Thursday, May 21, 2009

What a quality of life I have!!

Where my house locates is called "Sena village." It's a big old village of Bangkok. My mom said that when they moved here, some area around were rice fields. And look at it now... no any fields but full of habitations as you can see.




This is what Google Earth shows the way to my house.


The red line is Phahonyothin road, a main road of Thailand from Bangkok to the North. It's my usual way to my University, malls and it's straight to the center of Bangkok.


The point that the red converge the blue is a bus stop, a market and it's an informal tiny taxi station which is necessary for people who live around the blue line, include myself.



The tiny taxi station



The blue line is an about-3.5-Km.-long road. (We call small roads that are branches of the main road "Soi.") It's where I need to rely on this transportation called "Pok Pok" or tiny taxi.





From what you see, There're seats for 6 people in the back of the coachwork. Three people have to sit opposite to another three and another one passenger sit beside the driver.


Riding in this car along the blue line takes about 15-30 minutes (sometimes it's even 45 minutes) to get to my destination, my house or the bus stop, depends on the speed that's the driver's satisfaction or the mood they're in.


Being a passenger of this vehicle type........ For many reasons, I can't say that it's quite safe.
Sometimes it feels like I'm riding a roller coaster; fast, extremely and scary. Sometimes it's like... it'd be faster if I walk instead.


Today I went out to a mall and took this taxi as usual. While I was on the car and it stopped at a red light, the driver of the car I took got off from his seat to check the tires. There's another car driver parked beside got off from his car to talk to him. Here's their conversation...



"How much they cost?"

"5,xxx Baht. I don't think there's need to get new ones."

"Hey.. be careful. It maybe explode like it has happened once."

"Yeah... I have no idea if we could even get to the market." (He meant the destination.)

"What if it explodes?"

"Well, though the last time that it exploded was while I was driving, but no one got serious injured from that."



Unexpectedly..., another passenger and I looked at each other... Well, we had nothing to say... since we had no choice to choose any other transpartations but only these thin tin cars.







At the end of the blue line, I have to get off the taxi and walk along the orange line. The orange is a side street to my place. It takes about 5-10 minutes to walk (about 500 meters.)

At the entrance of the side street, it once used to be called a "dangerous zone of Bangkok" !!!

During daytime on weekday, it'd be a bit quiet. But currently, thanks to a noodle shop, 24-hour minimart and food venders around, so during lunch time and weekend, there'd be many people there.



But if it's night time....... check out the below pictures...



Too dark to see??
OK, I'll use flash light...

Is it better now??
Maybe you can see clearer that it's bottomless??

Three lights along 500-meter side street..... Yes.. that's enough to call it a risky point...

Along this small road... I had bad experiences since I was young. There're several times I found sexual psychos. Once when my cousin and I walked along the street, there's a guy rode a motorbike and parked in front of us. He unzipped his trousers and showed us his ABC...!!!


Considering about my journey from the main road to my house, from the blue to the end of the orange line, and thinking about the safety the tiny cars provide us... plus the light side street..., I can't think of anything but move!!

Monday, May 4, 2009

Sattaheep temple fair

Yesterday I took my little nephew to a temple fair near my uncle's house in Sattaheep, Chonburi. This kind of fair usually locates in or near temple area. It's a fun time and place for people to enjoy. In the past, this fair was like a chance to hang out and find new people. Nowaday, it's hard to find a fair like this in Bangkok. I guess the bigest temple fair in Bangkok is about Loi Kratong festival period at the golden mountain.





The golden mountain fair

Picture from www.oknation.net/blog/petpetpe/2007/11/25/entry-1



Back to the fair which I'm talking about...


Because the fair was in a temple area, so I firstly walked and looked around. There's a Buddhist sanctuary in the center of the fair. As a Buddist, I went inside to worshiped Buddha statues.






White lotuses, 3 joss sticks and a candle to worship Buddha statues.

I also gilded golden leaves on the statues's hands to remind myself to always do good things.




Almost every temples, there's a "Seum Si," a cylinder of foretell sticks. It's a Chinese belief to predict a future. All you have to do with it is to joggle the cylinder until a stick fall down, then you'd get your number on the stick. If there're many sticks fall at the same time, pick the stick that falls first. And if you try joggling it many times and still get many sticks fall altogether... , your life may be too complicated to predict, then.






This's what I've got, No. 9



When you get your number from the stick, go to a board which fortune papers are stuck on and get your prediction. Usually, it's Thai poetry which sometimes it's hard for me to undertand. :P



This is my fortune...




Your luck is good... There won't be any problems in anywhere you'll go or anything you'll do...


(Hmmm... If that's true, what about my thesis, then??)


You'll meet people who you haven't seen for years.


(Yeah... I'll have a meeting with college friends next week. But I haven't seen them just for months.)


If you're sick, it will take awhile more than usual to get better.


(Luckily... My health's pretty good now.)


About your love... be patient.. and don't rush.


(Hmm... I'm kind of impatient person... but I don't rush for this.


So what can I do? One more shaking?)












There're many kinds of booths, such as food, gifts, copied electronic stuffs and some amusement booths.







This is one of my favorite.. quail egg fried on a griddle which there're holes orderly on it.

If you don't understand what I'm trying to explain... check out the left picture.

After adding soy sauce and pepper... Hmm... yummy!




Amusement booths, usually for kids.

Mini racing booth and an art corner for kid




A combination of merry-go-round and roller coaster plaything


Giant slider, only for kids




Home-made Ferris wheel...
Though I'm scared of hight... but a reason why I don't join this wasn't that.
It's only because I love my life and still have many things I want to do.





Shooting booth
My little nephew's so serious about his shooting.

This is my target.
One... a head
One... a chest
One... through a heart
One... a rib
Two... arms
And four... stomach (actually I tried to unman the target man)

Maybe I should take a shooting course???
So that next time, I can easily shoot every bullets to his crotch.