Filed under: Travel
01/10/08 Bangkok,Thailand
About 85% of the entire population has been clad in black and white for the last week or so in a show of mourning solidarity to acknowledge the death of the King’s sister. I admire their cohesiveness and the show of respect.
Bangkok is odd that way…every business or home of any note displays gold framed photos of the royal family, and probably a small Buddha too. Even liquor stores or other rather questionable industries. K is not well and needs to spit into a bush…which happens to be at the gates of the British Embassy. Our friend has just moved his architectural office into a shiny, artfully empty mall where each boutique gleams, and the prices are such that if you need to ask, you can’t afford it. He treats us to Isan style lunch at Rice Café, decorated by a Thai pop artist (pop styling, not pop music). We ooh and ahh at his custom-home work profiled in a magazine.
Sakul Intakul has a storefront upstairs. K & I just read about this engineer turned floral designer in Bangkok Airways magazine. His curving flower vessels are lovely, but $195 USD!? We opt to buy the ceramic, more affordable versions of the designs.
At Siam center we purchase Thai cookbooks, spend time chatting up the pharmacist at Boots (What in hell can you do for K’s tummy? Wow, you sell Cipro and Neurontin over the counter?), and shop for Ferrari, Lotus, Porsche on the 2nd floor (how DO they get the cars up here?). Yet another friend treats us to an amazing dinner, papaya salad and crab is the famous dish here, a place feted by one of the Thai Princesses.
01/11/08 from
Taipei airport in
Taiwan, to home in
California
K is still sick. P is fending off sickliness. I have prickly heat, am bug-bitten, and am developing my signature elbow-rash from sleep deprivation. Our supplies of clean laundry are dwindling. Guess it’s time to go home.
I’ve got four currencies in my wallet, the airport only accepts 2 of those. At
Taipei airport we eat green tea Russian ice cream, steamer baskets of tiny meat and vegetable dumplings, and a giant bowl of miso and pork noodles. There is free internet access, museum displays, and free massage chairs amidst potted plants. There is an entire Hello Kitty playground, playroom, waiting area, and nursery room (and gift shop). 
We buy treats for those at home, pineapple shortbread, oolong tea cookies, taro cake. P samples all of these gleefully. Our burdensome long layover feels like a day hanging out at the mall, except better. Mom shows up bearing wax (AKA rose) apples as if she read my mind.
The three of us decidedly conk out for most of the plane trip. Mom’s friend Frog Prince picks us up in his van, and lo – suddenly we are home again.
I want a pizza, and 45 minutes later, it arrives steaming at our front door. Life is good. Surely I must have been an o.k. person in a past life to deserve this…
It’s almost 11 p.m. We have officially outlasted stage 1 jetlag.
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