While you were sleeping...

I was filling my day #2.5 in Bangkok. I was so proud of myself for filling the whole day with worthwhile sightseeing and even finally making a couple of friends to hang out with, but now I'm in an internet cafe (that I'm patting myself on the back for finding at the bargain price of 30 baht an hour, or about 85 cents, fully 25 cents less than in my guesthouse!) reading about New Orleans and it's just gross. I wonder if it looks so bleak from there, or if you cope with the news in the usual way when you are happy and fat and cozy in the US, as we all do?
What on earth is going to happen? I'm getting just rudimentary bits of info from the internet here. The situation in New Orleans seems so unprecedented in my lifetime. I wonder if what I'm thinking is FAR more dire than what's actually happening, given the little that I know.What I'm wondering if this could erupt into some kind of national meltdown/revolution/war or am I way off base?Its clearly a Racial issue. If there's anything that we Americans like to deny and shove under the rug most, its the big R. Then we involve gas prices and federal aid, which requires goverment intervention and Bush and Co are not well liked by many these days. Are people going to sit around, calmly opposing the war (which over half the country already does), paying $4-5 for gas, and waiting for fat cat politicians to allocate money to people who are literally watching their family members die in front of them, or are people going to DO SOMETHING? And will that something be getting these people food and water and housing or will it be protesting, rioting, and forcing some answers from the powers that be? I wonder.
I'm probably as alarmist as the meteorologists were last Saturday and Sunday, I've never heard anything like that. But then, in the end, were they so wrong?

So since I can't do much from here, back to my day in Bangkok.
I'm about WATed out, Wat being the Thai word for temples. I saw several yesterday, and the big ones today- Wat Po and Wat Arun. Everyone touts Wat Po as the best one, the sights are pretty amazing and also amazing is that there is a massage school on site and there are pro masseuses there who do massage so cheap and apparently so well that people travel to Thailand just for this purpose. I had walked a long way to the temple, and its disgustingly hot here. I was a sweaty mess, and given that I've never had a massage in my life (tactiley [sp?] defensive, remember?!), I could not bring my sweaty self to let some stranger find out how bad I probably smelled and how wiggly I would be. I skipped the biggest attraction to Wat Po, I suppose, but I don't regret it. I'm sure the masseuse would thank me if they knew what they missed.
I got to see the reclining Buddha, which as Lonely Planet says accurately, looks like a huge beached whale with mother of pearl feet. That's about it. I walked through the Grand Palace next door, which is sort of like the Forbidden City in Bejing without the hills and tons of stairs. To go into the actual Palace, women have to cover their shoulders and legs. They will loan you sweaters if you don't have coverage. I could not bring myself to put on a sweater over my tank top in the 97+ degree heat, and it costs about $5 US to enter so I just took in the free sights on the grounds, and then took my naked shoulders to the water taxi to see Wat Arun. I don't regret it, either.
Finding the water taxi was another accomplishment (patting my own back again!), and Wat Arun was quite beautiful. I met this Buddhist monk named Sawat, which is half of the Thai greeting Hi or Good Morning, Sawat Dii. This guy looked like my grandpa Joe, and was interesting. He had lived in California 38 years ago and worked at McDonalds. He still remembered how to make the shakes which, apparently, at some point McCrap made from scratch. This guy was talking about milk and eggs and strawberries and I didn't bother to tell him that today, that stuff comes in a bag and is probably more synthetic liquid than it is anything resembling milk or eggs. He also said he made $.55 an hour and later, as a manager, got a $1 raise. I also didn't tell him that $1.55 is about what McDonalds pays now I think. OK, OK, I realize that's harsh, but with inflation, I'd guess that $1.55 over 38 years ago is pretty good.
After Wat Arun, I decided to conquer the water taxi system. I wanted to take a water tour on the Chao Phraya River, which runs all around Bangkok. I was reading the map, trying to figure out if you could just get in a water taxi and then just not get off at any stop, thereby circumventing the city and paying minimally. Two guys walked up, speaking English and asked me if I wanted to take a boat tour with them. Wary of the tuk tuk scammers, I was not sure if I could trust them. They found a guy who offered us a 1 hour ride for 600 baht, about $15. We split it 3 ways, trusted this guy with our cash, and it all worked out fine. We took a boat taxi that normally holds about 30 people for just the 3 of us and set out around the city. The houses along the river just back up to the water and eventually you leave the urban areas of Bangkok and see these homes that face the river and nothing else. These are the only entrances to many houses, and the families take boats to get to and from their homes. There were some really ornate, beautiful homes and some that were literalliy falling apart. It kind of resembled a flood zone, only all the homes are on stilts and about 3-4 feet above the river. The river is as wide as the Mississippi in some places, about half that width in others, and at least twice as dirty. At several homes, kids were swimming in the river, you could almost see the e.coli floating on the top. Ugh. I hope they have developed a resistance swimming in this muck every day. I thought of Joey and MArk as several of the kids were jumping off self-constructed "diving boards" of planters, plastic chairs, or their own roofs into the water below.
The guys I met, Kfir and Rowi (I think, anyway) are Isreali students, Kfir in Jerusalem and Rowi at Stanford. They met each other today, realizing that they had previoiusly met 2 years ago in Brazil, but never having talked since that time. They are at Jewish prayer right now while I type this and then shower, we are perhaps meeting up later for the evening. I didn't go out last night as I hadn't met anyone and didn't know what bars were safe at night by myself. Plus, my guesthouse was showing Be Cool and Coach Carter in the lobby and a load of travelers were crammed in there watching so I just joined them.
I'm just itching to ask the Isrealis about politics and the situation in their country, I'm afraid of what I will hear but then I'm also certain to learn some things so I hope to have a beer with them tonight.
MF said he is coming tomorrow, possibly the evening, so we're headed out for the islands probably Sunday or Monday. Don't know which ones yet, each Thai I meet has an opinion- Patong, Phuket, Ko Samui, Hui Hin, I've heard that many of them are "can't miss", so we'll see where we end up. I've taken photos of all the temples, but to tell the truth they all begin to look the same after 3 or 4, so I'm ready for a change of scenery.
I think its Thursday in Houston, so the Cards must have the day off? I don't know, I thought Mulder was pitching, but perhaps that's Friday. I'll keep my eyes on the score, but I wonder if more important things in Houston like refugees from our own country should be more important.