What a fantastic fusion of East and West! So much like the Jakarta I grew up in, and yet bigger, better, busier, more successful! I think if I were to sum Bangkok up in a word, it would be Cyberpunk. There’s this fantastic blend of local dirty streets and towering steel and glass skyscrapers, and there’s a sense of Bladerunner, especially at night.
Today we decided to do some more “cultural” tourism. We didn’t want to spend the whole day out and about, with an early flight to Bangkok the next day, and so chose activities that seemed close to Kata, were reasonably well advertised, and (we hoped) relatively interesting.
This is a private business run by a European (judging by the warning signs, a German?) primarily for the purposes of exporting the delicate flowers, and (I assume) supplying them to local businesses. I think that they charge the pittance for entry as an easy supplement to what must be a lucrative business.
There is not much of a display explaining much about orchids, how they are grown, let alone a guided tour. As such, we were out in less than 30 minutes. Even so, I got some exquisite photos.
Mister Fry is a master of the Word. Personally, I am much like him in that I cringe at improper uses of words, grammar and syntax. I think that our society is not getting the linguistic education it should. But if people want to make “mistakes” then they should be allowed to, as long as they know why it’s “wrong”, and that their choice is conscious and informed.
Note: This post was really hard to write. I was very tempted to just link to the photos I took and let them speak for themselves. Very tempted.
Owing to a “headache” brought on by the activity pictured to the right, P did not join me for today’s activities. She apparently went for a walk, got massages and had a good time on her own. I know she likes to have some time on her own, so that was fine. But she did miss out on some awesome sights.
We returned to the hotel so P could make extensive use of the day spa (which she continued to do on subsequent days). I’ll admit that I did, too. It was literally a hop, skip and a jump from our room, and really cheap. I got a great massage and skin treatment out of it. Sure, I probably could have gotten the same on the beach or street but this was so much simpler.
For dinner, we headed up to Patong, which is kind of the equivalent of Kuta (for those who know Bali). The popular beaches, the tourist shopping, the bars, the red light district… and the ping-pong shows (seriously, be careful about that link). Anyway, we did none of that. Our driver, recognising that we were just out for dinner and not interested in any “action” dropped us off at Jungceylon, a large shopping mall with the promise of picking us up in a couple hours.
We wandered the shops for a bit, then settled on a german restaurant for dinner. For a total of about $30, we had drinks and two all-you-can-eat buffet meals of vaguely passable standard. And then I saw it: “First shooting range in shopping mall in Thailand.” Out of morbid curiosity and the need to prove something to myself about my convictions on gun control, I felt compelled to try it out.