Going with the Flow (or the Kindness of Strangers)
Our Tuk-Tuk driver becomes our guide in this temple totally off the beaten path.
A good friend of mine from high school became an accountant. She and I were having lunch when I was visiting home while living in the Balkans, and I told some story about how I had been saved from being lost in the backwoods of Serbia by some people on the side of the road who then hitched a ride with me to the nearest village. I said something like, “I love how when you get in that kind of situation, the universe conspires to get you out.” Her response, “I would never let myself be in that kind of situation.”
We were let out of quarantine the morning after we arrived in Thailand, having been transported in a pre-arranged sterilized van from the airport to the hospital where we were tested in the van to our hotel. We were led to our lovely rooms of the top floor with commanding views of the city), but not given keys until the results were back.
Sophia was highly grumpy about the test
The next morning we set out to walk to the Grand Palace. Along the way we passed through a maze of fantastic smelling street food (my FAV!) and were passing a beautiful temple that was oddly unmarked on Google maps. We ducked in to the parking lot looking for more information.
A man came up to us and asked where we were from. He explained that the temple was closed because it was a holiday and monks were praying inside. He then asked our plans for the day.
We told him we were walking to the Palace, and he recommended that we go to a different temple for the morning and do the palace in the afternoon, when it would be free admission because of the holiday.
He then proceeded to show us pictures of his son in New York, hailed us two Tuk-Tuks (more about that later) to take us to the temple he recommended.
Without question my favorite mode of transport so far on this trip
When life gives you that kind of message (or omen if you’ve read The Alchemist) follow it.
Our two drivers played a kind of hilarious not quite racing game on our way, mostly I think, to let us take pictures of each other.
They appointed themselves our driers for the day -even though we didn't know where we were going next.
One of them showed us how to navigate temple, buying incense, teaching us the right gestures and bows, walking with us in a shoeless a clockwise route to the real gem of the place: a massive reclining Buddha.
After we came out, the drivers excused themselves to find a bathroom. As we stood around the inner courtyard, a man sitting there asked us in nearly perfect English where we were from.
It turns out this temple also wasn't on the googles. He had never seen a non-local person there. He was meeting his wife to pray for her pregnancy - they had three girls and this was their last chance to have a boy.
He recommended that we go to "The Factory" a wholesale clothing store that supplies Armani, Hugo Boss, and others because this week was "Tax-free" week and there would be a showcase.
This felt like exactly the kind of adventure one should have in Bangkok, so off we went…
but that's another story.
