Wanderlust: Expat Life & Style in Thailand Oct / Nov 2017: The Travel Issue | Page 57

Opinion
adhocracy. Chiefly: little formalization
of behavior; decentralization; un-
clear roles; and lack of standard-
ization. Adhocracy is makeshift.
It’s fluid, it’s inadvertent —
and, in the midst of it, it really
doesn’t make much sense.
We see adhocracy in prac-
tice when the motorcycle
taxi drives on the sidewalk
to avoid a one-way road, or
when the 7–11 cashier stands
idle for six minutes, waiting for
the ham and cheese toasty to
finish before asking the custom-
er to pay.
Stepping back for a moment, the
term ad hoc is itself a Latin term that
translates to “for this.” It’s the act of finding
a solution for this issue alone. In other words, it’s
solving problems one at a time, not as part of a system.
What I’m beginning to figure out is that, rather than
detract, the spontaneity enhances the city of Bangkok,
making the Thai capital incredibly unique. And in fact, this
chaos is perhaps where — amidst the congested, loud
and crazy, urban sprawl — we can find soul.
1. One example of the positive
effect of Bangkok’s ad hocra-
cy is how time-sensitive spaces
serve different purposes de-
pending on the time of day.
For instance, outside 7–11,
people young and old turn
the convenience store steps
into a makeshift bar. In one
case, two young guys on
Phayathai Road routinely
convert an empty storefront
entrance into a lounge. And, on
Petchaburi Road, the steps of a
corporate office teem with busi-
nessmen in suits during business
hours but, by nightfall, the same space
is a piazza for a seafood restaurant serv-
ing Chinese tourists.
Is there some kind
of chaotic rationale, if
you can call it that, which
actually underpins the
entire city of Bangkok?
A METHOD TO THE MADNESS
I began recording these instances of urban fluidity and
ephemerality, looking in particular at how space was laid
out, occupied, utilized, overlooked, and enjoyed. The fol-
lowing are ten moments of notable calamity and exalta-
tion in Bangkok:
2. By Mo Chit BTS stop, I once saw a woman washing
dishes on the street from a drinking fountain by plac-
ing a rock on the button and using a water bottle to
redirect the flow of water off the basin and on to her
bowl of dishes below. Genius, no?
3. I noticed once on a side street off Soi Pridi that tiny as-
phalt ramps had been added ex post facto to speed
bumps so motorbikes could mount the bump without
reducing speed as dramatically. Dangerous? Yes. But
we can admire the ingenuity.
4. Traffic flow in Bangkok is notoriously problemat-
ic. Highways, like the one beneath the Don Muang
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