There Is Drudgery, Too

There is a bit of boredom that must be faced when you’re sitting in a hotel room and waiting for a round of excitement promised by an exotic foreign city. Bangkok is anything but boring, but a high rise Hilton is like any other in the world; fluffy towels neatly arranged in the bath, the sheets evenly placed on the bed and tucked in perfectly in all the right places, my receipts and other scattered debris cautiously ignored and left in place by the housekeeping staff and, for reasons that will always puzzle me, the roll of toilet paper has been pressed into a neat triangle shape at the last square.

The illusion that travel in a foreign land presents endless opportunity to embrace the dazzling sites and local culture is a myth I’ve long held to myself. Much more time than I’d care to admit is spent trying to avoid a nap to keep on the time zone, only to fail miserably at it.

The fact is, the duties of life are left unchanged even when given the chance to hide out beyond the reach of dissatisfied clients or believe in the unrealistic hope that all problems were left on the tarmac as the plane accelerated to a safe and distant altitude. I had a meeting today, delivered documents to our client here, and then did my laundry. With the exception of the fact the washing machine had a five-hour setting that I didn’t count on, all of the day’s events were basically unremarkable.

I can’t avoid any of the have to things required at home. I have to cook and shop and wash the dishes I don’t want housekeeping to have to scrape the barnacles off in the morning. I still have to shower and shave and brush my teeth twice daily. Which brings up an aside: Throughout the progress of man, and through all the amazing development of human traits, how is it that we haven’t evolved to the point where the hairs on our cheeks and chins don’t fall out on their own or our teeth don’t clean themselves? It’s all very disappointing that human progress has stopped as it has. It makes me realize there is only life and death and, in between, maintenance.

There have been exciting things since our arrival. I’ve been to some great restaurants, seen some wonderful ancient Buddhist temples and felt a growing kinship with the Thai people and my hosts. The temples didn’t surprise me; I’ve heard about them for years. Although the intricate beauty and detail given to every square inch of the temples demonstrates a unique devotion to individual craftsmanship developed over centuries and passed down to the monks who care for the temple grounds.

Each plaster wall of the dozens of buildings carries a masterpiece painting depicting a historic scene with gold inlay paint. The tiles on the roof are colorfully painted and everywhere are brilliant glass squares that shine in the light. The gold-painted Reclining Buddha, all one ton of him, has ornate mother of pearl tiles on the souls of his feet and the grounds are so expertly groomed it looks like Disney maintenance workers fly in each day.

The point is the monks’ monumental pride in the beauty of their surroundings and their desire to labor on behalf of a higher source is rare in a world where most people work for the holy dollar, a vacation home or a new car. I’m not saying I’m ready to trade in my Italian suit for an orange felt robe, but I can’t help but admire the piety they share to their god and teachings.

So long as we’re on the subject of piety, I suppose it’s worth making a few admissions/apologies to my earlier post on Thailand. The missing IPhone saga, as it turns out, was a bit of conclusion-jumping. I’m sure you’ll all see the humor in this, but it turns out a baggage worker didn’t take my unlocked IPhone. This is pretty funny, but I left it at home instead of putting it in my bag. It’s a mistake that could happen to anyone – just not sure why it’s the kind of mistake that’s often made by me. Anyway, when I get around to it, I’ll send an apology note to the not so friendly Delta customer service representative. I’m sure a good laugh will be had by all.

Something I learned about the IPhone is you can plug in a message that e-mails you whenever your phone is located or turned on. My phone must have been turned on a few days later, because it tracked it to my home. Now here’s the funny part, you can play a really annoying tone that lets anyone in the house know you’ve located the phone. While I didn’t actually hear the tone, I was assured it is similar to a cat being strangled. All is forgiven now and I just as soon move on to bigger and better things.

In the interim, I did buy another phone and now I have three extra phones. This is probably a good idea as I tend to leave them here and there, so I probably can’t have enough of them. By the way, LJ, send money for the phone purchases. I’m pretty sure it’s in the budget…..