{"id":9298,"date":"2015-07-28T14:35:38","date_gmt":"2015-07-28T07:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/?p=9298"},"modified":"2015-07-28T15:44:58","modified_gmt":"2015-07-28T08:44:58","slug":"gimme-that-old-thai-voodoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/2015\/07\/28\/gimme-that-old-thai-voodoo\/","title":{"rendered":"Gimme That Old Thai Voodoo!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boy, am I ever thrilled that I ended up flying out of Bangkok. I love Penang, and I like KL pretty all right. But Thailand<\/em>…Thailand is just the best (as this latest, briefest visit served to yet again remind). They call Thailand \u201cThe Land Of Smiles\u201d, but as I\u2019ve argued many a time previously, Land Of Weird And Surreal would be an epithet every bit as appropriate.<\/p>\n

Take this goddam place I visited the other day, for example \u2013 Papaya Vintage Shop, up there at Lat Phrao. Oh, first of all, take this goddam 22-hour rail passage from Hat Yai, which lolled into Hua Lamphong a full six hours behind schedule \u2013 making it, I think, both the longest and<\/em> furthest-behind-schedule train ride in all of my Thai rail experiences. A little fact-checking may be in order, here.<\/p>\n

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Economical<\/em> \u2013 Yes, it is that, in spades. Seven bucks for the passage, including the overnight \u201caccommodation\u201d. Prices like those are impossible<\/em> to resist.<\/p>\n

Safe \u2013 <\/em>In my experience, it is that, too; though I have on occasion read in the Post<\/em> of trains having jumped their tracks.<\/p>\n

Fast \u2013 <\/em>Um…ah…er…I think…not.<\/p>\n

Comfort \u2013 <\/em>Ha ha.\u00a0 At least in the Economical classes frequented by yours truly, comfort<\/em> is about the thing it\u2019s furthest from.<\/p>\n

But, actually, the sign misses the best part of the third-class rail-ridin\u2019 experience, viz., poking one\u2019s head out the window, feeling the rush of the wind upon the face, listening to the clickety-clackety clickety-clack drone on for endless hundreds of kilmotres, and gogging at the beautiful Thai countryside rolling by. Nothing but nothing <\/em>beats that! It\u2019d be a bargain at ten times<\/em> the price.<\/p>\n

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Anyways, back to this goddam Papaya Shop joint. Stopped by there on the way to attend the Muay Thai, and stayed so long I ended up arriving late<\/em> for the Muay Thai. What it is, it\u2019s a freakin\u2019 temple o\u2019 kitsch. Three huge floors covered right up to the gills in bric-a-brac.<\/p>\n

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Factually, it\u2019s not so<\/em> different from the House Of Museums, which I visited<\/a> three years ago — though Papaya, unlike the latter, is shockingly free of dust, cobwebs, and ankle-loving mosquitoes (all features so common to Southeast Asian museums one would think they were mandated by the contract). The music of choice, though, at the House Of Museums was old-thyme Thai traditionals, while at Papaya, it\u2019s all Sinatra all day long. But also, whereas the former seems more ad hoc, the latter is a monument to OCD. Imagine a series of Jar Jar Binkses next to a wall of clocks, next to a room full of furniture arrangements, next to a mountain of suitcases, next to…next to…next to… But all of it very lovingly and carefully arranged, see?<\/p>\n

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My favourite was the collection of old typewriters and adding machines…<\/p>\n

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And there were plenty of other crazy shit besides. Here is a very small scratching of the surface. Yo, if there\u2019s anybody can tell me what this \u201cSMASH!\u201d thing is for, I\u2019d sure like to know. (And in re the nekkid mannequin: There were dozens, maybe even scores, of nekkid mannequins throughout the grounds. I don\u2019t think I ever spied a one with its clothes on<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

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The oddnesses continued next afternoon, after I\u2019d said my tearful adieus to the Good People of the one\/only De Talak Hostel (centre of all that is righteous in humankind \u2013 though they<\/em> were not the ones doing the crying, let me assure you), gathered up my luggage, and popped the subway to Bangkok\u2019s tallest skyscrapah — the Baiyoke Sky Hotel — to meet up with my Thai sister-from-another-mister and to sample of the hotel\u2019s fruit buffet, which had been recommended to me a few weeks before by arch-fruitarian, world-class athlete, and all around beacon of awesome<\/em>, Mr. Grant Campbell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No sooner had we filled up our plates, sat our dimpled asses down, and smelled the first whiffs of the Durian which the staff had parsimoniously doled out from behind the wizzzard\u2019s curtain…that in walks arch-fruitarian, world-class athlete, and all around beacon of awesome<\/em>, Mr. Grant Campbell \u2013 with his<\/em> bags (and his cool\/mellow son, name of Damien) in tow!\u00a0 I\u2019d known that we were to be flying out of BKK on the same night, but had not guessed I\u2019d be seeing him here. Well…fuck it: Fruit party <\/em>every body!<\/p>\n

But, huhn, that\u2019s<\/em> not even the trippy part yet. Which, there we were having ourselves a gay old time scorfing down the restaurant\u2019s Papayas and Pineapples and Grapes and Coconuts and Mangos and Longkongs (the Longkongs were very<\/em> delish) and Dragonfruits and Honeydew and just you-fuckin\u2019-name-it, and then we noticed, being projected in a video-loop upon the wall behind us, an interview being conducted with the very ringleader<\/em> of the Durionic Hordes, the all-time Durian obsessive, the Queen Of The Thorns, Lindsay<\/a> from the Year Of The Durian blog.<\/p>\n

We barely even had time to wonder How-in-the-fuck? before, in scenes from a Thai Durian Orchard, comes bounding onscreen everybody\u2019s favourite human, the God<\/em> of Chanthaburi fruit-hunting, Mr. Nong von Nongster.<\/p>\n

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And then finally, the coupe de god damn fuckin\u2019 schweirdness, <\/em>up on thee screen come footage of none other but arch-fruitarian, world-class athlete, and all around beacon of awesome<\/em>, Mr. Grant Campbell himself (!). Right while he was watching, too! That\u2019s some weird crazy shit gone down<\/em> over there in Bangkok town. And for those who don\u2019t subscribe to the primacy of coincidence, well…you<\/em> tell me<\/em> what it all means?<\/p>\n

I et my last pieces of Durian \u2013 Boo! Sob! \u2013 <\/em>and, as nobody else\u2019d ponied up the extra Baht to check out the O-Deck, shuffled up there by meself. I was serenaded, in the lift, by a three-piece band heading up to the top-floor restaurant to perform \u2013 and, ho hum, each member rocking a crazy<\/em>-assed haircut. Then, the stairwell up to the revolving outdoor viewing stand smelt permanently of fart, was painted up in some kind of sci-fi narrative, and had a dude in a orange monkey suit walking around. Fuckin\u2019…Thailand Weirdland<\/em>! Who-could-ever-want-to-leave<\/em>-this-place?-land.<\/p>\n

After all that had gone, the view was frankly pretty anticlimactic. But, here it is, Bangkok from the top.<\/p>\n

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Grant and Damien had waited for me downstairs, so the three of us hopped the link train out to Suvarnabhumi. My flight was just getting ready to check in when we arrived, and theirs was still some hours forthcoming. So, I bid them a fond farewell \u2013 Grant is going to be running in some damned-fool twenty-four-plus-hour marathon all the way across the United Kingdom in just a few days\u2019 time \u2013 and made my way into the bowels of the airport.<\/p>\n

There were a few tense minutes at Passport Control \u2013 three different personnel took it in turns to screw their faces up into confused-looking contortions when cross-checking my hard-copy with their computer\u2019 screens\u2019 records. When she finally did deign to administer the ever-precious \u201cchop\u201d (as the Malays delight in terming the applying of the stamp \u2013 if you ever travel in a van with Malays, you had better be prepared to discuss at great length your \u201cchop\u201d experience, or you ain\u2019t gonna be discussing anything at all), I asked the clerk if there had been any problem. \u201cNo problem,\u201d she merrily replied, \u201cI check your data!\u201d O-kay, do-kay.<\/p>\n

I arrived to the gate with just about exactly enough time to listen to the new Sleater-Kinney rekkid before the boarding call, and that was that. Thailand Weirdland; that\u2019s-a the place for me<\/em>-land. Save some Durian for when I return, if you would be so kind. (By thee way, all of my pics from this year\u2019s Thai Rodeo are shimmering themselves silly over at Flickrside<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Oh, before I forget: One last pix, from Cambodia, which I\u2019d (wrongfully) neglected until now to share. How cute is that shit?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll see ya tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\"2015-05-05<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boy, am I ever thrilled that I ended up flying out of Bangkok. I love Penang, and I like KL pretty all right. But Thailand…Thailand is just the best (as this latest, briefest visit served to yet again remind). They … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/durianapocalypse.net\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}