Life in Bangkok

Food. Life in Bangkok (in Thailand really) is substantially about food. Food stalls litter the sidewalks and storefronts, with platters of fresh-cooked dishes, racks of barbecued meats and fishs, and smoking cauldrons of soups and fryers. I (Brian) am having a bit of challenge adjusting, not only because of the flavors (some wonderful, some not so much) and meats (I'm a relapsing vegetarian) but also because eating in a Thai streetside cafe is a hectic, chaotic, and rickety business, not really conducive to the peaceful mealtimes Westerners typically cultivate.

Though she looks content enough, eh?



Traffic. I tried all kinds of ways to capture the dirt, noise, and barely controlled chaos of Bangkok traffic, and couldn't really do a decent job, though I ended up with dozens of really boring pictures of streets and cars. Here's a short video of one tranquil walk. I've taken to wearing a mask on walks like this.



Street markets and street life. Where the action is.




King Pride. It (and the yellow shirts, the flags, and the giant portraits) are everywhere.

This weekend (June 9-12) is the 60th anniversary of His Majesty's coronation. So it's a HUGE deal. Lots of celebrations are planned, and they're rehearsing many different performances every night. Which is good, because we'll be away, so we get a preview. Though it's sad to know we'll miss performances like this:

(sorry for my nascent video skills)

However, we'll also miss things like this:

Yesterday we stumbled across the "barge procession" on the Chao Praya, with these beautiful longboats, including golden ones for royalty and long black ones with ornamental soldiers, rowing along with a blaring chanting song. Really beautiful.