Window Cleaners

I was sitting at the computer desk at the condo looking out through the living room balcony at the Bangkok morning. The view was pretty much the same as any other day, maybe a little less hazy (from the smog) on this day.

I glanced at the tall building next door and quickly did a double-take - there was a guy on the side of the building!

This guy in the orange shirt was hanging off the building trying to be like Spiderman! Naturally this caught my attention so I sat and watched this guy for about 30 minutes. From my observation the guy was hanging by a rope that was attached somewhere to the roof of the building. At first I couldn't figure out what he was doing. Eventually I saw that he was running wire along the crown-molding looking thingies on the building. There were two other guys stationed on the highest landing of the building just below the rooftop and they seemed to be guiding and instructing him. I get bored of watching him as I knew that he probably wasn't going to fall off the building nor was he doing some type of cool stunt. It turned out that he was changing/replacing the color of the neon lights on the building that are turned on at night.


The very next day I was at the gym on the 5th floor of the condo. The outer walls of the gym are nothing but glass so that you get a nice view of the city as you exercise. I was running on the treadmill getting a nice burn. I looked to my right and saw a guy on the outside of the glass slowly lowering into view. He was wearing a helmet and a body harness, and there was a rope attached to him that went up beyond my view. He was sitting on a wooden plank that had a bucket of water tied to it. He had a rag in one hand and a windshield wiper in the other hand. Somehow the window was wet on the outside and he was using the small handheld windshield wiper to clean/dry the window. As I finished my workout, he worked his way at cleaning the entire window and eventually lowered further down to clean windows on the floor below. I watched in amazement at how this 40-story modern looking building was getting it's windows cleaned. I simply assumed it would be done by a couple of people working on those platform things that have rails on each side and are lowered from the top. Nope, not in this case. It's done by a guy tied to a rope sitting on a piece of wood with a bucket of water and a squeegee! How crazy is that?! Is that even safe? I had to get a closer look, so after my workout I grabbed my camera and went outside to check it out.

I went to the front of the building, looked up, and saw two guys cleaning the windows.

Wow, this guy has a pole extension on his windshield wiper.

This is the guy I saw while in the gym.

I think he ran out of water and had to be lowered to replenish his bucket. What a job! I bet the view is great, but I just wouldn't feel very safe. I'm not sure if this method would meet OSHA regulations.

As I am about to post this blog, I look outside and see a whole crew of people on ropes washing the windows on a huge building! Check them out.

Look at them go!

So in two days I've observed people hanging off the side of tall buildings from a rope to perform routine work. I am surprised but not surprised at the same time. I am slowly learning that this is Thailand, not the U.S. Things are done a little differently here, but it's not just Thailand. Things are done a little differently in a lot of places that would appear non-conventional to a Westerner. These things range from driving and eating habits to work ethics and politeness. I look forward to observing more of these differences while living overseas.