A month (actually, nearly three months now… two since I started writing this!) goes by pretty quickly when you’re keeping busy, and I guess I have been. Mostly I just have my head down working, although there have been a few side trips that I will write about when I find the time. But I was wondering if I would find Bangkok more or less distracting this time around, and the answer, it seems, is that it’s pretty much the same as it was before.
I got a condo in the same building I was in last year, so everything is almost freakishly familiar. I hadn’t forgotten much–the lady on the corner with the delicious chicken on a stick, the one-dollar bag of croissants and my favorite Vanilla Cereal at Big C, the way you’re expected to mash the door close button on the elevator incessantly, the way to ask the clerk at the 7-11 to nuke your burger-in-a-bag for you.
I even remembered what little of the language I had memorized… yes, no, thank you, sorry, never mind, pork, chicken, etc… although from the giggles I get anytime I say those things near Thai people I infer that my pronunciation is still atrocious.
There’s new things to experience, of course…
But my feet find their own way around, to the gym, to the pool, to the BTS station, to the bus stop. I have a new route, down the road to Monica’s new condo, walking past the now fully constructed and functional International School that I watched being built last year. More buildings are going up down that street now, low-rise condos lining the khlong, part of a continuing building boom in the little T77 community here.
I still haven’t found out what T77 means.
I have realized why I like this spot so much, though. It’s not exactly a gated community, nor is it entirely planned–there are little chunks of property in the development that seem to be privately owned, with traditional neighborhood houses or small businesses in them. But the area is slightly segregated, sitting on a peninsula formed between the khlong and an expressway, and vehicle access is limited. That makes it a lot more peaceful than just about anywhere else in Bangkok. The modern Habito mall across the street is full of all the modern shops and conveniences you could ask for. You needn’t ever venture out if you prefer not to.
I ran into an expat at the gym and he had noticed it as well. Outside, the frenetic activity of a global megacity. Inside, a quiet, lush oasis in which to relax and recharge.
But at the same time, half a block away, crossing below the expressway, you’re right in the impenetrable heart of the city, a soi lined with food and mystery (and sometimes mystery foods!). A public washing machine sits in the entry to a massage parlor. A dark hallway disappears into an apparently endless building. Through an open door, you might see a factory floor in full swing or a family sitting down to dinner, all on the same block. There’s the suggestion that every door, every alley, every hallway, holds a microcosm of the human experience that you could spend a lifetime diving into and learning about.
Multiply it all by the nearly 1 million rai that Bangkok covers and it boggles the mind. Still. I noted in my post about Bangkok living last year that the city is “…fascinating, and perhaps endlessly so.”
So far, that’s still proving correct.
I also posted a picture last time highlighting a local neighborhood concern, stray cats:
The picture was taken at the exit of the Thong Lo BTS station, which isn’t really my neighborhood, but I happened to stop there to go to a specific restaurant last week (Beccofino, which was excellent, if you happen to be in the neighborhood).
As I’m walking down the steps, I see this at the exact same spot:
Shopkeeper – 0
The cats clearly won that battle!