Bangkok

I am in Bangkok for a few days and know I'll never come close to seeing all there is. It's a huge city but there are any number of ways to get around, so today I try a few. Walking to the Skytrain station I detour through the large Lumpini Park, and take in the early morning tai chi groups as well as families settled in for the day at the picnic sites.  Oh, and three foot long monitor lizards rising out of the lake to bask on the grass. The Skytrain takes me three stops to the bank of the river and I manage to find the right boat which takes me to stops at Chinatown, and then to the temples of Wat Arun and Wat Po. Then a mile more walking to a small canal and a high speed boat through the center of the city to the Jim Thompson house.  More walking back to the hotel. I manage to avoid the taxi come-ons and the tuk-tuk drivers who pull up to the curb next to me but I'm awful hot and sweaty by the time I get back to the hotel.
Impressions? Bangkok seems like a city working hard to make it's future, but it stumbles with the effort. Everywhere there is new construction, but even on the main streets, I am forced off the sidewalks by piles of trade goods in front of shops or by food vendors whose customers block the way. Parts of the downtown are so frightfully busy that they have a Blade Runner-esque feel - multi level transportation with trains an pedestrian skyways, gigantic advertising, chaotic intersections; everything but the announcements recruiting people to a better life on the off-world colonies. Many of the places I saw today were free from foreign visitors, but at the religious sites of Wat Arun and Wat Po,  the crowd is thick with tourists and it is difficult to appreciate the extreme religious devotion that inspired their creation. Even at the busy sites, I look forward to finding areas of tranquility. At Wat Po, the main attraction is a huge guided reclining Buddha and visitors crowd each other for photo angles.  But nearby, the main temple hall is much more tranquil with worshipers and visitors sitting side by side on the floor before an ornate alter. I sit to contemplate for a while and enjoy the breeze from circulating fans that line the space.