Home Pro, Phlone Chit, frustration, and a surprise.

It snowed yesterday in Fairbanks. There will probably be snow on the ground from now through March or April. It is hard to imagine from Thailand.

A couple days ago in Thailand it was breezy. The sky was pretty clear. When I was walking in the park it felt like a fall day, both the breeze and the quality of the light. Well it is the fall, but at 80 degrees and above it is hard to imagine.

When I listen to conversations I try to make sense of what I hear. I understand the English words and a few Thai words. I also rely on context. What I have found out, and what is true in English also, is that what I think is being discussed, and what in fact is being discussed, are two very different things. My attempt at assigning meaning is usually wrong. Imagine overhearing a discussion in English. We try to fill in the meaning also and, at least for me, I am usually wrong. Living where I do not know the language just brings home how illusive knowledge is. We all try to find meaning in what we experience. Without a self-correcting method, the meaning we ascribe is more a reflection of our own pre-disposition and has only a vague correspondence with what is actually happening. Oh well, another reminder of human nature.

Something I have not mentioned before is that there are a lot of butterflies in the park. They really are beautiful. I am also noticing more birds, but I do not know if it is just because I am able to see more detail then when I first arrived. I do not know about migration patterns of birds to this area.

We needed to go to Homepro today to get doors and cabinets for the kitchen. What I think is happening is that the cabinets will be built of concrete and that we buy doors for the front of the concrete cabinets. Somebody from the community is going to start building the cabinets on Wednesday.

We first went to the Homepro at Phlone Chit. It was a disaster. We kept going to different floors and then being sent someplace else. We eventually had to go to Rangsit anyway. Getting to Phlone Chit was an adventure. I got to experience non-expressway Bangkok. The Phlone Chit area is very upper class with many embassies.

We rode the boat across to Klong-Toey with Keenon and her nephew. She was taking him to Tesco-Lotus to use the playground. She had a life jacket for him when we went across, sort of an unsettling idea.

Riding through non-expressway Bangkok to the Phloen Chit station was fascinating. There was a very dark, almost tunnel, that looked like a wrecking yard under an expressway. There were stacks of auto parts in area surrounded by wire walls. The lighting was fluorescent tubes. Like other areas visually in Bangkok it evoked a sense of early industrial England, again a place that is rich with photographic opportunity. I also saw another amazing auto dealership near Lampini park, Lambourghini.

It is not a good sign when the Taxi driver keeps muttering our destination under his breath, Homepro, Homepro, but we did eventually get there. We had to make a U-Turn. As we passed the US Embassy there was a line of people waiting for Visas. There were also many translation and marriage services. I saw a sign advertising an express marriage for 5,000 baht. At one of the services I saw a couple, older overweight man and young slim women, doing some paperwork.

Bangkok is so huge and diverse I think I could spend a whole life discovering new aspects of the community. There are unending photographic opportunities. Bangkok is also exhausting and overwhelming. Sometimes I just want to get away. Sometimes Bangkok is just too much for me.

A we travel around I notice people doing many mind numbingly boring jobs; parking booth ticket takers, sales people at a shop that are not busy, people in uniforms opening and closing doors in the mall. Coming back through Phra Pradaeng the three people at the Top Charon eyeglass shop were sitting in white uniforms with folded arms waiting for customers. There are many people, usually wearing uniforms that seem to have very boring jobs standing, opening doors, taking tickets. When every you enter a mall parking are there is a ticket booth, people give you a ticket. When you leave the mall another booth is also there to talk your ticket back. I can not imagine, or maybe I can, what it would be like everyday to sit in one of those booths, or to open and close doors all day. Sometimes people just stand in a uniform and watch things. Sigh!

After the disaster at the Home Pro at Phlone Chit we took the Sky train to Mo-Chit and then a taxi to the HomePro at Rangsit which is off the map of the Bangkok that I have. It is north of STOU.

On the way to the Rangsit area there is a classic looking older house with a very large cow statue in the front. I am not sure what is being sold, but I would have loved to stop to take a picture.

My experience at Home Pro was frustrating. I think, but am not sure, that we were experiencing bait and switch. After looking at something that might work, and deciding that it would be suitable, it would be out of stock, but a similar, more expensive model would be available. We were also told it would take two days to have our order delivered, but they would help us arrange delivery with a taxi, or some other method, at our cost. I was willing to wait for delivery, since we are not going to have the electrician, until Saturday, but Jit did not want to wait. Eventually they arranged transportation with an old pickup, that we would have to pay for, to get our stuff home. Again I felt taken advantage of.

The trip home was a wonderful surprise. Every once in awhile you meet a person that evokes a good feeling, a feeling of trust. The driver was small, about my size, and was 46 years old. He explained that he had waited all day to get a delivery. He pays to get in the que at Homepro for delivery. While waiting for a delivery opportunity he reads Buddhist books, there were a couple of books on the dashboard. He bought his truck from his brother in law. As he said it is a working truck to make a living. The truck was an older Toyota pickup. His smile and perspective on life was very assuring. He has three kids, 16, 8, and 3. He moved to Bangkok from Nakon Panom in the eastern part of Thailand. He rents his house in Bangkok for 2,000 baht a month and, as he says, is using his brain a lot to think about supporting his family. He said he had been a Monk for 9 years and when he left the Monkhood he wanted to get married. I mentioned that I liked the CD he was playing, Thai country music, and he said he would give it to me. When we arrived at home, he got the CD out of his CD player and did give it to me. Sometimes you meet a person that projects the meaning of grace. I will not forget our ride home, jammed in the cab of a pickup, from Rangsit to Bangkrachow with a good person.

A long, interesting, frustrating day, with a wonderful surprise.