Bangkok life and chchch...changes
Hi!
Hope this blog finds you well. It has been forever since I last wrote a blog, mostly because since I work 5 days a week, life has been pretty uninspiring. Not that I haven’t had adventures-in fact most every day getting to and from work is an adventure, and many days the language and food are adventures too. It is mostly, that I just do the daily grind and after most of the workday on the computer, I when I get home I just can’t rally to bathe in the blue glow any more hours of the dayto blog. So, tonight is the night. Catch up on my life it you dare….
My weekdays are pretty much as follows:
Wake up at 4:30 am to the moaning Moslems (they are praying believe it or not) on loudspeakers throughout the neighborhood. Go back to sleep. Wake at 5:30 or 6:00 am to the bell ringing… and ringing… and ringing Christians. Get up and walk to the Chinese cemetery/park to run for 20 minutes and fight my way through the cars, motorcycles, tuk tuks and severe exhaust home to shower. OR, as more recently, lie in bed thinking about the day ‘till 6:30 when the man with crackly voice in the park announces what is going on in the Chinese Buddhist community over yet other loudspeakers. Get up, feed “Bubbles” my friend the Siamese fighting fish. Water plants on lanai. Close lanai door. Turn on AC and fan. Make breakfast. Turn on the news (once in while). Shower. Pick out some sort of business clothing for the day. Lock up and leave my homey studio apartment. Head downstairs from 4th to 1st floor. Hope Mr. O the motorcycle taxi driver is there instead of the always asleep kid driver. Give “Dreads” the hairy dog (not too many dogs with hair here) and “3 Legs Lilly” (my favorite dog that has 3 legs) dog cookies. Hop on a motorcycle taxi (sidesaddle if wearing a skirt or dress), say a prayer and hold on for a wild ride through the narrow alleys and exhaust for a 4 minute “E ticket” ride along with the rest of the15 million people here in this city to the Skytrain station. Many mornings I buy a 50 cent tuna sandwich or fish spring roles from the street vendors for my lunch. Sometimes I buy a jasmine and marigold garland for a ferry boat blessing and sometimes I buy bags of little roles filled with bean or taro paste for the therapists and trainers at work. I then fight my way up the stairs behind the slowest moving people I have ever encountered. When asked why they walk so slowly, they reply “It’s hot”.
On the Skytrain, I cool down for 1 station, where I fight the oncoming crowd as I disembark. Clipping down the steps in my heels, I fight the urge to give all my belongings, especially my polyester business skirt, to the begging women with babies. If I have time, I head on over to the coffee shack where the owner makes an iced latte just the way I like it-for 75 cents. A minute walk to the ferry dock and I find my favorite street doggy sleeping beneath the benches or scrounging in the garbage. She gets a little loving and a dog cookie (which she is interested in only because I brought it to her, but shows her disappointment that it is not a nice big chicken drumstick) and at about quarter hours, the complementary ferry shows up for a nice, breezy 15 minute ride to the Marriot Hotel. Also, most every morning and evening some of the Mandara trainers, spa managers, or office people are there for the ride too and it makes for a nice social time as we slowly make our way on the river in comfort.
Arrive at the Marriot, walk to the office in the plaza, start up the computer, go to morning planning meeting and then either teach a class, prepare curriculum or other office tasks at the computer. The joy in my day is really interaction with the trainers and therapists in training. We have some good laughs as they attempt to teach me Thai and finally, their English and my delivery is getting good enough that they understand it when I am sarcastic and joking! They are the sweetest, most sincere, loving, funny group of individuals I truly have ever met.
At 6 or 7 in the evening, pretty much a reversed schedule. Ferry, dog cookie, Skytrain and sometimes I have a simple street vendor veggie and noodle dish and a beer, motorcycle taxi wild ride home, say hi to Tom the night manger, up to my room, AC and fan on, lanai door open, sweaty, exhaust ridden clothing off, feed Bubbles, shower, maybe make dinner in microwave (the TV dinners here are spiiiicey) and watch some bad TV or read (if my eyes are not too trashed from the computer) or get out the Thailand map and plan a trip or maybe go up to the rooftop and sit by the pool, look at Bangkok city buildings and have a beer.
If the “high heels inside the house” woman upstairs is not moving furniture in her wooden shoes, the next door neighbors aren’t watching French movies with volume up loud, or the mouse under the sink isn’t chomping on plastic bags and paper towels, I don’t use the earplugs and go to sleep with fan on around 10 or 11 pm.
So, more than you ever wanted to know about a day in Monk’s workweek in Bangkok?
I have however, had a weekend life too, ranging from flights to and weekends in Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Phuket and Ko Phi Phi, riding with friends for a day trip to Ko Samet, many train rides to Ayuthaya and motorcycle riding all around the country sides at these places. So, it is not all Bangkok and I have seen some beautiful, interesting places always inspiring me to explore more!
So, what is new? …changes in store. I quite my job as of the 31st of August, and gave notice on my apartment for the 4th of September, and I am out of Bangkok!!!!
I have some ideas of where I will go and what I will do, but not decided yet. Hey- I have another 10 days until I am out on the street, and something will come up before then!! I am exploring working at an ocean side English language camp in Thailand, teaching skiing at Telluride, an environmental internship in New Zealand, crewing on a sailboat somewhere, meditation at a retreat or ?????
By next week I should have some clearer picture of my future. I am not worried, only excited for a new adventure and trusting that all will be as it should be. Check back then for news on where I will be next…
The Gypsy
posted by Monica @ 6:35 AM
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