Chi's Align

BANGKOK

Back, just napping for a spell in the lap of luxury. But not entirely subsumed. R and I did get our head out of the Shangri-La clouds with an afternoon trip to Khao San Road - a little grit under our nails, B. 70 Singha and dredd-ed backpackers in our sites so we're no completely delux-ed, not yet.

R's first full night in Bangkok - Sunday eve - a study in contrasts and the literal high/low of this city. First did fancy drinks lounging on leather banquettes 64 floors above the city in a new bar called Distill. Never-emptying bowls of shelled pistachios and black olives that, if the server can be believed, cost his month's wages a kilo. Up above it all, things costing just about the same as New York, and that which is imported - champagne - far far more. We took lots of pictures of the city at night which, of course, come out as a big swath of black with a couple sparkles. Crowd made up of wealthy Hong Kongers, local expats and the traveling gawkers like ourselves – dressed in our wrinkled best.

Got that sweet taste out of our mouth with a descent to river level and a B. 50 tuk-tuk to Patpong - because it's there. Didn't disappoint but feels slightly less seedy than before, but by no means entirely Disney-fied. Bangkok has instituted a strict all close by 1AM rule - which makes for a very different Patpong timeline - but people still packing in the usual. Cheerily offered "sex show" with ping pong and other crudely illustrated acts on a plastic covered bit of card, still no cover, still cheap drinks...But no (inquisitive reader) - nothing to report.

Instead, planted ourselves at the front rail of an open air french restaurant and, over miserable salads and a tough steak, watched the Patpong world go by. More Dockers and Reeboks tourists, and older couples, and groups and the odd lost backpacker. But also large westerners with the tiny Thai ladies, frat boys run wild and the supremely bored bar girls (though no longer playing Connect Four). A few truly creepy individuals - the well dressed yuppie who chased the waitress (dressed as a cheerleader) around his table and the young boys with older men, and the overwhelming boredom of the girls involved tempering it all.

But a part of Bangkok now checked off the list.

Yesterday eve, R treated us to a Yin/Yang Couples Massage - "… to harmonise and pleasantly balance the flow of relationship chi between two people..." Well, perhaps. More like couple therapy in a dimly lit cave. Asked to indicate first and second choice favorite colors, times of day etc. which were "fed into a computer" and our essential elements was deduced - me Metal, R, Fire. All this hocus pocus chi stuff explained by an earnest young Thai woman with excited but unintelligible English. Led deeper into the flickering space (lovely smelling) and introduced to our therapists – the bigger Liang (for R) and her “friend”, mine, slighter and virtually non verbal throughout our next 2 hours and 15 together.

Led still deeper to a very beautiful suite of (dimly lit) rooms with sliding teak screens, spare flowers and an enclosed garden. Disrobed (from gym stuff) and became cuddly couple in chenille robes and slippers – both mid-size so me enveloped and R decidedly not.

Two jade cups of green tea, foot soakings and then left for 20 minutes to ourselves in the outdoor hot tub. Which chilled and we were never quite sure where or when our ladies would re-appear so sort of a suspended time followed by the main event. We were quadrant by quadrant massaged in our elemental oils (R’s lavender, me a mix) with the whole procedure rung in with the high pitch of the Tibetan singing bowl (I think along our meridians, hard to tell with face nested into table) and ended with cymbals.

Did our chis align? - my ying meeting and merge with R’s yang? Not sure but we both smell marvelous and R’s learned some spa vocab.

This place, this Bangkok place, so not foreign it feels odd to report it – and since it’s familiar to me it feels somewhat forced to introduce it as foreign to the blog. India – bless it – can never feel familiar no matter how many years spent on one block – it will always flip itself and reintroduce itself with everything new.