Bangkok- family style discomfort

I'm now hollering at you from my room at HKUST. If I turn my head 90 degrees to the left, I will look out upon the beautiful Clearwater Bay- a view that rivals any vacation spot I have ever been to. One of these days, I will get some good pictures of this place. It is absurd.
After watching BC take care of business against UNC in basketball on espn.com, I finally have a couple of minutes to update you all on this wild far-eastern adventure. My mom and Jackie took off yesterday... it was a shame that they had to leave, but we had a great time together. It was nice to finally spend some time with my little sister. Being away from home so often, I have missed seeing her grow into the beautiful girl that she is- despite her New Canaan arrogance and sense of entitlement. It's fun to see.
Last time I posted, we were on our way to the great city of Bangkok. Other than knowing it's reputation as the sex capital of the world, home to an ever-growing population of tansvestites, I didn't have any idea what to expect. It wasn't really anything that I had prepared for.
We stayed in the beautiful JW Marriott hotel, which was an oasis of cleanliness in a expanse of filth. The city was very dirty, and the locals were typically interested in ripping us off anyway they could. I didn't blame them- after all, we were naive westerners, and they were trying to survive. Nevertheless, we always had to be on our guard.
While in Bangkok, we saw a couple sites of particular interest. On our way to the Grand Palace, we cruised up the Chao Phraya river on a "tourist boat." Despite surrendering my dignity by departing on such a vessel, the views of the river were interesting. Each shoreline was lined with markets and temples, so I was busy snapping away pictures. Upon arrival at the Grand Palace, we had a number of locals trying to convince us that the Grand Palace was closed for a Buddhist celebration until later on in the afternoon. Their intent was to scam us away from the Grand Palace and into a cab with them, at which point they could take all that we had and leave us naked on a street corner to be ingested by malaria-plagued misquitoes (probably not the case, but my imagination wanders).
Having been forewarned about such scams by our trusty guidebook, we shunned the locals and entered the gates of the Grand Palace. Dressed in the customary pants required to enter such sacred sites, I was sweating bullets immediately. My discomfort could not retract from the views that were encircled by the gates. I have attached a couple of pictures to give you a sense. I found it particularly interesting that they dressed the Buddha in the temple according to the season. Being winter, he was wearing a robe.
Other than the Royal Palace, Jim Thompson's house was really neat. Jim Thompson was an American, born in Delaware and educated at Yale I think, who went over to Thailand in World War II. While over there, he discovered the beauty of Thai silk and became the distributor of the material to merchants worldwide. In effect, he brought the Thai silk business to the rest of the world, and the country commemorates him at his old house, which is now a museum. The house is decorated with all kinds of cool Chinese art and was fun to see.
Any trip to Thailand would not be complete without getting an Original Thai Massage. There was a place in the Lonely Planet Travel Book that came highly recommended. The location of this place was vague, at best, and trying to find it in a city full of non-english-speaking scammers proved to be a tall task. To my Mom's extreme displeasure, I found a place that seemed "close-enough" to the right place.
I honestly don't know how to explain the location of this place to you. But, try to imagine taking your mother to the worst parts of Harlem, walking a street where everyone was staring at you speaking another language, and forcing her into a shop surrounded by shops displaying freshly cut beef and pork hanging on a string outside- on the hunch that a storefront with a hand written sign "Original Thai Massage" had to be a legitimate venue.
The only reason my Mom entered was because she feared staying on the street alone, and was unwilling to allow me and Jackie into the place unattended. Hey- whatever it takes to get her in the door. The message was amazing- the highlight of my trip. For an hour message, it cost the equivalent of six American dollars for each of us. For all I know, the attractive woman that I allowed to bend me every which way was probably a transvestite- ignorance is bliss right. On to Singapore