In The City of Angels

Bangkok, again and again and again (and again and again..). Who’d ever tire of Bangkok?

1. I had a great time in India, though most of the blog posts while I was in the Motherland bordered on the verge of frustration, anger, and complaint. When I wasn’t being frustrated or angry, I was having a wonderful time (and thus did not bother to blog). I felt like I had to come to India this time around to test my limits with regards to travelling alone and doing this for a living — and also to push my boundaries, professionally. I got what I was looking for, so I’m pleased.


2. I did Chennai, Bhubaneswar, Puri, Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Mumbai, Alibag, Matheran, and Bangalore this time. Next time — very soon, I’m sure — I’ll be trying to “do (more of) the Northeast”; not for travel, but for “work”, which is even better.


3. It was a good thing after all that I missed my train. The devastating floods in the north intensified around the time I was due to get off the train to make the overland journey to Nepal, and the area I was supposed to get off in (Gorakhpur) was among the worst hit. The road I was going to take may even have been washed away. So I made my way southwards to Bangalore instead to see some friends, and to fly a budget airline from Bangalore to Bangkok.


4. My Thai has gotten good enough — and so has my tan — such that I generally pass as Thai in most situations (for about five minutes, until my Thai is pushed to the limits). This is important to me because I never, ever get hassled to buy things, don’t get slapped with “farang prices” anymore, and am generally invisible, which is great.


5. I wish people who have never been to Bangkok/who have only seen Bangkok in a tour package will eventually learn that the seedy “Sin City” aspect of this city is just 1% of what this place is about, that Bangkok is a lot more than sleaze, and that Thailand is a lot more than Bangkok.


6. There is so much amazing food here in Bangkok — Thai, and many other imaginable cuisines — I could never tire of eating here. It’s a perfect city for people who love to eat, and for people who can never stop eating, at any time of the day. It’s pretty hard to find a bad meal here; you’d have to go out of your way to eat badly in Bangkok.


7. I learned Thai almost entirely from sitting in taxis talking to taxi drivers while stuck in the horrid traffic jams. Two trips back I suddenly realized I not only understood most of this language and its grammar, I was also capable of things like sentence construction and spot-on pronunciation. Part of this stems from how similar it is (in terms of tonality) to what I consider my mother tongue, the Teochew language (yes, it is a language, and one with 8 tones at that; so how difficult can Thai be with just five tones?).


8. There are three good girls-only bars in Bangkok. Zeta (RCA), Lesla (Sukh 55), Shela (Langsuan). I really, really like Thai women. If only they understood me. (I’ll have none of the “are you sure they’re women” smart alec snipes.. :) Thai women are all hot, and so are the ‘real’ ones. Besides, these bars are strictly girls-only; no men, no drag queens either. Throw in good ‘live’ female Thai rock bands to a room full of 100-500 women, and what you get is my idea of heaven.)


9. Bangkok will always have a special place in my heart, because it was here where I fell in love many years ago, and that same person is still here. Many years ago; it still sounds weird saying it, but it has been that long?


10. I heard Teochew for the first time in a month while walking down the streets of Bangkok (there’s a huge Teochew population here), and was instantly comforted. Can’t really put my finger on it. This place could be home. It probably already is.