You are Either on the Bus or Off

Riddle me an answer if you will.

You are about to board a bus from here to there. Seven are waiting to board.
The bus arrives and has room for a total of 12 passengers. It already has 14 passengers from the previous city. None get off. How many more passengers can get on? The answer is four.
And what about the other three remaining?

They walk down Kaosan Road to the nearest Indian Restaurant, order a Singh Lager and Thali and celebrate their good fortune.

Early mornings in big tropical cities are wonderful. The air is warm, the traffic relatively light and people appear to be just waking up as the big city gears up for another day. We left the hotel and wandered to the end of the street where there is a big Temple complex. Not sure of its name and whether we could enter and whether we had to wear long trousers and whether we could take photos and whether we could wander all over the temple grounds.

The answer to all those questions appears to be: go right ahead.

As we rounded the side of one of the temples we were met with a group of say, 30 Thailanders walking in a procession carrying what appeared to be gift baskets. The gift baskets looked like they were selected and packaged by Kroger for they contained skin cream and Nutella, of all things. Lots of other gift items and everyone was dressed in their best (or shorts or sandals) and in the middle of the informal parade was a Monk in white clothing.

Was this his entry day into the Monastery or his "ordination" or send off or return? No idea. There was a "Hip, hip, Hurray!" Moment and everyone smiled and laughed and more Nutella was presented. No other Monks were in the procession, they were all in the temple chanting or presumably enjoying their own stashes of Nutella in the dining hall.

You have to appreciate the extreme colors of gold and blue and orange which sparkle in the tropical heat. Most of the buildings are white and decorated with gold. The banana trees make everything more exotic. We spent an hour on the "campus" and exited down a side path to a city street where we discovered a "Subway" sandwich restaurant: no kidding and a whole other world up along the outside walls. I assume the "Subway" was big on Vegetarian/Nutella subs but I can't prove it.

There were lots of backpacker and small upscale and downscale hotels and coffee shops. Lots and lots of locals staffing and living in the shadow of the Wat (Temple), lots and lots of travelers using the tourist places. It reminded me of the Middle Ages when the life of the people was lived out against the outer walls of the city for protection. Today, those walls form a portion of these folks lives and I imagine greatly hamper cell phone reception.

We wandered across the main road to the nearest 7/11 and bought some soft drinks. As we paid, a local dog wandered in off the street to the air conditioned store, proceeded to the dairy case and flopped down on the cool marble floor in front of the yogurt section. I looked at the clerk, she smiled and we left. That dog had the right idea. It had a cool place to lounge and we had to pack up and leave town.

But, as previously stated, our bus seats were preempted by a load of really sweaty, testy tourists. Our bus operator suddenly could not speak English when we asked for our fare back. It was worth $8 to not go, plus the unused hotel rooms we had booked in Ayutthaya. We were free and then realized we did not have rooms in Bangkok. We quickly regrouped and went to our old hotel then one of their sister-hotels where they assured us of a room. Of all people, we ran into our bus operator at the second hotel about an hour later. What are the odds in a city of 12 million people? His English had improved and Josh convinced him to loan us his cell phone for local reservations and we were set.

There is a place down by the river called the Amulet Market, where they sell, of all things, Amulets. Good luck amulets. It's a big enough trade that it gets its own mark on the tourist maps and is mainly for the locals. Crowded around it are water taxi and boat rides on the river, a myriad of eating establishments and plenty of excitement. Our tuk-tuk driver drove us there, stopped and spread his arms across the waterfront and announced, "Amulets!" We thanked him, paid and dove into the crowds.

You would be surprised how many images of Buddha, Ganesh, the King and the King's great grandfather could be devised. We searched through street after street of vendors and I was taken by some commemorative coin/amulets of the King's great, great, great grandfather ("King...1,2,3,4,5" explained the seller. Do the math, that would be the King's great, great, great grandfather.) OK, maybe, but it is cool and old and no doubt one-of-a-kind. No doubt.

I should pause to say that the people of Thailand have great respect and love for their king and queen, their pictures are everywhere. I saw pictures of him meeting with President Obama and in an official magazine of his life, there was a picture of the King playing saxophone with Benny Goodman. I am not making that one up. I like a balanced Monarchy.

If amulets and coins and necklaces and food are not what you are after, they also sold old dental implants. I could not figure if these were for keepsakes or for your own dental implantation. Needless to say, that was a first for me. Trust me, there is a THRIVING trade in used dental bridges on the shores of the river in Bangkok. No pun intended.

But the afternoon was waning and we were in need of our third shower of the day so we hailed a tuk-tuk who said the ride would cost 150 baht. It's always 150 baht. We packed it in for the afternoon and rested. Our night would be experienced in Bangkok's Chinatown.

Like every other Chinatown around the world in which I have been, this is a pretty authentic place. (If you really think about it, that is an absurd statement, but you know what I mean) An enclave of Chinese which contributes to the hearty ethnic mix of this city. Of course, we went there to eat Chinese Food and the tuk-tuk fare was 150 baht (bhat?)

After countless streets and alleys of looking around we stumbled into a Buddhist Festival of some sorts. The statues and Monks were surrounded by locals who were taking pictures on their IPhones and we could not discover if this was their mid-winter carnival or springtime festival or perhaps just a weekly gathering of several thousand of the faithful. But down the road was a Dim-Sum Restaurant and air conditioning and we celebrated the day with plates of BBQ pork and brazed sea bass. Happy to be in the city and not on the bus.

Peace, Bob