A Morning Walk In Bangkok

On an early morning stroll near the Asia Hotel

The heat of day thoughout most of Thailand can be unpleasant - there's just no way around it. Staying hydrated helps, as does limiting time out in the mid-day sun. Most of the time there I'm busy enough that sheer stubborness keeps me going, but I've learned to take advantage of the more pleasant times of day for my walks out among the "real life" of the neighborhoods there.

My favorite time for this is first thing in the morning, with the evening running that a close second. Not being much of one for the wild nightlife there I tend to find it easy to wake up early, before the club folks have regained consciousness and most tourists are still getting their bearings before assaulting the breakfast buffets. If possible, I like to be out of the hotel and walking by 07:00 at the latest. I love seeing the area I'm in awaken, and the lighting for photos has that golden hue you only get near dawn and dusk.

A cartload of bundled roses for sale is pushed along by it's proprietor

There hasn't been a post on the Asia Hotel yet, but I've stayed there several times on earlier visits. It's not that it's all that lovely a hotel; truth is it's getting a little tired and usualy has so many busloads of tourists that the lobby often more closely resembles the cavernous Hua Lamphong train depot, but it has some key points we'll address another day. I'm mentioning it because today's photos were taken on a morning walk within a few blocks of its front door, so if you happen to stay there you could take the same pleasant walk.

Walking through the front doors that morning (held open by the same older uniformed man who has been there for years) I turned left and walked the few short yards to the side street and again took a left. Although I didn't know the area - and seldom do - I had a card from the hotel to give a taxi driver if I got lost, so I took out my camera and "slowed my roll" as the kids today would say, stopping often to look around and observe the sights, sounds and smells as the neighborhood came to life: delivery people with carts of produce, dollys of boxed goods and baskets of foodstuffs slung over their shoulders they jockeyed for sidewalk and street space with delivery trucks, tuk tuks and taxis while lines of motorscooters wove snake-like between them all.

Food carts, pedestrians and cars share space along a side street

Parents and older siblings walked hand-in-hand with kids in their school uniforms: white shirt, blue or dark red skirt or shorts. The food carts along the sidewalks all had a few people standing in front of them, waiting for their breakfast or lunch bag. The smell of rice porridge and BBQ chicken and pork drifted along on the relatively cool air being stirred by the movement of traffic (and humanity).

There's a constant rumble and buzzing of autos and motor scooters, punctuated by the shouts of children already at play and the tell-tale electronic "ding dong" of the 7-11 store across the street from where I'm standing to take this all in.

A cartload of rambutan: a delicious, easy-to-peel snack

I joined a couple of others waiting to buy a plastic pint bottle of fresh-squeezed orange juice, startling one woman who didn't expect to see a Big Pink Guy when she turned to glance over her shoulder. The juice was the Nectar of the Gods, and I stood off to the side of the cart to savor it while the cart vendor continued to do a brisk business. Thai who were waiting caught my eye and we shared a smile.

I lost track of time and was probably out wandering for a couple of hours, but it was a treat I never tire of. Just taking the time to go a few blocks can take you into an entirely different world.

You don't have to walk far to immerse yourself in the "real" Thailand, and it's something I heartily reccomend.

An alleyway leading to homes along the way - one of many

Thai Smiles, Part 17: Students

Luck has been with me while visiting wats and tourist spots frequented more by Thai people than farang or other tourists. Oftentimes I've run into school groups on a field trip of one sort or another and have gotten a number of "smile" pictures of small groups of students, such as the kids above who were on a school outing to a small temple in Amphawa.

On morning walks around commute areas you'll often see groups of students on their way to school, stopping to buy their lunch or a snack, sometimes sneaking in a round of video games or just gathered together to wait for a bus, like the three above.

The group below was taken after regular school hours, and they're also an example of kids collecting funds like we saw on May 7th. They weren't dancing to a drum beat, but they had a collection box. They were a pleasant bunch, and I did my small part.

Begging Children: The Darker Side

On August 3rd there was a post that showed two little boys giggling while begging at the foot of the stairway outside the Sala Daeng BTS station. At the time I didn't go into the less pleasant aspect of this seemingly casual activity that can sometimes be a well-orchestrated business, but after hearing a recent story from a friend there I guess maybe it's time to talk about it. I'd rather not go into the story from yesterday's email, but it makes the examples below pale by comparison.

Some of you read Dicken's "Oliver Twist" in school, or perhaps saw one of the sanitized stage or movie musicals adapted from it. In the adaptations the less savory portions of the story were minimized, and it's understandable that when we see kids on the streets of Thailand (or Vietnam, or India) it's easy to merely think they make a living collecting odd contributions to help support their families, and this is sometimes the case.

However...

On an early trip to Thailand, my friend stopped me from putting coins into a child's cup at a BTS station, explaining that it wasn't a good thing to encourage the behavior. "Why not?" I asked "They might not eat today otherwise." "Bad people hurt them," he said in a somber tone, and pointed to what looked like stripes showing on the little girl's legs. I understood instantly, but he waited until we were a few yards away from the child before making a whipping motion with his arm. "If she does not bring home enough money, she is beaten."

That seemed like all the more reason to drop money into the hand still stretched out in our direction, but I caught the meaning of his reasoning. He went on to say that very small children are stolen from villages, sometimes even drugged and held on a sidewalk in someone's arms who may not even know the child's name.

Children have had extremities amputated or been otherwise disfigured in an attempt to boost their "sympathy" factor and raise their daily take, he said.

"Oh, please," I said. "That happens in movies like 'Slumdog Millionaire' - it doesn't really happen HERE, does it?" His face darkened and he said "There is a boy in my Grandmother's village I know who has had this happen to him. He got away and returned home, but now he has only one foot." I've since met the boy, and while I can't vouch for how he lost the foot, he only has one to get around with.

Some children (like the one above) have an obvious legitimate disfiguring disease and hopefully have a slightly better life due to the kindness of passing strangers, but we can't know for sure about many too many of them.

I suppose the best we can do is just follow our hearts and give money to folks on the street as we see fit, but I personally find myself being far more skeptical - and I don't like that.

Partly out of frustration, but also in an effort to better help children there I became involved in the Pattaya Street Kids Support Project. I know I've already mentioned this organization in another post, but I bring them up again as a way to make a positive difference with the confidence that donations are actually making a lifetime difference of an entirely more worthwhile and positive manner. I hope you'll look into it.

Those Scary Thai Mannequins

Some of my friends had nightmares about clowns when they were children. Clowns certainly can be scary (Pennywise the Clown in Stephen King's "It" comes to mind) but the ones my friends woke up screaming about were of the white-faced, red-nosed, balloon twisting variety, like you'd see at a circus.

I saw the mannequins above on my very first visit to Thailand. At first I figured the shop owners had gotten them cheap from a distributor stuck with a few custom made heads left over from a poorly designed order. No such luck. I saw them all over the place and still see them today - their bizarre, garish faces of happiness run riot standing guard in stalls in Jatujak and stores in malls throughout the kingdom, but for the life of me I can't understand why. Have you ever seen someone that happy? I won't even begin on the hair colors.

I've seen a couple similar examples in Taiwan, but I don't know if these creatures are common in any other countries or not. If you've seen them elsewhere, please leave a comment below and let us know where, would you?

It's likely that they were designed to be "hip" and "with it"; selling allegedly Western style to a population that wanted to be on the cutting edge of fashion, but I think that's giving them more credit than their worth, frankly.

Maybe they were intended to help mothers keep their small children in line while shopping: "If you don't hush and behave this woman's going to come and take you away when you're sleeping and you'll never get to see anyone you love ever again!" The winking man certainly looks like someone a parent would warn their child to stay away from, that's for sure.

Labor Day - Workers

It's just past 10:00 on Labor Day here in the USA, a holiday that's been on the books since 1894 as a day originally intended to recognize the efforts of the working class folks of America - the "salt of the earth" as we'd say.

Without going into my own opinions on American work ethics (other than to say that using the word "ethics" for many working people in the US is being generous) I thought today it would be nice to share this day of recognition with the working folk in Thailand - especially those in the more humble parts of society: the laborers, those in service positions, the "salt" of the Thai working class.

We've already seen examples of hard-working people there and how their attitude toward work itself is enhanced by their outlook and dedication while finding a way to enjoy their job, so let's today just tip our hats to them, too.

To everyone everywhere, no matter what it is you do to keep a roof over your head and food in your stomach my wish for you today is this: may you find satisfaction and take some pride in whatever that is... and Happy Labor Day.

Stop Work: Taking A Day Off

Something that's always amused me is how some of my Thai friends say they're taking a day off from work. Here in the U.S. we'd say "I'm taking tomorrow off work to..." or "I'll be off tomorrow because..." - whereas many Thai will say "I'm stop work tomorrow" of "I stop work tomorrow and Monday for...".

I'm not making fun of them here, you understand - goodness knows most of my friends speak more English than I do Thai, and the more educated professionals (especially the doctors and the dentist) speak correct English.

Nevertheless, those with a more rudimentary knowledge of English often have things they've probably heard from other, like "stop work". I think it's kind of endearing.

So, this being Sunday and I have a full list of things here that need doing, "I'm stop work" and do a proper post tomorrow. Have a good day!

Sleeping, Part 7

It's been a little over a month since we've visited the Sleeping photos, so since a couple of you have commented that you like this series - here's another installment for you.

What I liked about today's header photo is the way these people were able to sleep along what was a reasonably busy Bangkok sidewalk in the mid-day heat. It's logical, given that they were on a lunch hour break and it was hot that day (remember the recent Mad Dogs and Englishmen post?), but it also shows the woman's two kids entertaining themselves while Mom snoozes. Organized "day care" for children is somewhat uncommon there, I'm told, and perhaps there were no family members available to watch them, so they went to the job site with Mom.

The man above was sacked out on a bench along Beach Road in Pattaya one morning. It didn't look too comfortable to me, but I'm a little older, too.

The last photo was taken along Patpong 1, around lunchtime. As is the case with most areas that see far more activity under neon light than sunlight it's a somewhat dirty-looking area during the day. The beer delivery man had taken a break while two women (one off to the left and out of frame) sat and visited on the street corner.

You don't see the delivery guy? Look closer: he's asleep in the back of the truck, on top of the red cases of Leo beer.

Same Same, But Different! Part 5: "Busking"

The slang term "busking" had eluded me for years. Being from the USA it wasn't something I'd ever connected with street musicians playing for spare change on a street corner or at a bus depot; actually it reminded me of a way to describe an argument. It wasn't until I was listening to a friend from England telling a story about busking at an underground station for rent money during his university days that the light came on and I understood.

A brother-in-law of mine is a gifted musician, and although he works in an unrelated profession he still enjoys going to an open air mall area near his old college and singing his songs for passers-by. It's therapeutic for him, I'm sure, much as this site is for me: we're able to share what we create with others and, with any luck, brighten someone's day just a little.

I saw that I had three images in a folder that were (as the Thai say) "same same, but different!", and since we hadn't done one of those since the story on 7-Elevens at the end of July it seemed like a good "long weekend" type post, this being the beginning of Labor Day weekend in the US. There are actually nine other posts with the "Same Same" label in the column to your right - the original post with the definition is here. These three pictures today are all of street musicians - or "buskers" for my UK readers - from three completely different places in Thailand.

The header photo is of an actual band playing a gig in Udonthani and not true street musicians, but my friend said he'd seen one of them busking a year or so before this picture, and that's "close enough for government work", as I like to say.

The kids above were sitting along one of the open walkways of Jatujak market, two of the guys playing guitar while the third sang his heart out. I didn't hear anything that would qualify as a happy tune, so perhaps he'd just lost a girlfriend or had some other shake-up in his life. Nevertheless, they were making money - and had a little more in their basket before I moved along.

The last photo was taken on Beach Road in Pattaya just after sunset one evening. The man was so garishly made up I wanted to keep walking, but just had to stop and look. I guess he won, since I dropped a 20 baht note in his basket.

The BBQ Boys Of Udonthani

[Here today is the story of the “BBQ Boys”, something a couple of readers had requested some time back. Actually, they probably wanted to see the other pictures that were taken the same day as the one I’d posted to a forum a couple of years ago, but they fit in with other recent posts so let’s use that as a justification.]

On the final day of a visit to Udonthani I went for one last stroll near my hotel while my friend toiled away behind a desk in another part of town. This was the same afternoon I ran into the Greek/Thai guy, saw the kids “hunting” with machetes in the canal, took pictures of the young couple and a few others and stopped in at the roadside barber shop, so it was an eventful walk.

The area I was in was within a few city blocks of the large Charoen Shopping Complex; just a block over from the street that passes in front of it, actually. There were a few BBQ places along within the same area, but that’s no great surprise – it’s a common type of restaurant throughout Isaan.

It was somewhere along about 3:30 in the afternoon and I’d stopped to watch the employees across the street setting up another BBQ while I finished a bottle of water I was tired of juggling while taking pictures. After downing the water and putting the empty bottle into the trash I took a few pictures to show friends back home just how big these places can be.

Walking a short distance farther I came upon another BBQ place on the same side of the street where I was walking, also filled with people scurrying around to set up tables, put out chairs and arrange supplies for the buffet-style service tables: bowls, plates, chafing dishes, and the likes.

I watched for a few moments before one of them looked up and noticed me standing there. “Sawasdee,” I called over to him, and that attracted the attention of the others nearby, who turned and welcomed me. I waved, and they waved back, smiling. One of them asked if I lived in Udonthani (actually, he said “Udon,” as it’s more commonly known) and when I held up the camera and said “AhmehriCAH” as it’s often pronounced by Thai he laughed and said “Welcome to Thailand!”

I motioned to him to bring his friends over for a photo, and he did. The first guy called out off to the back area of the restaurant, and a few more came shuffling over to take a break and be with their co-workers. A friend of mine has commented that he enjoys seeing the natural camaraderie and casual friendly affection the Thai display without the self-consciouness that seems to put walls around us in the West, and cited the top photo as a good example of that. I heartily concur. I'm adding detail of two of them "striking a pose" from another below.

Firemen vs Downtown Bangkok Traffic

It makes me cringe when I hear sirens anywhere in Bangkok, especially during the peak morning and afternoon traffic windows. While I give the Thai credit for understanding the need to move out of the way of emergency vehicles on their errands of mercy, if you've been in the more congested areas of Bangkok you know that sometimes there simply isn't spare room to allow them easy passage.

Emergencies overall tend to be a race against time; often a game of mere minutes. I know that if it were the building I was inside of it certainly would be.

From my window I heard a faint siren approaching along the street below and watched as a small plume of smoke become the larger black billowing tower above, rising above the 80+ story Baiyoke Tower, the single siren joined from other directions by several more. I couldn't help but wonder what they were dealing with traffic-wise during lunch hour, and made the same wish I do back home when I hear sirens: that it's only property damage and nobody's severely injured.

This fire was mentioned on the news later that afternoon, and I'd gotten my wish.