Thanon Khao San and Banglanphu

My two evening stopover in Singapore was reduced to only one due to a flight cancellation by Garuda Indonesia. I hardly arrived before I had to go back to the airport. My evening was spent watching the news (yes, I'm addicted) then enjoying a Northern Indian buffet in a lower level shopping center next to my hotel. Traditional Indian dancing and live music played throughout the evening. Took the MRT to the hotel from the airport, quite a large crowd inside but an opportunity to rub elbows (literally) with some locals. The city is scenic and very clean...not an assault on the senses like some of the other places I have visited.

01-Bangkok

On my way to check out of the hotel in Ubud, I passed the pond getting cleaned out. The water was gone and the beautiful koi fish were flopping frantically for breath. I urgently questioned the men cleaning the pond and they just shrugged. Later on it seemed that the fish were being picked up and put in a bucket of water. It was unclear but the way it was handled was so different that how I would have handled it, the care I would have taken...it brought me back to a horrible day in Oakland when I witnessed a young pit bull strangle himself to death across the street from my house. No one was around and I tried in vain to get the attention of the homeowners or get some tool to cut the dog down...but it was growling viciously at me whenever I got close. Seeing the fish struggling for breath cut through my attitude of detachment and observance I try to maintain while visiting places that while amazing and beautiful, on a different level can grab your heart and wrench it out. People in the world are living on an edge in a way that very few people from prosperous countries can imagine. Skeletal dogs, injured dogs (who don't get veterinary care and just die), people not having enough to eat...it just became overwhelming to me at that moment. The tender care that we are able to give to those we love is not always possible when you have severly limited resources.

02-Bangkok

On a less serious note, quite an uneventful plane ride this morning to Bangkok...arrived early afternoon and waited for a bit for my pre-arranged ride to show up. Every once in a while, I'll arrange transport...it takes the arrival stress down a notch.

The airport is new and modern and could be located in just about any large city in the world. School children were entering the airport as I was waiting on my car...taking a field trip I presume in their neat uniforms. In fact, most all of the schoolchildren I have seen on my trip have been in uniforms of some type. Seems to be the norm around the world.

The drive to my hotel took about an hour on a large modern freeway (British style...it's becoming normal to me now) I wonder how I will do back on the streets of SF when I return? My hotel is located one block off of the popular street, Thanon Khao San in the Banglanphu area of the city. I can see why so many people like this place, so much activity in the stores, restaurants, food stalls, chairs for street foot massage, etc. Buzzing with energy! The most creative mixed use I have seen so far: car wash/gas station by day, candle lit bar/restaurant by night set up amongst the gas pumps! Music at the end of the street with signs praising the King. Hard to believe there was a coup recently. My initial impressions do not detect any overt tensions. I picked up a book called "Thai Girl" about a romance between a foreigner or "farong" and a Thai girl and I feel like I have had a small insight into the cultural norms of the place. The striking poverty up against the bustling and fast-growing cities. Young girls leaving their families to make money in the city in ways we don't want to imagine.