Expatiperro

Busy last day in Bangkok. Spent the morning at Dusit Park, a complex of Royal buildings, popping my head into a couple of museums on Thai art and Royal history. It's really a bit ridiculous just how much the Thais revere their monarchs- any mention of the king and queen is combined with adjectives like "generous", "noble", "kind and munificent", and "gracious and benelovent". Note to readers- my biography better include comparable descriptions of my life.

The best stop at the complex was a museum soley dedicated to the king's photographs. Turns out the guy has a thing for photgraphy, though if you let this mueseum describe it, he single-handedly revolutionized the art and lead Thailand to the vanguard of the medium. Looking at the photographs, I'm not sure I'd give him that much credit- there's a series of shots of literally puddles, and while I'm no art expert, it's hard to see too much artistic value in those. (The captions were also great- one credited his photographs for saving hundreds of lives in the aftermath of a flood 25 years ago, without saying exactly how that happened.) That being said, the pictures weren't bad, and it's pretty cool to have a monarch how was hobbies other than his consorts and waging wars.

Passed the rest of the day checking out what I was missing by not being a backpacker here on Khao San Road, had an amazing lunch at a hole-in-the-wall local place (only foreigner there, score!), and picked up some Buddha souvenirs for future gift-giving (lay your claims now). Wish I had more time to write and post photos, but traffic and a tight schedule tonight have conspired to leave me with nearly none.

In a couple hours, I'll be on a night train to Laos. Not sure what to expect, though something tells me that Southeast Asian trains lack certain frills that one might find on European ones. Here's hope that beds aren't among those. All I know for sure is that in 12 hours, I'll be walking across the Mekong River into Laos- seems that the train doesn't actually go into Laos, but instead stops just short of it- and getting a chance to experience what Thailand would have been like 50 years ago. Slow paced, quiet, and ridiculously cheap.

Looking forward to the chill-out. Catch you all from the other side of the river.