Legends of Thai Silk

Bangkok was sheer delight - one week of bliss. We are becoming quite expert at vacationing!

One of the major tourist attractions, and certainly one of my favourites, was the Jim Thompson House. It has everything. History, art, beauty, colour and a real good tale.

Jim Thompson was an American architect who was with the OSS in the second World War (the OSS was the precursor to the CIA). He arrived in Bangkok at the end of the war and made his home, and found his passion, there. He is best known for reviving the Thai silk industry which, when he arrived, had almost disappeared. His keen artist's eye for colour and design, as well as his boundless energy and passion, took what was by then a craft limited to a few remaining families and made it a world-renowned export and the thriving industry that it is today.

Many years ago on one of my better half's first visits to Bangkok, he returned with a beautiful, outstanding, deep royal blue dressing gown for me. It was my favourite piece of clothing of all time and I wore it constantly for years until I literally wore it out at the bum. Reluctantly I was forced to retire it. Even then, I couldn't bear to part with it and it sat in a drawer for many years more with some vague thought of reworking it into something else. Which never happened. On our prowls through Bangkok this time through the many silk shops I came upon the very same design and a stack from floor to ceiling of the most gorgeous colours and designs to choose from. I was thrilled. So guess who is now the proud owner of two new fabulous Thai silk dressing gowns?! (As well, I might add, as a few other choice pieces of clothing).

In addition to his passion for Thai silk, Jim Thompson was a collector of South East Asian art. He created a home in Bangkok on one of the canals opposite the neighbourhood where many of his silk weavers lived which he constructed by dismantling and moving six traditional Thai teak houses to the site. There, in addition to making a home, he displayed his statues, paintings, wall hangings and porcelain. He was a very gregarious sort, loved people and was constantly entertaining. Most Americans and Europeans who passed through Bangkok in those days snagged an invitation to dinner, including Charlie Chaplin, Somerset Maugham, Barbara Hutton and Truman Capote.

You can see the house in the martial arts fight scene in the James Bond movie, The Man with the Golden Gun movie which was filmed there.

The Jim Thompson legend remains strong due to the tragic circumstances of his death. In 1967, on Easter Sunday, while staying with friends in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia, he disappeared. Apparently while the rest of the house party was having a siesta after their picnic, Jim Thompson went for a walk along the trails of the surrounding jungle and completely disappeared. Not a trace of him has ever been found, despite an intensive search at the time. Because of the absolutely total lack of clues or information, the void was, and has been, filled by all manner of speculation - kidnapping, wild animals, political intrigue, you name it. A very sad ending to a remarkable - still young - 61 year old man of huge vision and creativity.

Jim Thompson's Thai Silk Company (great website for the story and more) was the first modern Thai silk company - of course lots more came after, many formed by people who had initially worked with him. It is a sizable industry in Thailand and the fabrics and designs are world renowned in the fashion, furniture and theatrical arenas. The main store on Surawong Road is a dazzling shopping destination. And the colours - did I mention the colours? For me, being surrounded by that kind of beauty does wonderful things for my soul.

And significant things for my wallet...

Soft Landing

We’re now ensconced in our latest hotel “home” in Manila and having a great time. We may already found a place to live (fingers crossed) as well as an apartment hotel where we will live once we return from Thailand until our shipment arrives and we can take possession.

First impressions? There is a very smooth and friendly vibe to this place that suits me completely. Everyone makes eye contact, says good morning, smiles – the service is very good indeed. The security industry is thriving. Every entrance to the hotels or the malls have numerous security people at every door, checking bags. At the MegaMall (aptly named) when you enter, there are signs indicating that men go left, women go right at which point handbags are opened. I'd take a picture of that sign but I'm not sure how that would be taken! The Starbucks across the street has a uniformed security guy who acts as doorman – opens doors, greets you with a smile. This is typical. Also when you arrive at the hotel, all cars pass by a checkpoint where trunks are opened and checked and when luggage is removed a dog comes over and sniffs it. Different for sure, but not disturbing.

Shopping appears to be a popular sport. There are huge indoor (aircon, the nom du jour) malls, some of which are so large that it is perhaps a way of getting the walking in - certainly outside walking is not fun, what with dodging traffic and breathing the fumes. But we're doing that too. Some of those malls blow me away, with every designer store imaginable - all the names are there. After years of Bayshore and Rideau Centre I feel like a hick. When I saw the St John boutique in the Shangri La Plaza, I went ballistic; that did it for me. I’m home, for sure! (Why they changed the model in the Vogue print ads from the real life fabulous former President Kelly Gray, the founder's daughter, to Angelina Jolie, however lovely, I'll never know - and I'm sure (?) everyone knows of what I speak, no? No? Oh well here it is). And I'm not the only one who thinks this way.


I developed a huge problem with my eye, which turned out to be a scratched cornea. We called the front desk and within an hour the hotel doctor and nurse were in my hotel room. She declared herself not able to treat me and referred me to an eye clinic across the street. When we went to pay her for the consult she refused payment, saying she hadn't done anything. The eye clinic is a busy place - there was an hour and a half wait - but the receptionist suggested we go and have lunch and she'd call us on our cell phone when it was getting to be our turn. Once in, I saw computerized equipment in place I'd never seen before - all was very tech, very efficient, very impressive and the whole experience was relatively painless. That is, painless except for my eye which hurts like hell and looks worse. It is also the first time literally in decades I've not been able to wear makeup (hey I'm a Montreal girl, after all). Jackie O shades protect me from myself.

The Economist published a listing of the living affordability of major cities around the world ranked from most expensive to least expensive. Manila was 141st on the list. When we arrived I put the equivalent in pesos of $100 in my wallet for spending money. Here’s what I’ve purchased, several days later:

3 glossy Philippine fashion and style magazines (great stuff!)
2 packages of Mentos
1 visit to the opthamologist
1 prescription for antibiotic eye drops
1 shoe repair

Here's the thing. I have more than $60 left.

There is Diet Root Beer on the grocery shelves (organic diet root beer at that) and all is right in my world tonight.

'Bye everybody - from YVR

Manila Bound...

Relax and Enjoy Yourself

The debate rages. Where is the best sunset viewing spot? Of the choices this trip, it’s still Qualicum Beach as seen below. It’s a righteous quest.



After almost two weeks R&R on Vancouver Island, it’s pretty safe to say that I have recovered from Stage 1 of moving. As a matter of fact, if I were any more laid back I'd be going in reverse.

We’re now on beautiful Gabriola Island where the local Chamber’s unofficial motto seems to be “relax and enjoy yourself”. Easy to do - the major daily event for us has been watching the sunset. That, and speculating on what it would be like to live on an island. (All trips to this part of the world are to some degree about searching for the ultimate place to land). I asked our landlady what it was like to live here – she replied that after 14 years they were about to put the property up for sale and leave. Reasons? What you would imagine – being on an island and access, things to do. Pro’s and con’s, I would expect, like everything. Once again, as can be seen from this sign, more signs of water fragility.

There is a lot of energy in this place. Great conversations among people in stores, in restaurants - lots of smiles in passing on roads and beaches. Someone I know who lives in North Vancouver had decided to look for a cottage on one of the Gulf Islands. She and her husband, both avid cyclists, decided to search out the perfect spot. They spent I don’t know how much time biking through the different islands – no doubt a perfect way to actually see things up close. Of all the islands they visited, they liked this the best and settled here.

This afternoon we decided to follow in those footsteps - to a degree. We left the car behind and rented motor scooters and headed off to explore the island. Back roads and beach access paths and marinas and views from everywhere, of everything. When faced with a fork in the road, take it.

Lest The Boys doubt that this really happened, and at least one has expressed skepticism - oh ye of little faith - here as promised is proof positive...

Note the grin on the face.
Only minor road rash.

Gabriola Island is terrific - one of the friendliest places I’ve been in a very long time.

Beautiful times, fun times.





And even a road named after my Mom...

On our way - no fixed address

All our worldly possessions are now wrapped in padded brown paper and packed off to sit in storage, who knows where, until we send for them. We're homeless and we're off. On our way to Southeast Asia - but first a pit stop on Vancouver Island




I'd forgotten what sheer hard work moving is. Through the times of physical work, and rolling lists, tough goodbyes and paperwork, as I could feel stress levels rising, saying "breathe" was a code for "settle down". I remember seeing a picture in More magazine some months ago of a woman who was sitting in a Lotus meditation position on a sidewalk in the middle of Times Square. She was making the point that it needs to be possible to stay calm and focused, to be able to be present and all that, wherever you are. It looked goofy at the time, but it's starting to make sense.

On the road below our seventh story balcony in our first hotel, was a downtown bus route where convoys of four buses at a time passed by every minute. Coming as I did from my suburban oasis, the noise from out there was amazing, yet I said to myself "just wait!" This is a capital of 1 million people all in - with more or less adequate transportation infrastructure - our ultimate destination is another story completely. A tale that is so far, and still, completely in my imagination.

Meanwhile - During those hectic times of the last week I kept myself going by imagining our next destination - our decompression chamber on the Haro Strait. Which is where we now find ourselves...looking at this...

The sunset on our first night, June 30th, was amazing and just as ordered. A full moon was kicked in to add to the mix. I used to think of Roy Henry Vickers paintings as being stylized. They aren't. It is exactly what it looks like. Mount Baker was visible in all its glory and all was right in the world. Well my world, at least.

Yesterday I spent most of the day sitting outside pretending to read, watching the action. I saw three otters, a heron, a mink, a seal, two deer and countless varieties of birds (countless because I have no idea what they all are). And human traffic - fishing boats, kayaks, canoes, float planes, whale watching boats, sailboats, cabin cruisers, military vessels and freighters. I hear there are whales just down the coast ("come this way, please!" - I feel like the guy in Whale Music).

To be honest, this is much better than sitting on the pavement in Times Square.