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For those of you hoping for insight into matrimonial affairs, I’m afraid this post will disappoint you.  The title here is not referring to marriage, as is often quoted from the Scriptures–and even Hamlet takes a stab at it; no, rather it is the simple story of a movie-going experience involving a bicycle in Bangkok.

Peter and I heard through the grape vine there was a good movie showing in the excessively luxurious shopping complex in downtown Bangkok where white-gloved door people open the large glass doors for you and call you things like, ‘Sir’.   (I’m sure they are nicely compensated for their troubles…)  Well, we wanted to add as little as possible to their compensation, not out of spite of them but out of frugality, which seems to be high on our list of virtues these days — so we decided upon the 50 baht (1.50 usd) late-night showing, partly for price and partly because by the time we ate dinner and biked back to town, we’d just make it for the 9:45 p.m. showing of No Country for Old Men.

We made it in plenty of time, and locked our bikes next to each other’s near a busy street in front of the mall–albeit shaded by a sky-walk staircase–in the provided bike rack, and entered the air-conditioned world of Gucci and Vespuccio and the like.  (Those of you keen on fashion will recognize that I made up at least one of these names only partly because I cannot remember enough real designer names…)

The movie was excellent, and I found myself caught up in the story and torn in my fear, hope, and hatred for the good and bad characters portrayed in this clever snapshot of local life that is both normal and far from normal.  (I also found myself wondering how the Thai people present could appreciate the genius of the dialect and conversation when it was in translated subtitles…)   Peter and I walked out in a half-daze, me exploring the emotional residue left from this suspenseful yet charming? film.  We talked about something on the way down, I forget.  When we got to the bikes, Pete’s stood alone, it’s metal U-lock sadly smiling as if to say, “Next time, U should…”

Funny, I had just witnessed some disturbing murders on screen, and though this missing bike sobered me up, I still felt that somehow it was insignificant in the way of crimes.  I think the police whom I notified also felt similarly,  but they did their best to take the report seriously as we headed down to the station in the back seat of their Pick-up.  Other things I realized were: that this event was significant in the way of year-long bike trips; that I still had my new blinking red tail light I had purchased earlier that day–similar to the one we saw hanging on the tail of the elephant that trollomped by with it’s rider at 12:42 a.m. down the deserted city streets while we waited for the cops to arrive–the same light I had still in my pocket! Hah!;  that I would need a new helmet as well; that I would be exempt from the maybe $100 bike fee on the flight, as I no longer had a bike; that next time I should purchase a metal U-lock.

So, the two became one, and that was that.  Maybe I could make a T-shirt that says, “They snipped my lock in Bangkok” ,  and make up the difference in sales.  But probably not.  Instead I’ll see if God has any ideas (he already gave me a random $100 after I asked what to do) and look for a cool Indian bike here in Kolkata upon which to continue our journey.

Stay tuned for updates…I know I will.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 2:58 am and is filed under Drew's Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.