They say a picture tells a thousand words.  In that case, let me share about 10,000 words worth of pictures and catch you up on recent events.  There’s a big story to tell you about my trip to the Northeast on Sunday, but I still have some video to edit so let me get these loose ends tied up first.

One of my Xanga “blogrings” to which I belong is “I Never Leave Home Without My Camera”.  This is true.  There are simply too many fascinating things to see, especially in Krungthep!

Another entry in my “Overloaded Trucks of Thailand” coffee table book series.  Here a bunch of laminated particleboard armoirs make their way down Asoke Street.

There are lots of street vendors here, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone selling honeycomb from the back of a bicycle.

Also along Asoke, a man and a woman are rescued by a tuk tuk driver as their motorscooter has a mechanical.  Somehow the driver is able to secure their scooter to the back of his tuk tuk.

Six weeks ago, this tree outside our bedroom window, in the driveway to the neighboring condo’s car park, was barren.  I wasn’t sure if it was dead or just going through winter.  Sure enough, the green buds of new leaves started appearing as the cold weather disappeared, and last week there was a profusion of yellow blossoms.  The recent heavy rains and wind of the last three days have already knocked them off, though.

Friday night Tawn came home from work and I prepared dinner.  I almost always have a few portions of homemade pizza dough in the freezer as it makes for an easy and relatively quick dinner.  This time was vegetarian: instead of the typical tomato sauce, I used a pureed roasted squash, seasoned with Italian spices.  Throw some tomatoes and fresh mozzarella on top, then garnish with fresh basil once out of the oven.  Serve with a mixed arugula salad and you have a pretty healthy meal.

The next morning I made use of some leftover buttermilk to make waffles.  I tried a new recipe that substitutes 1/4 cup of cornstarch for some of the flour, which gives it a crispier texture.  Also, the egg is separated and the white is beaten before being added, giving it more volume.  Sadly, the cap on the canister of Vermont maple syrup I brought from the US (and which has been stored in my refrigerator) is stuck.  I was unable to open it and so we were limited to preserves and honey as toppings.

Saturday we headed out to run some errands for Trish.  You’ll recall that we’ve been trying to chase down the owner of a silk factory who sold Trish 60 yards of ostensibly 2-ply white silk, that upon inspection ended up being 1-ply.  After months of the run-around we finally met up with her last weekend at Old Siam shopping center and made the exchange, picking up 2-ply navy blue silk instead of white.  Old Siam is shown above, with a large floor of clothing for sale.  This is kind of like MBK Shopping Center and a little of Chatuchak Weekend Market but all in an air conditioned environment.  There are many silk stores on the second and third floor.

Can you spot the foot massage station at the top of the photo?  There is one in each of the four corners of the main shopping floor.  Not fancy at all, but cheap!

Driving through the old section of the city, we passed many shop houses, some of which have beautiful tilework on the ground floor.  This one in particular caught my attention.

While waiting at one traffic light I saw this colorful scene unfold before us.  Red, orange, yellow and green.  Bangkok: a city painted in primary colors.

Speaking of movies, this picture I took at the corner of Wittayu (aka “Wireless”) and Ploenchit roads looks like a movie set, doesn’t it?

The corner pictured above is the upper left-hand corner of the property shown in this photo below – just to the right of the shophouses that are being demolished – originally posted in early December.

Please return your attention to the first photograph.  There are several things that are very interesting and instructive about this photo.  Bear with me and I’ll explain them.

A – Two things here.  First, the building on the corner is a police box.  Almost every intersection in the city has one.  The signals, although sometimes set to “automatic”, are generally operated by a police officer sitting in the box.  During rush hour, other policemen will come out of the box and assist with directing traffic.  They use radios to coordinate the traffic signals.  Whether they are coordinating with any other intersection is anyone’s guess.

The second interesting thing is to notice how narrow the sidewalk is on the corner.  The area behind the box (covered by the new metal cage – more about that in a moment) is private land.  The previous shops that stood there had outdoor restaurants along this stretch and it became a de facto public sidwalk, making moot the dangerous narrow pedestrian footpath in front of the police box.

It looks like the new owner/developer of the property has agreed to maintain that public right-of-way.

B – Obstacle course… er, footpath.  Not only does this stretch of sidewalk (and pretty much every other stretch in the city) have vendors crowding, but you can see where construction work has been done and left in a perilous state.  Large plastic conduits lie half-burried in the concrete, creating tripping hazards galore. 

The conrete itself is actually a hopeful sign, though: previously, sidewalks were covered with individual pavers floating on a bed of compacted dirt and sand.  This looked nice for about a week, but eventualy the weight of vendor’s carts and other traffic would cause the pavers to shift, resulting in a very unstable surface.  The Bangkok Metropolitan Authority is now pouring a sub-layer of concrete and then paving on top of that.  We’ll see how it works.  In the meantime, watch your step!

C – Nice, new footpath.  The owners/developers of the new project – which I understand will be a mixed-use highrise – have rebuilt the quasi-public sidewalk so it is level, smooth, and – alors! – has metal posts spaced to prevent vendors and motorcycles from entering.  It is so nice, you almost want to cry.

D – Safety cage.  I’m not sure if the construction will be immediately adjacent to the footpath or not.  Normally, they use plywood to create a solid barrier.  This barrier lets in light and air but also any smaller particles that might fall to the earth.  I’m curious to see how this works.  Nicely, though, they built openings in the cage for the existing trees.

There’s your slice of Krungthep for the day.