Bangkok Christmas Tree Adventure

We picked today to be our Christmas Tree Day. I was raised in a "live tree" family, so it is difficult for me to imagine Christmas with a fake tree. Last year, we were offered the use of a fake tree. Since we had just moved a couple weeks before, were just staying in a guest house, and didn't have an inkling of how to go about getting a live tree, we accepted. But this year was time for a real tree or bush. Even in Beersheva (Israel), we went to the nursery and picked out a small, potted evergreen tree. It held about a fifth of our ornaments, but fulfilled our desire for a real tree. We were able to use the same tree for the three Christmases we were there. In Indiana, we would bundle up and drive to the tree farm. When we arrived, we would scatter and each pick a likely candidate. Then we would run back and forth between them, weighing the pros and cons of each, before voting on the one we would take home.

This year did not include bundling of any sort. We did have to make sure everyone had clothes and sandals on before walking to the bus stop. Only 145 or 96 would take us to the Kampheng Phet Road where we had previously noted a long row of plant shops. As we waited, Philip and I discussed how to tell the ticket person where we were going. On an air-conditioned bus, the fare depends on how many stops a person rides, and it can be difficult for us to communicate something like "the garden stores just south of Jatujak Market." When a number 145 did arrive, we were a bit relieve to see it was a non-air bus.

When we were near the place we wanted to get off the bus, I stood up and pressed the stop button. I saw a stop ahead for which the bus driver should have been able to slow down in time; he kept going. We had gotten all the kids up, ready to hop off the bus, since drivers won't stop for long. We just stood, hanging on to the rails, looking questioningly at the driver. He stopped at a red light, preparing for a u-turn. He gestured to us that he was turning around, which I knew was part of the route. I figured that he hadn't wanted the hassle of stopping at the designated stop, then trying to cross three lanes of traffic in the short distance before the stoplight. He would rather us have the inconvenience of crossing six lanes of bad traffic on foot, but he would stop shortly after the u-turn. But he did not stop after the u-turn; in fact, he was driving quite fast. I saw another bus stop approaching and pushed the button to indicate that we still wanted to get off the bus. He wouldn't stop; he started saying something and gesturing. I couldn't figure out what was going on. Usually when a bus driver skips a stop because they are making good time and don't want to slow down, he will at least stop at the next one. Before the long, the bus stopped at a light, and I expected that the driver would open the door to let us off even if it wasn't an actually stop, since he had inconvenienced us by taking us a ways past where we wanted to go. I was still standing by the door waiting, so when he didn't open the door, I pushed the button to remind him that we wanted off.  Either he thought he knew where we wanted to go (bus drivers have refused to let us on buses before because they think we are going someplace where tourists go) and was trying to tell us to stay on the bus to get there, or he was grumpy and in a hurry and only wanted to let people of at certain stops. After a brief argument, where he wouldn't let us off the bus and Philip kept saying (in Thai) "We want off here!", he finally opened the doors and we jumped off as quickly as we could.

Things like that happen frequently here, so Philip and I have learned not to let them ruin our trips. We took the girls' hands and started back to the pedestrian overpass to cross the busy road. Once on the correct side of the street, we began to browse through the plants. We were looking for a tree or bush in a pot with enough to sturdy branches to hang lights and some ornaments. We did not expect to find an evergreen or anything resembling a traditional Christmas tree. But before we had looked long, we did see an evergreen! We continued to look around for some seeds and other gardening supplies and found a few other evergreens. I'm not well versed enough in trees and plants to know what kind they were, but they were certainly more "Christmassy" than we had expected. Some were certainly to small, others were in ceramic pots that were likely to be too heavy and expensive, nearly all were skinny. We found one in a plastic pot that was about the right size and asked the price - 650 baht (about $20) - about what we had been paying in the States for a tree, albeit a larger one. Delivery was too expensive but the saleslady said a taxi should allow it.

After we finished buying some vegetable and flower seeds, Philip went back to buy the tree and negotiate a taxi. As of now, we have decided that in general buses are safer than taxis (a possible future blog post about traveling "safely" in Thailand), so the kids and I had an uneventful bus ride home. We arrived to find the tree, a little bent from fitting it in the taxi, in our yard. After preparing to accept another sort of plant, we are so excited to actually have a real live Christmas tree! We decorated it after supper. Philip tied some string to the top and affixed it to the ceiling with sticky-tack, so it could hold ornaments and stay upright. I agree with the girls, "It is the most beautiful tree in the world!"

While enjoying Christmas music from internet radio with the lights on the tree while I was stringing more lights are the room, Eris said, "Mommy, I feel something I haven't felt in a long time... I feel like home." "Me too, Eris," I replied, "Me too."