Bangkok Bus 53 {1}

Bangkok Bus 53 {2}

Bangkok Bus 53 {3}

 

The Flower World

Taking the route for Bus 53 brings you into distinctly different places. Religion, business, markets, restaurants, museums, train stations, canal boats – they all seem to play out on this stretch of the road.

 

The Flower Market

Pak Klong Talat, the Flower Market, ranks high in both beauty and business. I jumped on Bus 53 and after passing the statue of King Rama I, which is located on a large park surrounded by a beltway, the bus swings left and goes by the Flower Market. The market drags on for blocks. There is also a huge section that is a massive fruit and vegetable market.

These two markets create the epicenter for food and floral venues throughout the city. They are both supplied by farm and flower sellers from provinces all over the country. Everything arrives by boat or truck in the early hours. If you really want to jump into it, you show up before 4AM.

The market takes in both consumers and wholesalers. Florist throughout Bangkok show up early to supply their stores with goods for the day. You can see urban poor all over the city making phuang malai –  flower garlands. They show up here and buy sacks of jasmine and marigolds to make their garland wares.

Of course, I didn’t show up until after 2PM. Though the market runs for 24 hours many sellers were low on goods.

It is still a visible feast.

 

Young men were stacking and moving products down every lane. They seemed to be the busiest of the lot. In other stalls both men and women string small, succulent blossoms to create the phuang malai that you can see at every temple and spirit house in the city.

There are stacks of thousands of marigold flowers. Bundles of orchids are spread on the floor. Everything is stacked in piles, hanging from rafters, being processed, trimmed and built into beauty.

Fruit & Vegetables

 

 

As I was walking along suddenly the flower stalls turned into vegetable and fruit sellers. It was strange to see the change in the vendors also. It was like all the flower people carried an elegance about them in their behavior and visual import. That suddenly shifted to the carriers of the earth and the hands that feed you. The flower vendors could access your beauty but the vegetable vendors would rip your roots out of the soil. Still, having come from different sources, they both maintained their benefit and boon.

One appeared incapable of existing there without the other.

The vegetable and fruit sellers supply all of the restaurants and cart vendors throughout the city. It is an unbelievable visual intake of recognizable things and things unseen before.

 

The markets expand out across the main street, so I walked to the other side.

 

Here is another surprise.

Down long narrow lanes people are making flowered memorial stands for the dead. Dozens are being made. I watched one man carefully placing rubber tree leaves in an opulent circle. Then he began centering them with chrysanthemums and orchids. I could only see his feet.

It was enough to know he cared.

 

 

 

As I walk along I start to notice the sleepers. It is after two in the afternoon. This place still has the sense to carry out siesta time.

Reality

The siestas, the marigolds, the flower world for the dead suddenly make me miss my home in the Sonoran desert. Here, the same sentiments are present. The lives and reasons for all of this visual beauty and taste expose me.

I want to work and eat.

I jump back on Bus 53.