i'm in southeast asia with my 1913 bradshaw's handbook published at the height of european
imperialism my 100 year old guy book will leave me on a railway adventure
through archipelagos and peninsulas dotted with hills forests and paddy fields i'll tour
towering mega cities and magnificent mosques i'll encounter golden buddhas and jewelled temples
and experience some of the world's most spectacular and notorious railways as i travel
through the diverse nations of this vast region i'll learn how they asserted their independence
against the british french and dutch empires to become the economic tigers and dragons of today
i am in the kingdom of thailand formerly siam for which 1913 the date of my guidebook was
a moment of political drama a nominally independent kingdom
recently shorn of much of its territory owing to french aggression as a protective measure in 1909
four tributary states were transferred to british southern teeth everything seems to point to a
french protectorate of siam in the near future but that never happened most exceptionally for
a country in southern asia it never passed under colonial rule i'm here to find out why
my quest will take me from the city of chiang mai in northern thailand south through the once vast
teak forest of lampang on my way to the old capital of ayutia to the west of today's capital
bangkok i'll make a stop at the meiklong railway market before ending close to the border with
myanmar at kanchanaburi on the journey i find out about one of thailand's great monarchs king chala
long gone is up to today michael uh venerated for i'm saving thailand from this colonial threat take
cover in an umbrella factory how do i look wow you look like an astronaut and discover the potent
ingredients of thai cooking so this is a shrimp paste really yeah you can check the smell and um
i'm beginning my thai adventure in the city of chiang mai thank you thank
it you once the capital of a medieval kingdom with connections to burma and laos
and today is the largest city in northern thailand
the guidebook tells me that the railway was about to be completed to chiang mai
in 1913. now that was politically significant because the french and british colonial powers
were sniffing around this autonomous region and now it will be connected to
bangkok the royal capital of siam not just by the ping river but by a permanent way
chiang mai is still the northernmost point on thailand's rail network
it was a royal city founded in 1296 where art and culture flourished
today it's a sprawling laid back place with a walled
old city of about one square mile at its heart
in olden times the city was often attacked
besieged and occupied so when they came to build the fortifications they constructed not
only a wall but for good measure a moat chiang mai chiang mai so good they ringed it twice
i'm beginning inside the old city at a temple which houses some of chiang mai's
most impressive buildings what pressing and even my western eyes can appreciate its enormous beauty
and i sense its spirituality but i need to understand what it means for thailand
buddhism is centuries older than christianity the year 2020 in the buddhist calendar is 2563
and this temple has housed since 1367 a.d a very revered statue of the buddha
it's said that more than 90 of thais are buddhist which would mean 60 million people
one of the biggest populations of buddhists in the world and just before my guidebook
was published the king rama v created a supreme council for the sangha that is the monastic order
that originated with the disciples of the buddha and with that act he brought together the king
religion and the people in a bond which is the thai state
i'm not a religious person but it's impossible not to be affected by this
glorious architecture of this ancient building its faded murals the center of the candles
and of the flowers the golden buddha and i'm born along by the melodic chanting of the monks
to understand more about this temple and this northern region of thailand
i'm meeting guide noon udom sin
noon hello pleased to meet you michael pleased to meet you and in such glorious surroundings
this wonderful temple might i see something like this anywhere in thailand this temple especially
the elegantly decorated assembly hall that you can see behind us
is actually typically lana what was lada okay lon in thai means a million and na means rice field
lana is the name of the kingdom which chiang mai was the capital chiang mai was an independent
kingdom until the early 20th century how did that position of independence come to an end at the
turn of the 20th century chiang mai was annexed by the kingdom of siam to be part of the kingdom
of siam and for what reason for two reasons the most important reason being the presence of the
british empire in neighboring myanmar siam seeing this colonial threat decided to annex chiang mai
as a butt first date along with other uh provinces in the north of thailand the second reason being
the teagwood business which was one of the most valuable natural resources in this region the
guidebook which i'm using my branch guide yes describes thailand as being surrounded
by a burma by malaysia by indochina do you think that's the way that thailand felt that it was
surrounded yes uh very much king chala long gone is up to today michael uh venerated for
um saving thailand from this um colonial threats king rama the fourth so king jalal ghan's father
he already had this visions you know this maybe we can call this fear of european
expansionism because um during his reign he invited a british lady on a leonovens and anna
leo nolans actually taught king rama the fifth to speak english so he was quite a westernized king
anna's account of her time at the royal court was turned into a novel a musical and a film
the king and i but actor yul brinner's portrayal of the scholarly king rama iv as a childish
tyrant caused great offence in thailand the film was banned and remained so to this day
rama the fourth's adoption of western ideas shaped siam
when his son tuna long gone king rama v came to the throne he began to modernize his country
building a railway network reforming the law and striking deals with european colonial powers
here in chiang mai the british built a consulate which they used to promote their interests
a very very grand house for a british consulate what use did they make of the building
well apart from the consulate prerogatives it was also the center for british social life this is
the center for sport and society polo for example uh cricket as well so you'll be surprised to hear
about the consular elephants elephants yes yes i'm surprised what were they where the british
kept the king's polo elephants four of king george v elephants were stabled at the consulate
their duties included bearing luggage for the consul when he toured the remote northern regions
how did the british use this building to exert their influence the british actually had a lot
of privileges here british banks were established here commerces and also i have to mention
about the the monopoly of teagwood exploitation that was granted by king julien himself
the guidebook leads me to believe that a french protectorate in sam is imminent why does it not
happen king julia long gone was an astute diplomat you know he played this game in to moderate
tensions between france and britain this piece of ground was granted by king julia long gone
to britain and just opposite the road another piece of ground was given
to france so he keeps the balance between the british and the french he did he did
king chulalongkorn's shrewd deal-making kept the rival colonial powers at bay
and thailand was left as a buffer zone between their two southeast asian empires
my bradshaw's prediction of an imminent french protectorate didn't come to pass although the
british never annexed chiang mai they used the social life of their consulate ruthlessly to push
for their influence and their commercial interests in the process giving an elbow to the french
sometimes garden party diplomacy can be as effective as gunboat diplomacy
at the time of my guidebook this region was being drawn into the country now known as thailand
but it has always retained its own identity its lana heritage is rich in artisan crafts so i've
come to the village of bosang just east of the city in search of something to keep the monsoon
off my breadshores the inscription tells us that a monk called pra intar was one day visiting
the border with burma for a meditation and he saw the procedure by which umbrellas were made
wrote it all down and brought the technology back to his village ever since which people
have been making the umbrellas here now this may be true or it may simply be a cover story
the rombo sung umbrella factory is one of many workshops in the village
where these glorious items are painstakingly made by hand
these beautiful pieces all cut exactly to a length that's all bamboo but the
structure is held together with pieces of beautifully crafted sandalwood at the top
and the bottom huge skill is required from carving the handle to threading the ribs
these hand and foot crafted umbrellas are works of art then look at this we end up with something
very lovely a moving piece where pieces of bamboo wonderfully carved are just held together
with cotton now what that needs is a bamboo shaft and a cotton top
all umbrellas here are made from mulberry paper or cotton traditionally a symbol of high status
the more decorative parasols are intricately painted by hand i don't know
good to see you so is this almost the last stage of the umbrella making
almost yeah one more step from here then we finished and what is this uh paint or
die that you're applying this is uh oil color painted we make the umbrella for
good for sun and rain waterproof would it be possible for me to have a go at that mirror kiss
how do i look wow you look like an astronaut
pretend that you do the dishwashing
dishwashing one yes i have to remember how to do that wow well done you want to work here
perfect come rain or shine
arts and crafts are a huge part of this region's culture
but here as in the whole of thailand identity is also expressed through food i've come up
into the hills 30 kilometers northwest of chiang mai in search of the secrets of northern cuisine
this is ascended into the clouds and into a sort of heaven here i am amongst the flowers
and down below the curly green terraces heavy with vegetables clearly the mists bring great fertility
yui is a chef who lives and teaches in the area
yui hello hi michael i'm yuri very good to see you now what are you cooking today
i am cooking soup we call djapak it's a northern dish that was using local vegetables in the season
may i help you yes please what should i do i'm just about chopping the shallot and the garlic
and then i need someone to help me for pounding oh yes what is different about the northern cuisine
what are its characteristics we don't have much dry spice and we have more like fresh herbs and
that is we use as mainly in our cooking in the north and the water base no coconut milk
ah yes because many people think of thai food as involving coconut milk but not in the north this
is more like in the south yes beach so this is a shrimp paste really yeah you can check the smell
very good with the pounding this is the work of the thai woman who do it for every meals
such a work that we are so strong then we're gonna put this in the water so this is i called
slimy spinach slime in spinach it doesn't name my name it myself you have a way with words so lana
was from time to time occupied by burma is there a burmese influence in the cooking yes i have a lot
i can see that i've been in myanmar and i've seen ingredients there
like the one i used in chiang mai so they brought their ingredients here when they moved here
and we went there we brought our ingredients there like we're blending together to be one union
i say while we've been cooking the mist has lifted i had no idea there was that lovely
row of mountains there isn't it beautiful here yes it's adding to our food for more flavor
all right excellent we're putting the view into our food somehow
time to serve yeah that looks nice it does look nice so colorful
isn't that great yes do you think the food is really one of the best things about thailand
yes i think so that's the reason i could not move away from thailand
i'm heading back to chiang mai station my journey will continue south if you've
been anytime in thailand you notice the courtesy and perfect manners of the people
here is a notice upon receiving an impolite service please notify station master um please
all correct thank you
passport needed to buy a ticket
the special express to bangkok how exotic does that sound but i'm going just about
two hours to lampang around 14 trains a day leave chiang mai
and with just one railway line they all head in the direction of bangkok
this is stunning landscape and a region of great fertility we've passed paddy fields here would
have been the teak forest water by the river ping and other waterways descending from the himalayas
but it was unbelievably remote before the coming of the railway the journey from
bangkok to chiang mai would have taken weeks and building the line was clearly no mean feat
between chiang mai and is a narrow belt of steep mountains
the construction of a railway through this terrain came at great cost
we're now passing through the kuntan tunnel the longest in thailand at 1.35
kilometers this was built roughly during the first world war by german engineers it said
that a thousand men died in its construction
from malaria from attacks by tigers from fighting amongst themselves and from addiction to opium
this may not have been a colonial province but the disdain for human life was positively imperial
thailand's railway network extends across four thousand kilometers the majority of which is
single track and the procedure for avoiding collisions hasn't changed in a century on a single
track line a train can only occupy the track if it has a token a large piece of metal and with
no time to lose the oncoming train will hurl the token onto this pole without stopping a good trick
faultlessly done and we're on our way with the token
my next stop is the city of lampang also known as nakon lampang
hello um can i have a lime juice please
so yeah that's a good idea so yeah thank you the sun is out the humidity is up
and that is wonderfully refreshing fruit juices with a touch of salt thank you
once surrounded by vast teak forests on the river wang lam pang was in the late
19th and early 20th centuries a world center for logging in that period a charming town emerged
lampang turns out to be an unexpected gem an almost tourist-free town full
of gorgeous teak buildings some like this old temple are now substantially decayed
but it's only grown more beautiful as it has faded a thought with which i often console myself
the elegant houses all across town tell of the boom years over a century ago
a beautifully historic street full of wooden houses from the start of the 20th century in a
great variety of styles but all of them opulent because here the people sapped the world from
the forest and with every shipment of teak that went down the river they logged up new profits
to get a better look i'm using a form of transport particular to this city thank you
travelling by a horse carriage known locally as a rottweiler is a good opportunity to see if some
of the larger teak houses in the suburbs some of them are positively palatial the city is nicknamed
horse carriage city the first one made locally was known as a queen victoria but actually introduced
only in 1916 and they reached their height of popularity in the 1950s i suppose because
they were a sign of prestige at a time when speed was not important the legacy of the teak
trade is everywhere and i'm meeting a direct descendant of turn of the century loggers
kitty chai watananikon's father and grandfather worked as forest administrators
thank you very much hello sword decap welcome to this video lovely to see you i've seen in lampang
the teak makes beautiful houses and here is another but why were the europeans are interested
in teak at that time in the 19th century due to the depletion of oak teak became more and more
important in the ship building industry and why is teak good for ships because it is durable it
is decay resistance it is termite resistant it is easy to work with it is lightweight all
this property make teeth valuable that's why the european company began to do business with cheek
of the foreign countries that became involved in teak here which had the biggest share the
biggest power that came to saiyan was the british companies the british had already developed a
large teak industry in india and neighbouring burma and soon set their sights on northern
thailand too chulalongon king rama v feared they might try to annex this teak rich region and in
1873 signed what's become known as the chiang mai treaty awarding them generous logging concessions
who lived in this house this house belonged to luis t leonoven he was
the sons of anna jillian of an english teacher in the royal palace of king lama fourth of saiyan
and luis was the representative of the british borneo company in 1884. what has happened to the
teak industry in thailand the locking industry was banned in 1989 because of deforestation so
there is no more teak industry in thailand nowaday between the colonial powers there was in southeast
asia a sort of balance of power with the british in burma and malaysia and the french in what we
now call laos vietnam and cambodia and so both were content to allow siam what we now call
thailand to be nominally independent as far as the british were concerned two things mattered one
keeping the french out and two their incredibly lucrative privilege for the exploitation of teak
next time in thailand i'll discover the splendors of the former capital of siam
i was one of the wealthiest cities in asia let alone southeast asia
i'll be sized up by a gentle giant she's just getting used to me now and have a close
encounter with another astonishing railway i think i might lean back at this point
it's just a massive crash on mumbai's commuter trains squeeze in on the world's
busiest railway at eight here over on bbc four and later here on bbc two an unlikely
friendship as good and evil take a ride through history good omens continue at nine
you