April 5, 2003 Ko Samui, Thailand
It is great to be back in Thailand! This time Marianne
and Swinging Jenny have come along.
The Swinging Jenny playing down by the river
in Bangkok. One of my main goals
I would like to accomplish on this trip is to enlarge the Swinging Jenny and
cast it in bronze.
Marianne and I took
the express boat that you can see in the picture above up to see the sights:
who could visit Bangkok without going to the Grand Palace and the huge Lying
Buddha at Wat Po.
You don't want to mess with the Guards at the Grand
Palace: they are huge!
The Lying Buddha at Wat Po is no slouch when
it come to size.
One of my favorite places in Bangkok is Jim Thompson's
House. He was quite a character. He arrived in Bangkok just before World War
2 ended as an O.W.I. officer, fell in love with the place and never left until
he mysteriously disappear in the mid 60's. He single handedly revived the
Thai silk industry and made it world famous. For his house he had five native
Thai houses brought to Bangkok and rebuilt as a single compound along one
of the canals. He filled them with Thai art, amassing one of the best collections.
The grounds and gardens are a beautiful calm oasis in the hustle and bustle
of modern Bangkok. I'm pretty sure that Jim Thompson must have known my father
since they both served in the O.W.I. during the invasion of Morocco in 1942.
The O.W.I., which morphed into the CIA after the war, was headed by "Wild
Bill" Donavan. My father ghostwrote his biography. That was back in the
days before ghostwriters got any credit. One of these days I should get a
copy and read it.
Marianne checking out the Spirit House at Jim Thompson's
Back before we left our homeMartha's Vineyard there
were so many things to do. For some reason I feel like I have to solve all
of my life's problems before I take off on an adventure. Even though we were
still snowed in Spring was just around the corner so it was time to take the
Santa's Hat off of the Swordfish Harpooner sculpture down in Menemsha.
I've never been fond of heights, but we've got to conquer our fears, don't
we?
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