Blissful Bangkok

There is little hope for it. I just cannot keep up with all the exciting things happening to me lately. I will tell you about this weekend and then attempt to post separate entries for past events that occurred in the last few weeks.

On Friday night I walked over to my friend Gale's house. It is about a 10-15 minute walk from my house. This was not so bad as it was relatively cool from the rain that had fell earlier in the afternoon. However, it was also very muddy and slippery at the edge of the road. I was carrying a watermelon because it is customary to bring a gift when going to visit someone's house. Generally acceptable gifts are flowers, chocolate, or fruit. I figured fruit was the easiest to find and safest (since some flowers symbolize death). I did not factor in the weight or slipperiness of the roads when I decided on a watermelon, however. The watermelon made it in one piece, but my toenail did not. I was wearing sandals, as I always do when not walking to or from school. I slipped in the mud and the top of my foot went skidding across the cement before I regained my balance. The result was a blood-covered toe, and broken toenail. Luckily the toe did not get infected.

I spent a lovely evening with Gale and her husband. They asked me many questions and fed me rambutans, mangosteens, and pork dumplings. And then a dessert of pickled santol fruit is an icy soup. Gale said she would take me to the market and sightseeing on Sunday at 10am. I decided this was a great idea.

On Saturday I got up bright and early to make the morning journey by taxi, BTS (skytrain), and foot to the US Embassy apartment block where we would meet a friend of a friend who was in the SCA. For those of you not familiar with the SCA here is the website:
http://www.sca.org/

There was to be a fighting tournament, but first came the usual mad rush of last minute organization that precedes these sorts of events. The event was to be held at a university nearby. The issue was getting all the gear from the apartment to the university... there were only two cars. It was made even more difficult because as it turned out there was a graduation going on at the university and students were all out in their silk grad gowns getting their photos taken on every set of stairs on campus. There were were in street clothes, hauling armour through their shots. The room the group had rented was fabulous, with carpet and huge red curtains. We made a throne-like setup that was extremely good. I borrowed a dress from the baroness, the first long sleeves I had worn since arriving in Thailand. I became the score keeper for the tournament, which was lots of fun, apart from me not knowing everyone's name. People were really cooperative with helping me out though so that was nice. We drew a large crowd of spectators. After the fighting we had dinner and there was gift-giving for the winning team. The dinner was huge, and like a multi-course banquet. The set up was extremely ideal for the event. I was very impressed. Then there was a video conference with the King of the Far West, who lives in Japan. It went very well, and was really neat to see. This barony of the SCA covers three countries, which is madness to say the least. Overall, a very exciting and wonderful day. Oh and below is a video of a Viking Birthday song I learned. The SCA members were quite interested in Vikings, among other things. :-)



Today I went with Gale first to Buddha Mountain, which is like a huge set of gardens, with a giant Buddha image, and temple. Gale showed me some of the Buddhist ceremonies and told me more about the Buddha, and how this site was very similar to the one at Buddha's birthplace in India. She had me do a ceremony with wax, where I prayed for my family. Then we went out and fed the catfish in the ponds. She says the Thai people will not eat the catfish. I think they are sacred, although I do not know the details. Many temples have ponds full of catfish here.

Then Gale took me to a huge outdoor market that was apparently extremely small compared to other markets in Bangkok. I would have no trouble getting lost in this one. We spent 3 hours there. 2 hours alone in the plant section. Gale was looking at ferns, which she collects. I was looking at orchids and taking pictures for my grandmother. We ate authentic Pad Thai for lunch with banana flower and something similar to green onion that Gale said was not onion. Gale told me that the south of Thailand has very spicy food, but central and northern Thailand does not. She says she does not like spicy food. There was so much to see at the market but it became too hot in the afternoon so we ended up leaving.

I cooled off at the apartment and then went and bought mangosteens, the queen of fruit (durian is the king of fruit) and sushi for dinner at the market. I waited until it was late enough I could call dad for father's day because he would no longer be sleeping in his part of the world. All in all, a good weekend! Next weekend I will go to Chiang Mai!