jamie, our mysore teacher, had a birthday recently and we all went to bangkok seaview restaurant to celebrate. the restaurant is technically in the ocean at the edge of bangok (i didn’t even realize bkk had an ocean until recently), but it seems more like at the end of the world. to get there, we had to drive for well over an hour, then ride a small boat another 20 min. the boat took us on a brief detour to see a stone pillar which marks the edge of bangok. from what i’ve been able to find out, the pillar used to be on land but over time the ocean has encroached.

the restaurant is basically a string of (very rickety) connected docks only as wide as one table plus some extra space for the waiters. the whole place looks like it could be taken down by a mid-size storm. the setup is really cool tho as it allows for pretty much every table to have an uninterrupted view of the ocean.

as seems to be the style in thailand, we spent the first hour eating tons of food and then the next two hours taking pictures of everyone. here’s highlights of what i managed to take ….

the restaurant

the edge of bangkok

big plates of crabs

everyone sitting around eating dinner

everyone hanging out after dinner

there hasn’t been much to update lately, been busy teaching, studying, normal things … of course, other people’s lives are much more exciting, but as i approach my 30th birthday stuff like that doesn’t sound exciting anymore :) i have started wearing earrings again, in the style of all the 17 year old boys that hang out in siam square. i have had a few comments that i should act my age and take them out, which i find funny in a place where a 35 year old who has zillions of charms hanging off his cell phone and a giant stuffed animal attached to his briefcase is considered normal.

my yoga teachers noah and kimberly williams were in bangkok last weekend and zak, sasha and i had fun showing them around. i hadn’t been to wat po or wat arun for a long time and it was fun to go again, we also took them on a boat cruise on the chao praya river which was fun, mostly because we got to see all the people that live on these houses that just hang into the water. it’s interesting how it has all developed too, there were some houses that looked like they belonged in malibu, but they would be right near these small one-room places that were shared by a large family and looked about ready to fall into the water.

in case anyone is around bkk and interested, noah and kimberly will be teaching some special classes at absolute yoga this coming weekend.

kimberly and noah on the boat

a modern-style condo building built behind traditional housing

traditional-style river housing

russel has been in town for a few days and zak just flew in, so i took off work and got to do some tourist things i’ve been meaning to do for a while now. we hired a car early morning and drove down to the ancient city in samut prakan, which is one of the few cultural sites i think i could visit over and over again. some guy has has collected reproductions of various thai historical landmarks and mixed them with actual landmarks that he moved and relocated to his property. the whole place is really well maintained and you get to ride around on these ancient bicycles while you check it all out … we went early before it got hot and the place was empty, we even were able to sit down in one of the buildings and meditate for a half hour or so without being disturbed.

the thing that i found most interesting tho was the philosophy that seemed to drive him to build the city. i’ve quoted below from the manifesto that comes with the map, the gist of it all seems to drive at his desire to “remedy the existing moral deterioration of human society” through art and culture.

…man must know the events of the past. If we have no knowledge of the past, it is somewhat like a vessel without a compass and a rudder on the high seas.

…great harm is derived from ignorance, but more harm is still caused by not knowing and still pretending to know.

I strongly believe that the morality of the world is deteriorating.

We, Asians, believe that the scientific approach can bring knowledge to human beings. But it cannot elevate the spirit of man. It has only paved the way for materialists in their search for worldly happiness.

Only art has bestowed the refreshing spirit on human beings up to the present day. Therefore we should give more serious thought and interest to art.

the bodhisattva avalokiteśvara

tile work on one of the ceilings

all of us outside a pavilion

one of the many large buddhas

zak and russell on the path to enlightment

another really large buddha, this one is sleeping

video clip me zooming around on a bike

video clip of russell and i on our pee-wee herman bikes

on the way home, we had the driver stop by a crocodile farm to watch men stick their heads inside the mouths of giant crocs … a bit of a break from the spiritual beginning, but still interesting.

so this was in the sf chronicle recently (thanks dad for finding it), about how the city of san francisco just issued a proclamation to honor gay porn studio colt on their 40th anniversary of being a company.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/03/BAGJ2OEMTH1.DTL

san francisco loves to issue proclamations to honor just about everything, i only lived in the city briefly during the reign of gavin newsom so i don’t really have too many memories of his actions. willie brown however issued proclamations left and right …

unfortunately when the city chose to honor this business that has been operated out of san francisco for 40 years (paying taxes, creating jobs and promoting safe sex … and managing to follow-up the wildly successful muscle ranch with the much anticipated muscle ranch II), bill o’reilly and other conservative pundits decided to get all up and arms about it. the funny thing is that i’m sure the average san franciscan would agree with the proclamation … any business that can last that long in san francisco should be applauded.

it seems that when the uproar happened, gavin newsom back-pedaled and said he didn’t know about it and didn’t really agree with it either. a good chunk of the board of supervisors not only continue to support the proclamation, but they were at the ceremony to deliver it. this all makes me kinda nostalgic for willie brown, he would have put on his best brioni suit, a wonderful pink shirt and been there to deliver the proclamation himself.

so where i’m going with this is that it ties in with my last post … does a city that honors a gay porn studio really have the need for a gay ghetto? or has the climate of the city changed so much that this stuff is accepted everywhere.

ned just sent me this article from the sf chronicle about the castro and the way that it is changing

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/02/25/MNG2DOATDK1.DTL

the gist of it is that while the castro became a gay (possibly the gayest) neighborhood in the late 60s as people fled from non-supportive communities and families, it is slowly becoming a very mixed place as straight people move in. many of the straight people (including many families) interviewed said that they didn’t really think much about the gay population, they just wanted a safe neighborhood with nice amenities and good weather. the article also interviewed many gay residents who talked about the castro being a neighborhood that is known around the world and that has a history which should be preserved for future generations to understand. it is true that in many parts of the world that gay life is becoming very mainstream, but in other parts of the world the community is still very marginalized. i’ve written here how different gay life is from gay life in places like san francisco, and of course places like egypt aren’t anywhere near as safe as things are in bangkok.

what really stands out in reading the article tho, is how important i think it may be for the castro to slowly become a mixed neighborhood. the article interviewed people who were raising small kids there, but it didn’t really point out how important it will be for those kids to grow up seeing gay couples as normal. or that parents weren’t afraid to raise kids in a neighborhood that advertises new gay porn releases on bus billboard kiosks. when i moved to san franciso 10 years ago, what really struck me wasn’t the castro but that that sight of two men in suits holding hands in the financial district didn’t really elicit any strange looks.

so maybe the castro will fade away as a gay neighborhood, but when the whole bay area becomes an area where gay people are comfortable to live that might actually do much more for the world’s perception of the gay community. it’s easy for people to be accepting of other people leading a certain lifestyle in a separate community, but when people are comfortable with it anywhere that’s a different (and much more important) issue.

so i just went for dinner after yoga over near arri and half of the street was closed down for this big train of tanks. pank has lived in that area and said she’s never seen anything like it before … there’s nothing on bangkok post tho about another coup tho ….

here is 20 seconds or so of video, it’s a little dark but you can still see the tanks.