Richard with the ladt\y who served us lunch

Bangkok - Soi Raja Kru, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

The boy is not her son, but he was very charming and loved the qoop card I gave him.

Bangkok - Soi Raja Kru - outside our old house

Bangkok - Soi Raja Kru - outside our old house, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Here is a picture of our old house in Bangkok, at least I think that this is where we lived in 40 years ago. Mum gave us the name of the street and said it would have been number 32 or 37 or something like that. Actually, this was number 31 and it has changed quite a lot, the pot\rch with the cocon ut tree and teh maid's quarters at the back having been removed along with the fish pond. The front garden had been tarmac'ed over as well, but somehow, I sort of recognised it, certainly when the servant let us in and showed us inside. I recognised the stairs above all, as well as the dark wooden floors.

We left a qoop visiting card at the house and we received this e-mail response:

dear mr. roffey,

first of all, thanks for leaving your business card
for me to contact you. i've got to say we're sorry if
it seemed to your brother and you that you didn't meet
with the "famous thai hospitality" when you dropped by
our house this afternoon. at first i was confused
when you said you used to live here, but now i've
realized that it was very likely because even though
my parents built this house when they first married
more than 40 years ago, we didn't move in until amost
two decades after that. i just realized that we did
rent it to some foreigners, so it was possible that at
one time your family and you may have lived here in
our house.

i gotta admit that sometimes when we live in this
modern-day society, regardless of how trustful of
people you want to be, sometimes it's just safe to be
more careful. after hearing one story after another
of people who were victimized or harmed after being
kind and opening their door to strangers, both here in
thailand and in any other part of the world including
your country, like it or not, we somehow lose faith in
people.

again, i'm sorry for this afternoon's incident.
things would have been different if my husband or me
were home, and we would have been able to welcome your
brother and you more.

hope your brother and you would not bring bad memories
about thailand and thai people back home to the
netherlands. we thai people may seem colder and more
skeptical these days, but deep down we're still the
same as we were in the old days.

best,
p.

p.s. it's also nice to know that you are dutch. we
love your country. we go there almost every year to
visit our dutch friends, who also come to thailand
every year to see us.


Later we walked down the road which led us to a few places to eat and then to an old market full of greensm, fruit, fish, sweets and the like (just how I vaguely remembered it).

It was a very strange experience to be confronted with the place of your first memries in life, but I am glad that we went there and that we managed to find the place still standing and intact as well as finding another part of old Bangkok.

Tomorrow, the bus to Cambodia.

Another Bangkok lady

Bangkok - Rama temple, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Here is another lady of the type I mention in the post below. I suppose she reminds me of Mah Lee, the sister of our maid/au pair girl, Patana who we hadin Bangkok and also who came back with us to England. However, big sister Mah Lee who also came over, did not like England so she decided that she AND her sister, the dear Patana, who we loved very much, would return to Thailand, and that was that. A pity. Sometimes, when walking the streets I am wondering whther a lady in her mid/late 50's might even be Patana. Who knows?

Remembering Bangkok

Bangkok - weekend market, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Here is a photo of a lady one typically sees in the markets and shops of Bangkok. She is a probably a mother with growing/grown children, still beautiful and proud. She is wearing yellow as do most of the women do, many of the men too. I took a whole series of photos ofg yellow/golden Bangkok today, which I will upload tomorrow in commemoration of the 60th anniversary celebrations.

It was 40 years ago since we lived in Bangkok, leaving in 1966, the year in which England won the World Cup. We have a family photo album, with black and white photos mounted on black paper, witha blue cover, yellow laces and a photo of the King and Queen on the cover. It is so good to think that they are still here. They ahd been there already for 20 years then and are there 40 years later, giving the country a degree of stability during a hectic time politically and economically. The Thais love their King and Queen, of that there is no doubt. It almost seems as if they worship them, especially when one sees so many photos of the young king kneeling in the way of Buddha.

Today, Richard and I walked arounda different part of town, quite relaxed, visiting a few temples and stopping every now and again for a drink or a bite to eat. We crossed over and walked along several khlongs (canals) and when walking pasxta school I almost thought I was reminded of the kindergarten (Bangarangsee) which I attended as boy of four years.

There were smells as well which harked back to that time, notably boiled rice and various vegetables.

We went past a fun-fair just outside the Golden Mount and on the (mini) big wheel, there were plastic Mickey Mouses and Donald Ducks and I remember very well that I had a Donald, Diana a Mickey and Richard a Goofy!

I remember the khlongs and the fish and it is interesting that little fish are caught and put into plastic bags. You can come along and buy the bag and release the fish back into the (dirty) water. You can do the same with birds, as I had done outside a Hindu Temple. An exercise in complete futility, but the people make some money and the people who spend teh money have the satisfaction of letting the fish and birds back into their natural habitat, at least for as long it takes for them to be caught again!

Loi Krathong

Bangkok - weekend market, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

As said before, yellow is the colour of the King and Queen of Thailand. Last night was a full moon and time to celebrate Loi Krathong. Very very many people have been dressed in yellow these past few days and yesterday the sky train was full of young men from a school all with the same yellow polo shirt. They were going down to trhe river to make a floral offering to the Water God, this to apologise for polluting the water, apparently (according to the Bangkok Post).

Richard and I had split up for an hour or two and we were due to meet at the ferry terminal by the Oriental Hotel. We had been there yesterday and it had been almost empty, but now it was absolutely teeming with people all with their floral offreings, and in the meantime stall workers were working frantically to make new ones for sale for about a euro.

Eevntually havving made our own offering and seeing the candle go out the minute it floated on tyhe water we decided to take the water taxi back home. However, little did we realise that all the water taxis were being used to ferry people under the bridge to make their own offereings and come back. It was quite an experience, watching the people light up, make a prayer and la\unch their offering.

We had a Heineken on the street and caught a taxi (cheaper than a tuk-tuk) back to where we are staying and had dinner here.

Shark's heads

Bangkok - weekend market, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Here is an incredible character we came across at the weekend market yesterday.

The colours of Thailand

Bangkok - weekend market, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Orange for the robes of the Buddist monks.

Yellow for the King and Queen of Thailand, celebrating 60 years on the throne.

Feather dusters

Bangkok - weekend market, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Here is an ethnic looking woman selling feather dusters at the weekend market in Bangkok, some way to the north of the centre.

Loi Kratong

Bangkok Pride -, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Just a few minutes to go before the money runs out. It is quite late, we had a dinner on the streets drinking a large Heineken watching the life of Khao San Road go by listening, unavoidingly to some heavy rock music coming from a nearby drinking bar.

Before that we had been to the river to celebrate Loi Kratong, in honour of King Bhumiphol who has been on the throne for 60 years. More about this tomorrow, but we all had floral offerings, with a candle and incense to be floated on and down the river. An amazing and typically Thai experience.

A tiring day, after a late start, we took a taxi to the weeekend market, full of food stalls clothes, fish, rabbits, squirrels, art, furniture and fruit, but it was crowded and quite tiring, a it hotter than it had been yesterday.

Later we split and I had a look at the Gay Pride march, which went b\y very quickly between the traffic. More later.

Classical Thai dancers

Bangkok - Classical Thai dancers, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

We even chanced across a troupe of Thai Classical dancers on our wanderings yesterday through the city. So impossibly colourful and intricate and beautiful and graceful

Offerings

Bangkok - offerings, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

There is colour everywhere you look in Bangkok!

Bangkok Pride

Bangkok Pride -cuties, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

They also had information stands at the Bangkok Pride and here was a nice couple who were very charming and helpful.

Bangkok Pride

Bangkok Pride - Pool hunks, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Earlier in the day, we visited the Gay Pridefestival in the park, near Patpong, highlight of which was this swmming trunk/hunk parade. You could pay money - a donation - for a vote and have as many votes as you liked. The one nearest the camera eventually came second of the eight.

Glamour

Bangkok nightlife - girl or ladyboy?, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

We gatecrashed the Elle Fashion Week show. Here is the hostess, but we are still not sure about her. She just seemed to be too tall to be a real woman!

Two brothers

Bangkok nightlife - Charles and Richard, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Aphoto of both of us taken by one of teh charming girls at reception of Thai Cozy House, where we are staying.

With the ladyboys

Bangkok nightlife - Rand C with the ladyboys, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Yes, inevitable really, here are the ladyboys at the Tiger Sports (open air) Bar in Bangkok!

Bangkok - Richard and monk

Bangkok - Richard and monk, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Day three of my time in Bangkok here. Did not sleep too well last night, so a tocuh of jetlag, I think. It is still quite early in the morning and I left Richard in bed while I came down to upload some photos and write a blog, down here in the hotel lobby.

First impressions have been very good, after the drive from the airport through the grey suburbs. Ended up in a backpackers/westerners area of the city around Khao San Road. Unfortunately, I had lost both the name and address of the hotel where I was supposed to meet Richard, which meant about an hour of wandering around in the heat until some kond lady showed me the way, whereupon I found Richard waiting for me on the balcony.

We are staying at the Thai Cozy House, which has smallish but clean rooms for 15 euro a night and some very friendly staff, most of whom know Richard from his five previous visits to Bangkok. I arrived with longish hair and a beard (both of which have now been removed) so they were not too sure whether to believe we arebrothers.

The area around here IS a tourist hell-hole, but it is really not too bad. The streets and buildings are quite old and have some character, there is plenty of life on the streets, from pavement restaurants/eateries, to impromptu massage parlours (we have both had a foor massge for 2.50 euro each, and even a whole cocktail bar/terrace set up in the forecourt of the Shell petrol station at night. I am very impressedat how enterprising the Thais are. I had feared the worst, and Fred will understand this betterthan anyone else, when I first saw there plastic heads with pigtails, beads and rasta hairstyles advertising for people willing to providesuch services to the young westerners. Horrible. But I have not seen too many of them around. The tourists do seem to be the ones we were happy not to see too many of when we were travelling around Africa last year, young people without much sense of where they are, here for the cheap booze and the full moon beach parties etc, downloading music for their i-pods, living in their backpack ghettoes. A mix of nationalities, with many Irish and Israelis (I suppose that Thailand is one of the most accessible countries for young Israelis), but alos French, British, Skandos and so on.

Anyway, Richard and I have spent two days wandering around the streets of the older parts of Bangkok near here, towards the flower market and Chinatown. Plenty of character and lots of commercial life. Bustling would be a very apt term. Good to see so many women working and in fact it would seem that they would be the bosses around here. The temples, both Buddhist and Chinese are an exotic delight, a riot of colour, although what the beliefs exactly are, is something I have not much idea of.Not so many monks to be seen at the temples and in fact we have seen more of them walking around the markets looking to buy contraband DVD's!

We have got ourselves preparedfor our further travels by applying for visas for Cambodia and Vietnam, which should be ready by Tuesday evening, so we are taking a bus to Angkor Wat on Wednesday morning. This bus takes 7 hours to complete the last 140 kms on the Cambodian side...... worse, it would seem than the buses in Ethiopia.

Otherwise, I can say that the weather is excellent, really not too hot at all, dry and a cooling breeze most of the time. Food is excellent and cheap - we had red snapper on night and prawns and mussels last night, for about 5 euros each. Not sure what the plan is today, but now I will join Richard at breakfast as he has come down and is reading the paper.

Bangkok - Buddhist temple

Bangkok - Buddhist temple, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Bangkok - Buddhist monks

Bangkok - Buddhist monks, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Richard made it too

Bangkok - Richard by Chao Phrya River, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Here he is looking out across the Chao Phrya River.