Sawadee khrap from Bangkok !

I am in Bangkok. Arrived here on Friday night and plan to be leaving on Monday evening. I am heading to Pai, in the Northern part of the country. I have never visited that part and am quite excited and curious to see a new place I've never been.

Besides being curious what's there, my excuse for traveling there is play camp. Nick Woolsey, who I briefly met at the EJC in Ireland this summer, is spending a few months there, mostly relaxing, and has put the word out that it might be interesting for fire spinners to join him there. Check out his blog www.playpoi.com/why_thailand
His whole website is lovely, and all the instructional material excellent. I am quite excited to spend some quality time with him.

Bangkok being my travel hub in Asia I also needed to organize my trip to Europe, make bookings and buy planetickets.
I am not staying in Banglamphu this time, which has gone a bit out of control, but at a centrally located hotel on Phetburi Road, that is very reasonably priced and has a hotspot ! I actually have wireless, high speed internet in my room !
It is, of course, extremely hot here and it seems much hotter than Bali, being stuck in between a bunch of builings in this concrete labyrinth. Last night it rained. Pai should be much cooler, being in the North, pleasantly cool in the evening, I have been told.

So yesterday I made the usual stop at Phan Thip Plaza, the best place, as far as I know, to buy anything computer related, including of course the infamous pirated software. Managed to get out of there with nothing other than a new protective case for my ipod, which I actually needed, since the old one was broken, and four rechargable batteries, which will be good for my little speakers and the camera.
In the afternoon I went to Kao Sarn Road, first of all to take care of the plane tickets at my usual and trusted travel agent.
Then I strolled down to my usual late afternoon hang out, the little park by the river where the local Bangkok and transient juggle community meets at that time. But there was some form of Thai theather festival going on, the park was crowded and the juggling meet obviously not happening.
So instead I walked back towards Kao Sarn road, browsing the amazingly stocked second hand bookstores along the way. Did not buy too many, since I still have to travel on and Nick has let me know that there are good ones in Pai, as well....
All I got was "Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell and "The Shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Must have been in an airy mood...

If I understand Nick correctly there is wireless internet at the guest house he is staying at in Pai, also. That would be pretty neat, would really like to start uploading some of my photos, though I do plan to concentrate on poi and physical activity... Nick is an amazing spinner and good teacher, and I particularly hope to get some inspiration from him relating to my legwork. He has extensive experience in Tai Chi and some martial arts as well as some dance training I believe, and for some time now I have had the feeling that this is an area I need to work on.
It's a while since I have spent any serious time hanging out at one of those little bungalow operations just playing with poi and friends all day long, and somehow it always seems to be in Thailand. I am looking forward to it quite a bit.

Today I got a few more things, a sim card and a charger for my cellphone, strolled around MBK shopping plaza, went to the movies, had some amazing green curry...
and tomorrow night it's off on the night bus north, first to Chang Mai, arriving in the morning after a ten hour journey, and then on to Pai !

I'll leave you with the description of Bangkok by one of my favorite authors, the amazing Tom Robbins, since he said it better than I ever could:

"To call Bangkok a city of contradictions is worse than cliche, it's a trite superfluity, not merely because it's so patently obvious but because there's a sense in which virtually every city is a city of contradictions. That said, Bangkok's contrasts are just too immense, too dramatic, to be easily dismissed as the norm.
Simulaneously a frantic, high-tech juggernaut and a timeless Asian dream, Bangkok straddles like no other metropolis the boundary between acrid and sweet, soft and hard, sacred and profane. It's a silk buzz saw, a lacquered jackhammer, a steel-belted seduction, a digital prayer. It's numerous temples and shrines are obscured by clouds of mephitic exhaust, its countless vices and crimes by smiles of tender delight, and through it all, Bangkok manages to maintain the most graceful balance, a grace no less genuine for being well-rehearsed and no less pure for being supported by con men and whores."