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Here is Khao San Road. A unique backpacker's haven in busy, modern Bangkok. This is my sixth visit here. I saw it evolve from a cheap neighborhood to tourist attraction with inexpensive but comfortable accommodations like D&D's guesthouse where I spent a week before returning home in Montreal.
A tuk tuk driver looking around for a customer. The tuk tuks are the same as in Chiang Mai except that here they can be boarded only from the left side.
D&D's is a big seven story hostel and its lobby is always this busy. The rooms are small but not expensive.
The rooftop pool is a definite advantage especially now in April at the beginning of the hot season.
The all you can eat buffet breakfast is included in the 20 US$ per night price.
A variety of food stalls line the street even though every fourth door on this street is a restaurant, cafe or bar. This lady is offering a generous serving of "pad thai" (fried noodles and chop suey) for 65 US cents and will add an egg to the mixture for an additional 15 US cents.
Street food in Thailand is ubiquitous, varied, delicious and cheap.
Sangkron, the Thai New Year is a wild week long festival during which the normally polite and well mannered Thai people loose all restraint and release the past year's pent up frustrations by throwing water on each other.
This small group marched through Khao San Road a week before Sangkron asking people to be reasonable during the festivities so as to earn merit.
An annual, planned free for all is practiced in many countries to clear the air for another year of civilized behaviour. The Rio de Janeiro Carnival is very useful to keep the poor of the favelas occupied with their dance schools and to let them vent their frustrations once a year.
It was just a small group but it did get everyone's attention and the excitement about the coming emotional release of the annual water war was palpable.
Water splashing carnivals are popular in many countries with local variations. In Bolivia's Santa Cruz, this form of collective therapy has escalated to the use of ink filled water pistols but sometimes gangs use real pistols with deadly results.
My flight home had been reserved for April 10th five months earlier so I unfortunately missed Sangkron by a few days.
It's a pity to have missed such a select photo opportunity! However, my friend Roland wrote me that the colouful tradition had been particularly violent, claiming a total of five lives in Thailand this year
The Chao Phraya river flows through Bangkok is in a low plain crisscrossed by canals called klongs where several floating markets can be found around the city.
I stopped in Thailand on my way back from a business trip to China in 1973 and took many pictures of the Thonburi floating market in Bangkok's northern suburbs.
This year the Damnoensaduak floating market, a hundred km south of the city, had garnered all the tourist trade so I went to see what it was like.
The same noisy long tailed boats full of tourists churn up the quiet waters of the klongs.
Here is another one crossing the boat I'm on at high speed.
I have not seen these long tailed boats anywhere else than in Thailand. They are powered by a big automobile engine and transmission connected directly to a long shaft with a propeller at the end, hence the name long-tailed boats.
The klongs (canals), are laid out in a regular geometric pattern and could be called water streets.
The local people get around in these finely crafted personal boats
Houses of various styles line the klongs as if they were indeed water streets.
Here is another traditional style house.
This one appears to be more modern.
All of them are graced by flowers
The Thai people believe in all kinds of spirits that need to be propitiated to avoid natural catastrophies like floods, fire, disease, war, epidemics and such. The superstitious place token gifts, a few grains of raw or cooked rice, a flower, etc. on the table in front of this small shrine for their favorite spirits. They know that the disappearance of their offerings is due to birds and rodents but that does not diminish their faith in the supernatural.
The people naturally get around by boat in the fertile lowlands around Bangkok so it is not surprising that they should do their shopping by by boat.
I met these two lovely Chinese girls from Singapore when I boarded a small boat to get a closer view of the floating market's activity.
There is no denying it, floating markets are a great attraction because of the variety of colourful people selling all kinds of delicacies from sweet mangoes with sticky rice,
... to tasty looking snacks,
... and elaborate meals,
all sold with a smile from these small boats.
It was a sunny afternoon and I enjoyed getting to know these two lovely Singapore tourists. I thrive on the friendly company of young ladies, they stimulate my imagination and keep my heart young.
Life is wonderful!
Back in Khao San Road I enjoyed watching the tourists who have overrun the place. When I first came here fifteen years ago there were fewer strangers and most of them were backpackers attracted by the rock bottom prices of minute dingy rooms. The quality of lodgings has risen considerably since then and so have the prices. Now, the only Thai people you will see on this street are here to cater to the tourist's needs and whims.
This mosaic is intended to give you an idea of the human tide that rolls over this place. Watching people to imagine their lives and thoughts is a great sport by day or at night. With all these faces to connect with, you can imagine you were there!
Watching people from a sidewalk café is a great sport but unfortunately it is not strenuous enough to burn away all the calories from the beer drinking that is an integral part of that activity!
Here is a glimpse of Bangkok's modern Suvarnabhumi airport from which I flew to Tokyo on my way home to Montreal.
