THREE STOREY BROTHEL

With one of my good friends in town as well as Claire, I felt it was a good chance to have a look at ‘all-sides’ of Bangkok, so we headed off to one of the sex-tourism areas.

On Soi 5, near Nana BTS station is the ‘Nana Entertainment Complex’. It’s a three storey, courtyard/dead-end street surrounded on all sides by brothels, strip joints, and brothel-bars.

The courtyard, and front of the ground floor is the preserve of bars, in which you could easily meet the women of your night. Fat white men with bum-bags abounded, many with young women paying them attention within minutes. At the table close to where we settled for a drink we saw a man, in an American university t-shirt, playing Connect Four with one of the girls (Connect Four-play), and being rewarded for winning. Back from the front bars and on other floors exist the strip joints, and women with numbers on their bikinis from whom you can place orders.

We stayed for a drink, decided that we’d learnt enough, and left.

AYUTTHAYA AGAIN

Claire and I went up to Ayutthaya (for me, again) so that she could see the ancient capital.

In addition to the ruins I saw last time, we entered Wat Ratchanna that I hadn’t been into before. We climbed the Chedi (central tower thingy), and saw there that it was possible to enter into the central burial chamber. Two storeys down, and underneath a pile of 500 year old bricks with no support, there’s a small chamber with a mosaic in red and black. The kings body was buried here along with treasure and Buddhist artefacts, most of which was looted and the remainder of which are at the nearby museum.

Again we headed to my favourite bar in Thailand, only to find it closed…so we had to go to the bar with LIVE BLUES playing across the road. I love this town! The lead singer, a Thai guy, had the glasses and mullet of the off-sider in Wayne’s World. By the time we got there he was very drunk, having a great time, and dedicating every song to his wife, Frances, who’s birthday it was.

PHATTAYA PICS

Pics to go with the last entry. Damn computers.

PHATTAYA AGAIN

Work took me and Claire to Pattaya the day after her arrival in Thailand. Staying in a $100 a night resort, right on the beach, for nothing was a nice bonus and a great way to start the trip. I think Claire got the best of the deal, as I had to sit in a conference while she sat on the beach. The resort had one of those cool pools on top of a cliff that seem to merge into the ocean. At night we ate in the restaurant and looked out over the gulf of Thailand.

In the evenings we headed to the pool and/or the beach to relax and talk about wonderful nothing. One night we grabbed a couple of drinks from a beach bar and settled into beach-lounges (I know there’s a proper name, but I just can’t nail it now). After the first sip of a G&T the first ‘Fuck you. Get out of my life.’ Shot over our head. Followed quickly by ‘You no good. You do nothing. Go away. Fuck you.’ Surreptitiously we snuck a look over our shoulder to see the Thai manageress of the bar yelling at her old, white falang partner. The tirade went on for 20 minutes before she hit on the epoch of ‘Fuck you, fuck head, fuck off.’

He said something to us in Russian that we ignored and trudged away, only to return 5 minutes later, perhaps realising that only a pair of swimming shorts is not enough property with which to start a new life.

On the last night we decided to take in the local ‘cultural experience’ and went to see a Khatoey (‘ladyboy’) show. The sets and costumes were spectacular, I must admit I couldn’t always tell the difference, and I would have put up with the Thai-Kylie music if only the ladyboy’s had not looked so tired and bored. We made it 10mins before bailing out. On the way home we took an open-truck taxi, which went right through the heart (‘heart’ – probably not an applicable term) of Pattaya’s sex industry which is arrayed around the beach. Fat white old men with young Thai girls abounded, Claire was appalled, and I zoned out.

CLAIRE ARRIVES

Claire flew in today for a four week stay in Thailand. From the moment I picked her up at the airport, she so nervous that I wouldn’t be there on time that she nearly walked into me after leaving customs, things have been great.

By the time I wrote this she’s been here two weeks now and we continue to just potter along in our way together, talking, laughing, silent occasionally. We’ve been to Pattaya, Ayuthaya, she’s seen the sights of Bangkok (entries later), and boy have we shopped. We’re offer to Chang Mai this Wednesday, and then Cambodia for 9 days from Saturday.

I don’t know what more to say about it, other than things have continued as normal, and it’s been great having someone to come home to in the evenings.

DISCOVERING THAILAND

The area I had been living in, Phaya Thai, was a major highway, cement, a few restaurants and a banana-pancake man operating underneath the skytrain statation.

I had noticed a lot of Thai people coming off the skytrain and heading into what looked like a bank at all hours of the day, so being curious I followed them. They were going in the front of the bank carpark, and out the back entrance into a world of street stalls, markets, food, smells, neon colour and thousands of people. I wandered around for ten minutes and didn't see another white person. I felt like I'd gone through the Narnia wardrobe into another world.

Colour moved everywhere, the streets were lined with food stalls, and there wasn’t a single white face to be seen. After 4 months of being here I felt like I’d finally found a little bit of Bangkok that hasn’t been Westernised. (Albeit, 7-11's still found its way in here).

I went back a few days later with friends and had the best meal I’ve had here, all for $2. I’ve been back a few times with different friends and we’ve all had a blast.

CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN THE THAI WORKPLACE

Be the Buddha, be the Buddha, be the Buddha…

There’s been a few ‘issues’ since I’ve been here with my colleagues in regards to our work environment that I’ve just recently figured out how to resolve. Unlike in Australia a straightforward, open discussion is not an option as there’s the potential for people to be embarrassed and lose face. Thus, an open discussion could both prevent any changes being made in the short run and damage long-term relations. The social system at work makes things like this more difficult, but that’s just the way it is, so instead I’ve had to find different ways to address them.

Issue 1: Personal Space

One of my colleagues seems to think that to speak to me, she needs to roll over from her desk, right next to mine, to ensure we hear each other. Now I know that I’m going slightly deaf and have a tendency to mumble, and that westerner’s have a greater personal space-level, but come on, she’s right next to me!

The first few times it happened I tried to put up with it, but it does irritate me as it encroaches on what I subconsciously consider ‘my space’. Not very culturally sensitive on her part not to understand that, so instead it’s something I needed to address.

My first tactic was to surreptitiously bump her chair when she rolled over – such as wiggling my chair so that it lightly bumped hers as I re-adjusted my position at the computer, or stood up to get a file.

That seemed to work for a while, before she recommenced, and then the final of all personal space invasions. I was quietly working away at my desk, suddenly she was sitting next to me, shoulders touching, a spreadsheet laid out in front of her on my next. Now what’s happening? I looked over at her desk, and it was so crowded with old files and pieces of junk (I mean personal affects) that there wasn’t room for her to work. Resisting the temptation to immediately tell her to piss off, my mind kicked into gear looking for a solution. “How about I help clear away some of those old files?” And without awaiting a response I grabbed a few bundles and shoved them onto a spare shelf.

Mission accomplished, she rolled back to work at her own desk. The integrity of my personal space has been maintained since then, and I avoided a face-losing open confrontation.

Issue 2: The air conditioner

Thailand’s a hot country (duh), and hence to me the air conditioner plays a crucial role in making the workplace actually workable. My colleague didn’t think so, complaining of it being cold and turning the air conditioner off a few times when I left the room. The switch to the air conditioner is above my desk, hence the need for my temporary departure. I’m not, however, in a position in the section to start switching it on again, and wanted to avoid a straight out discussion due to face issues and the associated prospects of my losing the discussion and hence the cool air for at least part of the day.

After months of on/off cool air my too-cold colleague, out of the blue, proclaimed that it was “too hot” in the office for a change, I seized my chance. With a smile in my voice I said, “Really, I noticed that you sometimes turn the air conditioner off.”
“Yes, usually it is too cold.”
“How about I turn the air conditioner down a little.”
Voila, a compromise reached. It may read simply but there was a lot of non-verbal issues involved – mainly around the need to open a dialogue without confrontation, an establishing of each other’s position on the issue without having to be upfront, a ‘pleasant’ conversation, and the opportunity for all to back out if it looked like a disagreement was pending.

Thus, this formed my first ‘high-context’ (i.e. non-Western) win on an issue. In my first few months I was involved in a few discussions, but was unsuccessful in manoeuvring my point of view to the front. Hopefully then, I’m learning.

Colleagues doing things that shit me: Three
Namely (Pseudonyms adopted for legal reasons):
‘Suzy’ - coughing all the time and refusing to go to the doctor.
‘Deborah’ -singing along, completely out of tune, to terrible music. Celine Dion should be classed as workplace harassment.
‘Tina’ – And her inane chatter. Just once, say SOMETHING.

A LITTLE FROM COLUMN A, A LITTLE FROM COLUMN B

Some things in Thailand are the different to back home, and others are the same.

When my bus drives past the spirit house (as in ghosts, not whiskey) in the grounds of my work, my Thai colleagues wei (bow) to it.

When an attractive girl walks past a construction site she gets leered at and comments made.

AYUTTHAYA

This weekend I boarded a train to Ayutthaya the ancient capital of Siam, an empire stretching through Thailand, Cambodia, Lao and parts of Vietnam and Burma that lasted for 400 years. Today there’s a typically ugly modern Thai city surrounding the ruins and remaining Wats (temples) and palaces.

I took a third class train for 15Baht (50c), and as we rolled out of the station I was treated to the delightful smells of Bangkok at low speed – sewerage, food, pollution, body odour all rolled on after the other in time to the clickety-clack of the train’s wheels. Thankfully after 10 minutes my sense of smell shut off, and after the 40kms it took to clear Bangkok everything was fine as the countryside was just long grass, rice paddies, shanty houses and wide fronded plants.

I stayed in a 100 year old teak guesthouse on the river that the receptionists tried to talk me out of as ‘we only have roadside left and they are very noisy’ and ‘don’t stay in room 7, it’s very small’. I stayed in room 11, not too small, and decided I’d go out that night so the noise of the road wouldn’t bother me. It was worth it to sit on the balcony overlooking the river while I had breakfast on Sunday.

The ruins themselves are in remarkably good shape given they were covered in vegetation and ignored for 300 years. There’s a great variety to the shapes and styles, taking in the traditional Thai and Burmese styles and even including Garuda images from Indonesia.

Standing amongst what was once a great city I had a sense of its power, and what spirituality meant to the people that lived there. The size, effort and wealth that had gone into creating these buildings which encompassed religious, political, and functional aspects made me feel that their beliefs must have formed an important part of their everyday life.

The historical cities that I’ve visited, such as the Roman ruins, British castles, Ostia Attica, etc, always make me feel very connected with people from that time, that we’re all just on the same continuum, and though we’ve our differences there’s so many things the same.

On Saturday night I managed to finally find a good bar in Thailand that played old blues and Tom Waits while I was there, it’s only a shame it’s 1.5hours from my place. They played a blues album that dad used to have in his car when I was in primary school, and listening to it brought back very strong memories of driving all over the peninsula to play soccer. Some of the lyrics go “We’re bound to come up muddy, when we’re playing in the dirt”, and I remember those lines very strongly and tying them into playing soccer on muddy pitches.

The train home was so crowded I couldn’t get a seat and instead stood near a father travelling with his two boys, aged about 5 & 7. For a long time the boys sat quietly playing together until one lightly hit the other, followed by slightly harder retaliation, a third stronger hit, and so on until dad stopped the fight before it got out of hand. As passengers stood to disembark dad reached up to the loops while standing. The older boy stretched and just got his fingers to the loop, smiling for feeling like a grown up. The younger boy stretched but was no way near reaching. Dad lifted him up and he hung from the loop temporarily, happy to be amongst the land of the adults. Both incidents reminded me of my brother and myself.

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR

Please select appropriate salutation as you see fit:

A: Merry Christmas
B: Happy Chanuka
C: Happy New Year
D: Seasons Greetings.

For me, it was a very good turn of the year as I headed back to Australia over the Christmas/New Year period – about 11 days in all.

The key point was to see family, friends and Claire. (Thanks Mum & Dad for the air ticket etc). I didn’t get to see as many people as I could have or wanted to, so to those I missed, best wishes and you’ll just have to come to Thailand. Although it’s only been a short time that I’ve been away it did me good to see everyone, especially given that everyone seems to be in a good position at the moment – even my slightly (mostly?) crazy friend who just sold his guitar for an air ticket to Europe.

There wasn’t a lot ‘done’ on the stay, as that wasn’t the point, instead it was time just spent with people. It didn’t matter if it was on the beach or veranda, eating dinner or staying at a hotel in town, it was just time. There was no need to big speeches or professions of feelings – it’s all just obvious when you’re with people you care about.

I spent one morning on a drive just down the peninsula, and on the way back stopping off a little viewing points. Through the deep blue sea, clear sky, red rocks, green trees and yellow grasses some views seemed to contain all the colours of nature.

As an added bonus, the 11 days contained 6 days of international cricket, the most of which I was allowed to watch I did.

The only disappointment was that most of my usual haunts in Melbourne were closed while I was there, so I didn’t get to relive past memories. Coming back to Bangkok felt a little strange, as there’s no one I know buzzing about, but I’m sure I’ll settle back into things again. The comparison of the empty Melbourne and busy Bangkok wasn’t as striking as I’d expected, though I had forgot some of the little things that being a local makes easy about living in a town which was surprising given the short amount of time.