My Daily Work Commute

Wow, sorry for the lapse in blogging…I’ve been traveling a lot and I have been busy with school-no excuse though I need to blog more. I have had some questions asking how I get to work everyday. It is about a 45 minute commute from my place in Satorn district of Bangkok (Business/Financial district) to my school, which is located on Sukhumvit Road, Soi 47. I wake up at about 630 and shower/get dressed, grab some breakfast, and head out to the street to get a motorbike taxi, or “Bangkok helicopter”, as they are called here. The motorbike taxi drivers have orange or purple vests on and usually spend their time in-between fares playing checkers on homemade boards with beer bottle caps as the checker pieces. I wave to the guys now (they know me because I take them everyday) and they pick me up. I tell them “Sawasdee krap” (hello) and say “Chong Nonsi BTS, kop khun krap” and we are off. We speed through the dense traffic jam and weave in and out of the cars. All of the motorbikes drive this way; it is the only way to get through Bangkok traffic. If I took a normal taxi, it would take me an hour to get where I need to be and on the bike it takes about 10 minutes. When I get to the BTS station (the elevated metro system), I pay the motorbike driver 40 baht and get on the train. I take the train for about 20 minutes and have to switch lines once, then I get off and walk down Sukhumvit-the famous road in Bangkok-for about 8 blocks until I reach kindergarten.