Bangkok, Thailand (Part II)

House along khlong.
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Back in Thailand.  We love Thailand so much, but it was so hard to leave Vietnam. I know that we'll be thinking about and talking about Vietnam for a very long time.  So, it was so bittersweet to leave. But, we do love Thailand. We've both often said that it would be great to live and work in Thailand for a couple of years. It's such an amazing city, and we live in San Francisco, another amazing city, so it's really saying something that it's so hard to go back home and leave this place.

Boys in boat along Khlong Tour
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We didn't have too much in the ways of plans for our last couple of days on the trip, but we knew that we wanted to go to Lumphini Park, Suan Lum Night Bazaar and on a Khlong tour.  Unfortunately, we also had to go back to our respective tailors for more fittings and adjustments. At first, we never thought that that would be a problem. We stay at the Suk 11 hostel on Soi 11/Sukhumvit Rd. because it's so close to the BTS, (the skytrain). The skytrain, being air-conditioned to simulate arctic temperatures, is a wonderful respite from the heat and humidity, (although we continuously worry about pneumonia setting in due to the extreme changes in temperatures). I mention this all because traffic in Bangkok is pretty bad. No, it's really bad. No, it's extremely bad. You can find yourself in a cab, going 2 or 3 miles, and it could take well over an hour. It can really be quite stressful. So, between the skytrain and the river taxis along the Chao Phraya, you try and cut down on getting screwed in cabs. Unfortunately, Sukhumvit is home to some of the worst traffic, and you're not always really close to a BTS station, so getting back to our hotel for a quick stop became very difficult. It may affect where we stay next time when we invariably make it back to Bangkok. We love Suk 11, but we were thinking that this may be our last time there. It's gotten a little pricey for the digs, but more than that the location has become inconvenient. Ah, Suk 11. We love you so, and will never forget you.

I became enamored with waving to every single person I that we passed, (and there weren't many), and each was met back with a smile and wave.

Houses along khlong.
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Unfortunately, Laurie's tailor wasn't really within easy access from a river taxi or the BTS, so we had to take cabs, and in many ways in wound up taking a bit of time. So, we never got to go to Lumphini Park which really bummed us out. We had some fun experiences though. We had one cab driver with a bit of an anger management problem. Sweet, nice guy, but when he realized he made a wrong turn, and it would take a while to double back, he was none too pleased. But the best was this one guy, we called him Happy Buddha, because he was sweet and a little bit round, but above all that he had the greatest disposition and would laugh like you can't believe. It was one of those unique, genuine, from the belly up, earnest laughs. The infectious kind that immediately pulled you into his world of joy and wonder. He spoke very little English but was inclined to test it all on us by asking us all sorts of questions about ourselves. Where we're from, how long we're staying, where we've been, what we like, if we have children, and I can't remember what else. We loved him. When we all realized that traffic back to Sukhumvit Rd., (we were headed to the hostel), would be too intense, he took us to the nearest BTS station. I have to say, his light-hearted anxiety about fighting the traffic and then relief at just dropping us off at BTS was so fun. We really loved him. And again, these are really the best experiences. These are really the experiences that tell us about how we want to live in these countries for a while. Not because the temples are great and the things are cheap, but because of the culture. Because the people have a different way about them, and we want to know that, and them, better. We want to be in their worlds and talk with them, share with them, laugh with them, and cry with them. We want to be, if only for a short time, in a place that thinks about things differently, if only to know what it is to think about things and see things through a different lens. If only to get yet another chance to realize how small the world is, and yet how big it is at the same time.

Swimming in khlong.
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We did make the Khlong tour though. Laurie was very excited about this, yet I was a little more skeptical. We've been on boat tours before, and seen floating and fishing villages, so I was afraid that this might be a watered-down version of Tonle Sap in Cambodia or Halong Bay in Vietnam. We read to go to the 9th river taxi stop and bargain from there. We read that about 400 baht for an hour was to be expected. We didn't know if that was per person, or for two. We saw one guy who wanted something like 3000 baht at the 1st river taxi stop, (Saphan Taksin). When we tried to haggle him down to see what his max was, he got pretty annoyed and brushed us off. Okay. He's not our guy. So, we road the boat to the 9th pier. By the way, we love the river taxi. Have we mentioned that?

Rear of temple as seen along khlong. I'd love to see this Buddha from the front.
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When we got off, we found many different stands peddling their trips. It seemed like 1500 baht for a two-hour boat tour for the both of us, was the going rate. That seemed too much for me, especially considering that I was a bit skeptical to begin with. So, we continued walking in from the pier, and we found another person. They were about 1200 baht. Oh, okay. So, the further from the port we walk, the lower it gets. Okay. Cool. So we kept walking, then we found somebody that we talked down to 1000 baht for the both of us. Considering that the one post, in our research said 400 baht for one hour, and that was one year old info, and this was 1000 baht, just over that rate, we were okay with that. We told him we'd think about it and continue walking to see if we could get cheaper. This one lady approaches us, and solicits a trip. We ask how much, she says come with me. So, this tiny woman, a little hurricane, tears through the crowded little market there just outside the pier, crashing through people on a mission, and we dutifully follow. She takes us to this stand that is actually back near the port. We ask how much. He'll go as cheap as 1500 baht for both of us. We say no way, we can get it for 1000 baht over there. He thinks we're lying. He laughs, and says go ahead and do that then. So, we do.

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Dude was I wrong. The Khlong tour is really truly amazing. We were the only people on this long-tail boat. Our driver a dark and joyous pot-bellied man with a quiet disposition and a quiet confidence. He takes us through the canals of Bangkok, where the hustle and bustle and car horns and smog and crowded streets and 50 year old creepy white men with 14 year old Thai girls all disappear, and life slows down to less than a crawl. Children swim and splash about, dogs lazily lay on precarious ledges along the water with a torpor usually only evident on George Bush's face during a speech, fishers gather their wares in their long tail row boats, sorting and counting, women feed babies, and all of this is among stilted shacks interspersed with more lavish and resplendent houses all perched along the khlong (canal). Faces are rare, but when seen, they're merely conducting their day to day business of fishing and cooking, a bizarre juxtaposition of rural, ancient life, just yards away from the hectic metropolitan buzz of Bangkok. Each passing face is weathered and worn from a life of work and strife, yet joyous and kind, sincere and welcoming. I became enamored with waving to every single person I that we passed, (and there weren't many), and each was met back with a smile and wave. I just had to, had to prolong these last few moments of the trip. I had to, had to enjoy the communal disposition of the local people. We stopped at an orchid farm, a truly cool part of our trip. Hundreds and hundreds of orchids, many suspended by wire, with their roots protruding from their pots like tentacles reaching for the ground, all in amazing colors that I've never before seen on an orchid. With bread we purchased at the beginning of the trip, we fed fish, these large koi/catfish looking guys, outside of a Buddhist temple along the khlong. We passed by Wat Arun and Wat Pra Kaow and at the end of the trip slipped our driver 100 baht.  It was pretty freakin' cool.

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Suan Lum has changed a little, but not too much. It's the night bazaar that has stall after stall of clothes, textiles, jewelry, art, t-shirts, and other wares. It has a beer garden and stage with performances. We were told it was closing, and as Laurie understands it, the city is trying to buy the space it's on, but is having to go through an eviction process with each individual stall, which is, needless to say, time consuming. So some stalls are closed, and yet many are not yet. (Why they wouldn't start with the beer gardens and restaurants first, since without food and drink the night bazaar becomes less desirable, I'll never know, but am thankful for). So, we cruised through it. We didn't have much time unfortunately. I was pretty bummed about that. We love Suan Lum. Laurie gets into shopping mode and WATCH OUT. I'm just along for the ride. Unfortunately, it was our last night, it was past our bad time, and we had to be back at the hostel by 11pm for a fitting with Laurie's tailor. So, I was fatigued. It had been a long day. But, don't let the fool you. We got our shop on a little bit. So, we headed over to the taxi stand, where the taxis line up for rides. Now, because the ride has so much traffic to get back to Suk 11, taxi drivers try to bargain a rate with you, as opposed to using the meter. See, if they use the meter you're looking at 60 baht to get to our hotel from Suan Lum. At most, maybe 80, and that's even with traffic. The taxis are getting screwed by the traffic. A taxi meter starts at 35 baht and goes up, and like in the States, it goes up by distance traveled, but if you're at a stand still, it will go up by time. But, it doesn't go up quickly enough for it to be lucrative. Because taxi drivers are spending 20 minutes longer on a trip that they should, to get a person from point A to point B, they're significantly reducing the number of fares that they can get in a shift. As an example, a taxi may pick up a fare and take them from Suk 11 to Khao San Rd. and with the meter starting at 35 baht, will take 30 minutes to get there, because of traffic, and the fare will be 80 baht. But, if they didn't have to sit through traffic, the fare would be only a little less, let's say 60 baht, but they would get there in 15 minutes instead, and in the extra 15 minute difference, could pick up another 60 baht fare from one point to another. So, for their half hour, they would make 120 baht, where with the traffic, it might be only 80. So, do that enough in a day, and in a shift when you should have 20 fares, you only get 8 or so, that's gotta hurt.

Orchid farm.
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Why do I tell you this? Well, I would stick my head in the window of a taxi that pulled over.  I would say, "Sukhumvit, Soi Sip-et, Suk Sip-et," (our hotel and address). They would say, "200 baht." (Remember, a metered fare would be about 80 baht, tops). I say, "No. Meter."  They would get annoyed, (in the typical, cultural haggling way), and I would try to haggle with them to get it down to what the metered fare plus tip would be anyway. They wouldn't haggle. Usually, they would drive away. (Hey, you can't begrudge them, with the horrible traffic, they're getting screwed, but then again, we can't pay 200 baht for a 80 baht ride). Then, realizing that we were running out of time to get back to the hostel by 11pm, we just decided to accept a 100 baht offer, (which one or two had previously offered and we had rejected). Unfortunately, we were being flat out turned down now. So, we start walking to outside of the Suan Lum gates to find a taxi maybe more willing to take us home. A tuk-tuk driver comes up. He wants 200 baht to get back. We're normally not interested in tuk-tuks, but we've gotta get back, and this guy is willing to take us, for the right price. We decide that 100 baht we'll do. We begin haggling. He wants 120. We say nope, it's gotta be 100. He is cool. He's grips me by my shoulders and pleads for the sake of his family. We tell him we're sorry, but it's gotta be 100 baht. We walk away. He stops us. He agrees. We walk back to his tuk-tuk.

Orchid farm.
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Now, this trip can take over 20 minutes with traffic, and we've got 11 minutes to get back. We don't mention this of course, as it's pointless.

He seems to know. This guy is jammin'. Dodging, swerving, taking back roads and allies and circumventing traffic. We're holding on for dear life, and I've got this huge grin on my face. It's bizarre and crazy and dangerous and weird and I'm having just the time of my life. We don't want to go home.

We made it in 9 minutes.  We tip him.

Adam at airport in Bangkok, (Suvarnabhumi Airport), as we leave. :( :( :(
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The next day we go to Laurie's tailor to pick up her clothes, we do a little street window shopping along Sukhumvit, Laurie picks up a Gucci wallet and Chanel sunglasses. Then, we go back to the airport. We were looking for a taxi, but this airport super bus/shuttle thing sees us with our bags and picks us up. We ask if he's going to the right airport, (Bangkok has two), and if we'll make it in time, (assuming he has to make some stops on the presently empty bus), and he says yes. He's actually a little cheaper than a cab, so we board. Traffic gets crazy, and we start getting nervous we're not going to make it. We, of course, do. We have to head home now.

We're tired, we're sad we're heading back, our Bangkok flight to Taiwan is delayed, making our one hour layover to connect a precarious thing, and after running to our terminal in Taiwan and boarding our connecting flight we sit down in a tight, full row of 3, in front of a row of screaming bratty children kicking the backs of our chairs.

And on that flight we head home.