Ex Machina Revisited

The klong taxi figured prominently in my plans for my final full day of this trip. I wanted to revisit the Aircraft Graveyard, followed by a wander around Chinatown, and finally to Thipsamai for their famous pad thai. My plan was to ride the klong taxi to the Aircraft Graveyard and also back from Thipsamai.

I left my hotel around 8 a.m. and made my way to the Asoke Pier. Along the way, I bought breakfast (the ubiquitous Thai breakfast of fried chicken and sticky rice; OMG I forgot how great Thai fried chicken is) from a street vendor. When I got to Asoke Pier, I noted there weren't any other people around, and I consumed my breakfast while waiting for the boat to arrive. I waited, and waited, and waited. I looked up the schedule on the information board and online and confirmed that the boats ran on Saturdays. Then, a man walking on the other side of the klong waved to get my attention, and he indicated the boats were not operating. I walked back to the street vendor and asked her if the boats were running. I struggled because I forgot how to say Saturday in Thai. Fortunately, she spoke English (our prior breakfast purchase had been transacted in Thai) and she said that the boats have not been operating on weekends as of late. Drats. I made my way back to my hotel to think about my next moves. I knew that public transport to the Aircraft Graveyard would be slow, and I wasn't willing to deal with over one hour of public transit just to get there. I didn't think fares would be good on Grab (Southeast Asia's version of Uber) but I was surprised to learn that the fare was under $4! I immediately booked a car, and my ride arrived within minutes.

The ride to the Aircraft Graveyard took only about 20 minutes thanks to the network of elevated expressways. As soon as the driver dropped me off, I immediately noted what had changed since my prior visit in 2017. When I first visited, there were three aircraft: a B747, a mostly intact MD82 fuselage with blue livery with cockpit seats still attached (I could pretend to be a pilot!), and a MD82 with red livery that had been broken up into three sections. The blue MD82 was no longer there. Two parts of the red MD82 were still there, but most of the wings had been removed from one of the remaining fuselage sections.

I caught the attention of the squatter family living there, and one of the kids let me in after I paid him 200 baht. This time around, I wasn't free to wander the grounds. The kid escorted me, and I felt a little hurried. He also prevented me from going to the MD82. I couldn't understand what he said to me in Thai, but he clearly said "bad" followed by some words I couldn’t comprehend. I can only assume that the squatters considered it bad form to go to the MD82 because it had crashed with loss of life. Ah well. I thanked the kid and left.

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