Welcome to 2004, y'all! The lovely Xoc and me are sunning ourselves in Thailand for the next three-and-a-half weeks; having rather enjoyed writing the semi-blog last time we went abroad (to India, almost three years ago), thought I'd spew out random thoughts here. Sort of an interactive record of the holiday.
So... the planned itinerary:
Seven days in Bangkok, then moving on to Cambodia, and Angkor Wat for five days. Back to Thailand (Krabi) for another five days, then Phuket for the final week. Reckoned we were too old, soft and sybaritic to do the backpacker thing, so have booked a comfortably swanky hotel for the city (wanted somewhere to relax after hot sweaty ladyboy action) and mid-range places for the 'lying around on the beach' parts.
And the place we're staying, on Sukhumvit Road, is something of a swankfest. Barely had time to appreciate it on our arrival yesterday though, before succumbing to west-to-east jetlag so serotonin-sapping it virtually had me weeping at 'Finding Nemo' (Gulf Air's inflight film, with groovy Arabic subtitles). Reminded of the bit at the start of William Gibson's 'Pattern Recognition' where the heroine talks about travelling faster than one's soul, which spools out across the ether behind one, having to be reeled in over 24 hours.
Recovered in time for New Year, though (duty-free champagne helped), and took potluck with eating places, ending up at a superb Thai-Italian fusion-type restaurant with a whopping eight-course New Year menu. Wine waiter particularly attractive - which is weird, as I've never found Thai men especially desirable. Mind you, I remember this happening in India too; after a week or so, we both began to fetishise side-partings and moustaches. Thai men tend to be clean-shaven, though, with relatively little body hair. Unsurprisingly, Spartacus doesn't list any 'bear bars' (although there is 'Ichub', a club exclusively for 'chubbies and their chasers).
High points so far:
- The bathroom. Why are really good hotel bathrooms so appealing? This one's particularly nice: all softly-lit marbled surfaces, orchids (there are orchids everywhere - lovely, lovely orchids), big fluffy white towels (and bathrobes and slippers) and a vast array of expensive cosmeticky things. And a huuuge marble bath.
- The plants. Not just the ubiquitous orchids but the enormous fanned banana plants around the shaded roof garden pool, and the lush hanging things, and the big shallow pots planted with water-lilies.
- Smileyness. The Thais are big on smiling; one of the first things we saw on arrival was an airport tourism poster exhorting us to 'All Smile, All The Time'. Hmmm, that'd go down well in London. According to reliable old Lonely Planet, smiling is an important way of 'saving face' and almost always the best response in any given situation. Bizarrely, smiling back at smiley Thaiboys and girls is quite infectious.
- A dog we saw last night, wearing a t-shirt. Xoc got its photo.
Not-sure-if-I-like-it stuff:
- The tacky bar where we actually passed the stroke of midnight (because we failed to find the curiously named 'Inter Moustache' gay go-go bar in time), a sort-of-but-not-really ironic 'pub' rejoicing in the name 'Bangkockney'. Wild-looking Thai women bursting balloons with their cigarettes, while seedy-looking farang men ordered overpriced drinks. Got the distinct impression we were being sized up as potential clients and, as with India, coming across less as a couple of poofs than as two asexual saddoes. Hmmm.
- The vague but tangible air of almost-prostitution. The 'wanna massage' stuff is pretty familiar, but what we've seen of the male/female Thai/non-Thai dynamic is such that it's difficult to get a drink in a bar without a certain amount of... attention. Guess we need to find those gay bars; at least then we'd be rebuffing attractive Thai men...
- The namaste-like hands-together wai gesture of greeting. It's apparently good form to return the wai unless one is waied by children or 'servants' - but it feels really rude to ignore the hotel staff, so we've been waiing them back, and wondering if we're making tits of ourselves, or what. Anyone know the etiquette on this?
Oh yeah, and I see from BBC World that Edinburgh's Hogmanay Street Party was cancelled at the last minute because of high winds. Bummer.
S'all for now. Will probably be popping in fairly frequently to update this. In the meantime, can anyone recommend decent fiction set in Thailand. I've already reread 'The Beach'.
Happy New Year! |
