Bangkok: the Fabulous and the Fetid

We were sooooo excited to embark on a two-week vacation from Japan, off to Thailand! Nick and I, along with our friend Cat, were looking forward to warm temperatures, delicious food, spiritual exploration, beautiful beaches, and unknown travel adventures. Leaving Furano`s below-zero temperatures and piles of snow, we took the efficient and timely train to Sapporo. Our flight from Sapporo to Osaka was on ANA, a precisely-run Japanese airline company with sticky-sweet flight attendants who changed their cute little blue-grey uniforms multiple times throughout the flight. We departed from Osaka Kansai airport on Thai Air, a welcome change from the Japanese culture to which we have grown accustomed (and tired). Thai Airways` seats were each different bright shades of magenta, yellow, neon green, and purple. The blankets, pillows and eye pillows were the same brilliant purple. Hooray for color! The flight attendants were gracefully dressed in long Thai-style embroidered skirts. After a short 4-hour flight, we arrived in Bangkok!

With no sleep and a fast shower, we fell upon breakfast. Fruit lassies in various flavors, fried-banana-stuffed french toast with jasmine honey, thai jasmine rice and vegetable stir-fry. . . we were delighted. And off to see the city! We had only scheduled one day in Bangkok and were determined to give it our best. Our first discovery was a fabulous market and more fruit smoothies. After that we explored multiple wats (temples) and touristy sites via the assistance of a famous Thai tuk-tuk (3-wheeled smog-spitting stomach-lurching super-cheap taxi). We were also coerced to make some stops at a travel agent and a tailor, stops which provided kick-back gas coupons to our tuk-tuk driver. So be it.



The next photo is the inside of one of Bangkok`s numerous and spectacular Buddhist wats. It was fortuitous that we arrived in the city on a Buddhist holiday, which meant that we witnessed real Thai people worshiping or meditating at these religious sites, rather than the tourists who likely usually swarm the wats.



Some worshipers at the feet of a giant golden Buddah. When Buddhists bow three times before the statue of Buddah they are taught to pray for "Loving-kindness, Purity, and Wisdom". I love this meditative act.



A glimpse into a wat, where a Buddhist monk was speaking with a layperson.



We left the city after only one day, in order to spend Christmas at a Thai Buddhist monastery on a nearby island. On our way out of Bangkok via taxi (a proper air-conditioned taxi with doors and windows), we saw this boy while we were stopped at an intersection. He and his sister stood outside our taxi window and stared at us with sad eyes, imploring that we buy some flowers from him. His sister worked other taxis filled with foreigners. After completing transactions the duo returned to a cement shack next to the road, to wait until the change of light brought more possible customers.



The thing that touched me most was watching the adolescent girl flower-seller. She entered the cement block structure and flopped down on a motorscooter parked inside. Then, just like all teenage girls in Omaha, Osaka, and anywhere else, she critically inspected her image in the mirror of the scooter, fixing her hair and perhaps wishing for a different life. Of course I remember that feeling. At my work here in Japan, I see my students with that feeling, every day.



These shacks were built under Bangkok`s elevated toll-super-highway, next to a blocked and stagnant waterway.