Whether you like Bangkok or not depends on where you live. Is it chic Siam Paragon, panoramic views from Bayok Sky and luxurious condos at Asoke?.. Or is it backpacker Kao San and Samsen where you can rent a room in a tiny hotel resembling hen-coop for 120 baht only? Or maybe bawdy Patong and night life for sale of Nana... For long time Bangkok has been about quiet backlanes of Sathorn with its food courts at office buildings and embassies for me. But this year none of my friends could let me stay with them and I've taken typical backpacker route to Samsen. And got myself a room with good view from the window.
Amount of cables in certain regions capable of driving crazy every electrician except local ones is probably the only similarity between Thailand and India. All the rest is totally different here.
I've already sung the ode to my beloved skyscrapers, to thai food, also beloved and on a full stomach I can already think about culture. Here for example is an elephant next to entrance into big office center. And though garuda is considered official symbol of Thailand you would rather see statues of elephants on streets. And as far as I could understand from broken thai english an army of elephants once rescued the country and therefore elephants by the entrance stand for protectors.
If I was looking only for my own personal paradise in life then having worked in some leading Moscow's web disign studios I would not have tried to go to India though unsuccesfully. I would head for a place like Honkong straighaway or even for Tokio. I would find a Chinese or Japanese lover, they all have so nice plump lips and arrogantly capcicious face expressions, and a condominimum on 100th or at least 60th floor. My dark-haired children would play at a playground among skyscrapers and I myself would not sigh so dreamily going up to 17th or 33th floor to pay a visit to a friend.
This isn't the first story where these two cities go together. Same situation repeats itself constantly: I arrive to Bangkok, I am too lazy to go to the big city, worry about transport, look for hotel or getting a train ticket that's why I get onto a bus to Pattaya right from the airport. On the way I can call my old friend, he would meet me and find a place for me to stay. So it was this time: Kostya received and brought me to cheap condo at Pratamnak where I could sheep all day after the long flight and two sleepless nights.
Getting to know charm of little villages lost in mountains I did not stop to love big cities and especially skyscrapers. I still want to be comimg sometimes with a laptop to cafe in the morning to read my friend's entries having my morning cup of espresso and chokolate cake. But there are fewer and fewer moments of the kind in my life from year to year. And the moment on the photo is probably the last for 2009: I am having morning cofee before giving my documents for half-year indian visa.
Longterm interest to the shelves with Asian import in the supermarkets, free-will vegetarianism and compulsory lactose untolerance have resulted in that only coming to places like Thailand, Honkong, Malaysia and Singapore I finally feel relaxed. Eventually I can walk into any shop and buy all my favourite food at a normal, affordable price.
Land is measured by a special unit in Thailand. It is called "rai" and the word sounds identical to Russian word for "paradise". Many Russians buy land in Thailand and I'm sure not a single one skipped a joke of buying one's tropical paradise.
"Buddhism is a part of hinduism" - this is what every indian would tell you if your conversation manages to get past boring "Hello! Where are you from?" And let's imagine this idea in material incarnation on the territory of Thailand... You will get Sala Kae Ku sculpture park in Nong Khai, almost at border with Laos. The author is from there originally, he build his first sculpture park not too far from Vientiane but escaped to Thailand because of war. So you can also add some Laos into this imaginary mixture.
While realty prices are growing, tourism industry is booming and organized tourists are invading the island from all the directions a certain resort on to of the hill with panoramic view is standing abandoned. We park our motorbike next to big glass hall where future guests of the hotel should have been sitting waiting till all the forms would be filled up and obliging porter would come to show the room and help carry suitcases.
One of Thailand's special features, one of the reasons why it's so much appreciated by foreigners is that it's quite easy to build your own little paradise here. Air-conditioning in you car and apartment and you may forget about tropical heat. Good Italian cuisine and chili won't bother your delicate tongue. Golfing clubs as an entertainment. Or yoga. Or go-go bars. Or unlimited internet from morning till night. All according to desires and possibilities.
In the very beginning of my buddhist life just like most of newly arrived fanatic sect members I found special pleasure in trying to urge other religion's reperesentatives either that they are totally wrong or that there is actually no difference. Never ever I've encontered as many street preachers as during those times. But just as I got bored of trying to clarify whose relative truth is more absolute all of them disappeared instantly, and our next encounter took place only in a train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok.
Chiang Mai can be considered mountain city but it's much different from mountain cities in Hymalayas. Those are situated right on the slopes and Chiang Mais is build in a big valley, mountains can only be seen on its horison. One has to go out for an excursion to enjoy real mountain landscapes.
If you plainly say the word "Thailand" or generally any other country's name a certain image would arise in each person's head. In the case of Thailand these will be prostitutes from Pattaya for somebody, drugged up wild parties in Koh Phangan for somebody else and white sand of beaches, clear water and palm trees for somebody other. Coming to real Thailand they would either wonder, or be disappointed or even stay with their opinion. Depends on where they go to.
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