why i hatelove thailand

These days, bangkokbitch-dad is in bangkok for a short visit. it's very exhausting. dad cares for "attractions" and I am more a "general-feel" traveller. that means, he wants to see what the guidbook recommends and i'd rather just walk around and get the feel of a place. so in bangkok, I dont really know that many of the "attractions". never mind, dad is self-reliant.

his hotel is around sanam luang, where at night, the navyboys come out to sell themselves. dad said the other day: "you know, there were guys pissing on the wall and they all were so nice to me when I didnt know my way...". I wonder what dad was up to. I also told him about ladyboys. He said - and I quote: "beauty is beauty, doesnt matter what gender". Ooops. Also, he meets his former collegues once a year. One woman said: where's your son these days? Dad: Bangkok. woman: oh, he's having many girlfriends. dad: no, one boyfriend. way to go dad!!!!

today we went to k-buri. the one with the bridge. it's a nice town actually - very touristy of course. for, lunch, this girl-waitress came around and said to her older waitress-friend: "oh, farang lor maak maak". (the foreigner is handsome). We then started chatting away in Thai (as far as I could of course). I knew the vocab for that kind of conversation though. Do you have a feen (bf/gf)? I said: Yes. She was discouraged but came back. Is your feen thai? No, Korean. Oh, do you speak Korean or English? Does he live here? Why do you stay in Thailand, why dont you have a Thai boyfriend? Oh, well....she was really cute actually. Dad's comment: "She likes you because you are different from the others, you speak Thai so it's not boring with you". That's sweet of dad!

Then we walked down the road to get to the war cemetary. About 300 people wanted me to buy a book about the bridge, postcards, take a tuk-tuk, take a taxi, take a songteaw, go on a boat trip, go to the restaurant, have a massage and rent a motorbike. how could I do all of these? I decided to said "mai ao" to all of them. Differently from bangkok however, they didnt walk away when they notice you can speak thai. they just go on with the same blah in thai....Look, dear people. I do seriously understand that you are not so rich and you are having a hard time this season because of some special events this year and thus, you need MONEY - the big baht. And Im happy to give you a fair and generous tip if you are nice to me. However, if you are trying to be cheeky little bastards, you get nothing. Zero, nada, niente, rien. I really do NOT like if you are lying around lazily on your songteaw dozing off and as soon as the farang appears you appear to be stung by the invisible baht-bee and shout and wave so the whole town hears you. I wont be the baht-fairy for you, sorry. the people I hate most however are the dishonest ones. I was asking someone where the cemetary is. promptly, he wants me to mount his motocy and dad on some kinda riksha thingie. I think they are called samlor in thai. he first said: "yuu nan" (it's over there) but then he wanted to drive us and surely charge an immense price. The driver then swore about bad farang and promptly, the cemetary was about 50 metres around the corner, I kid you not!

Yesterday at Wat Pho the same story. Some guy highly officially controlled our tickets upon LEAVING the temple, made a cross and said something about free, today only and buddha. that of course is utter BS. I said something in Thai and walked off. then a guy approached us and said he didnt know the way to the grand palace (it's right in front of us). i showed him in thai and he asked us where we are going. I said "mae nam" and he said, go straight ahead. Later that night, I got dad a taxi back to the hotel. The son of a b***h of a taxi driver didnt know where dad's hotel was even though I explained him and he dropped him off at the wrong place. Also he charged 40bht "night-time fee". My dad believed him and also the free, today only guy. I used to be like this too, gullible and trusting. But Bangkok has changed me. I mistrust most people in the first place. That's a bit of a shame. I dont get conned but I am not so friendly anymore.

In this country however, where there are downsides, there will always be an upside. The upside came in the name of a pretty guy sitting on the side of the road in K-buri in a cafe with his two (girl)friends. His skin was quite fair but not colourless and his feature soft yet manly. He looked at me head to toe and back to head again and smiled straight out. I smiled back and thought that if I wouldnt have a boyfriend and a dad with me, I would have stopped and talked to him. I turned around again and he did too. It was a nice moment.

So, at the end of the day, I am happy. Really really tired, but happy. and thats what counts after all.