Bangkok Reflections III — initial / final thoughts & retelling the tales of my checklist

My trip to Thailand has now officially come to a close. I landed back in Canada 3 days ago without any luggage because the baggage handlers for the Thai Airways flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong forgot to transfer all of the passengers’ belongings to their connecting flights &those of us who were flying on to Vancouver were none the wiser until passing through Canadian customs, waiting at the baggage carousel in vain for our things to appear on the conveyor. Thankfully Air Canada (who code-shared the flights with Thai Airways) found my luggage & had the tardy bags delivered to my house early this afternoon.

It’s funny—I must be a creature of habit in some ways: I’m sitting in a Calgary McDonald’s at a booth, listening to random non-English conversations come & go around me. At first, a group of Russians were sitting behind me, who were replaced by some older Korean women that were themselves exchanged for a handful of Pilipino ladies shortly thereafter. This, of course, is the exception to the rule of English being the lingua franca in my city, and it was very odd to step off my second flight in Vancouver only to hear (and recognise) English conversations all around me. Eighteen days away from Canada & already I had accustomed myself to living in Thailand such that overhearing my native language seemed foreign to my ears. The tickle of familiar words and phrases overwhelmed me much like the cold, dry weather that met me at the Calgary airport; only, unlike the weather, the language reminded me that I could again integrate fully into this society—and that such integration was expected of me, having escaped the Western rat race for only 2 short weeks.

My time in Bangkok was filled with fond memories & wonderful interactions with excellent individuals. Food was shared, as were future dreams; great conversations & experiences; late night adventures and the general, inescapable camaraderie intrinsic to working (and living) at GES. For those of you who know the lifestyle first-hand, I trust you can feel with me the truth of these things; for those of you who haven’t, just know that living together & working closely with a small group of Christian people has a certain je ne sais quoi which points toward the joy that no doubt will exist in a shared, eternal community with the One and Only God—a future that I eagerly anticipate.

 

My Checklist

This excursion of mine to Thailand came with its own mental checklist—a small collection of must-dos during my stay in order for the trip to be considered a success. Among this list were several places that I wanted to re-visit, people I wanted to reconnect with and things I wanted to experience. Of the complete list, only one item wasn’t fully realised, that being a visit with the Jitgomnongmate family and their church. The rest of the experiences, I’ll relay in the following paragraphs & a few future posts.

 

A Taste of India & Tailored Suits

Among the random gallivanting after the teachers’ school work was completed for the day were trips down to Khao San Road to dine at the Taste of India, a wonderful restaurant whose most well-known server (to us) always responds to your order with “Yes please.” I was fortunate enough to grab a small group of teachers (all of whom were new this year) who were interested in visiting the restaurant. More than enough food was ordered & our conversations were as delightful as the meal we enjoyed together.

My primary motivation for going to the Taste of India that night was to rendezvous for a fitting, one floor down, with the tailors who were building a few suits & shirts I had ordered the night before (I brought no formal wear for graduation this year). The tailor work brought me down to the backpacker’s epicentre a handful more times throughout the remainder of my stay. They do pretty good work, but you really need to know what you want, or they’ll either give you just the barebones or suggestions that may not be 100% to your liking, as I had learned from my previous purchases through them. I guess that’s par for the course whenever you’re shopping for custom clothes, so I’m glad that I had a good idea in my head of what I wanted this time around.

The shop closed for the night and the newfound friends I had eaten dinner with all tumbled out of the restaurant, into the now-bustling street market of evening Khao San. We meandered through the several stalls & the congested international mob that swamped the street, eventually making our way back to the end of the road (with some freshly purchased merchandise in-hand) to flag down a taxi & wind our way back through the twisting arteries of Bangkok’s roadways to rest our heads for the evening for a few hours before the school-day began the next morning.

 

Item #1 in my checklist: Done.

The other items? Stay tuned... they’ll come up here soon!