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Hidden Early Morning Life

Posted by Stuart at 07:41 AM on November 26, 2004

For some strange reason, I woke up at 3:30 AM this morning. Much to my chagrin, I was unable to go back to sleep. There's no sense in laying in bed when you can't sleep, so a few minutes later I was dressed and was walking out of my apartment building into the deserted street. The air was cool and quiet, which is quite a change from the usual. Above my head, the large full moon surrounded by a few wispy clouds added to the mystical ambiance.

Every now and then a taxi would drive by, slowing down to try to pick me up. Surely a farang wouldn't actually want to walk down the street alone. Surely that farang would want a ride somewhere, or so the taxi drivers would think. But they were wrong.

I continued my walk and was amazed at what was before my eyes: a whole new Bangkok that I never get the chance to see. Girls with rags drying off a long line of freshly washed taxis. Many restaurants still open, serving the drunks, the insomniacs, and those unlucky enough to just now be finishing their work. The surprisingly efficient trash collectors and street sweepers preparing the city for the morning commute.

On some quiet sois, the mangy soi dogs are my only company. During the day, they are very quiet and meek, but tonight they are on the hunt. Tonight they are looking for something to eat, looking for their soi dog friends, looking for random farang to bark at. At four AM, Bangkok is theirs.

Around 4:30 I grew tired of walking and hailed a taxi to Silom. There, the scene was just as lively. Large groups of bar boys and bar girls were eating dinner (breakfast?) and drinking beers after the bars closed. Thai pop music was blaring, even on the usually quiet Japanese Soi Thaniya, and there was much laughing and joking between friends.

By 5:00, it was still dark as I walked into Lumpinee Park. The park was full of people jogging or walking or doing Tai-Chi. Their dedication to good health impressed me. Every morning they are here but I am never here to see it.

As I walk through the park, I realize that what I see is nothing special. It's just a regular Friday morning. Granted, later today many of these people will be celebrating Loy Kratong but for now they are just going about their routine business. It happens every night, I just don't ever see it.

A sleezy tuk-tuk driver on Silom asks me, "What are you looking for?" Again, I guess it's a good assumption is that a single white male walking the streets of Bangkok at 4 AM is looking for something. But I am not. Or at least I am not consciously searching.

The question reminded me of similar comments I received from my friends and family back in the US when I told them I was moving to Thailand. Several told me, "I hope you find what you are looking for."

I never really thought of it that way. I am not here looking for God. I am not here looking to find myself. Tonight, I am not looking for a taxi ride or a bowl of noodles or sex or drugs or rock and roll.

As I flag down another taxi to take me back home to my regular life, I realize that there is actually something that I have been looking for in Asia all this time -- and that something is what I just found. For the past two years I have most enjoyed the times like tonight when I realize how other people live such completely different lives from mine.

I started my early morning walk full of stress, but on the way back home in the taxi I was happy and content because not only did I realize what I have been looking for, I actually found it. Tonight, under a full Loy Kratong moon, I was lucky enough to catch a few more glimpses of hidden life.