Bodies, bones and Bangkok

Arrived in Bangkok on Monday and settled into the Buddy Lodge Hotel in the heart of backpacker's hang-out, Kao San Road. The street comes alive at night with all kinds of weird and international types of all ages. Plenty of places to hang out, internet surf, buy massage or simply sample fab fruit juices.
By day it's quite hot but the hotel has a modest roof terrace swimming pool providing decent respite at the end of the day.
On our first day out, we resolved to walk everywhere and do some gentle sightseeing. Unfortunately, we got waylaid by a Tuk Tuk driver and ended up (as all naive travellers do) visiting a number of shops including tailors and jewellry outlets.

A sweet smell pervades the streets and food vendors are plentiful (banana fritters being a particularly lovely possibility!)

Yesterday, we were taken to visit Mahidol University's Dept of Anatomy to meet with Dr Jantima who has kindly agreed for her department to carry out the reduction of Eric's body, returning it as a skeleton to the Forest Hermitage in Warwickshire. Witin Rachatatanun, who we were recommended to by Dad's friend, Ven. Ajahn Khemadhammo, picked us up from the hotel and took us to the hospital where Dr Jantima explained in considerable detail, how the process of skeletal reduction works. It seems nice 'n natural and mainly consists of removing the flesh, putting a body into water (which is changed regularly to avoid nasty smells) and then delicately brushing away the last remains of skin and muscle tissue. The bones are then dried out naturally in the sun (somewhere up in Northern Thailand where the dept has an outpost).

The world's leading expert on skeletal reduction, Mr Warin Thodsaraapi, who was awarded a certificate of excellence for his work in this field, last year by His Majesty the King of Thailand, will carry out the procedure on Eric's remains, providing we can fix for his corpse to be kept very cold and chemical-free on its journey to Bangkok. The box picture shows how the skeleton ends up (no nails, no glue, no chemicals), making it easy to transport.

After the meeting, we toured first, the Congdom Museum of Anatomy which houses a number of very unusual exhibits (eg Siamese twins in formaldehyde), cross-sections and dissections of every part of the body, including the former Dean of the Dept whose skeleton hung beside a display cabinet housing his skin and organ remains.

As if that weren't enough, we then toured around the Museum of Forensic Science where the entrance hall was lined with trauma victims and body parts, captioned with things like: "amputation of suicide victim's arm" just below the preserved actual arm itself! Not for the fainthearted was the upper body and head of a man run over by a car, complete with tyre treads across the torso and face! (Bear in mind, these were not replicas but the actual bodies and bits).

Luckily, I am not especially squeamish about these things, although I can imagine some school chidren balking at the whole body display of a child-eating cannibal, Si Quay, whose name is still invoked to threaten naughty children apparently.

After our fill of torsos, heads and limbs, we then headed out to the Thawsi School of Wisdom which is run by Witin's wife, Anne. It's a private school for kids aged four-16 and set in beautiful grounds with some excellent facilities including a small swimming pool and tennis courts. Witin and his wife life in an apartment attached to the School but we had dinner in the house of his sister-in-law and her husband, an entrepreneurial property developer. It was a magnificent house, filled with impressive displays of fossils and flowers. Their hospitality was magnificent and we're unlikely to eat for a week!