Bangkok, part V
After an in-room breakfast of coffee, yoghurt and a Kit Kat mini bar I bought at 7-Eleven last night (I continue to be seduced by the promise of a decent Kit Kat bar after some good experiences with interesting flavors in Tokyo circa 2008 for some reason and have always…ALWAYS been disappointed), we headed out, minus a few of my Taiwanese students, who were preparing to board flights back to Taiwan. We walked back to the train station, where ABC was shooting, and smiled at a large family sitting on the floor of the station hastily getting up for the standing-ovation-only national anthem that plays every day at 8 a.m. They did the same thing before the show last night, reminding me of the days in Taiwan when the audience was expected to stand and sing along to a video of the national anthem before each and every movie at theaters.
Train stations here apparently feature monk service quarters, but I didn’t venture inside to investigate, not being of the monkly persuasion myself. Instead I walked along the last platform, where the cars are in for repair, and members station staff sit inside, eating, smoking, talking on phones, etc. Back on the proper platforms, trains came and went while station police roused sleeping families from seats.
It was fun, but we needed to be moving on, even though Barry had just arrived. I bid ABC farewell, our remaining students went off on their own, and Chenbl and I walked through Chinatown towards the river, where we boarded another boat to the Grand Palace. There we followed the large crowds and, after some lunch, proceeded inside, where we amazingly ran into Barry again.
Ten years ago, according to Chenbl, you never saw any Chinese people there, but now it’s mostly Chinese tourists. We played with little mirror shots til we were bored, and then took another boat down the river. Well, first we went up the river mistakenly, and then down again, before switching to the metro to go look for a massage place. The place Chenbl had read about, coincidentally close to where Rammy lives, was full, so we went next door, figuring how different could it be?
Vastly, as it turns out. Our mistake in this respect realized, we again took the now-incredibly crowded metro back to Hua Longphong, where we met Rammy and Nong, and took a taxi down to the riverfront complex where we’d met them for the riverboat ride. There we had dinner before walking back.
Tomorrow night we’re starting the workshop, so get ready everyone!
