My friend Tony was over here from New York last week. He and I went to Bangkok last weekend and had a great time. We did a lounge crawl of some of the swanky hotels along the river . . The Shangri-la, the Peninsula and the Mandarin. The Peninsula was my favorite -- it was so lush and exotic. The next morning we took a boat tour of the river and canal and then toured the Golden Palace, which had the famous emerald Buddha. Then we went to What Pho, a very old temple with an enormous reclining Buddha. It was really hot, so afterward we trotted back to the hotel and lounged at the pool. Sunday morning we got up and went to the Chatuchak Market, which is this enormous indoor and outdoor market with booths that sell just about anything you can think of. The place had to be a mile long and a half mile wide -- at least. Then back to KL.

Here are the pictures!

I finished reading The Final Solution. That Michael Chabon is a good "adventure" writer. I loved Kavalier and Clay a few years back. I just started on The Sportwriter by Richard Ford.

So for the past few weeks, the Hilton has been hyping a Queen "tribute" band with big posters in the lobby, signs on the elevator and clips of the concert on the in-house TV channel. I've always been a big Queen fan (stop snickering . . . right now), since I was a teenager in Ohio and I first heard "Rhapsody in Blue." I have to admit, every time I saw one of those ads, the adrenyln pumped in me just a bit and I was curious. Normally I'm a big cynic . . the first to roll my eyes at such schlock . .but this was a "Queen" tribute. That made it different. :-)

Anyway, the day of the concert, Gary, Tony and I were in the lounge having dinner and I admitted to them that I kind of wanted to go check it out, but didn't buy a ticket in time. Oh well, too late now. I get back to my room about 9 p.m. and Gary calls and tells me he scored 2 comp tickets and asks if I want to go down to the ballroom and check it out. "Duh!" Don't need to ask me twice.

I already had a few drinks in me from dinner and as soon as we got there we started with beer on tap. It wasn't long before all my inhibitions came down. I was dancing and swaying and clapping like a school girl. After a while we shared a cigar . . . and if that wasn't the icing on the cake. I was flying high. Later, when I was telling Derek about all this, he said, "You totally went all 'Will Farrell' on Gary, didn't you?" and I have to admit that is exactly what I did. I was completely Will Farrell in "Old School." Woooo wooo . . . Par-tay!

I had a great time. The band was a really good copy -- I could have had the same experience with the real thing and come away totally satisfied that I went to a great Queen concert. . . .which I never had the chance to do for real. So, what the hey . .
Anyway, go here to see the pictues.

Here are the pictures from Christmas in Tulsa

Just got back from Tulsa, where I went to spend Christmas with Derek and his family. It was fun but schlepping back and forth between Malaysia and the United States is beginning to be a drag. The trip from Tulsa to KL took me 40 hours, door to door. I did get back in time to see a great New Year's Eve fireworks display -- probably the best fireworks I've ever seen. The city must have spent a fortune because the fireworks were so extensive, elaborate and sophisticated. The best part was, they were so close to the hotel, I felt like I could have reached out my window and touched them -- they were that close.

My friend Tony is coming over from the States in a few weeks. We're going to go to Bangkok. I have to start researching now to pick the places I want to see. I expect it will be a little like going to Rome, except that instead of seeing one church after another, it will be one temple after another.

I really want to learn more about Eastern religions. I realized how little I knew about Islam, Hindu, Buddhism, Taoism, Zen, Confucianism, Shinto, etc. so I went to Wikipedia and read up on all of them. It is all so vast, each belief system with its own tenets, histories, and nuances. I can appreciate just how vast the study of theology is. It would take years to get an understanding of any depth. (I guess that's a whopping understatement, considering that most people's entire lives are spent on just such a quest. I meant more an intellectual understanding than a spiritual one.) I still don't really get it -- many of them, with the exception of Islam, seem more cultural and philospohical, rather than based on set theological tenets.

By the way, I'm noticing more and more women in Burkas here in KL. The sight is still a little startling, especially in places like the mall or around the pool. If the intent is to make themselves "invisible," or at least "non-descript," for me it has the opposite effect. My eyes are drawn to women in Burkas and I find it hard not to stare. I know that my own cultural biases and preconceptions are making me feel that way, but still . . . I think even an objective observer would find the look a little spooky.

I finished The Plot Against America. Highly recommend it. I also finished Middlesex and The Constant Gardner. I have just been a reading demon!