Saturday January 13, 2007
Well here I am in Bangkok, Thailand on the second full day of my emerging journey in Southeast Asia. Perry is taking a few days to teach with a school in Rayong, Thailand, and I have been tending to a few errands with my new home, Mahindol University and their Faculty of Public Health. I have been living beside a Buddhist Temple near Khaosan Road, but movement around the city is so easy!
I am absolutely exhausted and there is nothing about hasty urban movement that I like...in fact, I'm mildly allergic to cities, (so why am I in Bangkok?) In fact there are many good things to begin to appreciate and admire. First and foremost is the kindness I see exchanged between the Thai people. The landscape and lifestyle of the people here is so varied and yet uniform. On Monday's everyone wear's the King's color, yellow, to start the week. The food, for the most part, has been great. My new favorite dish is a Papaya Salad - Som Tham - very spicy, but so so good.
(Fried Grasshoppers, or Crickets anyone?)At every intersection, in every classroom, restaurant, place of business, and perhaps in every Wat (Buddhist temple) there is a photo comemorating their King. Widely proclaimed on Armstorng-esche bracelets and on banners throughout the city is their uniting statement: "Long Live The King!" Politically things are not so clear-cut. In September of 2006 the government was ousted and taken over, without violence incredibly, by a military coup. The non-violence of this considerable change in governance has not gone unresponded. The military watched as 12 bombs were exploded around the city over New Year's Eve.
My brother Perry (below) has been traveling around the world this year (China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, India, Kenya, England, USA), and has accumulated some pretty unbelievable stories. He was in Bangkok at the time and was forced to flee the city in the first few morning hours of 2007, an experience you should ask him about sometime. I missed my bro so much while he was away. It was so great to meet up with him while he was traveling through this country. Needless to say, things here are pretty tense. The military police are on constant surveillance for bombs and suspicious activity. Newspapers constantly tell of threats and offer specific information about where one should be and not be at certain points in time. Very interesting. The newspapers are able to predict bombings? (Apparently they predicted the New Year's bombs very accurately). Could, maybe, someone at the Newspaper be involved? Humm.
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