Bangkok
First, about the food: I'm not going to get to the food until I have more data. Suffice it to say, there is an incredible array of weird (duck's beaks, flower salads, butterfly pea soda) and delicious (red curry sauce with roasted duck chunks, flakes of dried pork, and salted egg--that's one dish) food here.
Second, let me say something about Bangkok.
I'm not going to intersperse lines of the song from Chess into this post--too obvious. So instead, I'll intersperse lines from Rammstein's "du hast."
As is well known, "du hast"--"you hate"--begins with the lines (translated from the German), "You/You hate/You hate me/You hate me to say/You hate me to say/And I did not obey."Well, that's a lot like Bangkok. I had heard so much about how everyone in Thailand is so friendly, no one loses their cool, Thailand's main industry is tourism, etc., but don't believe it. Well, believe that no one loses their cool and that Thailand's main industry is tourism, but don't believe that everyone is so friendly. It's not that everyone is friendly. It's that everyone smiles.
Walking through Bangkok at any time of day, if you're a white person, is like walking through a city where everyone in the service industry constantly tries to bend your ear, begging you to realize that you're taking a taxi or a tuk tuk or that you want fine jewelry. Really, it's exactly like that. It's eerie.
Everyone wants you to do something, and they're always smiling, but it's just a facade; you know how, when you're on a desert island, your friends start looking like roasted chicken legs? Well in Thailand almost everyone has been deserted by their money, and tourists look like big, ambulatory, burlap sacks with dollar signs on them. All the Thais want to do is convince you to take a ride in their tuk tuk and then open you up and scoop out your insides.
Not only is that, well, objectifying, but it means that the city is really, at the end of it, a very unfriendly place. You can't ask anyone for help because they either don't speak English, or if they do, they will not help you, but instead take you to their jewelry store. Consequently, when you're feeling bedraggled because of the unlabeled streets, the congestion, the pollution, and the innumberable specks of crap that float through the city and land, over and over again, in your eyes, you don't feel like this is, as Rammstein has it, a city that will "Be upright to her forever".
That said, wife and I are really looking forward to Chang Mai. It's supposedly much more laid back. I'll let you know tomorrow or the next day.
Second, let me say something about Bangkok.
I'm not going to intersperse lines of the song from Chess into this post--too obvious. So instead, I'll intersperse lines from Rammstein's "du hast."
As is well known, "du hast"--"you hate"--begins with the lines (translated from the German), "You/You hate/You hate me/You hate me to say/You hate me to say/And I did not obey."Well, that's a lot like Bangkok. I had heard so much about how everyone in Thailand is so friendly, no one loses their cool, Thailand's main industry is tourism, etc., but don't believe it. Well, believe that no one loses their cool and that Thailand's main industry is tourism, but don't believe that everyone is so friendly. It's not that everyone is friendly. It's that everyone smiles.
Walking through Bangkok at any time of day, if you're a white person, is like walking through a city where everyone in the service industry constantly tries to bend your ear, begging you to realize that you're taking a taxi or a tuk tuk or that you want fine jewelry. Really, it's exactly like that. It's eerie.
Everyone wants you to do something, and they're always smiling, but it's just a facade; you know how, when you're on a desert island, your friends start looking like roasted chicken legs? Well in Thailand almost everyone has been deserted by their money, and tourists look like big, ambulatory, burlap sacks with dollar signs on them. All the Thais want to do is convince you to take a ride in their tuk tuk and then open you up and scoop out your insides.
Not only is that, well, objectifying, but it means that the city is really, at the end of it, a very unfriendly place. You can't ask anyone for help because they either don't speak English, or if they do, they will not help you, but instead take you to their jewelry store. Consequently, when you're feeling bedraggled because of the unlabeled streets, the congestion, the pollution, and the innumberable specks of crap that float through the city and land, over and over again, in your eyes, you don't feel like this is, as Rammstein has it, a city that will "Be upright to her forever".
That said, wife and I are really looking forward to Chang Mai. It's supposedly much more laid back. I'll let you know tomorrow or the next day.
posted by Bobcat at
4:59 AM
1 Comments:
Is Shawn having a good time? We love reading the blog and feel that we are on the trip. Maggie just adores Thailand and I am wondering why. She wanted to buy a condominium there and retire there. She now says that it is too expensive. You have been there four days and I hope that you will have a more relaxing time during the next few days. We three went to The Greene for lunch today and had fish at MacCormics and Schmicks. The food is very nice a lot better than Red Lobster. I had salmon cakes and Joseph had grilled salmon on a wonderful salad, and Daddo had scallop and shrimp Alfredo. Pretty good. We ate baked brie with mango chutney for appetizer. When you and Shawn come to Dayton we must go there. Any pictures of you two on your honeymoon? I am sure you are taking plenty of photos. Well for now that is all. Keep writing. How is the hotel? Much love mom.
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