Bangkok Bingo

Sometimes experiences come completely by surprise--unplanned, but welcome. So Bangkok has been to us. We spent a good part of the morning online, trying to find the Indian Embassy Consulate info. from Bangkok and Singapore. Don had called us back today and told us to try Singapore's Indian Embassy, that you could get an Emergency Visa there any day of the week. So we called, but the Consular General in Singapore wasn't in the least bit sympathetic to our needing a rush on the Visas, even with the offer of paying more to have them rushed. He didn't consider our forgetting to get Visas to his country a true emergency. I mean, our Indian grandmother hadn't died. No one from our family was lost in India. So, no Visa. And a non-Emergency Visa would take 3-5 business days to process. So we would completely miss the wedding. And as saddened as we are not to be there to celebrate with our friends and the children at the orphanage, we are secure in the knowledge that for some reason God didn't want us there. When Don misses a plane or has his itinerary changed by "circumstance", he always says that for some reason he just wasn't meant to be on that plane. In 1988, the big hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa, where Dave and Don had taken some investors, called to say they had double booked their date and offered at their expense to rebook their flights (for 80 people!) which moved their entire trip forward by one week. The plane that they would have been on, had they kept their original itinerary, was PanAm 103, which was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland. What seemed like an inconvenience back then, kept them all from being fertilizer. And since we had prayed for so long about every aspect of our current trip, we are just sure that for some unknown reason to us, we weren't supposed to be in India this time. When your plans just don't work, let it go.

So, Bangkok it is! We're making some real lemonade with these melons! Bangkok is one LARGE city. It makes Houston feel tiny. It has a river running through the center where there are boats always coming and going. It's quite beautiful. We're staying at a hotel David stayed at in 1993. It's a tall building with gorgeous views over the river and the city beyond. So far, Bangkok feels much like any other big Asian city. But it has it's charms. Of course, it has it's fair share of social unrest, too. There's nothing like being in a city under a state of emergency! Yip, the ASEAN summit (a kind of G20 but for Asian countries) is gathering here now, and Thailand's people are split over the new government. In 2008 there was a military coup overthrowing the past prime minister, but the current prime minister is getting his own backlash--being referred to by "the reds" (no, not Communists) as a "dictator". Now there are protesters on both sides. And some of them stormed the hotel where the ASEAN summit was meeting, leaving one person dead. So the government has called a state of emergency and won't let people gather in more than groups of 5 in public, which means that if we brought just one more person to dinner with us tonight, we could find ourselves in prison for 30 days with no stated charges! Just joking, but seriously, it is kind of funny. We don't see any signs of this "unrest" anywhere. But we are trying to avoid any people in black t-shirts or those in red t-shirts (the of the aforementioned protesters from respective sides).

So after talking with the Indian Embassy and deciding it just wasn't going to happen--getting us to India--we headed over to a large shopping mall (not so uncommon in Asia) called Siam Paragon. We got some lunch, and after getting a caffeine buzz from the Thai Iced Tea I drank (I was literally shaking from the rush), we headed to the basement of the mall where they have the Siam Ocean World--basically an aquarium with all sorts of bells and whistles. Declan loves sea animals and fish, and today I saw fish I've never even heard of before. Some really strange and bizarre creating, reminding me why I have a strange fear of the ocean--you just don't really know what is beneath you!



Then we headed back to the hotel and took a breather from the crowds (it rained today so EVERYONE in Bangkok seemed to be at Ocean World) and get ready to go out again tonight. When I knew we were going to be staying for awhile, I went online and googled "bangkok with kids" and checked fodors.com for their recommendations of best things to do. So we headed over to the Suan Lum Night Bazaar and Joe Louis Puppet Theatre. I've been looking for raw silk scarves for a long time, but don't want to pay American prices for them. And since Thailand is know for their gems and silk, I was on the hunt for a really good deal. Dave haggled a guy on a great price for some handmade and hand dyed silk scarves from ChangMai. It was unbelievable how cheap they are. I mean, in the US they'd charge 1000% more. So I was feeling pretty good. We got some food, talked to an Englander who lives his entire life in new places every few years. He's lived in Bangkok for two years now, and so we hit him up for suggestions on the best places to eat in Bangkok. Then we headed over to the Joe Louis Puppet Theatre, where they perform traditional puppetiering. They presented the birth of Ganesha--the Hindu elephant god. And watching the story I realized that it, like almost all religions in the world, is based on fear. Most religions are about man fearing the gods, or God, and how they can appease his wrath. But true Christianity, the real truth of Christianity, is not about fear as much as it is about love. It is the one religion where God wants to be loved more than feared. In fact, He sacrificed himself in order to show us what love really is. And it was so poignant to me tonight, as I thought through the Hindu story, and as we passed the Hindu and Buddhist temples on the way home where worshippers where presenting gifts and offerings for the Songkran festival beginning next week. And I remembered that tomorrow is Easter and the day we celebrate the great triumph of Jesus in conquering death and providing the final sacrifice for man. No more sacrifice--just love and relationship with God our maker.