Bangkok

5:30 Monday morning in Bangkok

Last night I was so tired I couldn’t even wait and see whether the video had finished loading! I slept hard and well and now am awake enough to do some writing here before heading off to give my first (of two) seminars. The place we’re going for the seminar is 30 minutes away by car without traffic. But this is Bangkok so we’ll leave 90 minutes ahead.

I have come to Thailand to see a friend, to give some talks, and to learn to meditate here in a land where 95% of the population is Buddhist. And of course, there’s the thrill of being in Thailand, a place that has always sounded like a wonderful way to start a relationship with Asia. I think of this as a developmental experience for lots of reasons. I’m wanting to learn meditation because more and more research is showing that it’s one of the best presents you can give to your brain and body. I am well aware that they teach meditation in Wellington (and have also read enough books on the subject that I have a grasp of the basics). I wanted to set a meditation practice in stone, though, to begin with a commitment that I thought would root a practice deep in my mind and body. So my friend Aeh, who lived with us for 4 months three years ago as he studied development with me for his PhD, has arranged this schedule of seminars and curriculum consultation, in great measure to pay for the three days at a forest wat (= monastery) in the northeast of Thailand.

Yesterday it was Bangkok day. I slept in a little after my late night, and then Aeh and his wife Gig picked me up for a day on the town. We drove the 75 minutes from my Bangkok hotel into the Bangkok city center, and explored on foot, by boat, taxi, and rik-rik. As we walked through the markets, rode on the boat, flew kites in the park, I was utterly blissed out and felt like a sponge, pulling in as many sights and sounds and smells as possible.

The most important thing to say is that Aeh and Gig are magnificent human beings, and so being with them is incredibly safe and wonderful. Aeh has a PhD and works (for not much longer) at a university; Gig is a trained counselor and has worked with the orphans in Phuket, with HIV sufferers in Bangkok, and now works with alcoholics and drug addicts. Together they are beginning a business which is cultivating love in organizations and about bringing more compassion and a higher consciousness into the world. These are two people it would be fun to hang out with in a stuck elevator. Walking through Bangkok with them is a joy.

And Bangkok is an astonishing city. It is such a blend of everything imaginable that it’s hard to think of how I can capture it here. Just lining the river itself are the many layers of life here: new and incredibly expensive high rise hotels, small metal shanties with no glass in the windows, lovely restaurants, ancient and magnificent wats. They live shoulder to shoulder along the banks of a river teeming with boats and barges and long tailed speed boats unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.

Bangkok is about a full assault on the senses: the bitter tang and rich scents of all the Thai cooking from street vendors everywhere. The feel of cool marble or wood on bare feet in the wats. The constant churning noise of talking, haggling, cars, tuk-tuks. The colours and images of the wats, as breathtaking as any cathedral I’ve ever seen but utterly different from those. The taste of the best Pad Thai I ever had, on a restaurant next to the river, the hot humid air pushed around by cool river breezes. I spent the day feeling like my tank was constantly full.

I think probably Wat Pho was the place that was most surprising to me. Aeh told me we would see the “reclining Buddha” which sounded good to me. The surrounds of the main wat are so beautifully covered in shards of pottery and intricate floral and geometric designs that it hardly mattered how wonderful this particular Buddha himself might be. Or so I thought. But the sight of the reclining, gilded Buddha was out of scope with any image I would have had of him. Enclosed in a building that is just large enough to hold him, he lies peacefully shining—46 meters long and 15 meters high. For those of you who don’t do much metric, perhaps it’s enough to say that his ear (which, as a Buddha is admittedly large) was way taller than me. I was breathless.

Then out through the tiled stupas to the golden statue that represents compassion (she always moves me) in a courtyard under a Bhodi tree (which is where the Buddha found enlightenment). Aeh and Gig and I lit incense and kneeled in front of the golden, smiling compassion, who stood under the tree and was garlanded by flowers. As I kneeled, I was overcome with joy. Here I was in Thailand in a courtyard with school children playing soccer in the background and orange-robed monks watching. Aeh had told me to ask for something, to be blessed in some way. I was so blessed in that moment that anything else would have been greedy. Then, on the wooden wall behind the statue, a tiny kitten—grey and white—began stalking something through the grass at the foot of the tree. She took big steps and was stealthy and serious. Finally she approached her goal—her two littermates, who all leaped in the air and raced around the tree trunk. It turned out that I could have more joy than just with the statue and the monks and the tree—add in three kittens. I could feel Jamie with me all the while.

The other unexpected high point of the day was flying kites in a big field which Aeh tells me is always covered with kite flyers. And a high point I expected—but was awed by—was going to Gig’s house to have dinner with her family (who have been practicing making vegetarian meals for a week). But those stories will have to wait. I’m off to give a seminar. As I’ve been writing, I’ve ordered my bowl of porridge—this time with sugar. The fellow on the phone was confused by the request, but said it would be up soon. The room service man who delivered them with a smile didn’t ask me to sign anything, which surprised me. My head in this essay, I walked in and sat down to find that they had delivered me two empty bowls with four packets of sugar. Not exactly the wholesome breakfast I was hoping for. I’ve sent the order back down and we’ll see what happens. In Bangkok, there are surprises everywhere.