Love the skin that you're in.
Trip Start
Jan 06, 2005
1
19
20
Trip End
Apr 13, 2005
Bangkok,
Thailand
Monday, April 11, 2005
jess's mom arrived early this morning (1am-ish) and they left around 5:30am for their flight to sukothai (happy travels, you two!). i spent the afternoon wandering around the crazy siam square area with its confusing mini-malls and lanes full of shops all over the place.. and all i bought was a t-shirt.
i'm off to take a train to ayutthaya in a few short hours (about 2 hours away) where i will spend my last day wandering around the ancient temples, then go from there directly to the bangkok airport via bus.
i was telling jess that each time i go on a trip, i never feel sad to leave (this doesn't include my year in london though, but that was different as i had been living there and not just visiting). i always feel ready to go when the end of the trip rolls around, perhaps because i feel like i did what i came to do and there is a lot at home that i look forward to returning to (this definitely excludes looking for work, finishing school, and being broker than broke though).
what i will not miss about my trip at all is being the involuntary multicultural ambassador for canada (something i'm sure many of you people of colour can relate to from your own travels). if one more fucking person asks me where i'm from, and upon hearing that i'm from canada says something like, "but you look japanese!" (if you're not going to believe me, why ask in the first place?!), i will explode. sometimes, they will first ask jessica where she is from and then after hearing her response, turn to me - her very obvious travelling companion - and say "and where are you from? japan?" (to which i recently exploded with, "why would i be travelling with her if i was from japan?!"). i used to just smile and correct people but after the umptheenth time, it gets really tiring and so the poor people who say "konichiwa!" or mention japan to me nowadays often face my wrath or me ignoring them altogether. at first, i thought it was really and truly that i looked japanese.. but now, i've gotten a lot darker from the sun and don't even think i actually look japanese at all anymore! grrrr.
everyone thinks that canada is inhabited by only white people. i don't blame them here entirely because what are they supposed to think when about 99% of the tourists they encounter (aside from travellers visiting family) are white (bringing up the question: who has the most privilege to travel?), and when the western media (tv, movies, magazine ads, whatever else) shows mostly white people with the occasional token black guy. (by the way, this disbelief that i'm 'really canadian' is not something that i escape in canada either, of course, what with the occasional annoying white person asking me the tiring question, "but where are you really from?")
also, it has been interesting travelling as a person of colour with a white person. in every country we have gone to, people will touch jessica's arm or hold their darker arms next to hers and tell her (or motion to her) that she has nice skin while they have ugly skin. this isn't even a female-only phenomenon. simton, our motorbike guide in ban lung (cambodia), mentioned that he was ugly because he had dark skin, unlike jessica's white skin. it made me very sad to hear. in stores everywhere in every single country, the shelves are packed with skin whitening products. there is even skin whitening deodorant! all this love of light skin is a legacy that colonialism left behind in most countries the world over (e.g. colonizers favouring lighter skinned people for better treatment, etc.), as well as an issue of class (i.e. light skin means you don't toil in the fields under the hot sun).. and both as they inter-relate too.
another thing i noticed during our travels is that people will sometimes treat me differently from jessica. for example, in some markets, i recall the merchants calling out to jessica, "miss, would you like to buy something?" while ignoring me (even though we walked together through the aisles). i didn't mind it since i prefer to be left alone, but the fact that it comes from the system of white supremacy (even in countries where white is the minority and where i look like everyone else, though 'japanese', of course) obviously leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
anyway, i'll be home soon.. i won't have a phone for a little while till i get one hooked up) so if anyone wants to get in touch with me, drop me an email.
au revoir!
