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Other entries in Bangkok

speachless

I've written it before:  it takes a lot to disturb me

maybe the last time was those blended live toads in peru. well...I found a strong candidate to take over the number one spot: the siriraj medical museum in bangkok. and guess I can't dis the lonely planet any more cause that's where I heard about it.

will upload pics soon. for now, just have to do my best to describe it. imagine a medical version of the artist damien hirst - you know, the guy who sliced a cow into ten-or-so core samples and encased each one in glass?

so these doctors at the siriraj hospital - for whatever reason - decided to highlight all the diseases and deformities passing through their doors by setting up these musuems. I think they actually felt proud of their work and wanted to show the world....fair nuf... in theory, sounds great. in reality, pretty harsh.

imagine every disease you can think of, to any organ you have. now imagine loads more you never even knew existed. now take these organs out of the - obviously- diseased patients and store them in these -actually sort-of cool - plastic containers full of what? formaldahyde? beetle juice?  now put all these glass containers on display. let them get sort of mankey cause they've been in these containers for like thirty years. now call yourself a museum, charge admission and wow - do'nt mean to dishonour the dead, but you have a bona-fide freak show.

as if the organs-under-glass weren't hard enough - cause half the time you really can't tell what they are so it was more surreal than real - the museum has all these stillborn babies with birth defects and deformities under glass too. this part was especially sad and hard to deal with cause they weren't pictures - they were real. with things like medical wrist bands written in thai still intact on their arms. I really couldn't absorb this much more. lots of peeps had left offerings - even sliding coins behind the glass doors on the cases. if this was my religion, I would've done it too....so sad.

and this was just the pathological museum. next was forensics: police file photos, weapons, mumified rapists, skull trauma, severed limbs under glass, real human skeletons - including the original director who opened this museum in the first place. clearly this dude believed in what he was doing to agree to put HIS bones on display too..

next was an exhibit on the hospital's role in the tsunami. their graphic tendencies extended to the videos they showed but the most interesting part was how they described the coordination efforts of identifying bodies - remember, this is the forensics' museum. ironically, criminals probably got IDd the fastest cause they're the ones with finger prints on file. but had never heard of or thought of what goes into identifying bodies - nor how important it is. collecting personal effects, taking samples, creating an ID system. when WHO finally showed up, they were impressed at how the hospital just figured out what needed to be done, despite ever working a disaster of this size. I'm sure this had a huge effect on families identifying their loved ones.

so bottom line, an insanely intense day. these are images I won't shake from my mind anytime soon. really wish more of the exhibits were in english cause despite the gore, it would have been good to learn more. but as it was, for sure the most unique museum I've been to this whole trip.

ps - petros just uploaded our pics, check em out if you can stomach it: http://www.ballofdirt.com/entries/14455/198771.html

after that, we needed to find our happy place. luckily, there was a dunkin' donuts across the street - nuthin like a good sugar fix to feel better. then we stumbled towards koa san road - backpacker central - for beers and people watching. with a good buzz, I was more than happy to haggle for new shoes, haggle for a tuk-tuk ride home - never mind the driver still tried to extort us for more money. but no worries - sort-of expected it. and all good prep for india.

what an unforgettable last day in bkk.

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