Thailand

To be honest I don't know how to write this post. It's really difficult. I think I said it earlier when I spoke about how travel stretches your brain. The things I experienced happened on so many levels that I'm unsure of what tone to write this post in. Should I write a basic account of what happened? Should I write my experience of what happened? My feelings and thoughts? Should I do a little anthropological breakdown of Thailand at first glance through the eyes of a South African tourist? I had fun, I really did. But for the first time in my life I had more money than I could spend, I was out among people I did not relate to, simply to enjoy looking at their country. I was seperate and not contributing (to anything except the tourism industry) and I didn't feel connected. I felt arrogant and small and like my hands were made dirty by my money. You may disagree but those feelings do not make for a good blog post. I loved Thailand, it was loads of fun, but it made me rethink the way I will choose to travel in the future.

After uhming and ahing for the past month or so I thought I'd just caption some photo's and let the story tell itself. 

 I was happy in Thailand, the whole time. More homesick than ever because in some ways Thailand is more like SA than Korea is. Although, it's not really like SA at all. I think it felt similar because people were poor and brown and that's the SA I grew up in. Also Thailand is beautiful and that made my heart light.

 Did not fall for this ridiculous trick. 90Baht is only R20 but still... who put the birds in the cages to start with?

 There are way more animals in Thailand than in Korea, this also made me happy. Cats are everywhere and roam around temples looking well fed and like they own the place. Stray dogs roam the streets, some of them were beautiful (I was told this by my companion Angela, I'm not clued up on canine aesthetics).

 I'm not sure why but I'm moved by this picture. It's a tuk-tuk repair shop and it was beautiful. I think the owner was gatvol of tourists cause I asked if I could take a picture and he just waved at me dismissively. He was chatting to an old guy friend when we came back this way so I don't think it was that he was busy.

This was the view from my hostel in Bangkok. I stayed in the very city part of the city if you know what I mean. I guess I mean developed, when developed means built up. It was overcast almost the entire week that I spent in Thailand but the weather was pleasant and not too hot. I liked my hostel and if you're ever thinking of going to Thailand and you want to stay somewhere central and near transport thing, I'd recommend it.

 This is also in Bangkok, down one of the side roads. One of the big differences between Korea/Bangkok and SA is that on this side they live in their cities, whereas we mostly work in our cities and live in surrounding suburbs. This street had little rooms on the one side, and front doors leading into houses and underneath the planks there was an open sewerage drain pipe thing. Through one of the windows was a mother rocking her baby in a hammock and I really wanted to take a picture cause it was super cute, but I felt it would be really disrespectful to stick my camera lens right into someone's living space.

 Thai massages are all they're made out to be. I had five massages in the week I spent in Thailand. they are about R50 for an hour long full body massage. I really enjoyed it, even though I had to get completely naked sometimes and the ladies felt up my bum and boobs a lot. It's a good thing I'm not a prude or I would have really missed out. This picture is of neck and foot massages in the street, R25 for one hour. It's fantastic after a day of shopping.

 About ten people tried to sell me this hat. Hawkers in Thailand are aggressive and tenacious in their sales technique. You have to have thick skin to say no over and over again to people who make their living selling stuff. They have skills. I like this picture cause my shoulders got an airing. In Korea I have to cover up from chin to bum. Also Ferron bought me this top a long time ago. Thank you Ferron.

 This was an 8 year old Indian boy who was selling roses at 11pm on a school night in a tourist area. He told me both his parents are in India and he'll be going back to India in 2023 when he is 18. I spoke to some Indian guys at my hostel about him and they said he's probably lying. I believed him though, and there were some other kids doing the same thing. In this picture he is laughing because he tricked some of the Dutch boys we were with into buying roses for me and Angela.

This is one of the side roads along the main tourist road in Bangkok. It was covered in art from around the world. lots of pretty graffiti and stalls selling cool stuff. I was sad that we found it so late in the day since I would have liked to have explored this area more, eaten lunch here or done a little photoshoot.

My guardian. I really liked how Thailand kept the sacred spaces sacred even though there were tourists milling about everywhere. I got gated numerous times for wearing overly revealing clothes and if you didn't catch the quiet vibe as you entered a room you were properly shushed.

Party space Pattaya! Drank too much, too fast, danced about in a cage hovering above a pit of more dancing people. Saw a ping pong show, slept like a baby that night.

A statue I found in the street that you see in the picture above this one. Only I saw the statue the next morning, it had a little shrine next to it. It's a smallish statue at the base of a decorated tree.

Me getting my tattoo on the beach. Three elephants, one for Africa, one for Thailand and one for the love of elephants.

There is a lot more. I came home with almost a thousand pictures. But also there is a lot more, the world is smaller than we think. And also there is a lot more that world is bigger than we think. And also, over and above all of that, there is a lot more cause I didn't crack the surface. I didn't even crack the varnish on the surface. I'm not even sure what the surface is made of. I'm not even sure what part of the surface I was on.

This post was hard.

Vasti