"So, have you started warming up to bangkok yet?" Carl asked me as we walked through Suvarnabumi Airport.
"Warmed up? Not really. More like able to tolerate it..." I replied.
I can't believe its been 6 months already. I am finally starting to get in with the flow of things here. I believe this is the final (and perpetual) stage of culture shock (First being enchantment, second being despise). I am able to put up with all the shit I get daily by focussing on the positive side of things:
1. I am in one of the best places in the world for convenient travel throughout three continents.
2. I am in THE gemstone capital.
3. With a year's experience, I am now what I'd consider a good teacher. I have enough experience to be able to "synthesize" a lesson in my head in a few minutes and execute it well.
3. Very slowly, I am gaining some self-confidence, although money competency is still a long way ahead.
So anyway, let's get into the meat of the matter, so to speak:
The Good
In the area known as Banglamphu, where the famous Khao San road runs, there is a concentration of monuments (hence the high concentration of tourists). Most of them look quite similar - once you've seen 10 wats, you've seen them all, and they become redundant.
But one building I pass by every time I go to Banglamphu: Wat Rachanada. This has a unique feature - a sanctuary of Buddhas with beautiful architecture:
This building has many features that, to me, make for good architecture: verticality, highly detailed patterning, repetition, and symmetry.
Like gothic cathedral, the design makes one automatically look upwards. The spires give an amazing sense of aeriality, as though the building is evaporating. Symbolically speaking, the spires represent the virtues one must learn in order to achieve emancipation from samsara.
Although my guide book and the explanatory plaque in front of the temple claims that it is built in Thai style, I don't buy it. Well, to be fair, the wat itself (the functional part with monks) is indeed Thai style - but the gem it holds, the sanctuary, is very strikingly Burmese. Thai culture simply isn't tasteful enough to have produced such a beautiful structure all on its own, I am sorry to say.
----
The Bad
"Baglamphu" I told the Taxi driver.
"Khao San?" He asks (fair enough, most foreigners going to Banglamphu are indeed going to Khao San.
"Khao San Mai Chai [no] - bpai [go] anusawari [monument]" I tell him.
"Anusawari?" He asks, pointing at the monument right across the street.
Facepalm.
(Victory Monument)
There are two Anusawaris in bkk: Anusawari chaisamorapum (Victory monument, around which I and Vegan reside); and Anusawari ____ (I forget - but it is the Democracy Monument). If you are at one, and you say "Anusawari" to a taxi driver, I think it is quite reasonable to assume you mean the other one, especially after you tell him you're going to Banglamphu.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident.
Unlike almost all major cities in the world (certainly all the ones I've been to), Thai taxi drivers do not know where anything is. You have to give them detailed directions. It is due to equal parts illiteracy, ignorance, and sometimes, being from out of town.
The last one is pardonable. But for fuck's sake. You've been driving around bkk for 40 years now? And you don't know where Chakrapong (a main road, also in banglamphu) is?? Even after I show you the THAI map?!?
Oh, and if you're wondering, the taxi driver going to the democracy monument? Dropped me off at Khao San.
----
The Disgusting
I still face discrimination on a daily basis. The latest news? My agent received feedback from the school. Apparently they are impressed by my teaching. But they are very bothered by the fact that I am thin and that my back is arched. They also don't like the fact that I don't eat (read: Rice - the word for "rice" and "food" is the same).
When I signed up for the job, I believe the description was "English Teacher," not "old hags' boytoy". Why in fucking hell do they care about my weight? I'm a teacher and the students love me, does it matter if my back is arched? One particularly ugly teacher once actually confronted me about it:
"Why are you so thin??" she exclaimed with a rehearsed tone that tried to sound curious but mistakenly betrayed her utter disgust.
First it's my name, then it's my age, and now it's the way I look? Fuck you, ugly, racist, uncivilized scum.
"Warmed up? Not really. More like able to tolerate it..." I replied.
I can't believe its been 6 months already. I am finally starting to get in with the flow of things here. I believe this is the final (and perpetual) stage of culture shock (First being enchantment, second being despise). I am able to put up with all the shit I get daily by focussing on the positive side of things:
1. I am in one of the best places in the world for convenient travel throughout three continents.
2. I am in THE gemstone capital.
3. With a year's experience, I am now what I'd consider a good teacher. I have enough experience to be able to "synthesize" a lesson in my head in a few minutes and execute it well.
3. Very slowly, I am gaining some self-confidence, although money competency is still a long way ahead.
So anyway, let's get into the meat of the matter, so to speak:
The Good
In the area known as Banglamphu, where the famous Khao San road runs, there is a concentration of monuments (hence the high concentration of tourists). Most of them look quite similar - once you've seen 10 wats, you've seen them all, and they become redundant.
But one building I pass by every time I go to Banglamphu: Wat Rachanada. This has a unique feature - a sanctuary of Buddhas with beautiful architecture:
This building has many features that, to me, make for good architecture: verticality, highly detailed patterning, repetition, and symmetry.
Like gothic cathedral, the design makes one automatically look upwards. The spires give an amazing sense of aeriality, as though the building is evaporating. Symbolically speaking, the spires represent the virtues one must learn in order to achieve emancipation from samsara.
Although my guide book and the explanatory plaque in front of the temple claims that it is built in Thai style, I don't buy it. Well, to be fair, the wat itself (the functional part with monks) is indeed Thai style - but the gem it holds, the sanctuary, is very strikingly Burmese. Thai culture simply isn't tasteful enough to have produced such a beautiful structure all on its own, I am sorry to say.
----
The Bad
"Baglamphu" I told the Taxi driver.
"Khao San?" He asks (fair enough, most foreigners going to Banglamphu are indeed going to Khao San.
"Khao San Mai Chai [no] - bpai [go] anusawari [monument]" I tell him.
"Anusawari?" He asks, pointing at the monument right across the street.
Facepalm.
(Victory Monument)
There are two Anusawaris in bkk: Anusawari chaisamorapum (Victory monument, around which I and Vegan reside); and Anusawari ____ (I forget - but it is the Democracy Monument). If you are at one, and you say "Anusawari" to a taxi driver, I think it is quite reasonable to assume you mean the other one, especially after you tell him you're going to Banglamphu.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident.
Unlike almost all major cities in the world (certainly all the ones I've been to), Thai taxi drivers do not know where anything is. You have to give them detailed directions. It is due to equal parts illiteracy, ignorance, and sometimes, being from out of town.
The last one is pardonable. But for fuck's sake. You've been driving around bkk for 40 years now? And you don't know where Chakrapong (a main road, also in banglamphu) is?? Even after I show you the THAI map?!?
Oh, and if you're wondering, the taxi driver going to the democracy monument? Dropped me off at Khao San.
----
The Disgusting
I still face discrimination on a daily basis. The latest news? My agent received feedback from the school. Apparently they are impressed by my teaching. But they are very bothered by the fact that I am thin and that my back is arched. They also don't like the fact that I don't eat (read: Rice - the word for "rice" and "food" is the same).
When I signed up for the job, I believe the description was "English Teacher," not "old hags' boytoy". Why in fucking hell do they care about my weight? I'm a teacher and the students love me, does it matter if my back is arched? One particularly ugly teacher once actually confronted me about it:
"Why are you so thin??" she exclaimed with a rehearsed tone that tried to sound curious but mistakenly betrayed her utter disgust.
First it's my name, then it's my age, and now it's the way I look? Fuck you, ugly, racist, uncivilized scum.
