Alone in Bangkok now, the nights were so sad and frigthening to me. If you wonder why, try to take a taxi around 12pm and go somewhere, just "rot". How the taxi drivers are crazy, how your homeboys are crazy too, how your Thai is sadly poor, it seems this is a punishement for ever, you're here for two weeks and it's always the same: unable to say those stupid things that would turn your life much more simple... give it up. Sometimes it seems missunderstangings are richest that pure and clear conversations. Note that it's certainly espacially true when one side is drunk.

Drunk. I don't think I met a drunk taxi driver yet. But for one of my first trips between those Bangkok buildings I remember a strange driver his head slowly shaking from right to left and from the front to the back...it was the night and one of my friend said "look this guy is crazy, he's drugged" and I stared at the guy, a bit worry, for sure this man was in a "may sabay" mode, around 120 km/h in sukhumvit road and rama 9... screaming "sabaaaay sabaaaay" each and everytime we were laughing.I try to immagine what would have been my reaction If I had been with my parents or my grandmother in this taxi.

If you give up the night life and you know you leave in two weeks you chose to go on your own, along the streets. After all, in Paris you like it so why won't you be able to do it here? Because of the heat, stupid!
"Khao San Khap"..."tinii khap, khopkhunkhap,sawatdeekhap" and you start to walk, to "visit" but after ten minute you perfectly understand how huge is your error, and all the things you have to learn here. Your back looks like to the Nile and the back of your pant to the Lake victoria, to everybody you cross in the street it seems you go out of the swimming pool of your resort.

You made another mistake choosing again this typical tourist atribute: the thong shoes called "claquette" in french (I do know you find French as exotic as Thai). The dust loves it too and if it can bring the rain with it inside it's better for both of them. If you don't slide and fall down on the side walk during the afternoon you have my permission to think you're lucky. I was lucky this day (though I wonder if, according to the appearance of the day, luck had something to deal with all of this) and courageous also, I walked few hours, all the time required to feel wet and dirty, more than you're uncle Jean, living in the south of France who always shake your hand break it and who smells a subtile mix of old supermarket perfume, hearth, sweat (of course) and many other things and who never shave more than twice a month.

In these conditions I'm used to think now that this is how you really feel Thailand, I mean that's how you understand the "mood" better.
My trip in the old town had been very long, don't forget that I was alone. Oh yeah, I was about to forget the guy who said to me "hellooo! where come from?" I started to chat with him (actually I was about to reject him as every good French does in his own streets at home), he told me he just finished to work and was about to eat, asking me if I wanted to share a lunch with him..."who's this guy?, I bet he will ask me if I'm looking for girls, thuk thuk or thai boxing". Finally he did. I was not hungry nor looking for thai boxing girls or boxing thai girls, so I left him alone and took a picture of this strange and...not very beautiful monument, as we say in French

If you continue to walk (alone if you can't do better) you turn on the left (or on the right, anyway I did not know where I was) and you will find few khlong with sleeping dogs, people sleeping as their dogs do and a town you cannot really immaginate while you're walking on the big streets of Downtown. You almost can immagine what was Bangkok before came to them the idea of building big and shiny buildings, and subways. A city full of green places, trees and little channels with black water inside (yes in Bangkok water is black, local fashion).

You realize that you've been through a lot of hoods, many little streets, you saw many things but none you planed to see, anyway, you do not have anything to sweat this is the sign you have to go home to take you seventh shower of the day (if you don't understand why I hope I'll never sit next to you in the BTS).

What is always cool with this kind of experiences is that, at the end I always think that it was a great day...

Because, after all, you have to admit that once again, this city showed to you so many unexpectable things, exactly what you were looking for actually. I don't understand why the unexpectable should always be hot, spciy or surounded by pink and blue lights. If for you the only exciting thing in Bangkok is to be submerged by pink and blue light, loud music and alcohol frangrances, try once to do what the french dude did all alone...

Originally published at: http://www.thai-blogs.com/index.php?blog=23&title=sweat_smells_and_colors&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1.