{"id":762,"date":"2012-01-10T07:07:25","date_gmt":"2012-01-10T17:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/?p=762"},"modified":"2012-01-11T06:26:32","modified_gmt":"2012-01-11T16:26:32","slug":"the-feeding-of-the-twelve-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/2012\/01\/10\/the-feeding-of-the-twelve-million\/","title":{"rendered":"The Feeding Of The Twelve Million"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">That&#8217;s the current population of Bangkok; I suppose this does not include tourists. Interesting to see not only the breadth of choices, but the sheer magnitude of these street-level operations.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><center>[portfolio_slideshow]<\/center><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Here&#8217;s the scene of a Tuesday morning in some nondescript little alley somewhere deep within the frontiers of Chinatown. Would you believe that motorcycles ply this alley as well? God damn <em>better<\/em> believe it, &#8217;cause it&#8217;s true! They use the alley for deliveries.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<div style=\"top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%;\">\t\t\t\t<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Chinatown Alley\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute;\"  src=\"https:\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/photos\/6673694067\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">And here we have a glimpse of Sampeng Market. No big deal; but this old guy is cool.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<div style=\"top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%;\">\t\t\t\t<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sampeng Market\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute;\"  src=\"https:\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/photos\/6673848429\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Here&#8217;s the lowdown on Chinatown: the maps tell one story, the street tells a different story. Put these alternate realities together, and you&#8217;ll find that you never know where you are unless you know where you are (if you know what I mean). On the other hand, wherever you (don&#8217;t know) where you are, there&#8217;ll be something bitchin&#8217;-ass cool to see.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Saw a Buddhist monk walking around barefoot, and felt empowered to do the same. Yo, &#8217;cause I had previously received a clarification from the hosteliers, when asking whether it would be considered a violation of the taboo to barefoot it on the grass in the park? They said that as far as they were concerned, I could barefoot it <em>anywhere<\/em>, so long as I washed my feet before I came inside; or shod up before coming inside, then washed my feet before removing shoes and walking around.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Were it not for the cultural taboo, Bangkok would be a brilliant city in which to barefoot it: no dog-doo, no litter, no broken glass. True, the pavements can get kind of hot, but the feet will over time build up a tolerance, so it&#8217;s all good.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Notwithstanding the hoteliers&#8217; generosity, am I pissing off other Bangkokers? Don&#8217;t know! Many people make sure I <em>know<\/em> that I&#8217;m not wearing shoes; but they don&#8217;t tell me in English what they <em>think<\/em> of it. Pretty much none of them <em>seem <\/em>to be offended &#8212; though pretty much <em>all <\/em>of them seem to think I&#8217;m a Grade-A Schmutz. I could live with that. (Hell, that&#8217;s what most <em>Americans<\/em> think of barefooters.)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Missed a <em>great<\/em> opportunity to-day, dammit all. Been trying to learn some basic Thai phrases, and for some reason had found &#8220;thank you&#8221; a bit difficult to remember. Finally had it all figured (he think). Pulled out a map while on the river taxi, and the young Thai gentlemen next to whom I was sitting asked in English whether I needed any help? I explained that, nah, I was just checking to see how many more stops &#8217;til my own. Then, like a dumb-assed dill-weed, I thanked him&#8230;in English!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Oy vey. Did give him the ol&#8217; Wai gesture as I got up to leave, and he did seem to appreciate it. But it just wasn&#8217;t the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>That&#8217;s the current population of Bangkok; I suppose this does not include tourists. Interesting to see not only the breadth of choices, but the sheer magnitude of these street-level operations. [portfolio_slideshow] &nbsp; Here&#8217;s the scene of a Tuesday morning in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/2012\/01\/10\/the-feeding-of-the-twelve-million\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}