We are all that we have met.

I can’t believe that I’ll be leaving Thailand in less than 15 hours…and for the first time, I don’t even know where to begin this post.

I guess I’ll start with the little things that I’ve grown to love and will miss about my life here; the routine that I followed a few days a week, the weekend trips we’d spontaneously venture through, and everything else that became the “mundane.” For example, waking up each morning and seeing the sunrise by 6:00am while running a few miles and then training, which usually entailed lazing around and laughing when Ajaan (teacher) wasn’t looking. The image to the left reveals us horsing around for the camera while our teacher talks to a man! However, after suffering a plethora of bruises on our elbows and calves, it finally paid off and I am now officially certified in the fundamentals of the art of Muay Thai!

I’ll miss taking a motorcycle taxi to class every morning, or taxi cabs back to my apartment every night for a little over a dollar. I’ll yearn for the contagious generosity and jai yen yen (cool heart) of Thai people. Although frustrated by it at first, I have become so accustomed to the laid back atmosphere of the lifestyle here; so much so that I can easily imagine myself feeling more culture shock when I return to the fast paced life of the States. I’ll miss always requesting the DJ at clubs to play Job 2 Do (video posted below) so that all farangs and Thais could sing “doo dooo dooo doo tah tum” together.

Although the lack of any real structure in the curriculum of most of my classes might have caused my mind to dwindle academically in the past four months, I will miss the atmosphere of each of them. I’ll also miss the Rangsit campus and the street around it that is so easily accessible for delicious and cheap Oreo and fruit smoothies, internet cafes, and more markets, of course. I’ll miss our educational fieldtrips to puppet shows and Thai theatre, floating bazaars and historical ruins. Most of all, I’ll miss sharing a classroom with students of so many different cultures and the numerous opportunities I’ve had to befriend people who come from far off faces of the planet than me.

I’ll long for the real dollar-menu meals, especially fried tofu Indian curry with rice and cucumbers (my favorite Thai dish ever)! Nothing could be sweeter than Thai desserts like fresh mango and sticky rice with coconut milk or the various ripe, tropical fruits I could pick up on the street for 10 Baht (about 30 cents). Despite it all, it’ll be odd finding pizza and French fries and falafels with such ease in the States, whereas here we travel miles and miles to satisfy our farang-food cravings.

It’s going to be strange going back to the extravagant luxuries that is provided to us naturally in the States; hot showers, wireless internet connections everywhere, mosquitoless rooms, and having people actually understand me because I can at least speak English better than I can attempt to speak Thai! I don’t have to always carry toilet paper (or “winner paper,” as they refer to it here) in my purse (shown to the right) instead of running the risk of its absence in most toilets, the squatters especially. I also won’t have to carry Tiger Balm (similar to Zambuk) and deet bug repellent to prevent ninja mosquito attacks anywhere we go. What’s even stranger is knowing that it’s December but looking outside and seeing that it’s toasty during the “winter” of Thailand, which far surpasses California in terms of mildness.

I’ll miss the excuses to celebrate something and lack of excuses to get bored! For example, last week was the King’s birthday (and Durban Dada’s!) on December 5, which in turn is a national holiday. Masses of Thai people flooded to the beaches and we decided to join them because it was our last opportunity to relax (and study because it was the weekend before finals) on the smooth, white sands of Thai beaches. We went to Koh Samed and shared the shore with Europeans who didn’t wear enough clothing (even for the beach) as well as large groups of gay men who blasted music by Madonna, Rihanna and Cher on their portable radios and performed photo shoots of each other playing in the sand. I liked Koh Samed more than Koh Chang because the atmosphere was more social with a more diverse group of visitors and the island is smaller and easier to explore on foot. This week is graduation at Rangsit University so the streets are currently filled with vendors selling multicolored teddy bears and plump bouquets of sunflowers and roses. Despite the fact that there’s less than 1% of Thailand’s population is Christian or any form of it, I’ve seen Christmas trees everywhere; further establishing the theory that in Thailand, any excuse is fair-game to whip out more good food, music, and vendor-markets in the street!

However, despite all that I will miss here, I have so much to look forward to even within the next month and I can say that I am ready to go home. Now, I just have to overcome the process of the final goodbyes, which started too soon and hasn’t even hit its climax yet as well as the 24-hour expedition back to San Jose! Also, thank you all so much for reading my lengthy rants. I hope it’s been entertaining and informative. Also, keep in mind that the blogs will continue, as there are many adventures to come, even at home!

C

Thailand truly has everything; from festivals of all kinds rejoicing food, culture, dance, phases of the moon, and music, as well as beautiful beaches and exotic temples, fashion week, little rural towns, magnificent cultural theatres, fabulous shopping sprees, big cities and crazy drivers, to “shows” that promiscuously exhibit young and old women, prostitution, wild parties and bars that come alive in the darkness, and shady karaoke bars lit up like Mexican Restaurants. Since I’ve been in Thailand, I’ve noticed how much the ambiance alters as the sky turns dim. In the daylight, one can see the gold and red glitz of meticulously constructed temples (there are so many around Thailand because one can gain merit by contributing to the construction of a temple). One can also visit a crowded market that vends saccharine Thai desserts of all colors, attend a Buddhist festival celebrating the vegetarianism, or explore one of the most lavish and affluent shopping malls in Thailand that showcase labels like Gucci and Prada: Central World or Siam Paragon. Then under the stars, one can hear music in the distance from karaoke bars and night clubs that host lady boys and and range of other people wanting to have an amusing time. I obviously don’t partake in half of it nor do I believe it in, but I can’t help but appreciate it because it’s a unique addition of multiplicity to life in Thailand. Everyday here is new and exciting, even if it entails me going to class and training for Muay Thai; I’m always meeting new locals, trying a different, delicious Thai dish or discovering one I’ve been hankering for (like Falafels!) somewhere close by, while attaining a new level of awareness, gratitude, and fitness. The images above illustrates one of my friends lighting our little krathong during the Loy Krathong festival and the second is of my Muay Thai teacher, Yod, demonstrating a fierce jump-knee to the chin!

The customs and traditions here aren’t always understandable to me but in most cases, it’s because they’re so different. For instance, a lady named Boi, who is a hairdresser at a salon called “So Cute” across from Rangsit, has an extracurricular activity to “gain merit.” My comprehension of reaping merit in Buddhism is achieved by doing gracious things for others, accumulating good karma and therefore earning a spot in “heaven.” Boi racks up her merit by sitting and waiting on the streets of Bangkok (areas that experience a lot of crashes and pedestrian injuries or deaths) and cleans up bodies or body parts after a car accident (because somebody’s got to do it). I don’t understand why they can’t find ways to prevent the crashes to begin with by helping people cross the road or making street signs.

Near where I live, there’s a spot lit up with neon purple and pink lights, which essentially attracted my friends and to visit it. We were hoping it was a Mexican restaurant with a menu listing nachos, salsa, and burritos, or at least French fries. We enter awkwardly to a stage with girls singing karaoke and a room blocked off by a dark tint on the windows, as well as tables and chairs. We quickly realized it was not what we thought but we proceeded to order a few snacks and drinks since we were there. Observing the activities that went on, we noticed that at least three girls would perform a short lip-sink on the stage but only some of them would receive a garland of flowers to decorate their necks by the end of the tune. Those very girls would step off the stage and step into the company of a man. Those we didn’t receive a garland went up again a few minutes later. We concluded that the garlands meant that they were purchased, for lack of a better word, by a spectator. We ate our fries and left as soon as possible. On the way out, I noticed a collections of Polaroid pictures portraiting the girls; a menu, perhaps? It was difficult to see how uncomfortable and uninterested the girls were on stage, in short and tight, velvety dresses and dominatrix boots. I’ve since learned that karaoke in Thailand is more than goons trying to sing to their preferred tunes, but it’s typically associated with prostitution.

Prostitution in Thailand first was mentioned in the West in reports as early as the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the Vietnam War, Thailand has gained international notoriety among travelers from many countries as a sex tourism destination. A polygamist tradition of “mia noi” (“minor wives”) at least amongst the wealthier elites including the Thai royalty existed until modern times and still does today. MP Thirachai Sirikhan, a Thai politician, has said that “to have a mia noi (mistress) is an individual’s right. There should be no problem as long as the politician causes no trouble to his family or society.” Consequently, visiting a prostitute or paid mistress is considered common, and many Thai women believe that prostitution actively reduces the incidence of rape. Prostitution has been technically illegal in Thailand since 1960, when a law was passed under pressure from the United Nations. However, the prohibition is seldom enforced. Instead, the government has instituted a system of monitoring sex workers in order to prevent their mistreatment and to control the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Prostitution in Thailand exists because of several factors; the economic cause is the lack of employment opportunities for large numbers of uneducated rural women, particularly during the period of the Vietnam War when a large number of US troops passed through Thailand. Another reason is that ordinary Thais deem themselves tolerant of other people, especially those who they perceive as downtrodden. This acceptance has allowed prostitution to flourish without much of the extreme social stigma found as in other countries. Thais may view prostitution as an opportunity for a woman to meet a rich farang who could take her back to the West and give her a luxurious and comfortable life beyond that in Thailand. However, the most important reason for prostitution being a lasting industry in Thailand is that many Thai men of all levels of society, especially government officials, actively protect and promote the sex industry, the latter through entertainment-related media and activities such as massage parlors, pool bars, and karaoke bars.

The good news is that Thailand has made progress on decreasing AIDs/HIV rates within the country. The photo above shows me at Cabbages and Condoms Restaurant in Bangkok. The restaurant is owned by Thailand’s Population and Community Development Association, a nonprofit founded in the ’70s to promote family planning.  The group’s leader, Mechai Viravaida, took to the nation’s streets and airwaves to talk about safe sex and the importance of wearing condoms. To fight taboos against discussing the subject, he often used the playful tone that’s evident at Cabbages & Condoms, for instance, taking a condom (instead of a mint) after dinner (and you can choose from republican or democratic condoms) as well as figurines made entired of condoms and birth control pills.

A few kids in my program have attended an infamous form of entertainment called the “Ping Pong Show.” It sounds fun at first because for me, I think table tennis! However, it’s nothing of that sort. Thai people, especially the taxi drivers, believe (maybe even accurately) that foreigners love these shows and there have been numerous instances where we’ve been advised to witness one. What these are essentially, are girls (mostly young) exhibiting various skills, I guess you could say, with their vaginas; from shooting fire darts to cracking up bottles with bottle-caps. I haven’t been to one myself but I can’t imagine the distress I’d experience being in the same stadium. However, I figure, it’s probably better to be out there than in bed with 20 different men carrying possibly 10 different diseases every day and night.

Until next…