The smell of incense, fried food and exhaust greeted me as I turned the corner of Soi 5 Ratchatiwi. I tried to squish swiftly through the typical melee of street vendors, cheap clothes sellers, and commuters on the broken-up sidewalk. At one point, a businessman dashed by me like a sprinter to catch the faded orange bus before it pulled away from the curb. Then a lady boy wearing bright red lipstick and a short skirt swooshed by, getting on the bus right after the businessman. Oh Thailand.
This morning I didn’t get as many of the usual stares when I walk through the street life to the park. I expect the stares, I mean I do sort of stand out. A white girl wearing shorts, tank top and running shoes, while everyone else is dressed for work or school… and of course most are mainly Thai. But today I seemed to blend in a little more, or so I felt. I thought, “Ahh, maybe I’m slowly looking more Thai without even knowing it…”
After about 5 minutes I made it to my refuge, the idyllic park on Soi Ragnam. It feels like a Central Park, manicured peace nestled in the midst of a chaotic crazed city. I breathed a sigh of relief as I started off my first lap around the walking path that circles the small pond, playground area, and picnic tables. Today the fountains were still and silent, but once I was lucky enough to get to watch them do a choreographed dance to inspiring classical music. It was so random it made my day.
I have created a little game for myself as I run at the park. I like to gaze at the people looking bored on the benches that border the walking path and figure out what they are doing and why they are there. I saw one man looking entranced with his cell phone, I assumed he was waiting for his girlfriend to call and she was taking forever. Then I came across an older, slightly overweight man running the opposite direction, wearing a sweat stained grey tank top, punching the air rapidly. I assumed he was an old Thai boxer, still trying his moves, which now aren’t quite up to par.
The next group was three university students sitting on a bench. I could tell they were in university because they were all wearing the traditional university uniforms. The two girls had shorter black skirts, brown belts with a funky clasp, and a white shirt with large silver buttons with the special emblem of the university. The guy had on black pants with the same style shirt. Each one also had a huge camera, which looked like one someone in the paparazzi totes around. I guessed that maybe their professor had asked them to take pics of the flowers arrangements or something. I agreed that the new potted poinsettias mixed with the vibrant green grass was a good contrast for photos..maybe I should have told them..but I sprinted by without another thought.
It was hot already, even though it was only 9:30 a.m. I thought I would be able to miss the heat, but it felt like it was 85 degrees edging its way to 90. The sweltering weather took away some of the pleasure of my run, and led me to beginning to become nice and sweaty, looking a little like the old punching man I had seen earlier. But I didn’t think much about it because it wasn’t like anyone else cared.
I was a few strides away from the photo peeps on my third lap, and noticed that this time instead of staring at their cameras, they were all looking at me with expectant faces. Oh boy.
Suddenly the girl with long dark hair with brown highlights smiles and stands up and waves me over. My good pace came to a stand still after she gave her request,” Can we take your picture?”
Of course I was looking so radiant with sweat slipping down my reddened face. My straggly hair was falling out of my loose ponytail. My shirt was splotched with sweat marks all over, looking like I had been attacked randomly with a hose. My black shorts had ridden up and looked more scandalous than they really were.
Why wouldn’t I want them to take a pic of me?
So there they stood, all three of them, cameras ready. I was told to stand closer to the edge, nearer to some nice bush. I wondered if maybe I should have been in a running position or something, just to spice things up, but no, I stood there awkwardly and smiled as best I could. Then they all grinned and nodded, allowing me to continue my run.
I’m thrilled that the whole photo class at their university gets to analyze and stare at those pics of me, that’s awesome.
And on my next lap around the track they were gone. I suppose my assumption was wrong. Maybe their real task was to go find the sweatiest foreign girl in the park, take a pic, and then once you do that you can return.
I’m glad I helped them out.
