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During the few days we spent in

The most marked change was certainly in the landscape.  Almost as soon as we crossed the Cambodian border, green fields with trees spread out around us.  This so completely contrasted with what we’d seen in Cambodia that I am rather at a loss to explain it.  Can deforestation really have such a drastic yet contained effect?

We found people constantly being helpful.  For dinner the first night, we needed water.  I stopped at the first spigot I saw (spigots having replaced hand-pump wells since the border) which happened to be attached to a fire station.  The firemen greeted us enthusiastically and not only urged us to fill our water bottles, but also entreated us to use their facilities for bathing. 

One fireman had a large pink scar running up most of his exposed arm.  He looked to be in his mid-forties, and had obviously been on the scene of many fires.  After showing me the hose and encouraging me not to be modest in my use of it to shower, he ran and grabbed a cloth and machine oil for Drew, who was cleaning up his chain.

The next day during breakfast we gorged ourselves on street food.  I purchased a pineapple and began skinning it with my small pocket knife.  A lady ran up to me holding a huge knife and a plate.  Expressing gratefulness with my features, I accepted the lent items and set about skinning the pineapple again.  However, the lady apparently saw only incompetence.  She grabbed the knife from me and proceeded to do the whole job herself, chiding me and demonstrating proper pineapple paring all the while.

During break that day, we stopped alongside a river and practiced jumping off a nearby dock.  A lady pedaled up out of nowhere and handed me a bag filled with fruit and bread snacks.  I tried not to take it, but she insisted. 

Of course the crowning act of kindness during our

Gretchen never complained.  Instead she was extremely gracious and welcoming.  She even went so far as to introduce us to her Thai friends and tolerated our excessive appetites for several meals.  From her apartment far from the cluttered, touristy downtown districts, we were able to grasp a quiet, residential side of  Bangkok otherwise unattainable.  Thanks Gretchen!

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 30th, 2008 at 1:00 am and is filed under Jim's Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.