First Four Days…

• Posted by: Geo Kearley
• Comments: 3

The last four days have been a whirlwind of activity, confusion, kindness and heartbreak.

We were fortunate enough to be given a ride to the airport by our good friends the Inwoods, and we had a reasonable flight to Helsinki, and an enjoyable day exploring the city before returning to the airport to find out we were being upgraded to first class because the flight was overbooked. Let me tell you – it’s not just bigger seats in first class, it’s a whole world of difference.

We arrived in Bangkok tired and dirty, and checked our email to find out our dog Sandie has gone missing. Our hearts have been torn out, and we’re very worried about her, even though we know our dog sitter Kylie is doing everything we would do to try to find her. We understand that many people in the community are helping. If she isn’t found, I know I will spend the rest of my life looking for her.

Helsinki was interesting. We visited the old fish market in the main harbour area, and the craft stalls around the water front. We saw real beluga caviar for the first time in our lives, along with lots of herring, and an odd variety of canned meat – bear, wild boar, and reindeer to name a few. The craft stalls showcased various reindeer – based products, and some beautiful semi-precious stone work. One merchant very patiently explained the difference between spectralite (native to Finnland) and Labradorite (native to Canada) to us, and gave us a big chunk of it to take home (George gets to carry it…)

We also visited a number of Russian Orthodox churches, which were the size of chapels in Western Europe, and contained several Russian religious relics. The churches didn’t really get interesting until we visited the “Church in the Rock”, which is quite literally hewn out of the rock in the ground. There was actually a funeral service going on when we first arrived, so we waited outside while incredulously observing other tourists try to get in during the service. I swear we saw one lady ask the pallbearers if she couldn’t just “stick her head in and take a look” while black-clad grievers looked on over the top of the black Volvo hearse. Even more incredible, bus tour people climbed on the outside of the roof while the service was going on inside. At the end of the service, we waited a respectable amount of time before going in to see the church (it really is impressive), and listen to a fervently earnest young man (he gave you the impression he had just been de-programmed of Hari Krishna propaganda, only to be swept up in a Christ cult…) explain the obvious symbolism of the rock – ie: rock is a metaphor for God… the rock protects us like God does because there’s a bomb shelter in the basement of the church…I’m not kidding. Then he took a break while a little girl in mime face paint mimed the glory of God to an obscure ’70s pop tune for the assembled congregation. I guess God protects the little mimes too – somebody has got to…

Now we’re in Bangkok, and between phone calls to see how Kylie’s doing, we have visited the Grand Palace, the amulet market, and several wats and Buddha images. The Wats (essentially Buddhist prayer halls) are testaments to opulence and over-the-top artisanship. Every surface of every Buddha and temple is covered in mosaic mirrored tiles, painted ceramic tiles, gold leaf, porcelain and intricately painted murals. After a while, looking at Wats is like trying to look at every painting in the Louve In Paris – there’s so many of them that they all start blending into one another in your mind, and it becomes difficult to remember details. We took loads of pictures, and a couple of tuk-tuk rides, which were an exercise in sucking in smog. We arranged for our Cambodian visas, and we have a city tour booked for tomorrow. The day after, our friend “Mr. T”, the taxi driver is going to take us to Bangkok’s ancient capital Attuhaya (sp?). He has promised to sing to us and tel us the history of the ruins. He sang “I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You” to us today…

We hope everyone is doing well, and thank everyone who is helping look for Sandie.

Noel & George

Post Information

Date posted :	Jul 8, 2005
Last modified :	Dec 23, 2007
Categories :	Southeast Asia, Thailand
Tags :	Attuhaya, Bangkok, Helsinki, Western Europe