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After
arriving at the Bangkok (Thailand) airport and being booked into a hotel,
one of my first adventures was taking a boat tour through some of Bankok’s
famous canals to see their “FLOATING MARKETS.”
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Many
Bangkok residents live ALONG (and/or OVER!) the hundreds of canals which
criss-cross much of the city. The lives of these people are closely
linked in all respects to these waterways.
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Much
of their travel is via boat...
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...and
local vendors (like this fruit & vegetable woman) market their wares
directly to their customers who live along the canals.
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This
is one of the hundreds of water ‘taxies’ which provides public
transportation for people who live along the canals.
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When
its ‘wash day’ and you live in a one room shack on the canal,
you have to hang the wash SOMEWHERE to dry!
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This
is another fruit & vegetable woman selling her wares to someone
who lives on his boat.
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As
I traveled along the canals, I noticed that there some places where
many wooden huts were congregated closely together and other points
where relatively few people lived.
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Most
of the huts and buildings were constructed from unpainted wood, so there
was NOT a lot of COLOR to these homes and markets unless they had erected
some overhanging silk material as a protection from the sun...
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...or
someone had hung out some clothing to dry!
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Since
these kids lived their lives on and around the canals, I can only assume
that they had to learn to swim at a very early age. In this photo a
young girl appears to be taking care of her younger brother and sister.
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This
is an actual fabric and material vendor who had his ‘business’
built directly over the water. It catered directly to residents of the
canal who arrived on their own boats to shop for needed goods.
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At
this ‘intersection’ of several canals, there were a number
of different vendors congregated into one area of buildings who were
selling various line of merchandise...
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...while
other vendors sold to people directly from their boats.
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At
the end of the Floating Market tour of the canals, the tour guide took
our boat directly to one of the many temple areas so that we could visit
the shrine.
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Having
just seen the rather plain and drab huts, buildings, boats, and PEOPLE
along the canals, the contrast of visiting these richly decorated statues
and temples was remarkable...and somewhat ironic!
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However,
there was no denying that the many ancient temples and statues to be
seen in and around Bangkok were incredibly unique and well worth seeing.
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Part
of my tour package included an exhibition of ancient Thai costumes and
dancing.
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The
colors and detail in the design of these costumes was very impressive...
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...and
was certainly unlike anything I had ever seen while growing up in the
cornfields of Ohio!
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While
much of the English translation regarding the particular significance
of the costumes and specific acts these dancers were...
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...demonstrating
was somehow lost on me, I was nevertheless impressed with the show!
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