Number 4 on the Top 10 Most Unusual...: The Giant Swing. Why stop at only the Medical Museum? Why not make a day of Unusual Bangkok?
So I hoof-it to the Giant Swing. According to the Top 10 website (and I realize that anyone can post anything on the internet):
"The focal point of an ancient Brahmin ritual thanking the God Shiva for the rice harvest, participants used to swing 80 feet into the air while attempting to grab a bag of silver with their teeth -- until King Rama VII banned the practice due to the many deaths."
Continuing on my merry little, macabre way, I walk to the The Corrections Museum, number 7 on The List.
The Corrections Museum bizarrely documents the corporal punishment tools employed by Thailand in the not-so-distant past.
The place is empty. Deserted. The last visitor signed in days ago. Not a soul around as I timidly step up to the outside exhibit and peer cautiously through the locked gate. A guard appears, and unlocks the gate. He tugs at the metal door until it opens with a groan. He beckons me inside...He's grinning...
Me. Alone. In an abandoned torture museum. With gates that lock. With no one else around. I glance at the guard. I glance at the gate. The Guard. The Gate. No Effing Way!
In a panic, I gracelessly thank the guard for his efforts and view the individual displays from OUTSIDE the locked gates. The most disconcerting of them all (and believe me, they're plenty disconcerting) is the elephant ball torture device. Prisoners were placed inside the weaved sphere, which is lined with long, rusty nails. The apparatus was then placed in a courtyard of elephants which would kick it around for sport.
Once again, Be careful out there!
I depart hastily. Bangkok is NOT for the feint-of-heart.
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