Day #3 Avoiding Protesters

Avoiding Protesters & Long Boat Trip

Reading the Bangkok Post, the headlines continue about the Bangkok protests and possible coup.  The PDRC democratic party has lambasted the government for mudslinging about their possible use of drugs and violence in the protest and contest that this is a smear campaign to discredit them.  Hard to determine which stories are invented and which are true?  Both sides are posturing.  While the prime minister has pushed for new dialogue and this has happened nothing seems to have been gained. The prime minister urges to let the election take place and tell the story of who should be in power while Suthep wants her to step down and form an interim government of unelected officials.  More airlines are stopping flights to Bangkok until the end of February.  We decide a boat trip will be safe from protests.

Long Boat Excursion 

Meeting up with Zanny and Skip we hire a long boat to take us into the canals off the river. Queued up with other long boats to go through the lock to get into the canals I see our driver chatting away on his cell phone.  

This extraordinary trip allows us to peer further into the local houses situated on the canals. As Skip points out none of these houses would pass any sort of housing code laws in the US, as they appear to be dilapidated, falling into the water and nothing is level. However, somehow they look quaint or cozy and even romantic as I peer into their living room quarters surrounded by flowers and vines with laundry hanging everywhere as well as refrigerators, pots and pans and couches that look like they would be in a garbage dump in US.  

Nothing is wasted here. Outside some houses have postboxes where boats must drop mail and several have small bags of garbage left out for garbage boat collection.  We mostly see old people in these homes but guess others are at work, school or protesting somewhere.  

As our long boat trip comes to an end we are approached by a woman in a flat bottomed boat who is selling everything from umbrellas to hats to jewelry to beer. She is persuasive and persistent and we work on our ignore technique.  However, Skip who is dreaming of beer gives in buying one for our long boat captain who trades it in for a different brand. 

Off the Tour Grid ~ a local school

Preschoolers at school 

John and I decide to forgo visiting another Wat temple and go back to our hotel.  I think our ability to take in all these incredible sites is like eating too much… after awhile one feels a bit bloated and uncomfortable with too much food which is either difficult to absorb or expelled like diarrhea.  Instead we go off the guide book tourist best sites and take a walk down some lanes in a nearby community.  This for me is as much fun as anything else and there is a sense of personal discovery with this exploration.  We find a nearby neighborhood community that is active with mostly mothers and young children selling fried food. We hear the happy sounds of children playing and find a public school for children kindergarten to grade six. I stop to peer in at the children hoping to get a picture and introduce myself to one of the teachers.  This kindergarten teacher, Jaymar M. Cuanico, is from the Philippines and teaches English to the students.  He says he loves his job and introduces me to several other teachers.  They seem happy to let me takes pictures of them with their students when I tell them I am a teacher who works with children in US. 

I exchange addresses with the English teacher and tell him I will send him a copy of my teacher book, which has been translated into Thai.  However, I learn he doesn’t speak Thai.  Reluctantly I leave this school dreaming of coming back to teach here as it looks like a well funded school.  Back at the hotel I meet Zanny and Skip for a swim to cool off while John has one of his power naps. 

Our last dinner in Bangkok is a pleasant surprise.  John has checked with the concierge about local, authentic, not pretentious or fancy Thai food restaurants ~ and we are told about Harmonique which I think is near a hole in the wall place we loved on our last Bangkok visit but we can’t remember the name.  To our delight when we get there we find it is exactly the same place.  Dinner with Zanny and Skip is another incredible experience with many new tastes.  Zanny again takes pictures of our food. Skip and John celebrate by having a Singha beer.  John has changed his mind about Bangkok and is surprised by how much he has enjoyed this trip ~ and I think there is still so much more to see (such as the river market and other Wats) but unfortunately we must leave tomorrow for Burma. Who knows maybe we will find ourselves back in Bangkok unable to get a flight home because of airport closures?