While in a taxi from a Bangkok airport (on January 30), I was watching night scenes behind the windows and thinking that I even couldn't be sure that it was Thailand, not Georgia. Georgia has many palm trees and shops along the roads, too... I was even afraid that Thailand, where I had wanted so much to come back during last insane three years, wouldn't impress me. I mean, people change. In last years, I had enough stress to lose the taste of life itself.
As it turned out, no, Thailand is Thailand, even if this is your tenth visit after the most stressful, boring, stupid years in your life.
Or is it personal? Thailand might be always my harbor of tranquility because I visited it when I was around 30 for the first time, when everything was fine in my life. And all the unique Thai smells and views will be the alarm clock to awaken those good feelings... It might be...
Especially, smells. Bangkok itself has special smell - hot and humid smell of seaweeds or a tropical swamp? Not sure but this is what I am searching for every time when I am leaving the Suvarnabhumi airport.
Numerous food smells hardly can be described to ones who have never visited Thailand. Often, I even aren't aware of the name, I just feel this is an exclusively Thai smell I experienced before.
I don't mean to idealize Thailand. Annoying trips for Thai visas to Laos with complete uncertainty whether you'll have one or not. $7 ATM fee even if you withdraw $10. The heat that gradually burns something inside of you (including a part of sanity) and you start dreaming about a trip to some mountains and longing the change of seasons: white winter, green-brown spring, colorful summer, golden and red autumn... Thailand gets too usual at some point and you stop noticing how large and lush tropical trees and how unusual birds voices are there. This will certainly happen in a year or two of being in tropical Asia. But I am happy that the meeting with Thailand after the separation went so well... Partly ... or mainly because now I know that I am not yet completely morally mutilated and able to enjoy life.
Thailand is also my childhood dream come true to open my own botanical garden. The country itself is a botanical garden. So on my first full day in Bangkok on January 31, I decided to say hello to nature.
Suanluang Rama 9 Park, well familiar to me. I wanted to go around my grounds and see old acquaintances.
For example, a common inhabitant of the place, little egret (Egretta garzetta).
Another acquaintance, the Pallas's squirrel (Callosciurus erythraeus).
A routine walk but, then, the beast spotted my huge telephoto lens:
And panicked. :)
It was getting darker in the thickets when I met a favorite of tourists:
A monitor lizard (Varanus salvator).
A huge lizard or tiny dinosaur?
An highly introverted living fossil.
Back to tranquil tropical waters looking for Dao and tao.
Turtles (tao in Thai) are another type of the common dweller of Bangkok. Almost every pond has some.
Probably, a yellow-headed temple turtle (?Heosemys annandalii?)
It is customary to feed turtles in Thailand so many of them tend to approach when a human appears on the bank. Children especially love turtles. Probably because among the pond inhabitants, turtles are the cutest and most anthropomorphic.
I was finishing the walk around 6 pm. Almost empty park turned into a place crowded with joggers and cyclists, the outdoor gym was occupied by sportsmen, families with kids were sitting along the lake banks enjoying the sunset. And that's another thing I like about Thailand - Thai people...
I am finishing my post, as I must hurry back to Suanluang Park to continue communicating with the tropics. :)
I took these images with a Nikkor 70-300mm on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 on January 31, 2023, in Bangkok, Thailand.
