The [Airport] Bars are Temples...

...and the god's a he...

These fetching gentlemen are only a small part of a much larger and more elaborate sculpture that greets the weary traveler in the departure area of Bangkok's very festive Suvarnabhumi International Airport, of which I can now say that if I have to be in an airport at 3:30 in the morning, than this one one could do worse.  And the one in the middle can tote my dragon's tail any time he wants.

I'd say the juxtaposition of piety in the form of such vivid graven images and the opportunity to pick up something chic from Auntie Coco there meant something, but it's too early to wax eloquent about contemporary consumerism.

The bars aren't open, more's the pity, but at least that most civilized of modern life's appurtenances, the premium executive lounge, is, and so I'm sitting here at this ungodly hour having a Bloody Mary and preparing once again be hurled across continents and oceans.  A shorter journey, today, at least, as I'm overnighting in Japan (Golden Handcuffs may be cheap in-flight, but at least they're generous with the rest-stops).  I can only hope to run across something half so toothsome at Narita...