The Siamerican

Drove to Bangkok on Thursday afternoon, roughly 15.00. From Samut Songkhram, took Ekachai road as far as it would go through richly irrigated salt fields some 15 kilometers before joining up with Rama II expressway.

15 minutes later, I crossed the Tah Jeen river at Samut Sakhorn-Mahachai. Parked my bike to the side halfway across to get a few pictures of the river before continuing on to Bangkok.

Reached the pier at Pra-bpra-daeng about 45 minutes later. I made sure to park on the edge of the motor ferry so that I could take pictures of the passenger ferry crossing the Jao Phraya river with the Mega Bridge in the background.

Arrived at my friend’s apartment on Sukhumwit 62 with a more than an hour of sunlight left, so we went swimming at the apartment pool.

In the evening, we all went to a 10 baht/game pool hall nearbye. Stayed up the night drinking and shooting the bull with my comrades. Friday, got out by noon with my American friend and drove across Bangkok, ultimately ending up around Sapan Kwai area in northern central Bkk, so that I could visit my Bank account’s branch to request a bank statement. My friend, J went a long for the ride.

After making the statement request from the bank, went to Big C shopping complex and had a meal at Chesters Grill followed by walking around Big C. Stopped by my Thai friend’s house nearby for a quick rest and catch-up. My friend and I headed back to Sukhumwit shortly after sun-down. Friday night traffic is horid, particularly Tonglor and Sukhumwit road’s congested gridlock fumes.. Wretched but Wise in keeping me alive and experience for future driving.

Friday night passed without much incident, though my friend, J and I did end up inventing a new game, ‘Room Ball’ using a kiddy bouncy ball, we created a semi net on his bed with a rope (electric chord), a chair, and fan. The game involved hitting the ball back and forth, a mix between volley ball and ping pong rules with the addition to the ceiling and walls as part of our improvised court–the back walls being points, while the side walls and ceiling being fouls. Our objective was to maintain a controlled environment as to avoid knocking down and hitting fragile objects.

Saturday morning, drove my friend to Uni as he had a class and I sat around munching and checking out all the eye candy, contemplating whether or not I will be able to make it back to study by the end of the year or not. It’s split now as I still have to find out if I will be eligible for any aid or scholarship if I return. I have not received a reply from the office yet so I can not yet confirm my commitment to return for if I’m not eligible for any aid or scholarship ever, I won’t be able to afford tuition by myself and will likely not return so soon, unfortunately. Hopefully everything works out�either way, the world turns on.
After heading back to J’s apartment, went for one more swim before leaving Bangkok about 6pm with just about half an hour of day light left. By the time I got to Pra-bpra-daeng pier, it was all darkness for the next hour+ back to Samut Songkhram. The trip back saw light to medium traffic and an overall flawless trip, arriving at Samut Songkhram just after 8pm.