A city of contrasts

There are days and times when this city chews you up and spits you out. Like when you have to go to four stores to find plain vanilla ice cream, or you can't find a taxi driver to take you to your very nearby destination. Or when you find a driver who will, and he spends the trip asking and moaning at you about why beautiful American women don't like Thai men, then asks you repeatedly if you'd like to try one. Some days you just pretend you don't understand Thai :). Some days the humidity beats you down or Bangkok Belly lands you on the tile floor of your bathroom. 

But not every day. Some days, you get to run in a beautifully maintained public park on a Saturday morning, and then visit the bustling market nearby for a week's worth of fruit and veggies, and fresh flowers. Some days the neighborhood motorcycle taxi drivers don't even have to ask where you're going, becasue they already know. Some days, a plant vendor sets up shop right in front of your apartment building and speaks English and sells bags of potting soil. Organic potting soil. So you buy three bags, and a new plant, since it's been a few months since you've been able to get soil to plant a new acquisition. Some days the sky outside your window lights up in hues of orange and purple, or a gray summer storm crawls slowly across it, rumbling under its breath. 

And some days, you get a whole bunch of both.