ONE THOUSAND BUDDHAS at wat pho

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QUIET CORRIDORS

Storms in Bangkok are especially intense near the end of the rainy season. After soaking the city all night, rain fell hard again on a September Tuesday morning, lowering the air temperature a crucial few degrees. Rain turned the alleys into canals through which tuk-tuks waded and sometimes even floated. Our blazing local light had been transformed to misty grey. In this moist and moody atmosphere I visited Wat Pho, a large temple complex in the Rattanakosin Island area of Bangkok. The morning downpour had driven most people away.

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GETTING LOST IN CHATUCHAK MARKET

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DO IT IN THE MORNING

Bangkok offers sensory stimulation at every turn, and Chatuchak Market may be the place where you can get the biggest dose of it—outside of adult entertainment venues, I suppose. Bright colors are everywhere at Chatuchak, in the form of fruits, clothing, sugary drinks, toys, cars, plants, even pets (or whatever those animals for sale are intended to become). Smells of street food mix with the aromas coming from the pet section, the scented candles area, the vintage clothing stalls, and all the other swaths of merchandise.

It’s loud there, too.

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CROSSING THE CHAO PHRAYA RIVER

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INTENSELY OVERHEATED

Against all advice I went out walking in Bangkok in the middle of the day, when it was so hot I felt I would faint. Perspiration drenched my clothes as soon as I stepped outside of our airconditioned apartment. After a while I was just surging along in a flow of warm wet air and bright sun, thinking of nothing. This was a sort of walking sweat lodge experience. Looking at these photos taken during my third week in Thailand brings back that intensely overheated feeling and the surprise of finding it not entirely unpleasant, once I'd given in, let go.

That day was in September 2015. Now it’s February 2016 and I’m back in Santa Cruz, looking at my photos and reading my journals and wondering how I can make some more travel happen in my life, because I don’t think I've ever learned so much in any three-month period before, except for maybe during some crucial phases of infancy.

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More about week three

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BEING MYSELF: CAN I STILL DO THAT?

As the days have passed, life has started to feel more normal here, though it’s far from any kind of normal I’ve ever been used to. Certain routines from my existence before Bangkok have resurfaced. When I find myself doing these time-honored activities, I feel like the same person I was back in Santa Cruz. The return of my personality, of a sense of being known to myself, gives me the courage to do more exploring; exploration brings information which emphasizes the difference between Bangkok and Santa Cruz, and I start to feel strange again, until the new information is absorbed or forgotten. I can’t claim to be absorbing more than a small fraction of what I am taking in.  

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First three weeks in Bangkok

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MAKING THE LEAP

In the wee hours of August 19, I left San Francisco on a plane headed for Taipei, where I changed to another plane headed for Bangkok. Almost before I could realize I’d left, I was in my new home. Yes, that’s right, my new home. I live in Thailand now. How long will I be here? I don’t know. Long enough to feel like a resident and not just a visitor, however long that is.

I have never done anything like this before. I’ve never traveled more than a couple of days outside of the USA. I had no idea how it would make me feel to move to southeast Asia, but I was willing to find out. An opportunity came to live with friends in Bangkok, and I took it, and now life is completely different. The world is much bigger than it used to be. I’m not exactly who I thought I was.

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