As Confuscious famously decreed,
"Man who walks naked in revolving airport doors is going to Bankok." and so I arrived for some relaxation after a few too many cities.
Of course Bankok is a city too but I wanted to see the sites and do some trekking before "doing a Di Caprio," and hitting the beach. (and these beaches are something else)
Temples adorn Bankok like stiff peaks on a meringue. As you sweat your way round the city they appear majestically. The Thai adeptness for beauty and intricacy which is so pronounced in their Temples transcends to their food.
Carefully carved fruits, hand wrapped banana leaf packages and floral displays are everywhere.
As a British Ambassador it is my duty to learn as many words as possible in each country. This is mainly to impress any other English speakers in the vacinity. I can confidently greet in Cantonese, Mandarin, South African and Thai. I also try and learn the words for thank you and delicious.
Mix-ups however, invariably occur and one day, having successfully asked the gun-wielding Thai police officer for the public toilet I noticed a smirk on his boat-race as I departed the urinal.
What I believed was a word meaning thank-you was not. I looked him in the eye as I left the toilet and with all the confidence of a Thai national, I proclaimed, to astonished toilet goers "Aroy," my thumb sticking up in appreciation.
A word meaning "delicious."
