Humans are a storytelling animal and through the use of stories, we create contexts and meanings that allow us to cooperate and live together. Often, stories have variations that link to the perspective of the teller and the context in which a story is understood. Because outside of a few specific spaces – mostly retail – I haven't seen Thais give much weight to Christmas, I have never really pondered how they might see. it. Today I finally realized that the story of Christmas for the average Thai (there are of course some Christian Thais that would feel otherwise) is that it's a celebration of winter and New Years. "Merry Christmas New Year" is what one of our taxi drivers said today and for the past several days, Thais have been wishing me "Sawasdee Pi Mai" – Happy New Year.
And at the CentralWorld mall where we spent the afternoon so everyone but me could go ice skating (I don't ice skate), Christmas filled the lower level and outside terraces with cute decorations and song and choreographed dance performances of only the most secular Christmas songs – ie "All I want For Christmas Is You" and "Let it Snow" not "Gloria In Excelsis Deo" or "Little Drummer Boy". The fact that on the Christmas Celebration stage outside the mall was a children's musical performance competition and the last but not least contestant who was about eight years-old, belted out, "I want to be a billionaire so fucking bad,"sort of says it all although he did an amazing Bruno Mars.
What little Christmas there is in Thailand is the secular Santa, presents and candy canes Christmas imported from America and resides almost exclusively at malls. As I have mentioned before, Bangkok is home to some of the worlds most amazing malls that are not just places to shop, but worlds in which to live replete with grocery stores, banks, post offices, automobile showrooms, ice skating rinks, children's museums, conference halls, movie theaters, sea aquariums, art installations and more kinds of eateries than you could ever imagine. The top tier Bangkok malls are on the cutting edge of fashion and advancements in what you can do with pancakes. They are shrines to all that is material and secular and arguably Thailand's most advanced and globally connected social environments.
Meanwhile, across town, places like Wat Pho are literal shrines to the most sacred and profound. You don't have to be Buddhist or even know much about Buddhism at all to find something awing in the 151 foot long, gold covered Reclining Buddha. The Buddha commands a certain reverence and respect that comes almost as a surprise when entering his building. The rest of the temple complex is one incredibly beautiful constructed artifice to meditation and prayer after another from mosaic covered stupas to long rows of gilded standing Buddhas. Unlike the neighboring Grand Palace and its many religious temples and shrines – Wat Pho's roofs don't sparkle. While grand in its own right, Wat Pho was not built to show secular strength but as a true spiritual space and the feeling is almost palpable.
Today we shuttled between the spiritual and secular sides of Bangkok – between the story of breaking with samsara to achieve Nirvana and the story of dancing in a silver bell shaped costume in a mall rotunda to celebrate retail and the new year. To say that either is more real or fake; or that one is more or less Thai would be a lie. As Murray Head noted in his 1984 hit single One Night In Bangkok, "I can feel an angel sliding up to me" appears just was many times as "I can feel the devil walking next to me". Thai culture embraces the sublime and profane. Bangkok is a place that can assault your senses with beautiful and putrid smells in the course of a minute; or as Ailyn experienced after her massage yesterday – incredible relaxation followed by jarring, if not grating noise.
We began our day chasing the sublime. Our first destination was the Grand Palace which turned out to be closed until 1pm due to a ceremony. So we did what anyone at the gates of the palace would do when turned away and walked across the street to eat cut-up fresh fruit, drink Thai iced tea and regroup. Because the area around the Grand Palace and the large temples has large streets without high volumes of traffic, it seemed like the perfect place to take the kids and Bailey on a tuk tuk ride – so we shuttled over to Wat Pho on two tuk tuks. As the drivers raced one another, the kids screamed and laughed with delight.
Once at Wat Pho, the heat of the day began taking its toll on everyone as we explored the grounds. But the time with the Reclining Buddha seemed to create an instant break from kvetching. Since her first visit to. Thailand at age two, Ailyn has had a particular connection to Buddhist Wats, often kneeling quietly in temples and even offering flowers as the locals do. The Reclining Buddha struck a chord with her and she walked slowly around it, stopping to notice details, looking with awe and whispering about how amazing it all was from the size of his head to the beautiful gold to the mother of pearl design in his feet. She borrowed Bailey's phone so that she could take her own pictures to help her remember every aspect of the Reclining Buddha and how beautiful it all is. "I took so many beautiful pictures, Mommy!" she said outside.
But it didn't take long after leaving the present of the giant Buddha before our crew was done with the especially steamy heat. We decided to not just get out of the heat, but turn the temperate upside down. Our family tradition in our prior two Thailand visits has been to go ice skating. So we left Wat Pho for CentralWorld and its ice skating rink on the second floor. During COVID The Rink requires registering for one of several two-hour blocks of skating time to ensure a safe number of skaters. The only available slot was 5:15 to 7:15 and it was 1:50 when we arrived. That gave us time to get lunch, walk, shop and explore before Emily, Bailey and the kids' skate time. The mall is so vast and with so many kinds of things that Bailey seemed almost at a loss for where to start. She wants to buy things while here – but the choices seemed to almost overwhelm her. I felt more overwhelmed by the aforementioned eight-year-old Thai Bruno Mars.
Once Emily and the kids were setup to skate, I took off to do the grocery shopping, grabbing things never available 20 years ago when I lived here including Brie, red wine, organic eggs, and natural peanut butter. Meanwhile Ailyn had become queen of the ice – proud of herself even when her skating was pretty basic. Sennen on the other hand, gave it a good try but decided he was better off with one of the sliding penguins you can hold onto when learning to skate, rather than trying to go it on his own. When I came around, he was very comfortable with his decision. "We all need to hold onto the penguin at one time or another," I told him. Bailey had taken to skating very well and was able to do quicker loops around the rink with Emily. Despite some sore butts and knees, ice skating went very well.
We then finished the night by walking outside to the CentralWorld Christmas Night Market where we could go from stand to stand ordering a variety of street foods to take home for dinner. Emily and I decided to divide and conquer the vast expanse of outdoor food real estate with Ailyn and Bailey assisting Emily and Sennen assisting me with evaluating our options and choosing the best. We taxied back to our condo with a Thai feast in hand. The day finished back in the court of the sublime as we enjoyed the quiet of our beautiful condo, the deliciousness of a variety of Thai foods and capped it off with a series of excellent French desserts.
To all of our friends who celebrate, have a Merry Christmas!
