After 4 days in Bangkok I have managed to fall down the stairs of a famous Wat (twisting same foot injured skiing), crack my big toe on an immovable cement block in the sidewalk, and unwittingly eat durian, thinking it was cooked and therefore would not smell like rotting flesh.
The wats are small oasis of calm in this traffic-crazed city. We went to one on my first evening here, after Thai class. I sat in on the class just to experience it, and was actually totally comprehensible (though I remember none of the words) because the teachers use a total immersion/theater method, and they animatedly talked for an hour about diarrhea, constipation, and tapeworms. Afterwards Stef took me to a small spirit house – built to appease the spirits that had been haunting workers who were constructing an enormous hotel on that patch of Bangkok – and we lit incense, laid woven garlands of jasmine, and prayed with the Buddhists. Nearly all buildings have these little shrines, even private houses. Wats are much bigger, they are the cathedrals of Thailand, usually surrounded my plants and bells that you can bong to your heart's content, then you remove your shoes and sit inside on little mats.
The hazards on the sidewalks (can you call them sidewalks if they are actually sand pits and improvised cafes serving steamed cow knees and tapioca drinks?) are avoidable, nearly everyone simply takes taxis or taxi motorbikes, never walking anywhere. Which isn't unreasonable considering how hot it is and how cheap taxis are – one euro gets you 3 or 4km depending on traffic. But traffic is astounding. I have given up and walked on two occasions already because it was faster than waiting for lights to change and thousands of buses/trucks to move.
Durian, well. I am not sure why they say it tastes like heaven. But it certainly smells like hell. I had that goo on my molars for 20 minutes.
A surprising number of Thai towns have canals. Bangkok has a network, and for the equivalent of 10cents you can ride up and down them in low-slung boats. This morning I went to what is known as the Floating Market, in a town 1.5 hours south of Bangkok. We took a boat decked out with a motor improvised from a truck, arrived at the market, and switched to smaller boats. There, an ancient man dexterously paddled me and 4 others along canals teeming with boats selling mainly fruit, but also sticky rice treats wrapped in banana leaves, hats ( I bought a straw cowboy variety), candles, soup, etc.
I bought two fruits I've never seen before – mangosteen and a sort of hairy lychee – very tasty.
When we returned to Bangkok I learned that not only had there been a 10,000 strong protest against the current government yesterday, but there had also been one today. The city is so big I never saw anything.
Stef and I are leaving for Ayutiya tomorrow. It's described as one of the ancient capitals, so we're planning to bike around it, provided our knees aren't poking us in the armpits as we pedal, people are much smaller here.
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