12th episode of days and nights in Bangkok

Dinner was roast chicken legs, roasted with spices and accompanied by various vegetables in a tomato based sauce: ‘ratatouille’.
Wednesday 12th July 2006
Adam had been woken by Rosalind about 0430 so that he was able to get his 0630 flight to Jakarta; I was pleased that his departure did not disturb my slumbers.
For the last few days Sheila and I have developed the Thai version of ‘Delhi Belly’, we call it ‘Bangkok Bottom’; it is not cataclysmic, but a few sharp stomach pains are a hint to find a WC very quickly. We did not take any medication as we thought it best to develop our own immune systems defence rather than take any drugs, but it remains to be seen if our strategy will work. Rosalind went to the gym for a work-out, Sheila stayed home and I just went for my normal walk around the local area. I did call into the video shop to see if I could hire a copy of the ‘African Queen’, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn, but I had forgotten to ask Rosalind what the title might be in Thai. In the shop my slow pronunciation of ‘African Queen’ did not stop the meaning being lost in translation. I therefore hit on the idea of using the principles of ‘Pictionary’. I mimed pen and paper and they were produced and given to me. Hey I was on a roll; I drew a picture of Africa and then next to it a stick figure with a crown on her head. ‘Africa Queen’, n’est-ce pas? Nope, English, French, German it was all Greek to him, and I do wonder what he thought I was meaning with my drawing. He seemed relieved when I wished him, “Sawasdee Krup”, and left the store.
For dinner we had roast chicken again as Rosalind felt it would be gentler with our digestive systems, plus roast potatoes, carrots, green beans.
After dinner we watched five episodes from another Alec Guinness film: ‘Smiley’s People’, it is very good and I expect that we will watch the remaining episodes tomorrow night.
Thursday 13th July
Adam is still in Jakarta, the rest of us were all a little late in rising today, except of course Khun Noy. Sheila had been having ‘dancing legs’ most of the night, so we both suffered from it. I was more organised than Rosalind and Sheila and left fairly early on my expedition to find the ‘Thai Rare Stone Museum’. Rosalind and Sheila were going to the Banyan Tree Hotel, where Rosalind had recently purchased a large fragrant oil burner that had cracked he first time she used it. Sheila was determined that they provide a replacement at no charge. Sheila was also looking for some particular cards that she had seen there on a previous visit.
I hailed a taxi from the end of the soi and he appeared to have no problems with understanding that I wanted to go to the ‘Sheraton’ hotel, which according to another map I had consulted, was near the Thai Rare Stone Museum.
On the way although the traffic was not bad we drew up next to a ‘tuk tuk’ and I was able to get another photograph of what I think is the most photogenic mode of transport.


I recognised the Bangkok G.P.O. and was happy that we were on the right track and when we turned left into a soi with a sign indicating the ‘Sheraton Royal Orchid’ hotel, I asked him to stop and I got out. I walked back to the major road turning left in what I thought was the correct direction according to the map drawn by a Nancy Chandler, about that time I was thinking it would have been good to have taken the map with me. I passed a few jewellery shops and it did not look like I was going to fulfil my quest. I retraced my steps to the last corner and glanced around at the road signs. Most of the lettering not surprisingly is in Thai letters, that are lots of lops and swirls and mean nothing to me. Some have Thai words in Roman lettering so one can read what it says but that still does not tell you much.
However I struck lucky, there was a brown sign (with a ‘white Greek urn’ on it) pointing down past the G.P.O. with the lettering ‘Bangkok Museum’, maybe that was where I should go, but then I noticed another brown sign, with the ubiquitous Greek urn, pointing back towards the direction I had been walking. This sign only had Thai lettering on it, but I figured that the ‘brown signs’ were to indicate paces of interest for tourists and I headed back in the direction I had first been going.
Voila the picture of what I spotted appears below:


It was only when inserting this picture that I noticed the other brown sign on the right hand side indicating the museum, of course that is not visible behind the other signs and bushes. The next picture is a close up of the brown sign outside of the museum.

The interpretation sign I think is diminished by the statement that: ‘The museum also collects various ashtrays of diverse nations. They seemed keener to show my anything that could be even vaguely described as a phallus rather than their ashtrays. I do despair of the European shopper’s reputation that must precede us. I dismissed all of the ‘erotic’ tat and made it clear that it was fossils and stones that were my interest and ‘no I was not interested in the large stalactite that looked like a large penis.
They were very happy for me to take some photographs of items on display and they are as follows.

A Titanites giganteus a Jurassic period ammonite, this one from Germany, you can judge the size when compared to the mug next to it and/or the ladies head bottom right. I figured about a metre and a bit in diameter.


In some small boxes, inside the glass-topped counters, were some trilobites and other fossils but they were not of very good quality. The most interesting things for me on the day were some ‘elephant gums’ fossils, but they seemed a bit heavy to contemplate putting in my luggage for the plane although they are very tempting at 2,000 baht for one piece and 2,500 baht for another. That is about eighty Australian dollars for each. There were also boxes of meteorites that would no doubt of more interest to others. But the piece de resistance for me is the fossil in the next picture, the interpretation on the card is also worth a smile as they have confused the concepts of priceless and worthless, (I think).
I could not make my mind up about what I might buy and told the lady in the shop that I would return with my wife and our son so that they could help me choose. I also asked if they took ‘Visa card’ which the assured me they did.
I hailed a taxi from nearby and again the driver appeared o have no problem understanding the location to which I wished to go.
On the way I saw a ‘tuk-tuk’ in front of us in which there appeared to be about ten university students. I think it must have been a student prank for them or perhaps they did not want to pay for two or more ‘tuk-tuks’. From the photo one can not see all of the students, but there was a lot.


On the way back to the apartment I noticed that whenever we were held up in traffic the driver would slump into his seat and have a little sleep, then when he awoke he would drive like a maniac. Rosalind did tell us that it is common for drivers to be drunk on beer during the day. Many Thai ‘believe’ that if they drink whisky or beer they will not get drunk it is only if one drinks wine that one gets drunk. I think that this widely held belief has it’s foundation in the following facts: wine is very expensive in Thailand, Foreigners (farangs) are most often the only people who get drunk, foreigners are the only ones who can afford wine, ‘ipso facto’ it is wine that makes you drunk.
I must admit I was feeling a little relaxed, but did notice that we had driven past the end of the Soi Nanglinchi and were heading off away from where I wanted. I drew this to the driver’s attention and indicated that I would get out and walk back to where I wanted, which was not far. He was determined to make amends and proceeded to do a three point turn in the muddle of a corner on a very busy road, Soi Suanplu. Having no option I held on for the ride, but as son as we had negotiated the u-turn and the diversion I wanted I was firmer on my desire to de-car and started to open the door. He got the message and stopped, looking a bit disconsolate that I only gave him 60 baht for the 57 baht fare, about a one cent tip, but I was annoyed that I had to navigate him back to the straight and narrow.
On the way back I went into the supermarket and bought a paper, some cheese, bread-rolls and some chicken flavoured biscuits for the dogs.
The dogs spotted me from about half way down the soi and were waiting in ambush, having noticed that I was carrying a shopping bag. The chicken flavour is a bigger hit than the beef flavour, but the still wanted them broken up before they would inhale them.
Rosalind and Sheila returned mid-afternoon obviously pleased wit themselves. The Banyan Tree Hotel shop had agreed to replace the faulty burner and this of course meant that the girls felt obliged to buy other goods, good customer relations (business sense) that some retailers forget.
For afternoon tea we had some slices of cake that I had made yesterday; it was meant to be an orange cake, but I remembered Rosalind saying that she had enjoyed some lemon biscuits in France so I thought “oranges lemons, not much difference so I will just put a whole lemon in rather than a whole orange.” Well things got a bit more creative after that. The cake tin was a bit bigger than the size called for in the recipe that I was remembering so I thought “three eggs rather than two, a bit more than a cup and half of sugar and flour”. And I could not read what the size of the butter was as it was printed in Thai so I thought I would just melt the whole pack and add it all to the batter in the blender. Well the blender blades would not go around so I thought that perhaps if I added quartered Thai orange (they are very different) it would help; it didn’t help much in fact not at all. I just had to stick a spoon in and help it around a bit and then pour the ‘batter’ into the tin. It was with great relief that after about fifteen minutes in the oven it seemed to be rising ok. Rosalind had given me the drum on the proportions of baking powder to plain flour and the location of each.
About an hour later I was in the study when the smell of something cake like fully cooked wafted through the air-conditioning. I nonchalantly oozed into the kitchen where Rosalind was eyeing the oven with some concern. “Mm looks like it might be done then even though it is supposed to have a few minutes to go” I declared.
“Yes I think you could be right, must be the ‘fan-forced’ oven takes less time” agreed Rosalind as I extracted my newly born cake from its warm womb.
It was not until late in the evening that we were to taste it and declare it a success with the slight tarte taste of the blended lemon and orange rinds adding an interesting piquancy.
Dinner was cannellini bean soup, a meal in itself, followed later by some orange/lemon cake and yoghurt.
After dinner we stated to talk about creationism and evolutionary theories, with Rosalind stating that, “I can’t understand why educated people support the theories of creationism!” Our conversation became very wide ranging and included my observation “that it is a matter of faith or belief and if people have that belief or faith then they see no need to challenge it or prove it”. I gave the example of Bishop Usher of Armagh who in 1650 calculated, from the various genealogies in the bible, that time the world was created by God was 0900 26th October 4004 BC. The proposition by Bishop Usher was still regarded by many churches as correct up to and including the nineteenth century, and as far as I know may still well be regarded as such by some. Charles Darwin’s theory on the origin of the species was certainly considered as heresy by some of the proponents of Bishop Usher’s calculations. Of course my visit to the Rare Stones Museum and the fossils there caused me to make comment that, “existence of Jurassic age fossils would seem to be at odds with Bishop Usher’s ideas.” We agreed that there can be no resolution to the debate if one is trying to match science and fact with belief and faith. They would seem to be mutually exclusive concepts.
Sheila and I watched the last episodes of ‘Smiley’s People’ and enjoyed it very much, but it meant we had a very late night and as Sheila’s legs were playing up, not a lot of sleep.
I was also kept awake by the thought of my final observation over dinner:
“There appears to be not any way we can use science to prove there is not a God/entity; but there would appear to be many indications in science and nature of the existence of a god/entity”. It was one of those deep and meaningful ‘after dinner’ discussions that arrives at no conclusions, but is an interesting diversion.

Dinner was roast chicken legs, roasted with spices and accompanied by various vegetables in a tomato based sauce: ‘ratatouille’.
Wednesday 12th July 2006
Adam had been woken by Rosalind about 0430 so that he was able to get his 0630 flight to Jakarta; I was pleased that his departure did not disturb my slumbers.
For the last few days Sheila and I have developed the Thai version of ‘Delhi Belly’, we call it ‘Bangkok Bottom’; it is not cataclysmic, but a few sharp stomach pains are a hint to find a WC very quickly. We did not take any medication as we thought it best to develop our own immune systems defence rather than take any drugs, but it remains to be seen if our strategy will work. Rosalind went to the gym for a work-out, Sheila stayed home and I just went for my normal walk around the local area. I did call into the video shop to see if I could hire a copy of the ‘African Queen’, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn, but I had forgotten to ask Rosalind what the title might be in Thai. In the shop my slow pronunciation of ‘African Queen’ did not stop the meaning being lost in translation. I therefore hit on the idea of using the principles of ‘Pictionary’. I mimed pen and paper and they were produced and given to me. Hey I was on a roll; I drew a picture of Africa and then next to it a stick figure with a crown on her head. ‘Africa Queen’, n’est-ce pas? Nope, English, French, German it was all Greek to him, and I do wonder what he thought I was meaning with my drawing. He seemed relieved when I wished him, “Sawasdee Krup”, and left the store.
For dinner we had roast chicken again as Rosalind felt it would be gentler with our digestive systems, plus roast potatoes, carrots, green beans.
After dinner we watched five episodes from another Alec Guinness film: ‘Smiley’s People’, it is very good and I expect that we will watch the remaining episodes tomorrow night.
Thursday 13th July
Adam is still in Jakarta, the rest of us were all a little late in rising today, except of course Khun Noy. Sheila had been having ‘dancing legs’ most of the night, so we both suffered from it. I was more organised than Rosalind and Sheila and left fairly early on my expedition to find the ‘Thai Rare Stone Museum’. Rosalind and Sheila were going to the Banyan Tree Hotel, where Rosalind had recently purchased a large fragrant oil burner that had cracked he first time she used it. Sheila was determined that they provide a replacement at no charge. Sheila was also looking for some particular cards that she had seen there on a previous visit.
I hailed a taxi from the end of the soi and he appeared to have no problems with understanding that I wanted to go to the ‘Sheraton’ hotel, which according to another map I had consulted, was near the Thai Rare Stone Museum.
On the way although the traffic was not bad we drew up next to a ‘tuk tuk’ and I was able to get another photograph of what I think is the most photogenic mode of transport.


I recognised the Bangkok G.P.O. and was happy that we were on the right track and when we turned left into a soi with a sign indicating the ‘Sheraton Royal Orchid’ hotel, I asked him to stop and I got out. I walked back to the major road turning left in what I thought was the correct direction according to the map drawn by a Nancy Chandler, about that time I was thinking it would have been good to have taken the map with me. I passed a few jewellery shops and it did not look like I was going to fulfil my quest. I retraced my steps to the last corner and glanced around at the road signs. Most of the lettering not surprisingly is in Thai letters, that are lots of lops and swirls and mean nothing to me. Some have Thai words in Roman lettering so one can read what it says but that still does not tell you much.
However I struck lucky, there was a brown sign (with a ‘white Greek urn’ on it) pointing down past the G.P.O. with the lettering ‘Bangkok Museum’, maybe that was where I should go, but then I noticed another brown sign, with the ubiquitous Greek urn, pointing back towards the direction I had been walking. This sign only had Thai lettering on it, but I figured that the ‘brown signs’ were to indicate paces of interest for tourists and I headed back in the direction I had first been going.
Voila the picture of what I spotted appears below:


It was only when inserting this picture that I noticed the other brown sign on the right hand side indicating the museum, of course that is not visible behind the other signs and bushes. The next picture is a close up of the brown sign outside of the museum.

The interpretation sign I think is diminished by the statement that: ‘The museum also collects various ashtrays of diverse nations. They seemed keener to show my anything that could be even vaguely described as a phallus rather than their ashtrays. I do despair of the European shopper’s reputation that must precede us. I dismissed all of the ‘erotic’ tat and made it clear that it was fossils and stones that were my interest and ‘no I was not interested in the large stalactite that looked like a large penis.
They were very happy for me to take some photographs of items on display and they are as follows.

A Titanites giganteus a Jurassic period ammonite, this one from Germany, you can judge the size when compared to the mug next to it and/or the ladies head bottom right. I figured about a metre and a bit in diameter.


In some small boxes, inside the glass-topped counters, were some trilobites and other fossils but they were not of very good quality. The most interesting things for me on the day were some ‘elephant gums’ fossils, but they seemed a bit heavy to contemplate putting in my luggage for the plane although they are very tempting at 2,000 baht for one piece and 2,500 baht for another. That is about eighty Australian dollars for each. There were also boxes of meteorites that would no doubt of more interest to others. But the piece de resistance for me is the fossil in the next picture, the interpretation on the card is also worth a smile as they have confused the concepts of priceless and worthless, (I think).
I could not make my mind up about what I might buy and told the lady in the shop that I would return with my wife and our son so that they could help me choose. I also asked if they took ‘Visa card’ which the assured me they did.
I hailed a taxi from nearby and again the driver appeared o have no problem understanding the location to which I wished to go.
On the way I saw a ‘tuk-tuk’ in front of us in which there appeared to be about ten university students. I think it must have been a student prank for them or perhaps they did not want to pay for two or more ‘tuk-tuks’. From the photo one can not see all of the students, but there was a lot.


On the way back to the apartment I noticed that whenever we were held up in traffic the driver would slump into his seat and have a little sleep, then when he awoke he would drive like a maniac. Rosalind did tell us that it is common for drivers to be drunk on beer during the day. Many Thai ‘believe’ that if they drink whisky or beer they will not get drunk it is only if one drinks wine that one gets drunk. I think that this widely held belief has it’s foundation in the following facts: wine is very expensive in Thailand, Foreigners (farangs) are most often the only people who get drunk, foreigners are the only ones who can afford wine, ‘ipso facto’ it is wine that makes you drunk.
I must admit I was feeling a little relaxed, but did notice that we had driven past the end of the Soi Nanglinchi and were heading off away from where I wanted. I drew this to the driver’s attention and indicated that I would get out and walk back to where I wanted, which was not far. He was determined to make amends and proceeded to do a three point turn in the muddle of a corner on a very busy road, Soi Suanplu. Having no option I held on for the ride, but as son as we had negotiated the u-turn and the diversion I wanted I was firmer on my desire to de-car and started to open the door. He got the message and stopped, looking a bit disconsolate that I only gave him 60 baht for the 57 baht fare, about a one cent tip, but I was annoyed that I had to navigate him back to the straight and narrow.
On the way back I went into the supermarket and bought a paper, some cheese, bread-rolls and some chicken flavoured biscuits for the dogs.
The dogs spotted me from about half way down the soi and were waiting in ambush, having noticed that I was carrying a shopping bag. The chicken flavour is a bigger hit than the beef flavour, but the still wanted them broken up before they would inhale them.
Rosalind and Sheila returned mid-afternoon obviously pleased wit themselves. The Banyan Tree Hotel shop had agreed to replace the faulty burner and this of course meant that the girls felt obliged to buy other goods, good customer relations (business sense) that some retailers forget.
For afternoon tea we had some slices of cake that I had made yesterday; it was meant to be an orange cake, but I remembered Rosalind saying that she had enjoyed some lemon biscuits in France so I thought “oranges lemons, not much difference so I will just put a whole lemon in rather than a whole orange.” Well things got a bit more creative after that. The cake tin was a bit bigger than the size called for in the recipe that I was remembering so I thought “three eggs rather than two, a bit more than a cup and half of sugar and flour”. And I could not read what the size of the butter was as it was printed in Thai so I thought I would just melt the whole pack and add it all to the batter in the blender. Well the blender blades would not go around so I thought that perhaps if I added quartered Thai orange (they are very different) it would help; it didn’t help much in fact not at all. I just had to stick a spoon in and help it around a bit and then pour the ‘batter’ into the tin. It was with great relief that after about fifteen minutes in the oven it seemed to be rising ok. Rosalind had given me the drum on the proportions of baking powder to plain flour and the location of each.
About an hour later I was in the study when the smell of something cake like fully cooked wafted through the air-conditioning. I nonchalantly oozed into the kitchen where Rosalind was eyeing the oven with some concern. “Mm looks like it might be done then even though it is supposed to have a few minutes to go” I declared.
“Yes I think you could be right, must be the ‘fan-forced’ oven takes less time” agreed Rosalind as I extracted my newly born cake from its warm womb.
It was not until late in the evening that we were to taste it and declare it a success with the slight tarte taste of the blended lemon and orange rinds adding an interesting piquancy.
Dinner was cannellini bean soup, a meal in itself, followed later by some orange/lemon cake and yoghurt.
After dinner we stated to talk about creationism and evolutionary theories, with Rosalind stating that, “I can’t understand why educated people support the theories of creationism!” Our conversation became very wide ranging and included my observation “that it is a matter of faith or belief and if people have that belief or faith then they see no need to challenge it or prove it”. I gave the example of Bishop Usher of Armagh who in 1650 calculated, from the various genealogies in the bible, that time the world was created by God was 0900 26th October 4004 BC. The proposition by Bishop Usher was still regarded by many churches as correct up to and including the nineteenth century, and as far as I know may still well be regarded as such by some. Charles Darwin’s theory on the origin of the species was certainly considered as heresy by some of the proponents of Bishop Usher’s calculations. Of course my visit to the Rare Stones Museum and the fossils there caused me to make comment that, “existence of Jurassic age fossils would seem to be at odds with Bishop Usher’s ideas.” We agreed that there can be no resolution to the debate if one is trying to match science and fact with belief and faith. They would seem to be mutually exclusive concepts.
Sheila and I watched the last episodes of ‘Smiley’s People’ and enjoyed it very much, but it meant we had a very late night and as Sheila’s legs were playing up, not a lot of sleep.
I was also kept awake by the thought of my final observation over dinner:
“There appears to be not any way we can use science to prove there is not a God/entity; but there would appear to be many indications in science and nature of the existence of a god/entity”. It was one of those deep and meaningful ‘after dinner’ discussions that arrives at no conclusions, but is an interesting diversion.