Sawadeekhap...

I was in Bangkok for 6 days last week preparing for a simulator training session while my wife attended a traditional Thai massage course in a school next to Wat Pho – Temple of Reclining Buddha. http://bml.uoregon.edu/keitan/watpho/

For those of you who have been to Bangkok, you know Bangkok hardly sleeps. Activities go on late or shall I say early into the wee hours in the morning. For every 200 meters we walked, we come across a massage joint or a 24-hour grocery store. Besides savouring authentic Tom Yum Soup and relaxing in the good hands of a Thai massage therapist, we just could not do enough shopping in this Asian City of Angels.

From Jatujak Weekend Market, where we could get practically anything under the sun including pets, to Suan Lum Night Market to seven-storey high Mah Boon Kong (MBK) Shopping Center to posh and trendy Central World, we were truly amazed by the variety and colours of Thai merchandise and hospitality.

That of Entrepreneur Spirit…

Thai people use every single space round the corners and along the walkways to set up store to sell things. Hawker food, clothing, cosmetics, women accessories, etc, you name it you have it. Some of the walkways are really not suitable for displaying goods. They blocked the narrow walkway especially during peak hours. Do they need to have a license to set up those stalls?

Life must be tough for the locals huh? God knows what is their cost price and profit margin. Stall owners usually communicate by punching in their calculators with a price too high for their goods’ appearance. Then we would punch in a lower figure and we would most of the time ended up at a price somewhere in between the two. And their ‘Cop khun khap’ (Thank you), most of the time, come with a warm smile and hands clasp in front of their chests. Then further down the road, another hawker would offer us a lower price for the same merchandise. Sh**! We have since learnt not to ask for the price of the same merchandise again once we have bought them.

That of Thai Hospitality and Urbanisation…

I couldn’t get enough of that warm smile and hands clasp in front of the chest welcome from Thai people. I found it so humble and friendly that it never failed to brighten up my day. But my day soon darkened when I hopped into a cab.

First of all, not all Thai taxi drivers speak English. So we have to get prepared to get out of the taxi if the driver does not understand where you want to go or simply refuse to turn on their meters. Some would demand a flat price if you are going to a congested area such as Silom Road or China Town in the evening where there is high chance of getting stuck in a traffic jam. And you can forget about that warm smile, not to mention the loose change you are supposed to get. Just round it up to the nearest 10 Baht and consider it as a tip (not a usual practice in this part of the world).

That of Bangkok Jam…

Have you ever got stuck in a Bangkok traffic jam? Try it, if you want to enrich your life experience on what urbanization has done to this city. The mass transit train system seems futile in alleviating the congestion even though it is really quite and comfortable. I guess it’s because the train fare is still comparatively more expensive than the taxi fare on certain routes. And the train stations are not at the most strategic locations.

That of Tom Yum Goong, Green Curry and Pad Thai…

Speaking about congestion, we were having Duck Noodle Soup at a roadside hawker stall off Yaowarat Road, Chinatown when it started drizzling. We had to quickly seek shelter when the stall helpers set up big umbrellas next to our small dining table. Here we were savouring the hot soup with steam blurring my spectacles when a car appeared out of nowhere moving slowly towards me on my left. It was trying to move out of the alley where this hawker stall seemed to be one of the many other stalls that were in the way of this car. The driver honked lightly and reluctantly each stall inched out slowly of its way including the fruit stalls behind me and me! I actually had to stand up, pushed my chair aside for the car to go through!

Ha ha! That was one of the most memorable dining experience I had in Bangkok. The steaming hot soup, the humidity, and the sign language in the absence of a menu coupled with the thoughts of whether it was hygienic enough to eat at a roadside stall, they made perfect ingredients for a truly Thai city stay.