Excellent Thailand

[tommer]

I'm back from Thailand, and boy did I have the trip of a lifetime. You know, I've been to at least a dozen countries before, but in fact this was the 1st time I headed south, away from western civilization's cozy womb (unless you count Turkey), so it was something different for me. As much as I love my home, with my adsl, digital cable, hi-fi, dvd, air conditioning and even my shower with its hot (drinking) water, I discovered there are ways of surviving magnificently without them all. Even for me.

Thailand is practically a kingdom located inside a jungle, so wherever there's nothing built, you see nature at its most glorious tropical wildness. Bangkok, on the other hand, is nightmarish metropolis. although this shopping heaven's temples are truly amazing, and the gardns are flourishing like crazy, it's simply living inside a Marlboro; the smog is unbearable, the air stands still, and in such heat and 98% humidity, with all those strange smells of garlic frying from every corner, I was constantly wanting to barf in the beginning. at first I even couldn't eat outside my room, and even there only candies, therefore most of the time was spent in the beautiful island of Koh Phan Ghan, which is located in the southern thai gulf, where the air is fresh, the beaches are as clear and flat as a swimming pool, people are chilled, coconuts, bananas and xxxxxxxxx grow like crazy, and you can't tell what's more colourful, the fish or the wild flowers.

The island is like an ex territory, you can see 10 year olds riding motorcycles (without helmets of course) and in a country where thousands are executed for xxxxx charges, you can find xxxx xxxxxx at restaurant's menus, and xxxxxxxxx tea at the bar.
The island is also home to the famous full-moon partys, and we were lucky enough to attend one. I just wish I could have brought my camera with me there. Some 20,000 ppl (I'd say 20% locals, 20% Japanese, 20% Israelis, and 40% Europeans, mostly brits and irish) ravers come from all over the islands to these events, held in a truly magical setting.

I must say we all had hard times understanding the locals. their language is so different from Indo-European dialects, that they cannot even pronounce some 50% of the sounds in English, so communicating with them becomes kinda shallow.
Next to every home you'll find a mini golden temple, in which they leave daily munchies and flowers to the spirits, and at Bangkok's night clubs the ping pong shows (if you've seen the movie Priscilla, Queen of the Desert you know what I'm talking about) are sticky and vulgar. I was also pretty shocked to see child labor, whether it was kids working with their family at the resorts, or others selling stuff on the train. some I even saw sleeping on street corners at night. On one hand it's a very developed country with all the hi-tech one can dream about, yet on the other hand poverty is very noticeable. On my last day I took all the sheets, clothes and shoes I brought from home with me, and just left it on some poor family shack's door.

As I mentioned earlier, Thailand is a true shopping heaven. I'm SO not used to feeling loaded, but there I bought and bought and bought, and the money just didn't end!, the shopping centers are huge, and VERY inexpensive. some stuff cost me only 30% less than here, but other things were around 1/5th of their price here. (to give you just a small clue, a single us $ can buy you a light meal or a pack of american cigarettes) so I got at least 20 shirts and jackets, 10 pants, 5 pairs of shoes, 4 watches, 2 excellent cameras, the new 1GB sony minidisc, tons of presents and lots more. only after a continuous 13 hour shopping spree my wallet finally started to empty. in fact, I was left with just about the money for a great thai massage to ease my old bones, but instead, I suddenly noticed the window of a store selling a huge collection of south park t-shirts.

Thai food is also a phenomenon; I ate like a pig, at least 2 or 3 times more than I what I'd eat at home , their cuisine is very rich (and dripping with oil all over) and I decided not to eat or drink any western foods, or even have the same course twice while I'm there, and (more or less) I did. Between meals, we tried about every exotic munch from 7eleven, and still, to my deep surprise I discovered that I lost weight, despite doing no exercise whatsoever.

Overall, I highly recommend vacationing there. Other than maybe Amsterdam, or stevie-nicks-involved trips, I can't see myself flying anywhere but east in the next few years.

And now if you'll excuse me, I've 4 nip/tuck episodes to catch up on.