Thailand & Indonesia July 2005

For years now we've been hawking our wares on TV with the slogan "we travel the world so you don't have to," all the while insisting that "sometimes it's glamourous, but mostly it's not." Straight off the bat I need to clear the air and admit that this swing through Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore required a bit of an adjustment in our spiel. Don't get me wrong, we still hit all the off-the-beaten-path warehouses and factories we usually visit, but when Beau and I checked into The Peninsula in Bangkok and were upgraded to a suite overlooking the river we realized we better adapt to a "sometimes it's not" instead of a "mostly it's not" strategy for our commercials. Truth in advertising, you know.

Most of you never bought the old line anyway. Even eating bugs in South Korea has glamour attached (depending on the sauce). And most everyone would put up with a bucket-of-bolts ferry boat to get to see some of the islands in Indonesia. So we hit the ground running in a hot, muggy and flop-sweat inducing Bangkok. I may have had sweat rings under my arms and Beau had to borrow pants to get into the royal palace, but all-in-all, admittedly glamorous.

We get a number of things for Homescapes from Thailand, though we're not the direct importer, so Beau and I took the opportunity to check out the sites, the temples, the river markets and generally just get a feel for the place. Bangkok was a stop-over on our buying trip to Indonesia, and we got lucky while there and stumbled across some once-a-year religious ceremonies and festivals that made the trip more memorable than a mere layover.They seem to hold their Emerald Buddha in high esteem, though it's actually jade and teeny. We knew enough to sit with our feet pointing away from Buddha and we were happy to hear the chanting and the service in person.All the monks in saffron robes and shaved heads may seem exotic to a rube like me, but they're part of the daily life here.

We only had a few days in Bangkok before heading over to Bali, but we were able to get out of town for a while and managed to tour through a couple of factories. But clearly you know you're in tourist-trap world when handicrafts in Thailand that we sell in Carmel cost MORE in their source country than they do in Homescapes. I guess it's all in who you know. Indonesia, though, was more successful for product than ever before.

Finally we found a manufacturer (in this case for lighting) who actually produces from Bali, so now there's an actual reason to go there instead of using that island for R&R. People have asked for years about our trips to Bali and what we find there, and we actually go to the sources that the Balinese shop-keepers buy at in Java so until this trip we've always used Bali for Bintang Beer and mingling with Australians. But not any more...phew. (And the lights are great.) We hit our vendors throughout Java and added handicrafts from Yogyakarta to the mix so we're set for the fall and winter merchandise-wise, in case you were worried that the trip was all fun and games. And we were able to make side trips to Borobudur and Prambanan, so again the "sometimes it's glamorous" bit outnumbered the "not"s.

Actually, the best part was in the Hindu temple of Prambanan (Borobudur is the world's largest Buddhist temple and it's only about an hour a way...clearly there's been a few dominant religions in Java as it's now mostly Islam). While Beau and I were checking out Prambanan we were continually mobbed by schoolkids wanting their pictures with us. I've been an oddity in many a country by now, so it's not that I've never been asked to pose and smile with unknown locals before...heck I'm sure my mug is smiling from fridges all over the world at this point, but I was surprised that Americans would seem exotic to Javanese considering the amount of business that transpires between the two countries.

Oh well...I just wish I'da had "dress shields." I've made a career of representing sweaty Americans. At least in Sanur, Beau and I ended up with our own traditional style rooms in a courtyard with a private swimming pool...for $60 dollars a night. Heck, pretty soon we'll be reduced to filming commercials that say "Homescapes, Carmel...don't you wish you were us, nyeah, nyeah."