I was awoken today by the charming girl from reception asking if I was checking out today. I replied that I probably was (not entirely voluntarily, I wanted to try a bed at the Prince Of Wales to see if this rash goes away), and she told me that I definitely was as they were fully booked for tonight and it was already past check out time. I jumped up and packed (by which I mean threw all my stuff into a laundry bag and rushed out of the door), then cooked some free chili scrambled eggs and we planned the girls' last day. This was to begin with a trip to the temple of 1000 lights, a Buddhist temple nearby with a 300 tonne concrete Buddha. As we elected to do this the heavens opened, and what I can only describe as a monsoon began. I headed out to see if there was room in the Prince of Wales for tonight (there was not), Fragrance hostel (also no), or any other nearby hostels. They were all full, so I elected not to worry too much about it and just head to the temple, maybe popping into any other hostels I had read about, or that we saw along the way. The rain only got worse as we walked, so bad that walking in flip flops became an impractical hazard, so Helen and I were walking barefoot in the road, under an inch or so of water - not advisable in any other capital city, but the debris free and clean streets made it almost pleasurable, as opposed to getting glass and grime and grit between your toes as at home.
We found the temple before too long, after a few minor directions issues, and were suitably impressed. There is a 26 stage diorama of the Buddha's life in the Dais of the statue, which culminates inside with a 20ft reclining Buddha at his moment of death, covered in gold leaf. The statue itself is a little smaller than the bronze one I saw in Nara, and not quite as awe inspiring, but pretty decent nonetheless. Certainly worth braving the rain for, not least for the odd fusion of religions present inside - there is a statue of Ganesh in the back corner, Brahma oversees the birth of Prince Siddharta, and there is a Wheel of Fortune based on the chinese Zodiac which one can use to predict ones own future for 50c. I did so, and was assured that:
"The Wheel of Fortune says good omen, all misfortunes will be at an end and will be replaced by a long spell of happiness. Last year's bad luck will be this year's good luck. your suitor which you have chosen will be yours without fail. Your money affairs will prosper but do not gamble for that you have no luck. You have three benefactors and also enemies, beware of your enemies, avoid them and do not fight them as they will meet their own ends."
I take this to mean that it's all good, I'm going to have good luck with chicks, and I probably shouldn't go to Vegas. Tilly got one declaring that her fate was analogous to an incarnation of buddha where he took a cargo to trade on the high seas, when there was a storm and all was lost except the Buddha himself, the only survivor. Not good news for girls concerned about their flight this evening in bad weather...
The rain had by this point turned into an enormous thunderstorm, complete with lightning so close you could see it in the daylight and thunder so loud it was almost deafening. The girls were a little shaken by this, but I used science to convince them that, umbrella or no, the chances of them being struck by lightning in a city full of metal skyscrapers was close to nil, and also to assure them that the storm was going away using the old counting between lightning and thunder method, but adding a value for the speed of sound into the mix to convince them. I headed out to a nearby hostel I had read about, not too fancy but adequate for one night. In fact, the beds are fairly flimsy, the mattresses plastic covered beneath the sheets, and the showers lukewarm and leaky. Top five accommodations since leaving Japan (just), but second from bottom in Korea, Japan and Singapore (I feel it's reasonable to make a Japan/Korea/Singapore Laos/Thailand/Malaysia split, in terms of cost, quality and value for money). Checked in, I headed back to pick up my stuff from The Inn Crowd, and the usually frosty (yet gorgeous) lady behind the desk said, in her oddly clipped manner, that I could come back tomorrow as they had beds, and she was sorry to see me go. I think I will return, I'll see if I survive the bed/the bed survives me.
I headed out to use the wireless in McDonalds, and got distracted by a £1 ramen place. I had tasty won ton ramen and an awesome pint of home made lemon ice tea, and as I was reading my book (The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert A. Heinlein) another elderly Indian gentleman - although not as old as Kandi - said it looked interesting, and asked if it had anything to do with Schrodingers cat - at that very second I was reading the sentence "Oh no, Pixel doesn't belong to Schrodinger; Pixel hasn't selected his human yet - unless he has picked you?" There had been no mention of Schrodinger before this page in the book, 344 pages in, so I decided this meeting was auspicious and put the book down for a chat. This gentleman was not interested in imparting knowledge to me, but instead in espousing his opinions on various quirks of history. He started on a mention of quantum physics, and then onto the book he had been reading about hypotheses on the origin of the atlantis myths, and how many objections to the downfall of various civilisations could only be given through allegory and fiction, the place of storytelling and associated racial memories (if you will) in the creation of history, the position of religion as a political tool, as a cheaper way to raise faithful armies than actually paying the m. He also spoke on Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Empire, the conversion to Islam of those who wished to survive in newly conquered countries during the days of the, umm, I forget which empire, and the question of whether one would rather live submissive to an oppressive ruling class or pay the price of freedom - he conjectured that the vast majority would do the former. He had a lot to say on the interesting political situations of the late 1930s, with the fascist changes occurring across Europe and Russia, and so on. He also spoke at length about the problems currently facing the world as currency had largely lost its referent (formerly gold), and how society would soon need to address this issue before it was too late. He then hinted darkly at a terrible future by way of a rhetorical question to which he did not supply the answer - "When civilisation fully realises this problem, and power plays start becoming more important, what will happen then? What will happen? I think you know, and so we have come full circle, back to Quantum Physics and the cat with which we started". I have to confess I don't know, but I assume he was referring to some sort of nuclear armageddon, although I can't be too sure.
Wireless in McDonalds failed to work, so instead I waited ages for my apple pie, drank a load of (delicious) green jasmine tea, and wandered back to the hostel where I finished my book. For a while I had been concerned that it was all building to a crescendo of sorts, as I was getting very near to the end and still new ideas and questions were being raised, and I couldn't see a way in which they could all be explored or answered. As it turns out, they were not - I am left a little ambivalent at the end, unsure as to whether the tale was really finished, whether success or failure had occurred, and unclear on a few other points as well. I feel like rereading it, but not immediately. I shall instead make a point of getting more Heinlein first, as this may help me understand what on earth just occurred. I need to figure out just what I'm going to do on Bali - if Marie decides she can join me, fantastic, I shall hang about the Islands until she does, and be happy to do so. If not, I'll get that Bali & Lombok book, explore Bali a bit further than Kuta - all I saw last time - and head to the Gili Islands. In fact, this is what I'll do in either respect, I just may take less time about it if I'm on my own with no reason to hang around if I tire of a place. I'm sort of getting impatient for Australia - due to time and money, I think I'll have to skip the epic Ghan train from Darwin to Sydney. In fact, I'll be skipping the top and centre altogether, instead attempting to fly from Bali straight to Sydney or Melbourne, completely rejigging my whole Aus trip for $75 hopefully, and gaining an extra North American flight segment or two in the process - iff I plan it correctly, which I am rather bad at doing, due to my tendency for whimsy and lack of decision making skills. Hmm, only time will tell, I suppose.
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