Exploring With Eyes Wide Open

The night consisted of broken sleep and I reluctantly awoke early to meet up with the group for breakfast and exploration of Bangkok. My first sights were of the street and the street vendors. One of my first sights of this was the mobile vendor. Some vendors drive motorcycles with their products in a side car, and some save the extra gas money and use their leg power. It seems to me that Thai people are anything but lazy. Much of what they do is by hand and without machinery.
This man wit the umbrella has the right idea, it is not cool in Bangkok. The weather report from Rebecca's husband upon returning to the U.S. was that the average temperature was roughly 95 degrees F, with an 80% humidity, for a grand total of a heat index of roughly 110 degrees F. No wonder my earrings rusted in a week and Rebecca's gum was melted EACH time she tried to chew it.

On our walk, we learned that transportation comes in many forms. This man is getting a ride from a "taxi" of sorts. I later learned that there are all sorts of ways to get around. As long as you'll give them money for it, there are many goods and services to be bought at a very cheap price (for us) .

This is the first of many of these small structures that we saw. We later learned that these represent the memory of someone who had passed and come to eventually represent protection from bad spirits by the Buddha. Often, you see large lots of these for sale as you are driving in the outskirts of a city. They are very beautifully decorated, often, and people work very hard on these decorations. They too, are of course, hand-made.

The streets were often busy and crowded. This man walking would be in danger there, if you ask me, and luckily he was fine. There is a great respect order to be followed, and the elderly take the top rung. The young, however, seem to need to earn that. For example, as we were crossing the street not long after this picture was taken, poor Rebecca was nearly run over by one of the motorcycle taxis pictured above. After a somewhat maniacal laugh, he drove off. I'm just glad we made it off that street alive. It is not my desire to walk or drive the streets of Bangkok alone.

Here is an example of your average street vendor. Generally, there are carts set up along the roads, and it would seem that they are all functioning 24/7 in this area. When in Kanchanaburi later, I found that many vendors put tarps over their products for the night. No matter what time in Bangkok you were out, however, it seemed you could always find what you wanted. I don't believe starvation will ever be a problem for those living in Thailand. I especially like this picture because it is my first sight of Thai barbecue. They just cook the chicken on sticks right there at the cart. I wish I had been bold enough to try some at the time, but I was still afraid of street food then. We were on a mission for water.
And what better place to get water than your local 711. Little did I know that local means EVERYWHERE. If I had counted the number of these convenience stores, I would have been in the hundreds-and those would only be the ones I actually saw. I was a little disheartened to see my vision of ethnicity and newness shattered so instantly with this store. On the up side, I found that bottled water was only about 12 Baht, which is about 40 cents in USD. I don't think you can beat that anywhere in America.




Finally, we all went walking, and I had my first experience with this magically intriguing fruit, the rambutan. I came to rely quite a bit on this when my stomach turned and wouldn't accept any more rice from my spoon. Later, TJ would teach me how to open this fruit simply by making a small slit and twisting the top and bottom in different directions. You can then just eat it out of the bottom half, and you have a handy container to put the seed in when you're done. Who needs a 711 when nature is already so convenient? I miss the fruit of Thailand (almost all that I tried) with all my heart. Fortunately for me, they make a canned rambutan and stuff it with pineapple, and I must say, the pineapple there is to die for. The bananas as well. There are many different kinds of bananas and each and every one of them is better than what we can get here. There is a certain sweetness that makes you want to keep eating more, and I surely did. I ate it plain by the bunches (they were smaller), and fried and even on a sandwich. This was not a Thai thing, I'll explain in a later blog. Ultimately though, little else was able to beat the variety, taste and attainability of the fruit during my visit.