I live in a city of many flavors and emotions. A single day here can easily take me from an unparalleled
high to a frustrating low and then back up again to the sweetest, most happy
place. One could say that it is the
perfect scenario: a balancing act, that,
if you get it right, can leave you perfectly calm and peaceful and on even
ground at the end of every day.
I have never lived anywhere so unpredictable, yet so regular
in its rhythms. Street vendors regularly
set up shop on the same spot, at the same time, every day. Yet, on the one day that you are craving the
best Pad Thai, they just happen to be missing.
Neighbors never fail to hold court on the bridge over the small canal
that signals the entrance to our street. Yet, when you need someone to help you make
that turn without scraping the bottom of the car on that concrete bridge, no
one is around. The legendary traffic is
ever-present. Yet, when you finally
decide to leave early, it is nowhere to be found.
I often feel that I really have no control. It is this wonderful, crazy city that is in
charge.
So, it is now, on the night of my 37th birthday,
that I finally begin to put it all down in writing. I have promised these tales to so many, who
have patiently waited to hear all about our life here in Bangkok . I have a list of stories that I feel the need
to tell to someone, just so I can prove that they have really happened. They are crazy and beautiful and sometimes,
just a little bit too much to handle.
Hopefully, just the fact that I’m ‘saying it out loud’ will make it all
seem a bit more real.
I cannot promise that this will be a regular occurrence (these
posts, that is), but one thing is for sure:
you will wish you were here and wonder why anyone would want to be here,
at the same time. You will see that my adopted city of Bangkok
can be so many flavors and emotions – all in the same day.
