{"id":23811,"date":"2023-10-17T00:01:24","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T07:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=23811"},"modified":"2023-10-13T08:52:48","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T15:52:48","slug":"bangkok-part-1-good-morning-thailand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2023\/10\/17\/bangkok-part-1-good-morning-thailand\/","title":{"rendered":"Bangkok Part 1: Good morning, Thailand!"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Joe Berk<\/h6>\n

In October of 2017, Susie and I visited Bangkok.\u00a0 I had a gig in Singapore and we opted to swing by Thailand on the way home.\u00a0 It was an awesome visit and I had a lot of fun taking pictures of Bangkok motorcycles, Thai women, a few Thai guys, food, and more. I thought I would rerun that series (with a few updates) for you here on the ExNotes blog.\u00a0 In as many of these posts as I can, I’ll tell you about the motorcycling scene in Bangkok, too.<\/p>\n

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Our first morning in Thailand!\u00a0\u00a0 Sue and I were up with the sun and we walked around the block to get a few photos after a great breakfast in the Grand Pullman Hotel.<\/p>\n

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Sunrise in Bangkok. When it comes to smog, Bangkok is what California used to be.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The evening before was fun.\u00a0 We arrived at the hotel late at night, and because we had opted to stay on the executive floor, the hotel staff rolled out the red carpet for us.\u00a0 When we went to the check in counter and told the staff our names, they whisked us up to the top floor, brought us into the executive lounge, poured us each a glass of wine, put several kinds of appetizers in front of us, and seated on us on a comfortable sofa.\u00a0 Two young Thais basically interviewed Sue and me, they disappeared for a moment, and then they reappeared with our room keys.\u00a0 It was a pretty cool experience, and it was unlike any hotel check-in we’ve ever had.<\/p>\n

That morning we walked around a bit taking in one of the world’s busiest streets in one of the world’s most exotic cities.\u00a0 The number of motorcycles on every street had our attention immediately.\u00a0 Something we had not seen before anywhere else in the world were the motorcycle and motorscooter taxis.\u00a0 People used motorcycles and scooters for taxi duty, as you will see in a few of the photos below.<\/p>\n

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A Thai motorcycle taxi rider waiting for a fare. Motorcycles are commonly used as taxis in Thailand.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Another Thai taxi, this time a rider on a scooter. The orange vests signify that these bikes are for hire. You have to be a daring person, I think, to hail a ride on the back of the Thai two-wheeler.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A Thai family on a scooter. And a few other scooters, all waiting at a traffic light on Sukhumvit Road, the main road through Bangkok.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The ubiquitous Honda CG clone engine. These power motorcycles made all over Asia. They are probably one of the more reliable engines ever made.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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ATGATT: All the gear, all the time. Well, some of the gear. Maybe some of the time. Can you imagine what the emergency ward in any Bangkok hospital must look like?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Street food, Bangkok style. Thai food was surprisingly good. But we weren’t risk takers…we only ate in restaurants.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The fun was just beginning.\u00a0 I’ve been pretty lucky all of my life and my work has carried me to some pretty exotic locales.\u00a0 I’ve seen a lot of the world and most of it has been on someone else’s dime.\u00a0 \u00a0That’s what this Thailand adventure was.\u00a0 A client brought me to Singapore to teach a failure analysis course to a group of their defense ministry engineers (I wrote a book about failure analysis<\/a> a couple of decades ago and it’s been providing adventures like this ever since).\u00a0 \u00a0The heavy lift on this trip was the airfare to Singapore (which the client covered); swinging by Bangkok and stopping off there on the way home only cost a bit more.\u00a0 It’s a great way to travel.\u00a0 I had my trusty Nikon D3300 with me (I love that camera), and I put it to good use on this trip.<\/p>\n

I think I’m going to run this Bangkok series every day starting today and for the next six days to maintain the story’s continuity (there will be seven Bangkok posts in total).\u00a0 If it’s too much, hey, just check back in when it’s convenient for you.<\/p>\n

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Never miss an ExNotes blog:<\/p>\n

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