Being the only readily available one out of the five of us who regularly keep in touch, I have a much more flexible schedule compared to the rest. Most of the time, we send flying emails to keep ourselves entertained during ordinary workdays when the amount of workload threatens to suffocate us. We meet during each of our birthdays, a tradition that we had proudly upheld for years since we left the alma mater. Occasionally, one inspired being would ask the others out for dinner and then we’ll try our best to make it. The life as a wife and mother for the others is a fulfilling yet busy one so the time we spent together are always precious.
Picture accredited to TourismPicks.
I came back from Bangkok recently after a wonderful stay and to make the others jealous with envy, I started the flying emails trail to declare my godly purchases. One thing led to the next and suddenly, everyone wanted to have their own share of retail success and decided on a whim to go after this highly addictive form of possessive happiness.
And just like that. Only two days after I returned from Bangkok, I paid a hefty and exorbitant sum to put myself on another flight for the end of March. Hopefully it will also suffice to say that the amount I paid for this one trip could have allowed three more under normal unhurried circumstances but I am always one given to impulse. I needed little cajoling to put myself on a plane so that all five of us could go on our first vacation together in the fifteen years we knew each other. If the married could sacrifice and ditch their kids to the husbands, I could most certainly ditch the money to the money-grubbing airline and try hard not to mind. Think about it! A few days of pretending we are the carefree girls we used to be in a different land, smelling different air, eating different food!
A glorious and liberating thought.
So the trip had come and gone and we are now back to typing flying emails with our fingers moving rapidly across the keyboards once again. But I secretly hugged the little bits and pieces of memories of us dragging our tired (and tired is a gross understatement) feet and shopaholic minds as we weaved through the market crowd in front of Baiyoke Sky every morning to go for the delicious wanton-mee and succulently soft pig trotters before embarking on the very sacred mission aimed at dressing us well and below our age.
The streets of Bangkok are putrid with stagnated water. The weather was unbearably warm at times, with beads of perspiration destroying our vestige of shield against the merciless sun. Closely knitted stalls with cardboard signs generated massive human traffic at the day markets and night bazaars. The lorries ferrying the red army waving their flags seeking political democracy can be intimidating but amidst all these …. the knowledge of being in somewhere different with a lifestyle you can choose to abide by makes Bangkok a very attractive city. There are things that everyone of all ages could find delight in — be it the chic youths glorying in the fashion efforts of local designers or the gourmands enjoying the simplicity of a meal at a roadside stall, the 100 baht polo tee-shirts specifically with a front pocket the way my father likes them and finally down to the Thai rice crackers coated with pork floss and preserved mangoes that my mother covets, there is something about Bangkok and in Bangkok that pleases.
The above 2 pictures are accredited to BAHighLife.
Or perhaps .. it was the odd drifting tinge of lemongrass and spicy aroma that envelops our beings, heightened our senses, increases our desire to be adventurous .. making us want to stay.
