I like watching people and their lives. Give me a Starbucks where I can hide behind a coffee cup and watch a busy Bangkok street and I could occupy myself long after the coffee were gone. But I also am kept thoroughly amused by the many around when I walk long ways in the city, often not because of my love of walking, but because walking is faster than the bus in traffic. Bangkok is a fascinating city with equally as fascinating people. Just about anywhere you go if you were to observe the world tick by you for a hour  it could give you enough ideas for a bestselling novel! Oh I could go on and on with tales of what I see in this City of Angels, not everything being angelic, but it is certainly a city pulsating with life and hidden stories; you just have to look.

From policemen adding a jingle and jiggle to their traffic controlling, to the motorcycle driver gyrating his whole body as he swerves in and out of traffic … you just know he’s making “broom broom” noises.
From the foreigner dude, backpack likely to be nicknamed the Leaning Tower of Pisa, totally lost on dormant soi (street), to the taxi driver making a U-turn on a spot with half a dozen “NO U-TURN” signs … and he has a grin on his face like he just won the citizen of the year award.
From the receptionist flashing a radiant smile that came from years of practice … even though as soon as the person she was helping walks off she makes a Jim Carey face, rolling her eyes so much you think she’s doing exercises, to a blind beggar thanking you profusely that you gave him 20 baht … ahem, how did you know!
From a passenger of the skytrain who, like every other person I have seen to date, answers her phone with the comment “Oh yes, I’m on the SKYTRAIN …” with all the emphasis as if she were on the moon … must be Bangkokian pride for our lovely skytrain, to group of office workers on lunch break, that highlight of their day where they can catch up on all the office gossip, untie the stupid tie, and be a pig, ordering multiple bowls of noodle soup.

And that’s just a few examples, I could really go on and on and on about all the things that put a smile on my face to see around Bangkok. But what puts a smile on my face more than anything else is watching children. Oh they are such a joy to watch, I could watch kids antics at one of the local playgrounds for hours … not that I don’t see enough antics already at home. But children are unique in that regard. They have the ability to block out their surroundings, totally uncaring about what others think, totally lost in their childish fantasies, totally at bliss in play or excitement.

From the over-exaggerated kissy kissy faces from the little boys to their bashful “girlfriends”, to a little girl lost in a world of mermaids and mermen, entrapping seaweed, fishermen’s nets that come out of anywhere, and fish as numerous as the stars in the sky … even though that world in reality is just her bowl of soup, the fish and seaweed her noodles and fishballs, and the dangerous fishing nets her spoon.
From kids admiring a Christmas tree, certain without doubt that “it must be a thousand feet high!”, to the wise ones telling off the Santa Clause with a “aren’t you the hotel manager” quip.
From a group of children adoring a group of puppies in the store window, lovingly giving each one a name and life story even though the poor puppy has been given many names and life stories from similar experiences in the past, to a little girl with the concentrated look of a grand master, the carefulness of a mother, and the deftness of a craftsman … as she works on her stick figure.
From a little boy rolling down a hill “as high as mount everest” and then getting up at the end with all the moves from the solider movie he watched the night before, to a baby who doesn’t look at color, social status, clothes, fanciness of the car, or anything else for that matter, but just smiles, whoever the stranger that passes by is.

All to say, besides the traffic, Bangkok is truly a charming city, if you know where to look. Shouldn’t the Tourism Authority give me a medal?