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Published: December 31st 2010
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These photos are from the first two days in Bangkok, mid-May 2010. (Apologies for the paltry-crappy-fuzzy pictures, I didn't yet realize my camera was on its last legs.)
We finally managed to escape the gigantic Suvarnapbumpi Airport (ha! forgot how to spell it exactly but it's basically pronounced "soovannaboom") at around noon -- about 36 hours (counting the time change) after we left San Francisco International in the US.
We met with some of the representatives from our soon-to-be employers, who informed us that those teachers destined for Samkhok School would need to spend a few days in the city, as our residences close to the school were not yet ready for us. Our hostess drove us and our massive amounts of luggage to a downtown hotel (don't remember where exactly but it was the Silom area).
The hotel was only a few miles from the political demonstrations that were ongoing at that time and we drove by the outer edges of the barbed wired/stacked rubber tires-enclosed demonstration area on our way to the hotel. Fortunately, we were completely safe at the hotel and the buzz of activity around us suggested that most people carried on with their
normal affairs. I remember being really happy to finally arrive at the hotel. Fifteen hours in the air was more than enough, especially after feeling tortured in the very small (for tall me) economy seats.
Upon discovering that the hotel had a massage parlor on the second floor, our hostess asked were we interested in a massage? "YES!" She said she would engineer a volume discount price for us and a time was arranged for later that day. We settled into our fifth floor rooms and lay down on the much too hard beds for a nap before the massage.
This particular massage parlor, we eventually discovered, offered services that went "beyond conventional massage therapies." Welcome to Bangkok! We speculated among ourselves as to whether or not our hostess knew just how "happy" one could become at this particular parlor; to my knowledge none of us ever found out for sure one way or the other. Suffice it to say, massage parlors of all types are almost everywhere you look in Thailand.
The street outside our hotel had heavy traffic, to put it mildly. Said traffic included large numbers of motorcycles, sometimes literally a hundred or more
would go by in a minute or two, some of which would simply drive up onto the sidewalk if they felt it was too congested in front of them. What I remember most about watching this traffic was not only the intensity of it but also that -- despite constant delays, constant examples of "offensive" driving and maniac motorcyclists, a seemingly endless stream of traffic -- almost no one honked their horn or raised their voice. This was very different indeed.
Early next morning I walked about two blocks from the hotel (sans camera) and turned off the main street, just to take a look. What initially attracted me to this very narrow strip of concrete (roughly enough room for two medium-sized cars to squeeze by each other) was the adjacent small park--really only about a quarter of a city block by US standards. A club/restaurant across the street advertised live jazz.
The park contained a well-manicured grassy area surrounded by a stone walkway, and a couple of small statues and benches. A woman was practicing tai chi on the grassy area. Not particularly elaborate but certainly different than the concrete setting all around it. I walked along
the grass and decided to continue down the sidestreet (called a "soi"). My initial thought was "well, this doesn't look like it has much to offer but it's close to the hotel and my time is limited, so I'll take a look."
It was the first of many surprising soi experiences in Thailand. You can look down a sois and it'll seem like there's nothing much there. But you walk a short way and who knows? A beautifully manicured front lawn and attached small mansion, a fancy hotel, exotic sculpture, any number of interesting restaurants and shops -- superfancy to ugly and decrepid -- all on the same soi within easy walking distance of each other. One of the really fun things about living here is the constant unexpected as a reward for exploration. This particular morning I first saw the small park, then assorted street food stalls setting up for business in front of a gorgeous hotel front with fancy pillars and huge wooden doors at the entryway, next to a Buddhist temple with ornate carvings, and more.
The next day a group of us walked for awhile and ended up in a restaurant situated on the
top floor of a building. We enjoyed cocktails and delicious Thai food, as well as the impressive surroundings.
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