CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
IT WAS Monday in Bangkok and I was at home talking to family and thinking what to do, partly itching to leave to go someplace else. I find that I’m usually better off out of the house and traveling around, occasionally writing in coffee shops.
The day before I’d left the gym and decided to visit my usual fishing tackle store and have a look at rods. I found one for about US$60 that was shorter than the others and it could be broken down into two pieces. It was very stiff and I figured I could hold a 100-pound fish or so without having to play the fish out for thirty or forty minutes to try and tire him out. It seemed to be well made and the last time I went to a big fishing pond there were fish over 300 pounds, and with pole rental cost at $12 a day, I figured in a few days it would have paid for itself.
Waiting for the van to Ratchaburi it started raining really hard. The traffic was heavy with occasional drizzle and it still amazes me that I never see accidents more frequently. The Thais believe that the Buddhas glued on their dashboards and hanging from the rearview mirror means nothing bad will happen. An inch is an inch and a centimeter is a centimeter and with those calculations mindfully set they can get out of just about anything. I’ve seen cars get so close that their mirrors get whacked off - they just laugh and keep on going.
The public bus is often the safest way to travel in Bangkok. I took a bus downtown and all of a sudden I felt like having a beer. I got off the bus and walked the street for a while. Thailand has strange rules. One of these is that alcohol is not served from 2pm-5pm. It has something to do with school kids not buying beer. Most stores like 7-11 stop selling beers between 2pm and 5pm, but I had learned f