously we should be using the newer figure, but does anyone have a preference for province or BMA? HenryFlower 10:09, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

  • I've always prefered the metropolitan area as it reflects more accurately the population of the city and its suburbs. A province boundary is often arbitrary not relevent to the natural boundary of a city. For example, my home town of Melbourne has a metro area population of ~3,600,000 but the actual 'City of Melbourne' has a population of around 50,000. Which is the more accurate population of the city? :) Diliff | (Talk) (Contribs) 10:07, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Population episode three

I'm living in Bangkok since 2004 and I have this to add about its population:

15,000,000-18,000,000 people live here, but very few are registered as Bangkok citizens (because it's hard to change your home address in Thailand).

During elections and big holidays Bangkok gets more or less empty because everyone goes home to their home towns/villages (you have to vote in the town you're registered).

I suggest the info box should say ~15,000,000

I've standardised the numbers on the last official figure, from the 2000 census. I've removed the 2005 estimate (from a random, unofficial website) from the infobox. I've no idea what the reference to a 2004 census was meant to mean- the Thai statistical office doesn't mention one in 2004, and I very much doubt they'd have two in four years. If there's a reputable source for a more recent estimated figure, for the whole metropolitan area, or for unregistered residents, then they should be added, but wild guesses should not. HenryFlower 15:22, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Common "mis-spellings"

As a Thai speaker/reader I would like to add the following comments. If people agree with me maybe we should change the main pages too, but I'll start with just these comments.

When transcribing from Thai script to English you lose a load of information - just like when converting a color movie to black and white. This "lost information", along with poor English skills, has led to countless errors in transcribed Thai (the Thais call the transcribed text karaoke).

1) "Krungthep" should be Grungtep - There are no K-sounds or H-sounds in the Thai script

2) "Koh" should be Goh, as in Goh Pa Ngan (the island with the full moon parties), Goh Chaang (the elephant island).

3) Singha beer should be Sing Beer

4) The Prime Minster's name is Taksin Shinawat - not Thaksin ShinawaTRA.

In general the letters K,V,L,R,S are used incorrectly because the corresponding Thai chars have different meanings depending on their context.

/Eric

You should probably read the RTGS article. All is explained there. HenryFlower 15:24, 29 July 2006 (UTC)
If the key to the math task 1+1=? says "3" you might want to question that key. This RTGS system you refer to is messed up, simply because it's written by people who don't speak English. However I'll start posting on the RTGS page instead.

Thanks /Eric

Oh, RTGS is a bag of shite, I agree. But Wikipedia's not the place to campaign to reform/replace it. HenryFlower 12:48, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] External link

....: I should like to propose the link: http://www.bangkokresidents.com as an external link to a site about Bangkok as it provides photographs, information, listings, important information and is under constant management and change. The site is written by people with years of experience in Bangkok, adding up to over 30 years in total and so what is written is from experience and not just by someone who has been here a year or two.:..... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mengkysan (talk • contribs).

Mengkysan 09:43, 9 August 2006 (UTC) Meng

/ On the subject of Thai language I have lived here 14 years and I'll tell you that there is most definately a K sound in the Thai language. Grung Thep is correct and Goh is correct ( Goh as in Got ) but the words Krap and Kha are most definately used with a K sound and not a G sound. I have just clarified this in a room full of Thais ( 30 in all ) and they all say the same. I do agree that the sound is very close to both the G and K sounds for almost all words that we might spell with a K. The province / town of Kanchanaburi is said with a G sound too, but he tone is so slight that is generally comes across as a K sound more than a G sound. /

Mengkysan 09:43, 9 August 2006 (UTC) Meng

[edit] Peer review needed

This article has potential to be a featured article omeday but we neeed a peer review to figure what really needs to be improved. I'll try to get one. Felixboy 13:25, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] See Also - Bangkok University? Bangkok University FC?

Why does "see also" include Bangkok University but not any other universities in Bangkok? Bangkok university is neither the largest or the oldest. And there are many other universities in Bangkok that argubly have more importance to this article (Chula is much older, Thammasat is historically significant, Ramkhamhaeng probably has the most students, etc.). Even more ridiculous is why their football team, "Bangkok University FC," also included in the list? --Melanochromis 05:41, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

just fixed it. Not an issue anymore. --Melanochromis 21:06, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sister Cities

How are we determining the list of "Sister Cities"?

The wikipedia Town twinning article doesn't identify the 'authoritative' source. Sister Cities International web site doesn't show these same "sister cities". Likewise, List of twin towns and sister cities doesn't include anything between Turkey and Thailand (which, of course, may be an oversight).
  • Was the "sister cities" section meant to be a casual association list (which, to me, would be content of questionable value), or
  • Do "sister cities" come from a formal source/list of 'twins' (and if so, what is that authority/reference)? - Thaimoss 14:56, 23 December 2006

[edit] Project Assessment - Article Expansion

An excellent article overall - far more thorough than many other articles I've seen on cities. The history section is quite short, though. I gather, from this short section, that perhaps there isn't much to be said, but at the very least, some years would be good. When did it "begin as a small trading center and port community"? LordAmeth 14:15, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Tourist mecca???

"The city's wealth of cultural sites makes it one of the world's most popular tourist destinations." Is there any evidence for this? Many tourists come to Bangkok, but most don't stay more than a few days: they head to the beaches or the islands. BKK is too hot, too smelly, and the traffic is hideous. Those that stay are more interested in the nightlife and cheap shopping. There are some interesting cultural sites (Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Wat Arun), but you can visit most of them within a couple of days days.Widmerpool 14:25, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

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