Reflection in Bangkok
Trip Start
Aug 21, 2006
1
52
70
Trip End
Dec 18, 2006
Bangkok,
Thailand
Thursday, November 16, 2006
In addition to the multitude of travelers here, you also can't help but notice the large numbers of older caucasian men with very young Thai women. It seems a rather unusual pairing...the details of which I'll leave to your imagination. Marriage in this area seems to be more a matter of security than romantic love. This concept was discussed in the book I read before arriving: "Thai Girl". Perhaps this is why our marriages break up so much more frequently. We seem to be idealists, expecting the very best...and believing that we 'deserve' only the best. It is an interesting concept...what one deserves, or is entitled to. By the luck of our birth, many of us have been lucky to enjoy privileges others can not even conceive of and then we believe that it is our 'right' to have them.
Reading, Graham Greene's "The Quiet American" which has me reflecting on the consequences of actions that are based on good intentions (which often don't turn out well). The book features a quiet American during the French Vietnam War. His black and white perspective and innocence cause trouble for those around him.
I was thinking about what makes America great as well as vulnurable, including our misguided intentions at times while walking through the War Remnants Museum and seeing the pictures of people burned beyond recognition through the use of Napalm and Agent Orange. I think the French did it as well when they were fighting in Vietnam prior to the Americans. I can just imagine an American leadership so frustrated by their inabilty to beat the enemy that they decide to deforest an entire country. It seems so heavy handed and grotesque now especially knowing the enormity of human suffering and loss of life not to mention environmental devastation that occurred.
Anyway, I'm off my soap box now, the dangers of too much time on my hands! Just finished an aromatherapy massage and foot massage on the rooftop of the D & D Inn where I am staying. Tonight I'll have special Pad Thai with my friend Babu. I say special, because he assures me that it is different than the multitudes of Pad Thai that I have had on Khoa San Road since arriving in Bangkok...
