Bangkok Taxi

Yesterday as usual I took a taxi home from school. Bangkok is a great taxi town, lots of cabs and very affordable. No one expects a tip, I give them fifteen Baht on top of the fare and they go nuts thanking me.

Yesterday’s cab was spectacular, quite special. On the dashboard there were figures of all of the characters in the Doremon cartoons, each about four inches high, plus a couple of little Hello Kitty’s and a big push-button air freshener shaped like a mushroom. Each of the four head rests was covered with a big, plush Winnie the Pooh, as was the brake handle, never saw that one before. On the right side passenger window was a big, neon-lime green stick up clock, with the right time on it too, in itself a rarity. The gear shift knob cover was Hello Kitty. High on the console, partially blocking the windshield, was a screen for the VCD player; an episode of the very funny slapstick local comedy Cha Cha Cha was playing. Cha Cha Cha is Thai for “slow, slow, slow,” as in retarded, the three retards it could be called, there are three goofy stars. There were sleeves for VCD’s on both visors, a total of over fifty VCD’s by actual count. In the three cup holders were a can of Sprite, a can of Red Bull, and a bottle of water.

Amazingly: 1) there were no religious artifacts at all; and 2) nothing was hanging from the mirror.