Word: bangkok
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...face it: not many people come to Thailand for the museums. Bangkok's thousands of night-life venues are high on the list of attractions, but fewer visitors feel an obligation to view the antiquities at the national museums in Bangkok or Chiang Mai. This is due in part to the upstaging of Thai civilization by the Khmer; for many tourists to Southeast Asia, Cambodia with its temples at Angkor is the cultural must...
...communist China took draconian steps to rid its population of addicts, but the vice lingered for another decade in the expatriate-Chinese communities of Southeast Asia. Thailand was the last place in the world with licensed opium dens. In 1959 those licenses were revoked; the Heng Lak Hung on Bangkok's Charoeng Krung Road?said to be the world's largest opium den, with more than 5,000 users in residence?shut its doors, and thousands of opium pipes, lamps and other smoking equipment were burned in a massive bonfire at the royal cremation grounds near the Grand Palace...
...twisted and tortured human forms sculpted into its walls. Other rooms are bright, airy contemplative spaces. The result is an informative and innovative look at an age-old social ill. What can Thailand do to top it? A museum of the world's oldest profession, in the heart of Bangkok's infamous red-light district? If done this well, one can only hope...
...Bangkok has become a magnet for antiquities from all over Asia, where the knowledgeable shopper can find anything from genuine Burmese images of the Buddha to Tibetan monastic furniture. Of course, there are also plenty of cleverly forged fakes so, as in most Asian antiquities markets, caveat emptor. With opium habiliments, shop owners don't always deceive their customers on purpose. Many are clueless as to what is real and what is a reproduction. For instance, if an "opium pipe" has a bowl made from wood or resin or anything else that's flammable, chances are it's a very...
...Here are three reputable Bangkok shops where antique opium paraphernalia can be purchased: Lampion and Cheng's Collection, both in the River City shopping complex next to the Royal Orchid Sheraton, and Kilin, at the Oriental Place on Charoen Krung Road...