Bangkok Taxi Talk

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Ran 1:25 this morning down some main streets and past lots of huge sights: the Dusit zoo, the Royal Palace, the Royal Turf Club (which looks just like Santa Anita), and Wat Benjamabophit (there are so many ‘wats’, I’ve assumed it means temples). This one was particularly cool as we saw the locals drive up in cars, unload trays of pre-organized bags of food, and offer them up to the monks out front. The monks form a line to collect their morning food in tin bowls then go back inside the temple gates to give the food loot to a central collection guy. It’s just fantastic to see them in the streets as they walk along and locals come out of their homes and shops to pray and offer alms to the monks.

Other sights seen today include Throne Hall, some official government office, and the King’s residence grounds. It’s guarded and moated. We could see what seemed to be a small crocodile eating a turtle on the other side of the moat. Tourists that we are, Barbara pulled her camera out to take a picture of the turtle’s demise and very soon a guard-like person appeared. We just put the camera away and continued onward.

Once showered and shampooed, we left our bags with the front desk and hopped a taxi to Chatuchak Market. Bangkok’s wholesale market that only opens on the weekends - there are 8,000 stalls of everything you can imagine. And, again, brand name clothing and shoes everywhere, but no running shoes. I bought several pairs of earrings, a folding bamboo hat, a jade ring, a couple of popsicles, and lunch. Market lunches are the best because it’s guaranteed to be local fare, tasty, and cheap. I ate pork, of course, no noodles or rice though.

The best part of the day was the taxi driver from the hotel to the market. This guy was a real nutter. Funny, funny man with at least three screws loose. I gave him a big laugh when after we had exited the cab and he started to pull away I banged on his window to stop. I saw that a coin had fallen out of my pocket and onto the seat. Still being new to the Thai baht, I wasn’t sure how much it was worth, but I knew that I wanted it back. So, he stops the taxi, I open the door, he sees me retrieve the coin, and knowing what it is from sight, he cackles, “ha ha ha, one baht, ha ha ha”. It’s like 2.5 cents!

The market had so many things to sell and everything was so cheap-cheap that we decided another go at the market was in order before leaving for home. To make matters worse, we discovered FedEx and DHL shipping centers right in the market. That’s going to be a day for the shopping record books.

My favorite take-away from the market was these two Thai guys strumming up a storm on mini-guitars and banjo-like instruments to Blue Grass music. Thai Blue Grass - very cool!

With the market behind us and a few hours to spare, we found ourselves back on Khao San road drinking Singha beer, again. We heard some thunder and within minutes the street, and all its vendors, were being pummeled with buckets of rain. It seemed to last only half an hour and it didn’t stop the local vendors. They simply pull out plastic sheets to cover things, then it was back to business after the rain.

The cabbie from the hotel to the airport was a very nice man. Language impaired as the two of us were with each other, we managed quite a bit of conversation. I noticed he had a picture of two kids on his odometer panel and I asked about them. He lives in Bangkok as a cabbie most of the year. He tries to go home, north near the Laos border, for a few weeks every six months… it’s very typical that men from the rural areas come to Bangkok to work, make money, and only go home once or twice a year. He has a wife and three kids: a daughter and twin boys. The twins were born during the Atlanta Summer Olympics and his wife let him name them Big and Bomb… given the bombing of the Olympic Village.

The new Bangkok airport is very nice, air-conditioned on the lower level, and has all the service amenities needed, like bag storage ($3US/day/bag). The travel book suggests not flying Lao Airlines. Apparently, they don’t keep up their equipment. Our flight was fine and no one died. Arriving in Vientiane Laos was interesting. The drive from the airport to our guesthouse made me think we were going to need to cut our stay in Laos short. It was seedy with smoke from burning trash fires and car exhaust filling the air and filling our lungs. Then, our guesthouse just didn’t feel safe. I went to bed hoping the next day would show me things to make me stay in Laos.

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