Klong Toey side

View of Klong Toey looking up Phra Ram III

I do not have much to do with central Bangkok, at least as it is known to most farang.

I spend most of my days at my condo, next to a slum community in Klong Toey.

I pop in and out of the slum community regularly, and after sharing the lives of the people there for the past 12 years am a familiar face.

Once, I spent most of my time mixing with the family of a young drinking friend, Ball, whom I met at a ya dong (Thai herb-based alcohol) stand back in the days when they were popular.  The first post in that long-running story is here.

After a turbulent youth, Ball is now aged in his early 30s, has a partner, three children, and steady job. In 2018 he moved out of the soi to a rented apartment nearby, which forced me deeper into the community to find a new group of friends. 

God knows what they think of this farang - it won't all be flattering, but that's life. It is good to feel part of their community and despite occasional differences we still manage to rub along - disparate souls in one shared, unusual place.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are welcome, in English or Thai (I can't read anything else). Anonymous posting is discouraged, unless you'd like to give yourself a name at the bottom of your post, so we can tell who you are.