I wonder if I'll make it to work tomorrow...




I arrived in Bangkok yesterday to do color-grading for a TV commercial. Tonight I walked out of the post facility and heard about the protests closing the airport down. I was floored because everything here seemed so peaceful and normal, except for the elephant I saw walking along the freeway - that was strange.

Then again, I've mostly been shooting in Saigon lately, where the streets (and sidewalks) are a pure chaos of motorbikes - so my perspective may be skewed somewhat. Anyway, my flight was for tomorrow, but it looks like I might be staying a little longer than planned.

At least I won't have to take a bus like I did earlier this week when my flight to Saigon was cancelled because of severe thunderstorms. That was bad. I got off the bus at 4:30am and started work at 5am.

I'm beginning to suspect I'm a magnet for these kinds of things.

The best example was the time in Baja Mexico when a hurricane struck on the second to last day of shooting. Houses were floating down the river. One of the actors caught a fish - while sitting on the toilet in his hotel room. Instead of a wrap party I found myself helping rescue ex-pat retirees from the floodwaters while drinking from a looted bottle of Courvoisier. Actually, that was pretty fun. One of the high points of my life.

I digress. I guess I'll make the best of the situation here. Maybe I'll visit a museum. Maybe I'll take a tour, especially since in my trips to Bangkok so far I've mostly seen the inside of a telecine room and the view out my hotel room window. There have been some taxi rides. But I hate taxis.

Maybe I'll misbehave. I've heard Bangkok offers ample opportunities in this regard. Doh! Did I just put that in writing? In reality, Bangkok is not, as I had been led to believe, a red light district of metropolitan scale. Also I've no need to go looking for trouble, it finds me without difficulty.

People talk about wanting to have adventures. Personally, I don't think that means what they think it means. An adventure is mostly a pain in the neck that makes for a good story after it's over.

Anyway, I'd better go to sleep just in case my flight isn't cancelled and I actually make it to work tomorrow.

No comments: