Bangkok: In One Half Hour

A fellow blogger posts a nice Ode to Chao Phraya here. Hats off to him. I put up a rainbow shot on the river here.





My partner said, "You always go to the river", so there is an attraction beyond the coolness of temperature. The water swirls with my dreams down to the sea.

Wandering Observations

from the desk of Was Once, after coffee:
If Thais are so close to their parents especially their mother then why does not translate to mother earth? Obviously, some of which can be attribute to Buddhist teachings.I see klongs full of sewage, and who knows what else to the point of popping on the surface. I have seen people walk their trash and dump it in the Chao Phraya river. One never really knows the origin of the fish they sell, and which klong it comes from. In some places birth defects have resulted and no one really is screaming. Is this survival of the fittest in action?


If I am walking around off the beaten path, I rarely get bothered as Thais leave you alone. A few hellos from kids or saweedees from adults. If I ever get approached out there, it is only for transportation mostly like motorcycle taxis that give you the heads up if need a ride. They come in real handy. It is in the tourist sections that I get hassled, but if I don’t give eye contact and look down and press on then I look like I have a clue. It is problem photographing, because I am inquiring with my eyes, and sometimes misread as naïve.


I am also aware of the daily costs here, even when living on the cheap, so I appreciate how hard is to live on my partners salary. He does it quite well, and rarely asks for help. He is proud of what he has done on his own, proud to share and has great respect for my love. One of his long range goals is a doctorate and travel so even while being funny and joking he has his head in the right place. He did joke about me being a monk to avoid his hugs. All I really provide him with is consistency and freedom to be himself. I am always learning how do this.

Pure Rainbow

I traveled up the Chao Phraya river, while reading The Four Nobel Truths, written by a monk that I found in the free books pile in my lobby appearing new that day. It was actually great to read Dhamma written by a new person, and see what examples he used to make his points. It doesn’t matter how many times I read Buddha’s teachings, that I don't find several applications in my life. It was concise but not dry, reminding me to continue on the path. The journey took about a hour, because they did not have an express boat that day. My intent was to find the kids I took photos of and give them copies. This was the second trip I have made with this intention. I knew where their school was, and I walked by it going to the nearby Wat park to continue to photograph. Then around 4:30 I started to walk from the park through the small town deciding I would not ask the kids playing at the school if they know my photos subjects. As I walked down a narrow soi, out popped on of the kids, smiling and yelling, “Hey, Farang!” It was Ton pictured here, and quickly three more of my subjects came running out of their homes. Within minutes I gave all the copies away as it started to rain and I ran back to the river crossing ferry to catch my boat going back south. As I paid my fare, soaked by the warm rain this rainbow appeared. It was full and from my vantage point running to the port it looked like it encompassed the port terminal with a crowd waiting out the rain.