Monday, October 16, 2006
The Book Barge
Oct. 13
We had seen advertisements for a large “book barge”, the Doulos, that would be docked at the Bangkok Harbor. It was billed as the world’s largest floating bookstore. Apparently it travels all around the world and now it was docked in Bangkok. We went with several friends from BIOTEC including Jennifer, Suchada, Air and Boonchan.
Well as it turns out it is an evangelical Christian book barge, a fact that was not provided in any of the advertising we saw. The purpose of the book barge is to convert people to Christianity and fund it by selling books. I guess what really bugs me is that a little truth in advertising seems appropriate here. I also think everyone, including Christians, stands to learn something from the Buddhists. As it turns out the “deck hands” were not too intense, they had ice cream and they had a lot of books. Probably half were Christian books – all the music was - but there were plenty of general literature, textbooks, cookbooks, etc. After perusing the books Elizabeth and the kids did find books that they wanted and that were good resources for home schooling. I even saw a small group of books by Oscar Wilde, which seemed a bit out of character for this book barge. Anna is a teenager now so I gave her a quick lecture on alternative authors of the 19th century.
It was interesting being down on the docks. Bangkok is on the Chao Phraya River. It is the major river of Thailand and is the river that drains almost the entire country. (Some of the east drains into the Mekong.) The Chao Phraya is definitely a working river. I would not want to swim in it and I don't want to know how much fish I have eaten out of it. Hopefully all the sweating I've been doing has a purifying effect. Up until recently most of the city lived along the river and its canals or klongs. Bangkok was often referred to as the Venice of the East. But now with cars and highways, much of that is gone.
After the book barge we headed back to our section of town (Ari) and we all had lunch at one of the street cafeterias. The BIOTEC gang was leaving the next day for Vietnam for a research trip so they left right after lunch to pack. It was hot so after lunch we enjoyed a nice refreshing swim at out apartment pool. We are getting spoiled by the pool. Its going to be tough giving it up when its time to head back to the States. After swimming we had dinner and watched a movie – Wild Wild West. -- Joey
We had seen advertisements for a large “book barge”, the Doulos, that would be docked at the Bangkok Harbor. It was billed as the world’s largest floating bookstore. Apparently it travels all around the world and now it was docked in Bangkok. We went with several friends from BIOTEC including Jennifer, Suchada, Air and Boonchan.Well as it turns out it is an evangelical Christian book barge, a fact that was not provided in any of the advertising we saw. The purpose of the book barge is to convert people to Christianity and fund it by selling books. I guess what really bugs me is that a little truth in advertising seems appropriate here. I also think everyone, including Christians, stands to learn something from the Buddhists. As it turns out the “deck hands” were not too intense, they had ice cream and they had a lot of books. Probably half were Christian books – all the music was - but there were plenty of general literature, textbooks, cookbooks, etc. After perusing the books Elizabeth and the kids did find books that they wanted and that were good resources for home schooling. I even saw a small group of books by Oscar Wilde, which seemed a bit out of character for this book barge. Anna is a teenager now so I gave her a quick lecture on alternative authors of the 19th century.
It was interesting being down on the docks. Bangkok is on the Chao Phraya River. It is the major river of Thailand and is the river that drains almost the entire country. (Some of the east drains into the Mekong.) The Chao Phraya is definitely a working river. I would not want to swim in it and I don't want to know how much fish I have eaten out of it. Hopefully all the sweating I've been doing has a purifying effect. Up until recently most of the city lived along the river and its canals or klongs. Bangkok was often referred to as the Venice of the East. But now with cars and highways, much of that is gone.After the book barge we headed back to our section of town (Ari) and we all had lunch at one of the street cafeterias. The BIOTEC gang was leaving the next day for Vietnam for a research trip so they left right after lunch to pack. It was hot so after lunch we enjoyed a nice refreshing swim at out apartment pool. We are getting spoiled by the pool. Its going to be tough giving it up when its time to head back to the States. After swimming we had dinner and watched a movie – Wild Wild West. -- Joey
# posted by Joe Spatafora @ 9:19 AM 
