Thai Faces and Places

I arrived in Bangkok today, after a rushed and rainy morning in Hong Kong. I had done some research on Thailand before leaving home, so I expected complete chaos coming in.

Upon arrival, I’m happy to say that my expectations were surpassed. People yelling and selling around every corner, and I was afraid that making eye contact with a man would make them think “I want what’s in his pocket” and with every woman, “I want what’s between his pockets”. In any case, I quickly calmed down and hopped on the bus into town, and made my way to the hostel.

I shared a room with a nice Estonian traveler, and we decided to walk around town together, to avoid common tourist traps and to feel slightly safer.

And it was a great decision! We walked for several hours into even the murkiest and weirdest streets, taking pictures and generally trying to attune with our surroundings.

At this point, you’ve noticed the kind of pictures I like to take: impromptu, candid pics of locals going about their daily lives, so here they are:

You’ll notice we also hopped on a ferry. This is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to move about the city, and the way the sunset hit the waves was an opportunity too good to pass up.

The ferry dropped us off in Chinatown, where we proceeded to walk all the way back to our hostel. The photos really don’t do it justice: this is a multisensory experience that you’ll need to feel, smell, taste, hear and see for yourself. Carefully, I managed to catch a glimpse of it all.

Fascinatingly, the people here can live a full day in and around their shop. First, they prepare the outdoor benches and ingredients to serve and sell their food, and later they retire into their shop where an entire family sits on a tiled floor and huddled around a TV, in full view of the public.