Bangkok Studio

Moving downtown has had its advantages and disadvantages. I am MUCH closer to the good restaurants, shopping, and flower markets. I walk by a wine shop on my way home from school. The grocery stores have a larger selection of Western foods. On the downside, I see way more rats than I would like to see. What can you expect in a city with a population of ten million? I walk by three garbage cans clustered together at the end of my soi, and since the time I saw the garbage moving, I have given that corner wide berth. I also pay more rent for a smaller apartment. Think: location, location, location.
The apartment isn’t so bad, if you don’t count the fact that all of the rooms, all three of them, are lopsided. The walls all meet each other at odd angles, one at forty five degrees, another at one hundred degrees. Not a ninety degree angle in the place. It makes arranging furniture somewhat difficult.
It is also kind of, how shall I put this, ugly. Lots of brown. Peach mini blinds. A bed with one of those built in bookshelves, cubbies with glass doors, and a shell shaped reading lamp wired into the headboard. Tacky. Assorted bamboo end tables. A nondescript wardrobe. Parquet wood laminate in one room, pine laminate in the other. Just lovely.
I did what I could with the living room and bathroom, but the bedroom is a lost cause (that is why I did not post a pic of that room). I went with a modern look, which is something I didn’t think I would ever do. It is so different from my shabby chic 1940’s house in the country. Nevertheless, I am liking the space much better since I bought some art and sprinkled some color around the place. For now anyway, it is home.