Thailand: crazy for you

Welcome back Fereng

Arriving in Bangkok, intense humidity and 40 degree heat pounded more weight on to the 20kilos hanging off my back. Crazy Bule, now Fereng who tried to walk up Sukhumvit with all I own, got lost far up from my hostel in Thong Long on a street with, as promised by Lawrence Osborne's book "Bangkok Days", many seedy massage parlours, while I ambled around food hawkers. Welcome back to magnetic Thailand. My stomach flipped excitedly. 

Shamefully, I found 7/11 for a ham and 

cheese toastie. White sugary bread encases a melted plastic cheese and shop floor ham filling. Distinctly un-Thai, but unable to be found anywhere else I have been, and for me it holds many happy memories. Of being an irresponsible drunk-packer, meeting new people and laughing away hangovers with these boiling hot pockets of anti-nutrition. 

Changing cultures

I forgot how friendly Indonesians are. Swaths of Indonesians move there for work from more remote islands, and despite the huge influx of foreigners to Bali, there is still bafflement with the outside world. Indonesia is still quite culturally cut off from the rest of the world, which helps preserve custom, and I think friendliness. Although Indonesians seem bored of overcrowding from tourism, their affability is catching and I began from Ngurah Rai airport, smiling and saying hello to as many as possible.

Thailand, with its' multitude of land borders and attraction as a major tourist destination, means more people pass through (making it harder to get off the beaten track). But this also makes Thailand an accepting place for cultural difference. I recognise most Thais are also welcoming, friendly and warm with a wicked sense of humour. I meander with a lost look on my face and a map and I am offered help. I ask a questions and jokes come back. 

Show respect for the ruling culture, and be welcomed tenfold.

You do, in places, get a small sense of 'God, not another one!' I'm determined not to be another one.  I would like to get off that ‘beaten track’. I want to learn the language and alphabet more than anywhere. I want to learn the correct way to Wai and good Thai manners. I am as ever, fascinated by this golden country, its' countless temples, idyllic islands and enthralling history. 

Island Review

So I write this from Koh Chang, hoping to change my ways ever so slightly and to make the conversion from backpacker to 'Thailand Enthusiast'. Toasties have not passed my lips for a week and I am trying more street food, falling more in love with the culture one mouthful at a time. In Bangkok I sampled more of the never-ending plethora of sites and sins on offer, had a fling with mango sticky rice and stayed just long enough to make friends with other English teachers. Read: long-termers.

I made my way to this blessed island and discovered mountains of various personalities. The quiet, heady, dark and exciting. Marvellous, crazy, unexpected and mild- much like the foods on my list, and the clean Buddhist life at odds with corrupt squalor. Thailand: a moving vestibule of yin and yang. 

To come: Getting lost in Koh Chang

Lonely Beach, Koh Chang