Sweat & Buddhas

Hi everybody. I'm here at the My House Guesthouse in the Khao San neighborhood in Bangkok. My room was 160 Baht, which is just under 5 USD. The fan works. The bed had a fitted sheet and a pillow but nothing else but it's quite warm here and you don't need a blanket. The fan worked as well as soon someone told me you had to slide the keychain thing in the slot to get everything going. The fan levels were 0,1,2,3 and 4. 0 was off so I figured 1 was the lowest but 1 was like a gale force wind. I didn't think to try the 'higher' levels so I slept that way. I think I went to bed around nine and I was wide awake this morning at 4 and out on the street around 4:30. There was a lot of action, plenty of folks still drinking Singh. I shot some pool with a prostitute for a while then went back and took a nap in an attempt to weather the jet lag.

Bangkok is nice. They people are all very sweet, even when trying to encourage you to get in a cab or tuk tuk or buy something you don't want or need. The traffic is a phenenmonal nigthmare. Some of the lights are literally 5 minutes long. There's an abundance of motorcycles all over the place. The opposite side of the street thing doesn't take much getting used to. One tuk tuk driver made some daring moves yesterday. There doesn't seem to be much rage or impatience in the pandemonium. I saw a bunch of beautiful temples and some large Buddhas. The food is great. I met up with Dan Vetere and we checked this ultra new shopping mall which was quite a spectacle. The food court alone seemed about as big as Shea Stadium.

I've refrained from taking street photos so far. I just haven't felt like it. The one picture I really wish I had gotten was a family on a motorcycle in the following arrangement. (This is a small bike, motorbike really.) From front to back, little boy about 5, dad driving, little girl about 3, mom in back. Mom and Dad with helmets, kids without. Totally normal, weaving through traffic.

Time to call Dan and head toward the weekend market, an affair about 'the size of central park', with 15,000 vendors with all kinds of goods.

Pictures next time or whenever some good ones come along. Later folks, back into the heat.