Bangkok, Take 2

Oh yes, this is the Bangkok I had heard so much about!

I had the most frustrating transportation experience ever yesterday.  I've been so lucky so far but after that I honestly don't know how this city exists.  People must leave several hours early to get to work.  Maybe that's why I always see people sleeping in they're shops, because they had to wake up at 2AM just to begin their commute.

I had my heart set on taking a Muay Thai class and started out almost two hours ahead of time which is at least twice as long as it should take.  The gym is less than 7 miles away but the buses here can be unpredictable and the traffic is terrible as I learned firsthand.  I waited at the bus stop for half an hour with no sign of either of the buses I had looked up.  I finally gave up and just got on another bus that was going in my direction.  Then on my second bus we got stopped at what has to be the most frustrating and poorly planned intersection in the world.  I'm not even sure how many streets came together but we were stopped for at least 15 minutes while we waited for three trains to pass right through the center of the intersection and the opposing traffic had several green lights while we got nothing.  The bus apparently doesn't follow the same route I found online so I ended up being much farther away than I had planned but was hoping that if I took a motorbike taxi the rest of the wayI might just make it.  Normally the drivers won't stop yelling trying to get fares but when I asked two guys in taxi vests they told me they wouldn't take me.  And when I found a guy who seemed moderately more interested in making money he spent ten minutes talking to the first two trying to figure out where I was going even though I had showed him the route on google maps, or perhaps they were just debating how much they could gouge me because he gave me the most ridiculously inflated price.  By the time he was ready to leave I would have been twenty minutes late so, feeling angry and disappointed, I turned around and took the subway and a bus back to my accommodations.

It's been raining here nonstop too.  I walked outside last night and there was a small river flowing down the alley that connects my guesthouse to the main road.  The wind from the air conditioners and the rain from the adjacent rooftops made it seem like a hurricane.  It rained through the night and most of the day today too although now at least it is light enough that I don't really need an umbrella, but this morning when my alarm went off for the floating market I looked out the window at the downpour and thought better of it.

I did go to a close muay thai gym called Sor Vorapin though and took an afternoon class.  I was glad that I'd done the training in Phuket because the instruction wasn't nearly as good and I would've been totally lost.  We did a LOT of shadow boxing and a couple rounds with the trainer and on the bags but Tiger was definitely better.  It was a decent workout though.  I was so sore afterwards I went for a massage.

I had to laugh when one of the masseuses brought her little baby to the massage room.  Childcare seems to be nonexistent here.  People bring their kids everywhere.  The other day I was on a bus and noticed that they driver had a stack of blankets between him and the window.  It was odd but I didn't think much of it until a small child popped up and then started walking around the bus.  And it's not at all uncommon to see young children out at 3 or 4 AM while they're parents sell food or other items.