This morning I needed to find a quick bite before heading into the National Museum. So I asked for chicken, spring roll, & banana+coconut fritters, but it was the carrot fritter that she threw in at the end for free that was the best. Just my luck.
Then once I was in the museum a creepy dude who had once studied at U Neb started to follow me, but then I got him off the trail. Again, lucky me.
This here is an elephant saddle that was once used by royalty. It’s inlaid with intricate mother of pearl, gold, and oh yes there’s the thermos of coffee behind it.
This is a spectacularly ornate funeral chariot- you can see how huge it is by comparing it to the standing fan propped up next to it.
They recently increased the entry free and evidently paid people with teeny tiny fingers to hand paste on the new price.
After the museum I went to the Tourist info center to see about attending a dance performance. Unfortunately all of the tickets were out of my budget and really far away. So I decided to wander. I went to the pier, was weighing a boat ride, but the little boat looked so rickety, and it was so hot out, I bailed. I had a hunch to go back to the mall where I had seen a sign for a modern art center. I wasn’t sure if it was a dance center or whatnot, but I figured it was worth checking out that area again at least.
It was a huge surprise- it was a FANTASTIC modern art center. I was practically the only visitor. It opened, after years of political delays, just 5 months ago.
http://www.bacc.or.th/en/aboutus.html The inside looks like it was inspired by the NY Guggenheim:
They had a contemporary prints exhibition featuring artists from all over Asia:
One one of the paths between floors featured sculpture which made me feel like I was walking through huge stems of black coral:
The colors in this painting were so different than what I'm used to seeing in river scenes. Look at how the colors reflect in the dog's fur
This piece appealed to me because the artist asked kids to make masks of what they think a Bangkok kid looks like. They were all on the wall behind the artist's rendition of what a Bangkokian (? Maybe Bangkokite? Bangkok citizen) looks like:
This is a copy of a poster that was used in years of protests demanding an art center next to the MBK Mall. As part of the protests they strung thousands of banners made by artists & regular citizens into the form of a long snake through the streets of Bangkok. Just a portion of those original banners were displayed on the floor:
Then on the bus home I saw a dance performance in progress through the bus window. We were only a few blocks from my hotel so I hopped off, wandered in, paid my $1.25 entry fee and saw tons of cute kids both dressed up to perform as well as hanging off the stage, hometown style. Just my lucky day.
The rice near my home is starting to get mature. The fields have gone from jungle green to yellowish-green (see right). To protect the seeds from the birds, they strung elaborate networks of string over the fields with little flags. Every once and a while a worker will walk past and yank the strings so that there is movement to scare away the freeloaders. Extremely labor intensive work! 
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