five hours in bangkok

i'm not sure what to do with myself for 5 hours in bangkok, the song was about one night...but i've managed to find a cushy thai business lounge and a wireless connection and i am looking pretty damn good here with my mac, despite the fact that i didn't bring a comb and so my hair is a little, ahem, shall we say, tousled, from the night flight. it is a testament to the awesomeness of my haircut that it more or less looks ok anyway. thank you, maria from glasgow, you hairdressing goddess!

as i look around at the HPs and dells and even an acer in my vicinity in the lounge, i feel very happy to have invested in the mac. perhaps even a little bit superior. ok, more than a little bit, but i did say that i was shallow.

so, what does one do in an airport with so much time to kill? there's shopping. i've already looked around at a countless array of thai relaxation products (i restrained, tho' i was briefly tempted by an eye mask) and small stuffed elephants (also restrained).  i was literally the first one off my plane (i love sitting in row 1). this new airport in bangkok is looking more finished than the last time i was here (i last came through on the second or third day it was open). it is big and really very nice. but it could use a few more entertainment venues for people with long layovers--they could take a lesson from kuala lumpur where there's a cinema.

there's a spa here in the lounge and after a bit, i'm going to go and get a shoulder massage. or should i go for feet and legs? hmm, so many choices. it's good to be gold.

here there is less of the skin crawling feeling i had at the gate in copenhagen. the people here are  obviously business people. back there, it was obvious that most of the back of the back of the plane was going to be filled with sex tourists. you know when you see a slightly greasy-looking man with a mullet and a white sport coat the reason he's headed for thailand. yuck. makes me very happy that i'm just passing through. it seems to me that undercurrent is always present in thailand. the scent of seamy exploitation. gives me the shivers just thinking about it.

onto happier topics...people watching. there is a cluster of lovely thai girls in beautiful long silk skirts in a rich purple and lighter purple suit-style jackets tending the lounge. they are smiling shyly at the passengers passing through and chattering in an animated way to one another. isn't there something romantic about a language you don't understand that makes it seem as if people are having a really important conversation? i wonder what they're talking about...

my week ahead is on my mind, the anticipation of what it will bring. there's something delicious about anticipating the unknown. i always want to capture the feeling and not have that transition from unknown to known happen too quickly, which is strange because i'm otherwise an extremely impatient person. i feel the same way when reading a great book...i both want to skip to the end and to savor it and not have it come too quickly. i want to know now what the week will bring at the same time as i want time to slow down so it doesn't come too fast. oh wonderful, agonizing anticipation. whatever it brings, it will undoubtedly be interesting. it's fitting that i sit here in the liminal space that is an airport, feeling that i'm on the brink of something irresistible, new and exciting.