We’ll Get There When We Get There

I prefer public transportation over driving because I can get some reading or some language study done instead of getting stuck behind the wheel in traffic. Bangkok offers lots of options for getting around, some of which are world class, definitely much better than what Seattle had to offer when we lived there.

My favorite of these options is the bus. It’s not the fastest or the cleanest or the quietest, but it does have a few advantages that the Skytrain, river taxi, subway, shared van, and canal boat cannot claim.

For one thing, it’s dirt cheap. Going pretty much anywhere in this town on the bus costs less than fifty cents. I’m talking here about the high end, air conditioned, most-everybody-gets-a-seat brand of bus. You can pay less and breathe fumes.

Fares are collected by so-called bus hostesses, who seem to me remarkably cheerful considering the repetitiveness of their jobs. Perhaps they enjoy the conversations with the drivers, or the music that is sometimes playing on elaborately wired speakers throughout the bus. The polyester uniforms worn by these bus hostesses often have a strange sheen that comes from having been ironed too aggressively.

If you were the stereotyping type, you could even say these women are representative of Thailand—they’re easy going, they’re cute, and they’re dressed as smartly as their budgets will allow (one won my heart the other day with her Chicago Cubs ankle socks). Their first priority doesn’t seem to be climbing the career ladder. The adventure offered by a life on the road, with its interminable backups, followed by quick bursts forward and sudden swerves, satisfies for now. Tomorrow will take care of itself.