So I was draggin’ my feet this morning after sleeping almost 11 hours last night. Maybe it was the benadryl I took at 11:30 when I woke up with itchy hands, in my experience, a pre-cursor to hives. I did eat three mangosteens last night after dinner. I finally rallied about 9 a.m. and took off on my daily commute, 2 skytrains and a riverboat ride, to chinatown for the big doin’s. It was SO worth it, mostly cause I stumbled on some alley temples where monks were blessing the dog for the parade - this would be the kindof Chinese-Parade-Dog costume with guys inside running around looking like a giant caterpiller. The monks were chanting with one keeping time with a wooden drum that looked like a hollow whale about twice the size of a watermellon. The chants were amplified to permeate the whole neighborhood which made for an amazing atmosphere.

Heading out to the main drag I decided to follow a throng of Chinese, most wearing red in honor of the holiday. I figured if that many people were queueing up it must be for something good. So many of us were funneling through narrow gates that it felt a little like the Haj or a British soccer match in that any moment the mob could have panicked and crushed someone. Once inside I couldn’t really see what the goal was. There was lots of incense-burning and candle-lighting but no beautiful buddha or giant shrine. Much more stark and functional with the feel of a makeshift church set up in a school auditorium so I funneled right back out on the street. Wandering back into the pedestrian-only alleys I came upon a similar scene only much more chaotic with blazing hot open fires for lighting incense, pictured above.

The highlight of my day was finding this stunning buddha shrine in a temple that was very Chinese in it’s architecture and decorations but the Buddha was all Thai. I actually circled back to take a few more pics with the tripod since I’m notorious for shooting fuzzy pictures.

I filled up a Gig chip in 2 days and am now killing time while I back up everything I’ve shot so far onto cds. Tomorrow I’m off to Kathmandu where my first stop is Thamel, a tourist ghetto not unlike Thailand’s Khao San Road. I am assuming it’s a good and insulated spot from which to assess Kathmandu’s current tension level. Next post, from Nepal - the world’s only Hindu Kingdom… I think.

Sue Borchardt in Bangkok on January 29th, 2006 where it’s currently 93 degrees at 3 pm.

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