Bangkok - What ever day

 I have been in Bangkok attending the ICET conference where we partnered with ICET to produce some EDtalks videos of international education research, and I also had the opportunity to present my Masters research paper. The conference was held at Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University and we asked if they had a space we could use to film the EDtalks. Well they gave us a huge studio complete with a studio crew! Once they set up the lights for us, they realised we were fine to keep working on our own for the rest of the time.

Our "small" studio

I was staying outside of Bangkok at the Novotel Hotel in the Impact arena complex at Muang Thong Thani which was about a 45 minute cab ride into the city of Bangkok (which only cost about $20). It was a very strange place. There was a car show on and young girls dressed up like manga cartoon characters draping themselves over the cars. On another day there was a dog show on and all of these dogs were running around dressed up in much the same costumes as the manga cartoon girls. On the day I left there was a racing car show, soccer game, and Bosch tool convention starting, so the range of people and sights were astounding.

All around the complex there were high rise apartment buildings which were numbered. The area we were in wasn't heavily populated so I wondered where all the people were who were in these apartments.

There is a real mix between the high tech and traditional.

On the last day I went into Bangkok to Pratunam market. The market is across the road from some huge high end shopping malls which are at the intersection of what seems like three levels of major roads, the skytrain and pedestrian crossings. It is chaos. On the very corner is a busy place of worship where people were lighting incense, chanting, praying, laying flowers. It was hot, steamy, noisy, smokey ... I stood there in wonder of it all.