Excessive luxury and piety, all in the same day

05.10.2008

Today was super busy. I left at 8 a.m. to go for a riverboat tour of Bangkok. Louis pointed out a whole bunch of old temples to me and they all started to just blend together. Yes beautiful, but not unique. The boat turned down a quiet canal, and I saw some traditional style Thai houses, up on stilts, made out of teak. Nowadays, people build their homes closer to the water, but this is a huge problem, as the canals and rivers have a tendency to flood during the rainy season.

I fed some crazy catfish with some bread, and they were jumping everywhere...sooooooo gross!

We pulled into a little canal lock, and then stopped at Wat Arun, (Temple of the Dawn). The steps were incredibly steep, and the sun beat down on my head, heating up the handrail, probably giving me first degree burns on my palms as well. There is a great view of the city from the top, and some pretty incredible carvings.

Next up, we got back in the boat and headed to the flower market. There were all kinds of nice flowers, orchids, hyacinths, and lots of arrangements for funerals and things. Louis bought me a jasmine garland on the way to the wholesale food market. We looked around smelling fresh herbs and looking at more weird fruit. Then we called our driver, and got back in the nice, airconditioned car. It's one of the only times in my life I can remember feeling glad that I had air conditioning.

We walked around at Wat Pho, Bangkok's largest and oldest temple to see the giant golden reclining Buddha statue. It happened to be "Buddha Day" so there were important monks at the temple today, and lots of Thai people were there to hear them speak.

There is also a school of Thai massage at this temple, and you can see the paintings teachers would use as sort of a blackboard to show important reflexology techniques and human bone structure. I had forgotten my camera in the car, so all you're getting are videos of this temple, sorry folks. It's kind of a good thing because while you're observing the reclining Buddha statue, all you can hear is clinkclinkclinkclink from somewhere. What is it? Ohhhhhhhh hundreds of people are dropping one coin in 108 alms bowls. It's a pretty amazing sound, and probably one of those sounds you won't hear anywhere else.

OK, so Louis took me to a little restaurant for some real Pad Thai, which was yummy, less greasy than I'm used to. I like it better in Thailand than in Ottawa. We also ate coconut milk with some weird jellied green things in th bottom for dessert. Sorry I forget what they were called. Also delicious.

So from extreme piety to extreme excess, I travel in a Camry with A/C and leather interior to the Gems Gallery. The self proclaimed "largest jewelry store in the world". I'm not quite sure, but hey I'll go with it. I watch a lame-o video on the semi-precious gem industry and spend way too much money here, but um, yeah I think it'll be worth it. (Shhh, don't tell the people who are getting fancy gifts)

Thailand is famous for sapphires and rubies, so I bought myself a GREEN sapphire, something I have never seen before, inlaid with a pretty shiny star in a little white gold ring. I thought it was unique, I couldn't help it. I did not however, feel good about the 34905483 tons of earth that had to be displaced to provide my little finger with such adornment... *sigh*

Next, time for more luxury and excess at the tailors, I go for the fitting for my jacket, pants, skirt and dress. It all looks pretty good. I really like the suit, but I'm not too excited about the dress really. I guess I'll see how it looks tomorrow when it's finished. They are delivering it straight to my room.

After this, Louis drops me off at a Thai massage place, and it's actually a really invigorating experience. I put on some pyjama type clothes and the lady who barely speaks a word of English pushes and pulls every single one of my joints in different directions. The confusing part comes when I have get naked and she starts mopping up my body with an herb infused BOILING HOT WAD OF HELL. This is the "herb treatment" part of my 1,200 baht 2 hour ordeal. At first I think my body will also have 1st degree burns like my palms (from the temple) but soon it starts to feel good and I begin to drift off to sleep. Nope, not so. Soon, the lady starts standing on me and pulling me around some more, twisting me up in all kinds of weird shapes, all while totally buck naked. Yeah, can you say uncomfortable? I guess it's not my culture...

I walk from here to the hotel. Louis has graciously dropped off my bag already, so after a little bit of language confusion (again) I find my bags in the "Executive lounge" check in to my room, and go back to the lounge for some (free) drinks and h'ors doevres. Wow, not used to being schmoozed like this since I was working at the Sun.

Speaking of the Sun, my Quebecor buddy, Alan Parker has just arrived from Toronto, he'll be going to see the Tigers and the Bridge on the River Kwai with me tomorrow. That's exciting. I get all bubbly and start talking about mutual colleagues, people that left Ottawa and went to Toronto mostly. I'm sure he doesn't want to hear any of it, he's just been on a plane for 24 hours and boy do I know how that feels. But anyway, that's the way I do.

Back in my room, I do some laundry and eat the fresh plate of fruit waiting for me. Life is pretty good.

Chao Phrya River