Old Timers

[IMA_FARANG]

Anyway. mathematics aside.

I find it funny when someone assumes Bangkok was better in the past. I came in the 80's as well and the pollution and traffic were so bad that Bangkok was almost unnavigable and unlivable.

My husband went to University in Bangkok, lived with his brother, and had to take the bus to school for 3 hours one way every day. So, 6 hours on the bus every day. And the school wasn't that far (Ramkamhaeng, he was living near The Mall BangKapi) He got up and left the house at 4 am.

Koh Phangan, of course, was an entirely different story but probably one most people wouldn't be interested in hearing about Small island, no amenities, no mod cons, just local people living their normal lives.

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I find it funny when someone assumes Bangkok was better in the past. I came in the 80's as well and the pollution and traffic were so bad that Bangkok was almost unnavigable and unlivable.

I first arrived in Bangkok in 1977.

I remember the old taxis..before the meter taxis...many of the taxis had holes in the floor. You got used to sitting with your feet up, during the rainy season. Sukhumvit road used to flood around Soi 30 to Soi 36. If you went through that in one of the old taxis, you had to lift your feet because the water would come in through the holes in the floor. Many of the shops in that area of Sukhumvit had sandbags piled up around their shops to keep the water out. You had to climb over the sandbags to get into the shops. I knew a German guy who had a date with a German woman he met in Bangkok while she was here as a tourist. They were coming home on Sukhumvit when their taxi broke down in the floodwater near Soi 34. They got out to walk back to Soi 38 where he was staying. They were wading through the water when she lost her shoe. It started to float away rapidly in the current, and was headed for an open drain. My friend, being the gentleman (and probably a little drunk also), waded deeper into the water to rescue the shoe. Unfortunately he slipped and fell, and was nearly sucked into the open drain by the water. She had to wade over there to rescue him. They ended up being an item for a while, but she always enjoyed telling the story about how she had to rescue her boyfrind from being sucked into the storm drain on their first date.

Edited May 10, 2009 by IMA_FARANG

[p_brownstone]

Cycle rickshaws were banned in Bangkok in the mid 1960s as "not fitting the modern image of the city being promoted by the government".

Cycle Rickshaws bring back a memory – not exactly my own.

I arrived in Bangkok in late 1971 and was invited to a Christmas “Mulled Wine” party (yes, yes – hot wine Toddy in Bangkok!) at my MD’s residence. The other invitees were almost exclusively “old Colonial” caricatures – Colonel and Memshaib types. Being only 25 at the time and new in Bangkok I was pretty deferential to all until one old lady (British) started reminiscing about using Cycle Rickshaws in Bangkok and how she would “steer” the vehicle to her destination by kicking the driver on his left or right buttock.

Truly nonplussed, I asked why she did not learn to say, in Thai, “left” or “right” etc. and received a stony glare for my temerity. I later found out she had been here for over 15 years yet spoke no Thai at all!

Patrick