The things i find on my laptop...had drafted a mail to my friends on my first 1.5 days in thailand last year...doubt if it ever got sent out though!!! So here goes...
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Long time since I wrote a long mail… Somehow always meant to, but never did it… well here It is , so please don’t scream at me if you feel frustrated somewhere in the middle of the mail…Its about time I got back to the reporter mode…about time I used that journalism diploma of mine to good use (and if you didn’t know I had one, shame on you – haven’t you known me long enough???) … about time I took a chill pill in life… !!!
I haven’t written such long mails describing life the earth and everything else since circa 2002 – Faridabad and our good old trips to Agra/ mussoorie/ haridwar/ rishikesh and all that…So here goes…
Anyway, life is good , am in Bangkok for a week beginning yesterday. Work – of course…My holiday plans never seem to materialize. So its good I get to see these places on my “list” in the course of work.
Packing – simple, quick. So quick that I don’t check in anything!!! Last time I went to Singapore for 1 week, I had 3 pieces checked in!!! That’s coz I was carrying everything from rice to sambar for my aunt n uncle…
Flight was good. For once in my life I actually slept in the plane. But that was thanks to insomnia setting in big time in the last week, guess I was too pooped. Even then, I always have the weird luck. Next to me is grandpa whose only aim in life is to question everything.
“How should I put on the seatbelt” “How should I tighten it” “How tight should it be” “Beta, you seem to know all this, do you fly often” “Why did they give me earplugs” “ What do you do?” “Where are you from” “ Are you going to Thailand” blah blah blah…
Me patiently replying (I know I know…me and patience??? Who am I kidding right???) …After an hour of all this , I finally turn volume on to full blast on earphones and doze off…only to be woken up by airhostesses to say “maam-food, maam-dinner? Maam- coffee”. I rather think I screamed at one or two of them to leave me alone!!! (Naa- I did not …cant cause a scene for nuts)
Land in Bangkok…nice airport…Met by a “limousine” as promised. That turns out to be a black merc… figure lemme at least get a look at what class car it is and I can brag about it… Look around the back for the same. Nope…nothing found. Driver looking puzzled as to why im seriously looking at the boot at 430 AM . So I decide must be a Thai fake merc!!!
Reach hotel, check in and sleep, wake up, eat and go to office at 1015am. I enter, meet all relevant people and they look at me and say – lets have an early lunch…Man are these people after my own heart!!! Love them already.
Anyway that was day one of work, which ended with window shopping at a huge mall for cameras… think ill buy one with anti-shake or image stabilizer – means has to be a Panasonic, Kodak or a casio.
Today is a festival here in Thailand, and I have been invited to go celebrate. I believe it is like Diwali, and is the Lantern festival. People light lanterns and let it float away into the river. The lantern takes away all the bad things and luck in the past and paves the way for the new year and better luck. If one doesn’t take away his/ her eyes from the lantern till it floats completely, it is considered auspicious!!!
About Thailand, my impressions are not quite the usual. Guess people associate it with sleaze and the night life. I guess I wont see that side of it, more out of choice. Bangkok may be a huge place, but it is surprisingly friendly. People go out of the way to make you feel at home, and whoever said that Americans generally smile at you whether or not they know you had never seen Thai people!!! Extremely giggly by nature (Most of the time you think they are laughing at you, but I figured they don’t laugh at others, just generally giggle for everything!!!), and very open and outgoing… These guys also have a laid back attitude which works good for me as an third party , but would drive me nuts if I was part of the system…
People here are quite straightforward and simple and innocent, Maybe it is a naïve outlook given the kind of stuff Bangkok is known for! But there is something inherently “nice” and “feel good” here. I already have been told the nicknames of everyone I meet here, and the meaning of their names (which is because yesterday I pestered all of them to tell me what the name means), and I have also been told that I am very young and very tall in a very matter-of-fact way!!!
Surprisingly bad English, which is funny given the tourist industry here. Surprisingly good roads, given the size and population of Bangkok…Extremely pleasant is the fact that I found veg food easily , and I had been quite prepared to turn non-veg.
Phuket I hear is far away (“you have to fly out” my client tells me) and I don’t really feel like going alone to a beach resort this time… figure ill do Goa first and then come back to Phuket! Pattaya though I shall go if time permits, with this Chinese woman who is also here in the company on a visit. She hardly understands English, and that frankly makes me feel so good!!! In fact Indians seem to command respect here, and my host made a statement today that the future is India and China, and that India has something rest of Asia never will be able to acquire quickly and that is English and Software!!!
Well I think that’s about it, for now, that was my first impression of Thailand and the Thai-people!!! If you actually read the mail till here, you are great…tussi great ho!!!
Loads of Love
Smi
