One adjective I could use to describe Bangkok is "colorful". That word has a lot of meanings, but in this case I am actually talking about all of the different colors one sees as they walk around town.
For example, Thai people like to wear certain colored shirts on certain days to show their support for some person or group. Yellow shirts represent the King. Light blue shirts represent the Queen. Many people wore black every day for weeks after the King's sister died earlier this year. And now in the current political deadlock, we have the yellow-shirt wearing anti-government PAD vs the red-shirt wearing pro-government DADD.
Speaking of PAD vs DADD, it seems like all I have been thinking about lately is politics, and it hasn't been looking very good this past week. If I am not clicking refresh on the websites I mentioned in the last post to see what is going on with the mess in Thailand, I am reading reports about a woman from Alaska who aspires to be one 72-year-old heartbeat away from one of the most important jobs in the world.
These two political situations are both very "colorful", but not necessarily in a good way. So let's talk about something less polarizing, but still very colorful: Bangkok Taxis.
As anyone who has been in Bangkok know, the meter taxis that cruise the streets of Bangkok are very colorful. When I first moved here, there were two kinds of two-toned taxis: red/blue and yellow/green. A couple of years ago, the spectrum exploded and now we have orange, pink, blue, green, red, and purple taxis.
But what I didn't realize until I read it in the weekly BK magazine this morning is that each of the different colored taxis come from different companies. And some people think that some colors are better than others. One person was quoted in BK as saying that the green colored taxis were their favorite, as they are always clean and have white cloth covering the interiors.
Now that I think about it, I think he is right. But I have never really noticed before that some colors were better than others. Although I try to always take a bright mono-colored taxi because they are usually newer and cleaner than the old-fashioned two-tone cabs. But I never noticed the difference between, say, hot pink and orange (taxis).
Perhaps I should start taking notes? Or has anyone reading this page have an opinion aout which color is best? There are so many taxis on the streets these days, I would definitely be willing to wait an extra minute or two for the "right color".
Or, should I just follow the advice of another BK reader who said, "I love the pink ones! How could you possibly feel threatened by a guy who drives a pink car for a living?"
Oh, I didn't really know that different taxi colors mean different companies! Good point. I'll try to take note as you say. You know, there are times (and places... for example near a hospital in a rainy afternoon) when many people are waiting for taxis and there are few available... then cab drivers are very "picky" about who they will carry and where. In other situations, when there are plenty of taxis passing by, I try to be "picky" also as a revenge hehe. I usually try to stop the one that looks newer and whose driver sits higher than the steering wheel. I will pay more attention to taxi color as well.
By the way, I was one of those people who were asked to wear black for going to work after HRH passed away... for 100 days to be exact (January to April!). Fortunately white is considered color for mourning too here, so I could alternate black, white and (being creative) some pitches of gray.
Cheers!