Taking a Rap - Head First

I extended my trip to bangkok over the weekend so that I could include a visit to Jatuchak, the weekend market. It was like this incredibly huge outdoor mall which would take up to a full day to cover. Things here are cheap, about 60% of what items are being sold at major shopping centres.

So if you're willing to put up with the sweat, heat and weekend crowd, you could very well find yourself with some really good deals. I wanted to go there to hunt for furniture for my new home. However, most of the home decorations there were beautiful zen pieces, and I was left wondering if I made the right decision to go Bohemian for my home style. But renovations were halfway through, and I was a bohemian at heart, so I used the Thai Baht that I had on clothes and other accessories instead.

I decided to get some garments made from Thai silk and came across this shop selling beautiful formal tops and dresses made with hand sewn stones. While browsing through the pieces, the lady inside the shop was using a long wooden pole with a metal hook to take down some pieces hung near the roof for another customer. As I saw her removing the piece out of the corner of my eye, I suddenly felt as if a piece of beam or the roof had fallen right on my head. Stunned, and in pain, the area where my head had been hit immediately swelled and grew a bruise.

Apparently the store woman, after removing the piece of clothing, had let the long wooden pole drop, careless to the fact that I was standing in its path. When she heard the "THWACK" and saw the bruise, she was immediately remorseful and guilty at her carelessness. I was stunned for quite a while and felt that my skull must have broken. It was a hard whack and I was in shock. Fearful at the damage she had caused, she kept apologizing and blabbering in Thai while shoving some fainting oil under my nose to shock me awake. I have hated the smell of that oil since I was young - pungent and sickeningly sweet - and she kept rubbing it all over my head and pushing it up almost right up my nostrils. As I gasped and wheezed, "No!" and "Enough!" which she obviously did not understand, I tried my best to let the full brunt of the shock come on so that it could go away.

I finally recovered enough to buy 2 pieces from her, although I must say that I have been in many accidents before, this was one that I truly worried about. Maybe I have watched too many episodes on CSI where many seemingly innocent whacks to the head were seemed as harmless but led to the death of the victim a few days later. I definitely plan to make a trip to the doctor's to get a check up - once I manage to clear all my urgent tasks! My only consolation was in knowing my purpose on earth was definitely not over - especially since I had no idea what it was - and that God wouldn't let me leave planet earth until my purpose was accomplished. Self-consolation if you will, but its sure better than fretting about bleeding to death on the inside of my head...