It is the cold season in Thailand, well, cold by their standard - still around 30 degree. Having spent past 10 days in this winter paradise, now I am back in Beijing, which is still cold and grey, a bit depressing really!
My second visit in Thailand, Bangkok still feels more or less the same, but the huge shopping mall "Paragon" in Siam is new to this busy district in downtown. And I always think wandering around in the night bazarre or the backstreets there gives you a better flavor of the local life, and again I was very fond of their handifcrafts painted in bright colors and the lamps and lanterns in various shapes and styles. It seems all human beings have a great love for lights - however, Asians like to present it in the more subtle way that the light is hidden in the little lantern, while in the west people have candles and big chandliers, so the light just comes through directly.
Chiang Mai is such a nice and relatively quiet town up in the north, the temple on top of the hill is particularly impressive. So rich in colors and so delicate design, even with the old fashioned style still makes it a dazzling piece of art that you could hardly take your eyes off from it. And it is fun to watch the devoted buddists praying in front of the temple, I can't help to think it might be a good thing to have a religious belief, somehow it gives you a peace of mind in this world full of chaos and fights, it gives you a place your heart can reside.
The old capital Ayutthaya, 100 km outside Bangkok, is a lovely small town with ruins spread out round the city. Some of the architecture has similar style to the Angkor Wats in Cambodia, when I asked our guide, he said “Yes, basically when Thailand ruled Kmer (former Cambodia) they adopted this same style and brought them to Thailand. Old ruins always intrigues me, guess partly because I am nostalgic person by nature? The old city wall, eroded by rain through the years and burned by war in the 18 century, still stand there indicating its glorious past. I think we all like old things for certain reasons, like we deliberately make the new pictures with brown color background so they would look like old pictures. The truth is, when we look back at the good old days, the memory tends to be tinted with this magic lining so they look familiar and distant at the same time.
I spent two days in Phuket and I like the Karon beach – relatively quiet compared with Patong, which is more crowded and busy with some reconstructions after Tsunami. But sunbathing on the beach became boring after a while. I ventured out at night on my own, strolling down the busy bar street near Patong beach. Had to admit it is difficult to travel as a single Asian woman in Phuket, it is just very rare. The only time you will see single Asian women, literally, is at the bars and night clubs, and they are Thai, and actually they usually sit around by the bar, looking out to the street searching for their next “customers”. A few times I had the urge to just sit down in the bar for a drink and enjoy the music and the scene, but then I can’t resist the thought that I would be mistakenly taken as one of the bar girls. Sadly, two nights in a row, I didn’t really go out, 10 pm at night, I was back in hotel, watch “BBC world”, pathetic!
In Thailand, the very common scene you would spot is this interesting combination, an old white guy (mostly over 60s), with a young Thai girl (not necessarily pretty but usually dark, short and skinny. And they seem to be happy with each other. But really, why should we judge them anyway? Life, for a lot of people, only presents very limited choices, and the fact is they both seem to find what they want: for white guys, young, exotic oriental girls make them feel they are young and attractive again, for the girls, they are mostly from country side, not well educated, and with the white guys, at least they are treated with respect and they are looked after. Taking away the finacial aspect of this relationship, it is a working relationship that probably still involves certain degree of love and care, after all, we human beings all have the need to be with someone and to love and to be loved. This might not be an ideal relationship, but it is kind of relationship that exist due to certain economic circumstances as well as the underlying nature of basic needs of human beings.
The tropical aroma has a strange influence on me - after being back for three days, I can't help to miss the walk in the Lumpini park, cruise on the river, the temple on the hill, parasailing in the ocean, and of course, the lovely orchid that are just blooming so beautifully everywhere!
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