The sweet chaos of Bankok

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What a polite mess but how calming too.. the sweet smell of incense sticks transfers you to another world, far far away from the noise and pollution of the street. However, there are flowers everywhere and
the calming presence of the wats which are litteraly around every corner. Yes, there is such a thing as 'wat overkill' if that is possible as these places are so peaceful. You just slow down as everybody else is. The favourite thing of Thais is to watch the world go by. Preferably at the waterfront. There seems to be as much traffic on the river as there is on the streets, and despite the perceived chaos everything goes smoothly.
The last wat I visited was the Golden Mound, an amazing temple on a little hill, surrounded by lush green vegetation. There must be a real big Buddhism fest this weekend as litteraly every Thai seemed to be there! There was a fairground in the park at the bottom of the wat quite similar to Austrian 'Kirtag' where there was everything from food stalls, home ware, clothes to other typical fairground attractions from the last century - go and see the Thai freak show with young woman who are half woman half fish etc..
The atmosphere was just electrifying - high above the roofs with this golden stupa draped in red cloth where people have written their wishes and prayers, surrounded by people doing their rounds around the stupa, more or less deep in prayer after having lighted the incense sticks and beautifully folded the lotus flower...
The morning was spend with organisational stuff - had to get my visas for Viet Nam and Cambodia but as I'm leaving BKK on Sunday and the embassies dont work on the weekend (doh!) I can only get the Cambodien one - let's hope that someone in Chiang Mai can get me the Viet Nam one...
Met so many people already - and they were all AUSTRIANS believe it or not, it must be a much more popluar place than one thinks! Elvira and her friend are from Vienna and gave useful hints for Krabi, the two backpacking girls showed me where Khao San Road was and I bumped into the Portugese girl that now lives in China with which I shared the airport bus again in Wat Po...

Tomorrow a boat cruise on one of the klongs (waterways) is planned to go and see Jim Thompson's house and a bit of retail therapy. PM - the pool is tempting on the roof top of the hotel! Some reading by the pool will add further relaxation.. Oh and the other best bit today was the 'Sports Park' - believe it or not there half of BKK must have been there in this mediium sized park, doing all sorts of sports from Thai Chi (the elder ones) to jogging, playing basket ball, golfing and the OUTDOOR gym with mostly weights.. a yummy view seeing all these men increasing their muscles (not!) :-)

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