Adventures, planets and bugs

Well, off I went on what was meant to be a small jaunt to buy gifts for the lovely nurses at the hospital. It turned into a three-and-a-half hour epic! I took the SkyTrain into Bangkok, thinking I would find the huge Tesco Lotus store there, buy some chocs or some flowers and a skirt that Ellie wanted, hop on the Subway and then go up to the hospital ready for Ellie’s discharge.

Was it that straightforward? No. To begin with there are at least four enormous shopping malls within feets of each other, two featuring the word ‘central’ in their names, and two the word ‘siam’. Any sign of Tesco Lotus? Nope. Anyway, I figured I would have a look around anyway. There were some shrines outside the first mall, big huge golden things, one featuring the Indian elephant god, Ganesh. i felt a warm hand on my arm. There stood a diminutive man with a cheeky smile. “is Indian Buddha,” he explained. he was impressed when I told him I knew its name. He pointed to the other one and said, dismissively, “Ah. Camobodia Buddha.” I’m not sure the name of this one, a beautiful woman with five faces. Then he proudly announced, “I police officer.” he opened his wallet and sure enough, there inside was a laminated card that said “POLICE” on it. Call me a cynic but its lack of photo ID or any kind of numbers made me a tiny bit suspicious. In fact, it looked like the kind of thing you get in a kids’ policeman dressing-up set. “Gosh,” I replied, trying to look suitably impressed. then I made my polite goodbyes and set off to get thoroughly lost in the shopping malls, an experience that was like a cross between Bladerunner and Groundhog Day. I eventually escaped, but not until I’d circumnavigated the same skywalk about four times, hunting vainly for an exit.

Lots of things are up in the air in Bangkok. There are elevated pavements – the skywalks – and elevated roads built above existing roads at the level of people’s second storey windows. This is good if you like having a bit of a nose into other people’s homes, a sin I am horribly guilty of.

In one place I spotted a canal with a road on top of it, then another road going the other direction above it, and the expressway on top of it all. A bit like Devil’s Bridge, really.

I finally decided to cut my losses and get the subway to a different Tesco Lotus which I knew existed, and then caught a taxi to the hospital. Somehow, despite me having official hospital notepaper with the name written in both English and Thai, the driver took me to wrong hospital. It was actually visible from where I caught it, and I pointed down the road and said, “Piyavate.” As we drove off in completely the wrong direction I tentatively said, “U-turn?” (because u-turns are beloved of the taxidrivers here!” but he said no, he knew the way. I trusted him because lots of the drivers seem to know cunning short cuts which avoid road tolls and traffic jams and the like. Eventually admitted he was heading the wrong way when I gave him my map. He was heading for a totally different hospital with a very similar name.

 Anyway, aside from that, things here have been blissfully quiet. The mosquitoes have had a good nosh on my right leg, curiously avoiding the left one. Also, I discovered to my shame last night that the ‘planets’ I could see from the fire escape were, in the cold light of day actually big white discs on the power lines. Oops. I would make a lousy astronomer, I think.