Bangkok

[fivemack]

Is an oasis of peaceful calm, wealth and cleanliness. Perhaps a mite hectic at times, and steam-bath weather even at 0600, but relaxation itself compared to Delhi.

I admired the strange-looking sunrise for several minutes before realising that the difference from India is ... clouds. Several layers of them, excessively attractively arranged. It even rains - torrentially, but only for an hour or so.

Today I have mostly been buying tailor-made clothes; two cashmere-wool suits (one black, one dark-blue pinstripe), two cotton and one silk shirt, and three silk brocade waistcoats in different colours. Prices are about the same as the medium-range off-the-peg at M&S, and the range of silk brocades is very significantly wider.

The cushion covers here are 1/6 of the Indian price, which suggests that my estimates about how much mark-up the Indian emporia were adding were very low. Or that the production's mechanised here and the Indian shops were charging a handwork mark-up.

Google's wonderful; arriving with no guidebook, a Netcafe and 'things to do in Bangkok' got me at once to http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Asia/Thailand/Central_Eastern_Thailand/Bangkok-1445238/TravelGuide-Bangkok.html and has given me three pages of sights to see. I'd also like to thank Kilda from the Exodus trip to India for her list of things to do; if you're reading this, Kilda, why not leave a comment? :)

Comments

[papersky.livejournal.com]

That sounds lovely.

Mmm, brocade waistcoats.

Zorinth, whose taste in suits is impeccable, says don't buy yellow, it isn't your colour.

[(Anonymous)]

I think the tailor would have disembowelled me with one of those many tailoring implements ideally suited to disembowelling if I'd even contemplated suggesting a yellow suit.

Red with gold dragons, blue with gold dragons, black with red dragons.

I'll have to post them home anyway; maybe I should post one set to Montreal instead :)

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

If one is about to embark on a series of job interviews, a trip to Bangkok for a set of tailor-made suits seems just the thing!

hi

[(Anonymous)]

there was me thinking bangkok was full of go go bars and lady boys.
Ben

Re: hi

[(Anonymous)]

Well, 'thai massage' apparently means the same at the hotel here as it would in a seedy part of Britain, though I got a really nice massage before the extra services were mentioned and politely declined. 'duu' is the Thai for 'willy', 'lap daa' are eyelids ('daa' are eyes), 'meeeh' sounding like the bleat of a rather unhappy sheep is 'hand'.

Ladyboys are in Patpong; I retain enough vestigial sanity not to go there on my own. As places to squander one's patrimony, I'm not sure Bangkok can be improved upon ... I keep thinking of those bits from Kipling of the naive English boy's first time in the East, and hope it keeps me on the path of righteousness.

Bangkok

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Tom, sorry its taken me so long to find your journal! Glad you liked Bangkok - what did I tell you about cushion covers??!

Take care you, enjoy the sunshine too - its snowing here in Snowdonia (appropriately!)

Kilda x