No mind and Idle time

Posted under Thailand 2008

The question is how do you know if you are relaxing if you haven’t done anything to begin with? I may put that question to Johnnie B, when next we get together. It isn’t as easy as it might appear you know, arise in the early part of the day and eat, relax in the sun then eat, relax some more and probably eat, then recuperate from this strenuous ordeal with a good sleep — repeat as required.

The relaxing in the sun time has given me the opportunity to observe my surroundings in great detail, and one of the conclusions that I have drawn is that somewhere in the wilds of Thailand is a great concrete forest. In our travels to some of the more remote regions, I have tried to spot this anomaly, but to no avail. Now the smaller, immature trees are cut and used as fence post, while the more mature growth are used as power poles. I use the term “power poles” quite loosely as it seems that everything gets strung on them. Telephone, 220 AC power, internet, cable tv and, I suspect, laundry on Tuesdays, all share the same poles. This results in a hodge-podge of tangled wires hanging haphazardly at will, much like a poorly engineered bird’s nest. It is no doubt done to code, it is just that the code is virtually nonexistent. At any rate, every pole in Thailand appears to be of concrete, which no doubt lasts very well, but also saves the teak for touristy items and furniture. Now if I could magically collapse some of the furniture into a small package, I would be quite willing to fill my suitcase and kiss my clothes good-bye. This would, of course, be only for the trip home.

Another construction oddity which I have noticed is the scaffolding. With all the construction going on, it seems that every other building is covered in scaffolding. The odd thing is that most of this scaffolding is made up of bamboo poles lashed together with rope. Scurrying about this structure are many many workers doing whatever. This is all done without benefit of guard rails, hard hats, hard toed boots or safety harness. Wouldn’t WCB (workers compensation board) have a heyday. They couldn’t write out fines fast enough. With the scaffolding, I have heard that the workers prefer the bamboo as you can hear it give away prior to it actually collapsing. I did actually see bamboo scaffolding going right to the top of a 15 story building in Hong Kong. I am a little uncertain that I could scramble my way to safety if it started to crack and snap. Then again, if I was on it, it would be entitled to crack and snap.

Bonnie has now reduced her time for general shopping, (such restraint and intestinal fortitude) and started to hang out around the numerous knock-off art galleries. Not Rembrandt, mind you, but some good contemporaries and some abstracts. In some cases, we should have stuck with the elephant paintings in Chiang Mai. At least you could tell what it was that the elephants were painting. The really amazing thing is that they were painting with their noses. Mind you, if you noticed how cumbersome the limbs of an elephant are, and that fingers are pretty much non-existent, it is probably easier to hold that itty-bitty brush with your nose. Did manage to get some artwork that we enjoyed, and that will also remind us of our time here.

Nuff for now — yet still more to follow
T