The mundane is not easy in bangkok

Futsol match from when with Bp, not boop.

First of all, Joe and I had a long talk the other night about Taxis in Bangkok. If you are not careful you could get in a taxi, tell them were to go and end up taking two toll ways, an hour of traffic to find your self parked in front of the Grand palace when you wanted a 15 minute cab ride to Sukhumvit. So instead of 100 baht you are stuck paying a taxi 1000 baht and in the wrong part of town, then you are going to get out of that taxi and find one that will not screw you, but who knows. So the best plan of action is either have the address written down in Thai to show the taxi or call Joe on my mobile device and have him tell the cab driver over the phone where to go. I am lucky to have Joe, yeah, I know.

Today I decided to just do normal things. Woke up, had a few coffees, checked the FB and Email from the internets, tweeted, look at the you tubes, twiddle my thumbs. I decided while twiddling my thumbs to finish my laundry and do a small load since Joe showed me how the other night. I dont have a lot of clothes so keeping what I got clean is key to not smelling like stale pair of under wear. Because you tend to sweat a lot since the average temperature during the day is in the lower 90's and the nights aint no walk in the park either. So doing laundry first consists of turning on the washing machine with a light type switch located on the wall next to the sink. Then you load your clothes, add detergent, fabric softener and then a cup of water to the detergent bin to liquefy the power, set the cycle to what ever you want, 40 minutes today (small load). Then once the load has finished you take your clothes outside, put your clothes on hangers and hang them on the various racks outside the house. If the sun is not shining on the spot by the house then you get the portable rack and place it in the street in front of the house where the sun is shining. If you can get good, direct sun light your clothes take a mere hour and half to dry. And if you hang your pants and shirts in a nice neat fashion on the hangers when they are dry it is like they have been pressed with an iron. Neat huh. At Joe's parents house the younger girls wash the clothes outside in tubs, no washing machine, at least from what I saw, they might have one in the house somewhere. And yeah, in a traditional Thia house the young carry a good amount of the house hold chores, they serve their elders.

Once I got my laundry out and drying I took a shower and got dressed. I decided I would just do a little sight seeing around the area. There is a shopping mall, a small one, its only two stories. It had the usual electronics store, Dental office, restaurants, super market, various eye glasses shops, bank and pharmacy.  After leaving there I headed to a grocery store to buy razors, milk for coffee and some nail clippers. I walked into the grocery store and headed to the cosmetics section to get razors and nail clippers, there were several Thai girls standing around the woman's section (makeup and stuff) that worked at the grocery, they had name tags on. They just kind of stared at me and I think were commenting to each other while sort of laughing at me, not sure but what ever right. Every time I walk into this place it sort of terrifies me because I have to use my terrible Thai phrase book to communicate and they dont understand my thai because I suck at it, so I end up using English and it some how works. Every time I check out the cashier speaks a rambling of Thai as I look dumb founded. So the store was out of razors and clippers so I got my milk and headed to the pharmacy next door. Surely they would have the goods, and they did, she-sh. I mean, I walk into these places and hope someone does not ask me if I need help in thai, but the the thai people are very gracious and are always helpful no matter my short comings. The other day I was in the grocery to buy a afternoon beer and the cashier shook his head and pointed at a sign that said no alcohol sales at grocery stores between like 230pm and 530pm. You can imagine my embarrassment  as he took my two cans of Chang away from me. Those same girls in the cosmetics section saw me with the beers having a laugh at the dumb American that day for sure. Well, maybe not.

I get to the main drag by riding Joe's bicycle the one kilometer, past security and to the main drag. I park my bike with many other bikes in kind of a bike parking area. I guess many residents ride their bike to this spot, park it and either get a cab or catch a bus. Anyway, now that I got some house work and shopping done I will go out in the city tomorrow. There is a small skate park in a mall if I can make it there with out ending up in Cambodia.

Other tid bits of the house are that there is no central cooling system. Each room has its own air conditioner, kind of like the units found in hotels. Also, there is no hot water heater tank. The shower has a heating unit that the water passes through, it is just a little box right there is the shower with you. And I think all the walls are straight concrete from inside to outside. Kind of like a slab. Crazy stuff and kind of mundane but it is the way things are around here. late.

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