zapping the emerald buddha with toe rays

so--another long day! phew! I'm sleepy. but it was goodness all around. I woke up nice and late, the first full night's sleep in ages-- I think I slept ten hours, and took my time waking up and all. the main event today was the Royal Palace, which is this huge complex with all sorts of gilded towers and golden statues and Buddha effigies... it was really overwhelming, my guide book recommended an hour or so for it, but I think I took three. and a whole roll of film, I'll maybe figure out how to get some of those pictures on here sometime. the highlight of the site was the emerald Buddha statue, which was surprisingly small, but inside a massive chamber that was completely muralled on the inside, with an ornate golden sort of mini-city the Buddha was above, and mysterious lighting... I found out it's customary not to point your feet at an image of the Buddha, because feet are considered unclean (we had to take our shoes off too, which was old hat after japan), so everyone was walking kind of sideways inside the chamber to avoid zapping the emerald Buddha with toe rays. I actually did some meditation in there, something I've more or less dropped (and had a guilty conscience about dropping, which shows my christian roots I guess) since california. I've read about a few temples that give meditation lessons, and am hoping (if I wake up early enough) to take in one of those tomorrow. I'm also planning to visit the famous reclining Buddha statue, which is reportedly massive. my first encounter with it was a video game--Street Fighter II for the Super Nintendo has a scene where you have to fight Sagat, who's from Thailand, and you do so in front of one of his country's cultural treasures, this reclining statue of the Buddha that's twenty times life size and made of gold (if you know what I'm talking you are among a select and embarassed elite)... its the position he's said to have been in when he died/entered nirvana. I talked to a couple from australia over noodles that'd been there earlier today, and they said it was definitely worth it. after the palace I found myself wandering aimlessly through the sort of endless bazaar of secondhand or poorly manufactured goods that seems to be the substance of Bangkok. had a glass of banana juice in a riverside pier, bought a strange Thai movie poster from an art student, got so fed up with people trying to scam me into long taxi rides to famous sites at inflated prices that I pretended I couldn't speak english with a woman, using japanese instead. she actually knew a few words--seems like everyone here knows a few words, the really useful words, of every major language (quite a contrast with america)--but couldn't follow most of what I was saying, so it wasn't as hard to turn down her offer of a 800 baht tuk-tuk ride (tuk-tuks are three-wheeled cabs with what sound like poorly exhausted volkswagen motors). I'm getting better at not getting scammed--I seem to be easily identifiable (well, me and anyone who doesn't look asian) as a carrier of large sums of money who has a high probability of not understanding it's local worth/being extremely gullible. I lived up to my appearance earlier in the day, trying to take a picture of this big flock of pigeons that a man was feeding (suddenly, a warning signal goes off in my head at this memory--big flock of pigeons--dirty city birds--asian bird flu--direct contact with birds--thought I was a vegetarian so I was safe--suddenly, a fever hits--I--I---icant write any--more--------

--ok just kidding. but I shoulda thought about it. turns out my mind is as much of a wanderer as I seem to be. anyway I was trying to tell you about getting worked over by a coupla old ladies), and while waiting for the right moment to shoot the birds, these ladies selling bird seed came up to me and tried to push bird seed into my hand, which I at first resisted, but then the birds came closer, and my hand just somehow opened (in retrospect, the moment they knew they had me), and I took a few packs of seed and fed the birds, and it was happy flapping grey seas of feeding pigeons for a bit, then after id used all the seed they demanded money from me, 300baht (about 6 dollars, which is surely more than they charge if you buy beforehand), which turned into 400 when I gave her a 500baht bill, and she refused to give me all the change. anyway, it made me feel poopy for a moment, but I turned the poop into resolve not get scammed again, and didn't get fleeced again--though there's always tomorrow. and I think I'm learning good selling skills from these people, in case I should ever have to be pushing crap on the streets in order to survive myself. spent the night hanging out on Khao Sarn road, which my new rad hotel room (hotel? guesthouse they call it--maybe hostel is a better term) overlooks, playing the Thai version of hackey sack with some Thai kids, chatting with random folks and eating fresh papaya. arrr, I love fresh papaya and all that it entails. and its friggin 10baht for a big old piece of it cut up in front of you. that's like twenty cents. it's so beautiful. I love Thailand just for the street vendors. my room, by the way, on the fourth floor up crazy narrow stairs, is narrow enough that I cant stretch my arms out fully without first hitting the walls. the bed may or may not actually be a block of concrete, and the shower is shared with the other guests and has no hot (or even warm) water, but IT WAS 120BAHT! YES! that's like two dollars and seventy cents. it's ridiculous. a fellow could live here for years and years at that rate. and you can buy a big ol plate of Thai noodles for twenty baht on the street--it'd be a crusty existence, but one could scrape by on like 200baht a day here... and have a rad time for under 2000, which is still like forty dollars. but the room's noisy, cause the main road is right outside, and it's not air conditioned (which is a big deal here), so we'll see how sweet I think it is in the morning... speaking of which! lord! another full day tomorrow, and a month after that. that time is a big wide smile on my face--so many more buddhas to avoid zapping, and crazy experiences to be had. more tomorrow night, if I'm not on the train to Chiang Mai--