An ordinary life in an extra-ordinary place
Faith restored
To Bangkok, where I am to attend a meeting of our condo committee. It could be a very pleasant affair, if it were not for one member who is a complete arsehole. He attempts to get his way by shouting abuse at everyone, and the other Thais on the committee, who are all ladies, are too shocked and humiliated to face up to him; leaving the farangs to argue the case.
All very tiring, and this state of affairs has been going on for months. This week I decided I had better things to do with my life and walked out of the meeting.
Feeling generally pissed off, I went for a walk into Chinatown. Stood near the main train station studying a map, and a tuk-tuk stopped next to me. Just what I needed, someone else to annoy me and an attempt to rip me off. Surprisingly, no. He offered to show me directions to my destination; then explained it was his day off and he just liked to take his tuk-tuk for little drives; but not too far because the engine became too hot. He was very smartly dressed and admitted to being a bit of a playboy. He was certainly a bit of a chatty chap and it was hard to get away, although we eventually parted with firm handshakes, by which time I had forgotten the directions he had given me.
Turned out to be a good thing, because I ended up walking down small sois in an area which appeared to be dedicated to the storage and distribution of metal bars. Work spilled onto the pavement and I had to walk round all manner of industry to make any progress.
No need for safety boots or goggles
Was hailed by a couple of the local business owners who wanted to say “hello, where you come from, how long you stay?” I devised a standard answer of “England, three days”; because “England, thirteen years” would provoke the totally reasonable response of “why you no speak Thai”, which would rather put a dampener on the convivial time I was having.
One guy was very keen to show me his stock of aluminium, stainless steel and brass; and indeed I was most impressed. He then pointed to a storage shelf and suggested I might light to take a photo of it, so I did.
I then pointed the camera at him and said I should also take his photo, which he was less keen on, but allowed me.
Leaving my new best friend behind, I headed off in the general direction of where I thought I needed to go, and arrived at the car spares area, with piles of parts on every corner.
I’d like to test that one on the bottom please.
At one outlet, it was hard to differentiate between what was a spare part and what was part of the shop:
Next to a stack of lorry axles, I bumped into a bemused Japanese couple studying their map. We introduced ourselves, stared at our respective maps, and agree we were all lost. Cheered by this news, the phones came out and I was photographed with both of them before we headed off in opposite directions, both thinking we were heading to the same place. Never saw them again.
Faith restored in the general pleasantness of the human race, I spent a couple more hours generally lost in the fascinating streets of Chinatown. There are more photos; but they will come another time.
Photos: Panasonic GX1 with Olympus 75mm and Panasonic Summilux 25mm
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about 9 months ago
Great industrial photos! Especially those steel rods… magic.
about 9 months ago
Healthy and Safety alive and well in Thailand.
about 9 months ago
In any profession, any industry, the chances are that a role exists that you assign to those not quite up to the main task at hand.
So you wanted to fly for the military, but can’t cut it as a pilot? No bother, you can be an observer. Want to race cars, but lack the reflexes? No worries, you can drive a truck. And so on.
There is a sort of natural, sliding progression, if you will. But where does it end? I hear you ask… The answer, of course, is in government… Yet this, itself, is not the ultimate answer. Where, pray tell, do governments find work for any not quite cut out for the more prestigious parts of public service? And the winner, of course, is Health and Safety. The rational is simply brilliant: give them a hard hat, steel toe-capped boots, safety goggles and a bright fluorescent jacket and there’s a pretty good chance they won’t be able to hurt themselves… Not only that, but when so dressed, they’re unlikely to harm anyone else, since they can be seen approaching from a mile away….
And lest the flames commence, I had better explain to your gentle readers that the above was written with tongue firmly in cheek. Mostly.
about 9 months ago
Based on behaviour, I always assumed that the bottom of the government pile were the politicians.
about 9 months ago
Always an interesting area to walk around. For me it’s the real Bangkok (ie no glitzy shopping malls, the way it used to be). Also the most polluted air in my experience, but you can’t have everything. I guess the narrow lanes keep the exhust fumes from escaping anywhere except up your nose.
about 9 months ago
I never really visited Chinatown when I lived in Bangkok. After a week or work and commuting it never seemed like a good thing to do.
But really enjoyed this trip and will do it again. Could have done with just one glitzy mall for some aircon, a sit-down and an iced coffee after a couple of hours of the heat.
about 9 months ago
As an engineer in a former life I have contrived to get “lost” in this very area on several occasions, much to the minor disgust of the War Department, whose threshold of boredom for such nonsense is about 3.7 seconds. The same sort of activity also extends to the other side of Rama IV, but without the same charm as Chinatown. The man in photo one is wearing ‘Maori’ safety boots. Tell me what ‘Maori’ chrome is and win a prize!