Bangkok day 08

Today we ventured out to Rama IV just to get pad Thai. We found or restaurant called yod pad Thai and it was delicious. We went to a quiet spot in an alley and we ate it while locals were making their festive Lunar New Year appearance of freeing the nipple (naked waist up) and little dogs were quietly pooping allowing their master (slave) to clean after them. 

This area isn’t the fancy Siam nor the industrial Kanlapapruek road. It’s a poor man’s haven with Klong Toei market at the corner providing cheap groceries and trinkets. Not all people here live in high-rise buildings or projects like Metropark. This is an area for the “helping hands”, the people who you don’t notice or even if you do, you easily forget. They are the ones who keep this city clean, the ones who deliver your warm pizza, the ones who bow as they hand you the change at 7 eleven. They are the ones that all the rest depend on to do the things we don’t like to do. Maybe they are the ones we should be bowing at and not vice versa. 

Next stop was Benchakkity park. Once a dull area with a lake for joggers. Now it’s a forest park with sky-walking lanes manicured trees and beautiful temples. 

It stands next to the Queen Sirikiti National Convention Center, a massive building where you can go in, get something to drink and relax. 

After 3 drinks we were ready for our dessert. We walked to the beginning of Nana and we got in Terminal 21. There we had a mango juice and a coffee lovers stone mix ice cream. Yum! 

We took the train back and got a bit confused but that’s what happens to travelers. You get a big confused and then you find your way and you feel content because after all you’re travelling to a foreign country while others just stay home, watch Netflix, and don’t get lost. 

At night I went for a run (proud, proud, proud) and then we watched another Kobo Abe movie: the woman in the dunes. I’m still trying to fathom the metaphorical meaning of this one. One thing is for sure: do you shovel to live or do you live to shovel?