Bond and Batik with Baj

Last week, my friend Baj was headed back to Toronto, so before he left, we got together to see a bit more of esoteric Washington. Baj was very interested in going to the Textile Museum to see their temporary exhibit of Southeastern Asian textiles, so we went over there. The textiles were from very southeastern Asia, like Indonesia, Borneo, New Guinea, and so forth. I found it very interesting how in many of these cultures, they wove magical designs into their cloth and there were special designs and even colors which were reserved to the royalty. Some of the designs are incredibly ornate and filled with rich colors.

After the Textile Museum, we headed over to the International Spy Museum in the Gallery Place area. The Spy Museum has to be one of the most interesting museums in D.C. If any of you comes to D.C. to play tourist, put this place at the top of your list, even before the stereotypical Smithsonian places. They have a temporary exhibit right now on domestic terrorism that started way back with assassination attempts on General Washington during the Revolution, and come forward to the present day, that was narrated with a portable headset. Then, in the main museum, most exhibits were motion-activated and showed all kinds of spying equipment and devices. Did you know that espionage goes back to biblical times and is mentioned in the Bible? The World War II and Cold War eras produced some particularly interesting and creative "toys." They also had several of the cars and special equipment from the earlier James Bond movies. Some of the fun stuff included the history of cryptography going back as far as Alexander the Great. Marie Antoinette and Thomas Jefferson had special cypher of their own, too. Anyway, even though the Spy Museum is private and one of the few places in D.C. that charge admission, it's well worth the visit. Be careful, though to avoid times when the museum is full of children. They sell tickets at specific times, and it can be packed, especially on weekends.