This is my first entry for the “Liz & Chris take a Trip” blog, and it’s difficult to figure out where to start. So many places to begin and so many things to say, but saying them all would no doubt lead to an epic novel. So I’ll follow the example of Homer, epic poet who wrote The Odyssey, and just jump right into the middle of things – “in medias res” for all you literary nerds out there! – and start with what I’m doing at this exact moment.
It’s 10AM Bangkok time. My hair is wet from a shower, my first of the day, but most definitely not the last. The contents of my backpack are strewn across the foot of the hotel bed. (Of course, Chris’s stuff is still neatly packed away. Between the two of us, I am the messy one!) Chris and I are sitting on the bed happily tapping on our laptops and resting from our early morning excursion. Thanks to jet lag, we were both awake and restless at 4AM, unable to sleep. So we decided to take advantage of the early morning and catch the 7 D3 bus to the Pak Khlong Talad flower market to watch the vendors ready their stands.
We walked a half mile (about 1 km) to the bus stop with the pungent smell of sewage, sweat and general big city rank permeating the hot, humid air. “Ahhh, that’s the smell of Bangkok,” Chris said to me in the same way I tell him “That’s the smell of home,” each time we land in Hawaii and the fragrance of fresh flowers fills our nostrils. (I’ll take fragrant flowers over city sewage any day…but what am I saying, we were headed to a flower market!)
After seeing about a dozen buses come and go, the 7DH finally arrived. All the buses here seem to furiously clank and clatter down the streets, not like the labored lugging and groaning Seattle buses tend to do as they stop and go. I like that the buses here seem efficient, though not necessarily safe or on a schedule. They zip from place to place; pick up, drop off; sometimes they stop, but more often just pause. The doors swing open as the bus is still in motion, and people jump on and off, few words exchanged between driver and passenger. Not a lot of platitudes here, at least not the early commuters I encountered.
Our bus dropped us off alongside the Chao Praya River, where the flower market is located. The market was a jumble of carts, motos and people zipping through, all carrying huge bundles and baskets of vibrant, fragrant flowers. Orchids, marigolds, pikake, tons of other flowers and ferns that I don’t know the names of. Some folks hauled these gorgeous bundles of color from one spot to another; others crafted and arranged loose flowers into beautiful offerings for temples, or displays for hotels or restaurants (and lots more probably).
With so many fresh, vibrant flowers, it was quite a contrast to see them being arranged in such an industrial setting. (Kinda like seeing backpackers flying first class – it just doesn’t fit!) The part of the market we saw was in a concrete building so crammed with vendor stands that we had to squeeze through narrow walkways to get by. Most of the time, I raced to get out of the way, simultaneously snapping photos; neither Chris or I got any good photos from the market…all blurry. The ground was wet and muddy from water used to spray the flowers or shoot away the stems and leaves that didn’t make the cut. Mud splashed all over the backs of my legs. I saw several vendors who had pulled plastic bags over their socks, the pulled on their shoes to avoid the back splash. Smart choice. Next time I’m doing the same…makeshift rain boots!
- Mac power plug for that will fit SE Asia outlets
- Tevas or other sandals that wrap all the way around my feet (so I have good, functional walking shoes but still allow my feet to breathe in 100 degree heat)
- A not flashy watch for me – thinking I might go for a Swatch watch
- Sunscreen
- Bug Spray
- Pepto Bismol
- Antibiotics – Zithromax
Bye for now. Be back soon!