Part 3: The Bangkok and its cars

Note: This is the third part of three. Scroll down and start reading at part 1 then make your way back up the page. Also, you will notice photos in this post which have nothing to do with it. They are from the Bangkok trip, I promise... just not that relevant to the post.

Sometimes to make myself feel really far away from the states, I turn on Seattle's KUOW and listen to NPR. Interspersed through the Broadcast are traffic reports. It is fun in the morning to listen to afternoon traffic in Seattle. "You are stop and go on the bridges and will find yourself in a real mess on the ship canal bridge." I sit back, remember the days when traffic seemed important to me, think of Chiang Mai traffic, and then feel like I'm living someplace far away from what is familiar. Not that Chiang Mai doesn't have traffic, but when you commute around on a little 125cc scooter, traffic doesn't seem to matter too much. Most the drivers here leave a space between the curb and themselves which creates an unofficial but still relied on extra lane that all motorcycle drivers use to zip up through the traffic. In fact one of the hardest things to get used to when I was back in states this summer was not being able to zig zag through traffic even when I was on Megan's motorcycle. The ethic just isn't there in the states, but here... anything goes.


[Me and a hand made metal alms bowl maker] After leaving Hong Kong, I had three days planned in Bangkok. We met up with Megan at the Suvurnambuhmi (pronounced Suvrumbum) airport in Bangkok and then attempted to hop in taxis to take us to our hotel in the heart of town. Or at least in the heart of the part of town where we needed to be. The four of us couldn't all fit into one taxi, at least without a major argument from the taxi liason that one must use in order to get a taxi at the airport. Josh and Kat got into one. Megan and I into another and off we went down the express way paying tolls as we pass them but at least cruising.
Then we got off the tollway.
A dead stop.
[The yellow flag is The King's flag, the other flag is the Thai flag, and I'm hiding in the shade looking at Bangkok below] In America, most traffic lights are timed and automated, and for the most part we wait around for 3-5 minutes at the very most for the light to change and then get some movement. In Thailand, computers are expensive and police are cheap. Every intersection has a cop sitting in a little booth who manually switches the lights whenever he sees fit. This could work quite well if there was any coordination between intersections, but as far as I can tell. There is not. So what happens are major, and I mean 1-2 km long lines behind lights as the cop lets one (usually of four) direction of traffic go at a time and tries to wait for it to clear out.
[Cool mother of pearl door] I have literally sat at the front of a line waiting for the light to change for 15 minutes. Now imagine being at the back of that line. Now imagine you are in Bangkok (in Chiang Mai we don't have that many lights) and you have to go through 10 of these intersections.

Welcome to Bangkok. After one hour of sitting in a taxi (at least it was air conditioned) and moving about 10 blocks, Megan and I decided it might be better if we just walked to the hotel. However, the taxi driver wouldn't let us out of the taxi without paying a 150 baht (about 30% of the fair) fine because he knew that he was going to have to sit in this traffic for another 1-2 hours, because for some reason, it is impossible to turn off the street he was on (which is true- don't know why you can't but once you are on some of the roads, there is no way off for a long while- this could explain another source of the traffic) We payed our fine, got out, and dodged mayhem on the road (a familiar Thailand kind of mayhem with beggars, food stalls, t-shirt shops, stray dogs, hookers, and random building built into the sidewalk). But this was better than the traffic as it hadn't moved an inch for the whole time we walked beside it. As far as I know, that poor taxi driver is still on that street trying to get off.

Welcome again to Bangkok.

[Bangkok, the ultimate test for the ultimate man] Bangkok is a great town with lots going on and plenty to see and do. But here is my overwhelming impression of Bangkok (as a visitor who was staying downtown): Getting around in Bangkok sucks. It is almost completely crippling. Walking around is no good because there are no emissions controls and half the cars are detuned to allow huge amount of unburnt fuel (experienced as huge plumes of smoke coming out of tailpipes) and feature no mufflers. Riding in taxis is no good for the reasons stated above. Tuk-tuks are all dishonest and have completely killed their own market by never taking you where you want to go. There is a sky-train and a subway line, but these only go to a few places and you have to take a taxi from the stops anyway. There are motorcycle taxis which have the ability to weave through traffic at high speed, but they have the ability to weave through traffic at high speed which isn't the safest way to go. Besides, they end up driving down the sidewalk half the time and I don't want to give money to support that. So there you have it.
As a local, I'm sure you learn to plan and deal with the traffic, but as a visitor, I'm not quite sure I enjoyed it too much.

That said, Megan and I did some cool stuff. We went to an insanely huge market that features jeans, bags, puppies, fish, shirts. fighting cocks, and lots of food. This market is about 1km square and goes on and on and on. [A long reclining buddha] We went to a nice giant reclining buddha and adjoining temple. We payed 18 dollars (a godly sum in thailand) to go see a movie, but here is what you get: A private pre-movie lounge with a bartender who thinks a martini is 1/2 vodka and 1/2 vermouth (the lounge was nice though), a movie theater with only 50 seats all of which are electric reclining leather lazy boy style recliners, and attendant who unfolds your blanket and fluffs your pillow, and an amazing screen and sound system. This is high life movie watching. [Cats and a statue, the start of Megan's critter pics] We went to the Bed Super Club and drank amongst Thai celebrities. Climbed at enormous outdoor climbing wall that wobbled when you were at the top and where they just switched all the lights when it was time to go. We ate some good food. And we hung with good company.

I can't say I love Bangkok, I can't say I hate it. But I will say that I am not dying to get back there anytime soon.

When I finally came home to Chiang Mai after all my travels to Macau, Hong Kong, and Bangkok all of which have extremely different feels, it felt good to be back in a city that is just the right size, with just the right amount of craziness, and extremely friendly people.
Chiang Mai feels like home and that feels good. I have to admit that it is going to be very difficult to find a place to live that I could like more than here. I sort of hope that I do tire of this place by June because that is when we are leaving, but I'll worry about that when I need to. Like in June. For now, I will continue to live my life day by day and enjoy the present. Life is good and I really have nothing to worry about... except trying to heal my shoulder.








[Dog clothes for sale at the market. Now that it is cold season- meaning it gets down to 60 at night- all the dogs wear clothes]











[Critters at the market]









[Megan's favorite puppy at the market]