Cycling in Bangkok's Chinatown.

Bangkok, 16 March 2013.

Cycling a bike in the middle of Bangkok's Chinatown puts me right in the middle of total chaos but being on a bicycle makes me feel evrything just twice as intense, see, hear and feel everything like it is a dream, a sort of alternate reality where being stoned out of your proverbial head on your very first number one Thai joint stick is small in comparison...

Old Bangkok chicken busses blowing big sooty clouds of black exhaust fumes into my face while I try to check out the incredible amount of activity taking place, dodging people sprawled all over the sidewwalk and streets selling shoes and second hand clothes spread out on worn blankets, electronics and colorful towels, mot-eaten fabrics and gabage strewn about at random, every nook and cranny of the available space given over to commerce, stagnant air and puddles of dirty smelly water, dilapidated three storied Chinese houses the front of which is invariable a shop...

I avoid running into a kid, maybe twelve years at most, pushing a wooden cart ten times  his own size, laden with rotting fruits and vegetables. I breath in the foul air but refuse to let it spoil my number one good mood...

Some young lady wanting to know if I fancy a handful of flowers for my lady wherever she might be right now, never mind the bid city bus narrowly avoiding my skinny behind on my rusty old bike while I refuse her flowery offer...

I jostle for space in the narrow lanes and Sois where it is difficult to tell who is selling what and who is buying amidst all the peddlers and passers-by, plastic buckets and pots, cooking pans and cigarettes...

People shuffling from shop to peddler...life at its very core right here in Bangkok's Chinatown...

Covered in sweat and accumulated street filth I return to my Saam Roi THB family-run guest house in Soi Ngam Dhu Pli near Lumpini Park, desperate to get a cold shower, maybe a refreshing Leo beer when my phone rings, Miss Endu informing me "me miss you big time"!!!