Hygeiny Lifestyle

My only temple visit has been the Golden Mound, a big old hill covered in gold leaf and many steps. you can ring big bells and bang gongs as you ascend. Once at the top, you can pay your respects to Bhudda, and check out the big view, smoggy but grand. Most of the tall buildings are unfinished apartment blocks, some quite ornate but stained black with mould. The city actually doesn't end, it's just one tangled nest of market streets. Orientation is A Challenge. (Lonely Planet is a really great paperweight, but its purpose as a guide is null. The maps are vague and small, the cheapest listed hostel is around 250 baht, and as with all sights listed in guide books, they have been pillaged by tourists. But it gives a good history of the country. 2/5.)

A talkative Spaniard and I took the metro to Silom to find a metal chastity belt for "his friend." Alas, the tales of this mythical red light district don't hold up in daylight. Only one shop in the area was remotely selling fetish wear, and they were closed. Instead we dragged our feet around in the heat, a few groups of women sitting in bars who listlessly shouted "haaaaay" over their cocktails as we walked past. Splendid billboards for strip clubs; my favourite was Pussy Glamour, which had lots of little wood carvings of people going at it to form the shape of a giant buxom lady.

Enough of this syphilitic den. We walked in the midday heat to the most beautiful house I have ever seen ever. Home to writer, lecturer, and former president M R Kurit, This complex of five teak buildings is preserved as a museum set up in a similar style to the way he lived. the roofs are tall and sloping, the rooms are dark and cool, and there are beautiful collections of masks, statues, puppets, and furniture stuffed in every gleaming room. Birds shriek amidst the thick mass of tropical ferns and flowers, and hardly anyone was visiting while we were there. Of course there was a swimming pool, which we furtivley took advantage of. Delight.

Back at the hostel Overstay, a great big punk rock show underneath the dorm until 5 in the morning, and then roadworks right outside at 9am. I met a lot of good people here, including a girl who just graduated from Norwich Art School, and a South African man who gave me plenty of sound advice for cheap living in Chiang Mai. Everyone is super friendly. People were drawing and painting all over the walls, playing pool, dancing to whatever techno was playing in the bar.

Other things too, but they are censored.