Travelogues by Bill Pfeil
Bangkok
December, '05
Monsoon floods mid-peninsula clouded daytime motorcycle exploring this beautiful Gulf coast. Lot of time in stilt farmhouse so big dose of family this trip. As my relationship with Mee grows, greater also is the pressure to support her dysfunctional family. Her saying" 'to love me is to love my family' may be the Thai way, but it is not a strong argument to me. Now at the farm, in addition to good-for-nothing uncles hanging around for a handout, is a teenage niece who just sits and eats, now lugging a slobbering baby likely destined for good-for-nothingness too. I am friendly as heck but, sorry, will not budge 1 baht, and don't want to be around such nonsense. So next trip south, I will stay in a $4/day beach bungalow by brief beautiful motorcycle ride up the coast. Mee is temporarily into pout mode.
Back in Bangkok for last few days this trip. The ancient ornate temples are the main tourist fare. Taxis and tuk-tuks (3-wheel scooters) fill the crowded sweltering streets. Skytrain to/from apartment is like a Disneyland ride. River and canal taxis slam against old tires roped to the docks and require quick jumping. I like running/walking at Queen's Park in the heart of the city. An interesting volleyball game called 'ta kaw' is played with foot and head only, using a woven wicker ball a bit larger than a softball. At 8 am and 6 pm in public facilities and broadcasts, Thailand stops for their National Anthem, wiitten by their loved current King Rama IX.
Inexpensive movie theaters and film festivals. The open air markets are world famous. Food courts in malls and office buildings are good to study Thai and watch the endless puuying (girl) parade. Noodle shops and food pushcarts and street venders are everywhere. The bars, go-go joints, massage parlors and discos are a small part of this fascinating city, but unfortunately account for a disproportionately large foreign impression. I am embarrassed at the quality of some tourist men who come to this permissive society. Some defeated-looking ones are hauling huge hulks of angry protoplasm called wives.
Mee convinced me to keep an apartment in Bangkok because at 3,000 baht per month ($75/mo), just staying infrequently it is cheaper than a hotel. I am the only foreigner in this Thai neighborhood. There are no apparent zoning laws so fancy mansions behind gates coexist with shanties along the maze of narrow cement thoroughfares. Laundry is hung from tiny balconies (including ours) in our 10 storey building. Kids careen down the hallway in their tricycles, and loud Thai music is incessant. A walk to 20 baht/hour internet shops and noodle kiosks. Mee’s friends are in the building, so an open door means to come in. They are always happy eating super-spicy food, laughing at trivia, complaining about their boyfriends and tone-deaf attempts at karaoke I see and hear a lot about Thai culture. You have to like a culture whose word for having sex is ‘boom-boom.’ [We have given up this apartment because we are seldom here.]
Even the mundane here is magical to me because it is, and always will be, so foreign.
Homeward soon. Looking foward to farmwork. Thailand is 17 hours ahead of Hawaii. So by clock and calendar, my arrival in Honolulu is a few minutes before departure from Bangkok.
Bill's Farm, Box 317, Kaunakakai, Hawaii 96748
Phone: 808-567-6734
Email: BillPfeil@yahoo.com
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