The Gods must be sleeping

There are many Gods in this part of the world. Two weeks ago, I mentioned the computer God, well this week I shall briefly mention the Gods of Bangkok. These Gods, who oversee the City of Angels, are all powerful. When they conspire against you, there is no worse place on earth to be. Their means of making a person’s life a living hell know no bounds: floods, paralysing traffic jams, sizzling heatwaves, mind-numbing technomusic, cockroaches, rats, and a dead body or two thrown in for good measure. When the Gods are sleeping, however, Bangkok becomes almost surviveable. Today has thus far been just such a day.

This morning I awoke at 3 am to the sound of heavy rainfall. To my ears, falling rain sounds just as beautiful and melodic as Pachebel’s Canon in D. I fell back asleep and awoke at 5 am to the sound of crickets, the chirping of birds, and an occasional rooster or two. I started the day with my mind at ease. I quickly got out of bed and jumped on a bus, then the Skytrain (a true sanity saver and built by Canadian company Bombardier) and headed to J.W. Marriott Hotel. Last year, on my birthday, my father gave me the best birthday present possible (other than a Ferrari Testarossa) – gift certificates to any Marriott in the world. I decided to get the most bang for my buck by exchanging them for day coupons to use the JW Marriott’s fitness and spa centre. I intend to take photos of the place one of these days. I could spend an entire day just in the locker room. It has a whirlpool, a cold water plunge pool, a scented steam room, a scented sauna, bathrobes, slippers, scented lotions, soft towels, etc. In otherwords, it represents another universe to someone like myself who makes only 8 dollars a day. After pretending to exercise for an hour when all I was really doing was watching TV on the Sony flat screen TV that every piece of cardio equipment posses, I spent the next 90 minutes in the change room using every facility they had and every lotion, talcum powder, hair spray, and mouthwash available. To end my morning, I went to my favorite coffee shop and had a vegetarian sandwich on fresh foccacia bread and a western sized coffee (i.e., it was larger than a thumb thimble). And now I am sitting here writing this before I forget that days like this do exist. I shall have to end this entry here for I suspect the computer God is starting to stir – the keyboard is becoming decidedly moody.

From the Land of a Thousand Smiles, which today includes mine.