Development

Every city has its rhythm and style. Angelenos – at least pre-pandemic – get their coffee and hit the highway. New York's streets are a mass of humanity every morning. Hong Kong in winter has the smell of sea and steamy hot soy milk coming from stands around the city. Paris is lazy with people strolling and sitting at cafes – showing up for work when they're ready.

Bangkok is traffic on the main streets and life bubbling up from the sois – the narrow alley-streets where people live and neighborhoods exist. Morning means food stands stalls where people grab breakfast – and sometimes a boxed lunch to go; kids heading to school; motorcycle taxis ferrying people from the deep soi to the thanons (boulevards) or maybe to the nearest public transportation stop – or even all the way to work if it's within range. 

Last trip with our stay at an amazing Airbnb's penthouse I began to discover that movin' on up isn't without its costs. The Bangkok I first knew in 2001-2002 – the Bangkok of my heart, the Bangkok that will always be – was lived in the back sois. The soi behind my apartment was a fantastic little neighborhood with some of the best som tam I've ever had. The soi behind the school I taught at was a cornucopia of food, shops and services. Students and teachers alike were back there at lunch time.

However, the soi behind the Conrad Residences – like that of the penthouse condo last year – has more sit-down restaurants and than food carts and more high-end shops that hole-in-the-wall laundries and barbers. Getting to a street food breakfast means reaching the thanon – which isn't SO far away. But it's not in the 'hood. Lucky for me, the thanon – Sukhumvit by the Ploenchit BTS Station – had everything my soi didn't. Evidently, everyone who works in the area – and it is a central part of the city – seemed to be milling through the numerous street vendors, making their selections. So I joined them – and within five minutes put together my perfect Thai breakfast, Sangkaya in the banana leaf packaging (coconut sticky rice with a slice of coconut custard), freshly cut pineapple, two kai dao (sunny side up fried eggs) and a Thai iced tea with the tea brewed in the traditional sock. Arroy-dee (delicious)!

While most people in my hotel were downstairs at the pricey breakfast buffet, in the surprisingly cool air of the morning, I worked the street food buffet at the end of the soi and enjoyed in in my suite. Of course even under the best of circumstances a Thai iced tea is 25 baht instead of the 5-10 baht days of yore. But economic development, inflation – what are you gonna do?

Last visit, I wrote about Thailand's economic development and how apparent it is just from looking out the window driving through Thailand which is substantial since I first came here 21 years ago. What I didn't discuss is the highways themselves. Even in Thailand's more Third World days, it had an amazingly well developed network of freeways and highways connecting the kingdom efficiently. Today these well designed roads are actually paved and maintained better than California freeways and our very Third World Los Angeles streets. I've seen nothing in Southeast Asia as bad as Laurel Canyon.

Apparently his late Majesty had a vision for infrastructure and championed the construction of a freeway belt around Bangkok – so that traffic heading North-South through Thailand didn't have to come into Bangkok's City Center, in turn reducing Bangkok traffic. I can't way whether it changed Bangkok, but it does make it much easier for getting in, out and around Bangkok. 

When my driver picked me up at 10 am, we made it to the Nuanthip Pier in Ban Phe in a quick 2.5 hours flat including a quick coffee/egg tart stop. That used to take 3-4 hours. To my surprise and delight, my hotel was right near a highway entrance and it felt like we launched up and quickly and effortlessly flew through Bangkok – almost like the Peter Pan ride at Disneyland. I remembered how long it took for the first class government bus to make it from the Ekkamai Bus Station to the outskirts of Bangkok to join the highway. And there I was in a private car with a driver flying out of Bangkok right from the smack middle of it. My how we all have changed.

Travel is interesting because in some ways it's a reinforcement of the human ability to see others more clearly than themselves. We can all point out the faults, poor decisions and hypocrisies of others – but our psyches protect us from ourselves. Our internal mirrors are warped and our internal narrators weave us plausible stories we can believe to make sense of our pain, shield us from guilt and help us live with ourselves. So we can see the good, bad, bad sublime, profane and interesting about the places and people we visit – but not always about home and our lives.

If you let it, travel can also be like therapy – helping us to see ourselves often by contrast. "Here, they do this. I like this. Why don't we do this? Maybe our way isn't the only or even the best way? Hmmmm…." (Sennen thinks this about the water sprayers attached to toilets in much of Southeast Asia used by locals instead of toilet paper). Or, "I find that morally offensive. Why do I find that morally offensive? What does that say about me and my culture? Do we have some version of this? And why is it okay or not?" (for example, I had an almost emotionally allergic reaction to the Pashupati cremation temple in Kathmandu). And one of the hardest to come to, "Have I been told and bought into an incomplete or even the wrong story about things. Have I been unknowingly wrong in some fundamental way?" Being confronted with new facts and perspectives isn't always a holiday.

I have moments of moral quandary in other countries that I probably should have at home. I notice the proliferation of plastic in a poor country (and they do use it even more than we do), while I recycle and assuage my guilt about it at home – knowing that most plastic doesn't actually get recycled. I don't like the way central Thais look down on Isaan (Northeastern) and dark skinned Southern Thais. But how often do I get outraged by the bias and prejudice in our own country? I can just see it clearer here because I'm outside looking in. 

All this to say, if we do a diligent job, we can – like the Thai economy and roads – develop over time. 

My day too has developed over time. After searching from street food breakfast just hours ago, I now find myself finishing this blog in Thai heaven. Sunny, breezy Ko Samet with its gorgeous blue bathwater warm and shallow water is a paradise and an ideal place for me to retreat. I'm staying in a traditionally Thai looking bungalow about 100 feet from one of the island's less busy beaches – Ao Vongduean. We can talk more about Samet and Vongduean tomorrow. But for today, suffice it to say that I've made it to my place to refresh and recharge. Sure, on the island away from everything, the som tam takes forever to come when you order it – but then again, the som tam always comes eventually.