I flew the coop yesterday, and boarded a train out of Bangkok. I went a couple hours north to Lop Buri, a sweet little town filled with ruins of old temples (and monkeys). I wandered around a bit, so happy to have some relative peace and quiet. Yes, at one point last night I finally focused on the fact that the music I could hear wafting in my window was actually Christmas carols. There is something inherently WRONG (in my opinion) about hearing Frosty the Snowman in Thailand.
The hotel last night was great... I had a bathroom en suite, AND a TV. When I turned it on and heard American voices, I literally did a little dance and sang "It's in English! It's in English!" My joy quickly dissipated when the picture came on and I discovered that it was Fox News... the morning show at that! I managed about three minutes, and then I couldn't stomach it anymore. No TV is WAY better than that TV!Today I took the train further north to a large town called Phitsanulok (I think). I settled myself
into a corner room with a king sized bed (for $6 a night), and then started wandering around town. After finding Thai Airways to confirm my flight to Australia, I headed to a folk museum. (It has some long name like General Somebody's Thai Folk Museum.) It sold itself as a museum of tools and daily objects. Sounded right up my alley. I smiled the whole time I was in there. I giggled when I saw the display of various mouse traps. (NOT like ours at all.) I enjoyed the fish and porcupine traps. I started wondering if I couldn't volunteer my services to retranslate all of their English signs into slightly more fluent English. Just when I thought the museum couldn't get any better, I came across a display showing how to castrate a bull. I had to copy down Step 6 so I could share it with you."The specialist turns the fork of sticks [which have the testes between them] at the top of the ham. After that uses the hammer hit at the testicles until was broken."
Guys, broken out in a sweat yet? Ladies, trying to figure out exactly how it was done?
More later, I'm sure...
1 comment:
Lucie:
Fascinating bit of how-to advice at the end of this post. We got your Christmas email and checked in to see that you are half-way around the globe.
I enjoyed the anecdotes about pollution, traffic, people. I'm adding them to my collection of notes from a long-time friend who, coincidentally, just returned from Thailand after being stranded there for five or six days due to the protests (She gave me permission to post a couple excerpts of her emails to me at my blog, Dangerous Intersection: http://dangerousintersection.org/2008/12/02/report-from-a-friend-stranded-in-thailand/
I hope you keep enjoying your experiences, even the ones that test your patience!
Keep those posts coming.
Erich
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