Colors of Bangkok

First time visitors to Bangkok can be forgiven for wanting to immediately reboard the aircraft and return to their home country. Nobody prepared them for this bland, grey still life that sweeps past them, mile after mile as they charge from the airport to their hotel on the overhead tollway. This is paradise?

The only visual relief to this monotony are the frequent overscale billboards pitching everything from Ipods to Slim Bods.

But coming back to earth after exiting the expressway, you notice something surprising. A riot of color darting about the streets like budgies on speed. Taxis, everywhere, decked out in colors that would make most tropical fish jealous.

Lime green, hot pink, even hotter pink, electric blue, lemon yellow, royal purple, fire engine red and colors that are hard to even put a name to. The effect is mesmerizing to the point that you've totally forgotten your initial impulse to bail out on this trip. Brilliant. That's all I can say. Conventional wisdom paints taxis black, white, yellow or a combination of the three colors. Boring!!! Bangkok will have none of that. The city may be blighted with way too much concrete, all in various shades of Payne's Grey but our ever ready, ever reliable fleet of taxis will dazzle you anytime, day or night. Quick! let's get the pink one.

In a future post I will talk abit more on this topic. Actually though, not the cars, but the amazing taxi drivers.

Joe