THE CITY OF DIAMONDS (and Desserts)

Diamonds are forever but glasses are made from the sands of Cha-am Beach where the squid was fried, the fish steamed, and the crab was flaked and caked as the sun rises from the Gulf of Thailand to fill a chilled mug that formed from a ladle of melted quartz with its liquid golden rays. 

We are diamonds, we sparkle in our own right, we came to Phetchaburi, we plotted the future from the past, and we have desserts for snacks.

The Village 

But before that, I got chased by a pack of dogs as I pursue the monks of Wat Sai Yoi to ask them where will I find pure carbon, and if pizza or Thai food will be more appropriate for the morning alms. 

I should have stopped for a street breakfast, purred like Garfield, ride a horse in the beach or got boosted with a dose of Red Bull but the fried fish head from the seafood barbecue was potent enough to instigate a Bollywood dance showdown until almost midnight.

The Fish Port

I disposed two more Amaranth shirts in a gated high-end resort enclave that would have cost a pouch of 24-carat diamonds to build before the pungent smell of the sea and rotting fish pulled me through narrow alleys into the oracle of Suvannamaccha. 

"Line up your bike in a rocky beach front and a San Phra Phum" said the golden fish, "then visit a kalae house and pose with a boat at the fish landing so you will remember the Thai omelette, gai pad krapow and the beer tower you had for dinner" added the mermaid. 

The Mangrove

On our last day, the oracle revealed the Front Hall to the hidden mangrove forest park where a floating wooden bridge ferry bikers and hikers to the canal lighthouse where blue fishing boats that are all named "Jenny" are moored.

In exchange, we have to ride our bikes through the loose sands of the beach into the temple, to the fish landing, past the crematorium, behind a blue garbage truck, and through quaint neigborhoods to a final dessert of mango and sticky rice.

Convent Road, Yaowarat and Bakal 2

Back in Bangkok, I waited patiently for a crispy pork stall to set up in the streets of Silom, walked out of a street diner in Yaowarat for snubbing my order for fresh oysters then took the train to Phetchaburi, not for the city of diamonds and dessert but for the train to Suvarnabhumi to wash not just my feet but have my first ever airport shower that is costumary for Maundy Thursday.

Good Friday caught me in a red-eye flight to Manila and the bus to Bakal 2, to a feast of reheated leftover food for the only day of the year when mass is not celebrated until Black Saturday and the Harrowing of Hell, the redemption of Globe Rewards, and the resurrection of Easter Sunday which is the last day of my 6th employment contract with Oxfam...