Shopping in Phra Pradaeng

I write for my web log all morning and get caught up on reading newspapers. Tomorrow we go to STOU to teach a class on using Excel for lists.

We need to go shopping, we need all sorts of stuff, laundry soap, bread, bleach, that kind of stuff. We took the motorcycle to catch the bus. The Wat at Bangabua is having the roof replaced. All the tile is removed and then replaced with new tile, I think it is new anyway. When we were in Lamphun they were doing the same thing with their Wat. In both cases all the beautiful interior paintings and sculpture would be exposed to rain. People must be very confident about the weather, so far their confidence in warranted.

Riding the bus to Phra Pradaeng in always fun. I saw a flat bed truck unloading bags of rice at a small store. The area beside the road is filthy, it is depressing to see all the junk in the ditches and canals by the road. People are so busy, there are people selling things everywhere. Their are many motorcycle repair places, some of them are black with gas and oil. There are many interesting faces. What I see now is very different from what I saw when I first started riding the bus.

When we get to Phra Pradaeng we go up on the dike to view the river and the mega-bridge. The mega-bridge is moving quickly, they are adding the suspension pieces, soon both sides of the bridge will be joined. There were people fishing from the dike. Some people were using three rods and reels. One man caught a fish, it was pretty small, but people seem to enjoy the fishing. There were many ferries, some large passenger ferries and two different locations for vehicle ferries. One of the passenger ferries was packed with kids in school uniforms, I would guess there was over 100 kids on the ferry. I love to watch the river traffic. I can see three different Wats by the river from where we stand. Large ships pass through the traffic on the way up to Bangkok.

Phra Pradaeng is a working town, there are no tourists that I can see. I do not see any hotels, but I am sure their are working people hotels and dorms. There are many factories and shipping docks in the area. It is busy. I really like Phra Pradaeng, it is visually rich and very real.

We find a noodle shop to eat in, I order chicken noodles. There are chicken legs in the noodles as well as a chicken leg. I am picky today so I do not eat the chicken feet. If we were with guests I would have eaten the feet, but sometimes I do not want to experience new things.

People are selling lottery tickets, many people who sell lottery tickets are disabled. Some ticket sellers have three wheel vehicles that are hand powered. The rider moves a lever back and forth to power the vehicle. Other lottery sellers walk through restaurants looking for customers. The tickets are in large folding wooden boxes. Sometimes I see lottery sellers going to work carrying their wooden boxes.

I hear chimes, when the hour changes there are clock chimes that play on the loudspeaker.

We go to a grocery store on the main street, it is smaller then a 7-11 but packed with goods floor to ceiling. There are even items hanging from nets on the ceiling. We purchase five bags of goods and the people help us carry it to the curb where we catch a taxi. The taxi is nearing the end of its shift and can not take us home, the driver flags down another taxi and helps us load our bags into the new taxi. We make it home.

Phra Pradaeng is the real thing. Just standing on the street watching the people and traffic is an education on Thailand. I look forward to going to Phra Pradaeng.