Day 19 - Bangkok

At about three o clock this morning i woke up and went to the loo - slide out of bed, tiptoe across room, sneak into bathroom, complete return journey - mission accomplished in top Secret Squirrel silence. Decided to have a drink before returning to the land of nod; reached for bottle of water, smashed it off the bottom of the bedside table, lost hold of the botle which fell on the wooden floor emptying its contents in the process and making enough noise to raise, even if not the dead, definitely Maz. Now nice and wide awake I thought back tp the evening just gone and the journey back to the room from the bar. I could remember Maz having the i-Pad but the camera bag? Rather than wake Maz up and ask i opted for a surreptitious rummage in the various piles of cases - and started to panic when i couldn't find said bag. I was all ready to dive into emergency camera retireval mode when Maz woke up and told me to get back into bed, shut up and stop arsing around! the camera bag was at her bedside all along. 

Eventually i got back to sleep after angsting about more nonsense and finally awoke before the alarm chirrupped into life at eight o clock. Kids were awake, morning routine completed easily and breakfast was squared off leaving us ready to start anaother day of exploration. we took the shuttle bus to the train station and then caught a train into town to our first stop of the day - the home of Jim Thompson. I am not sure if we mentioned JT when we visited Cameron Highlands but he was an American who was posted too and fell in love with Thailand, rejuvenated the Thai silk industry, designed the costumes for the King and I, assembled four traditional Thai houses in the middle of Bangkok for his home and then filled them with all sorts of Siamese artefacts he collected from around the region and then went and disappeared without a trace when he visited Malaysia on holiday. most mysterious. Anyway, fanatastic house and a worthwhile trip. 

(silk weaving at Jim Thompson's house)

next we caught a tuk tuk to the Golden Buddha - what a story that is. Large - tons large - solid gold Buddha hidden by covering it in clay to disguise it from the marauding Burmese infidels - revered in its own right until the 70's when somebody chipped off a bit of plaster and , lo and behold its a special Buddha - twenty five million pounds sterling of special! As with the Royal Palace yesterday, one quickly becomes inured to the decoration, value, intricacy of design and overall goldeness of the whole thing - these temples and artefacts are all on such an unimaginable scale that after a short period of time it simply no longer computes. 

Another thing that has been evident as we have toured and especially here in Thailand is the different attitude people have to religion - it seems to be more of a part of peoples every day lives and also there is a greater acceptance of praying, worshipping, respecting - the whole theatre of the religious event. Also, there is a very strong link between religion and money - no surrptitious passing of the collection plate at the end of the Sunday service. Coming to the temple and putting note after note into the boxes in front of your favourite gods. Also, it is just more interesting - colourful, vibrant, living even. It puts the never ending navel gazing, internecine feuding and hand wringing of the English church into perspective. 

We decided that the Golden Buddha was to be our last idol of the holiday so we waved goodbye to that temple and headed off to a market. we had to get back onto a river ferry but, now old pros, we found the right pier, worked out the direction and bought tickets on board - no wet tourist passes for us! Lily picked kthe first and it was a fashion market which sprawled over hundreds of stalls in countless alleyways, halls and streets. not a lot of fashion was bought but we did stop for some of the most delicious fresh pineapple - yum! Retraced our steps to the pier successfully and headed off to the next stop. 

more markets - the same market as we visited yesterday. The first stop was for some lunch and although there were countless restaurants, stalls and cafes to choose  from we went back to the cafe we visited yesterday to partake of a selection of Thai appetizers. We didn't mention it yesterday but the soundtrack was a combination of Chicago and Delta blues; B.B, Bessie, John Lee, Big Bill - all the favourites and countless more - could have sat there drinking Leo all afternoon. after food, Lily and Maz opted for a thai foot massage whilst George and I explored the retail opportunities. As you may have read yesterday, George had already earmarked a couple of t-shirts to be added to his wardrobe and so we tried to get the right designs in the right size  - with limited success. undeterred, we collected the girls who had been pummelled, stretched, rubbed and kneaded into a near comatose state and went to see if Lly could get some togs too. 

Unfortunately, in the clear light of day the few bits and pieces she had seen no longer worked the same magic and so we soon decided to leave the market and head back to the hotel. We had intended to do Lilttle India and Chinatown too but time had started to run short and so we diecided to have a short break, recharge our batteries and sally forth to the night market later on. More ferries and walking got us home to a nice cup of coffee and a half hour looking at, all the bits and bobs we had bought - as well as checking in for our flight tomorrow and trying to arrange appointments to meet up with friends in HK. 

one last burst of energy saw us back at the station boarding a train to a nightmarket - t-shirts, trainers, watches, pens, nick nacks (?) and all sorts of other things which are not suited to a family blog such as this. Maz haggled like a trooper, Lily bought more things than all the rest of us combined and i grew disillusioned with the whole thing - too tired to haggle but i guess that just means i don't really want 'it' anyway. the lack of dinner, the incessant noise, the people everywhere and the lack of an off switch on the Big Mango sent us back to the metro and a cab brought us home. A snack in the lobby to keep us alive until morning and a drink to take the edge off and now lights out. With the camera bag at my side and the water bottle on top of the table it's time for a, hopefully, less eventful night's sleep than the last. 

arrivederci, K.