We started our second day in Bangkok with another adventure to a different park. This one was smaller and less busy than the other park, but it did feature two girls doing a Gangnam Style dance with hoola hoops as a way to attract attention to their stand. The product seemed to be a Thai version of IcyHot, so I guess targeting morning exercisers is probably fairly good marketing. Then we has Boot Camp by Nicolas, a series of exercises done in a public place that attracted its own crowds.
Our next adventure was to the weekend market at Chatuchak. We got a sense of its popularity as soon as we stepped on to the sky train and round it packed, despite being about 9-10 stops away. The market was HUGE. It had real buildings - that is, permanent open-walled shops with corrugated roofs - and a map of the different areas. Food courts lined the perimeter, with a few penetrating the inner cluster of shops. We ate ramatans (so delicious! A slightly milder lychee), fried bananas and coconut, and finally... STICKY RICE WITH MANGO!
After the market, we hurried downtown to the Jim Thompson Restaurant for lunch with Suki, the sister of one of Nick's colleagues. Suki graduated from the Yale School of Architecture, making her a great resource for Nick. She's also from Greenwich, just like me! She moved here to Thailand about 15 years ago when she got married to Peter, her British husband. Fortunately or unfortunately, she arrived just in time for the economic crash in Thailand, during which numerous architects were laid off. When the UN came looking for an architecture consultant for a team checking out UNESCO World Heritage Sites, she applied and got the job. While the food was delicious, the company was the best part of lunch. Fortunately for us, Suki lives just down the street from our hostel (literally a block away) and invited us over for dinner the following night! It will be so lovely to be in a home again.
Since we were already at the Jim Thompson house, we decided to go on a tour. Jim Thompson is credits with reviving the ancient technique of hand-weaving silks, and Jim Thompson silk is still prized. He lived in a beautiful teak house that he decorated with Thai and SE Asian art throughout his life, making it an interesting museum of sorts. But the real kicker? Thompson is suspected of being in the CIA, and back in the late 60s he was in Malaysia and walked off one day, never to be seen again. Was he murdered? Did he start a new life with a new identity? He left his house to a nephew in his will, having no children himself, and the nephew donated it as a museum. As we wandered the house, it was interesting these how much of Thai culture Thompson had (superficially) absorbed and how much he did not. For example, he kept a spirit house on the grounds for the spirits of the ground that has been broken to build the house. Offerings of fruit, food, water, and flowers were provided daily. Yet he was a Christian and did not believe in the ad luck brought on by broken Buddhist statues. In many ways, Thompson seems like the Gatsby of mid-20th century Thailand, throwing incredible dinner parties and living a life of mystery.
On our way back to the hostel, we finally found time to buy our overnight train tickets for the next (Sunday) night. Though this is the off-season for tourism, everything with beds or air conditioning was sold out. We could get seats in second class or seats in third class. We chose second class. We also bought our tickets for the way back to avoid the same issue, securing air conditioned berths for the night. While our options were limited, we were lucky to have a patient and English-speaking teller who walked us through the whole process, gave us tips (don't be close to the bathroom because do the smell, more leg room in the first rows of each car), and showed us pictures of different bed and seat configurations in the different classes. We left, making light of the fact that we might have a sleepless ride there on the jerking, smelly, hot train ride that would take up 15 hours of our lives.
At Paul's suggestion, we got pad Thai for dinner from the restaurant of the Honey Hotel, also a block from our hostel. Then, we headed out for another Thai specialty: a lady-boy show. Lady boys, or male to female transgender individuals, are a very accepted part of Thai culture. Buddhism promotes tolerance, and any negative feeling is indulged as pity rather than persecution. Some families believe that having a transgender child is good luck. There was also a prominent Muay Thai boxer who was transgender and would enter the ring with long hair and full make-up during her transition from male to female. Thailand offers some of the best and cheapest gender-reassignment surgeries, too. But there is one caveat: the Thai government will never legally change your gender. Regardless, we had heard from many people that this was a fun way to pass the evening, so we decided to go for it. Due to a direction snafu, we ended up at the wrong show (Playhouse Theater instead of Calypso Cabaret) but bought our tickets and went in. This show was clearly not the most popular one out there, since we got front-row seats about 15 minutes before the show, but hey - never say no to good seats.
The show was really interesting. Lots of sequins, lots of make-up, lots of silicon (many of the performers have already had surgeries). Some of the performers were shy and uncertain of their bodies in a very 13-year-old girl way, while others were bold and brassy. Some were shy and whispering to each other when they were back-up dancers but were confident and commanding as lead lip-syncers. Some were rail-thin while others were plus-sized. The first couple of numbers were spotty but the show soon picked up with great renditions from Chicago (the jailhouse scene) and the Glee mash-up of Singing in the Rain and Rihanna's Umbrella.
But then it happened. They did a song about 42nd street with all sorts of 20s glamour and... In the closing music without any need or provocation ended it with a rape scene. And then they casually got up and bowed, and the rest of the audience cheered. Our group was silent and shocked. I couldn't believe that they would add something like that, so casually and without a second thought or someone piping up that maybe that was a bad idea. It ruined the end of the show for me, unfortunately. It was never going to rival a show in New York, but it was a ridiculous time. Until the end.
To end the night on a high note, we went to the Sky Bar at the Sky Tower, a part of the downtown CentralWorld complex. For those of you who have seen The Hangover 2, there is a scene filmed here. It was fun because you can walk 360 degrees around the building, seeing the city from a new perspective. The Sky Bar isn't the highest vantage point; at only 55 floors up, it is dwarfed by the huge Baiyoke Tower II, but that observation deck closes at 10:30 pm and it costs about $10 to get up there. We had a lovely time strolling around. It was our last night in Bangkok, and it was lovely to close with such a beautiful image of the night skyline.
Spotted: A lack of honking horns. Apparently the King doesn't like the sound of honking horns, so people don't do it. It's also seen as very, very rude here.
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