Tales from the East - Episode 1: Bangkok inside out

There's one thing I haven't told you yet: In my younger days (newer thought I would ever say that but it sounds kinda cool - and I do have the beard to go with these kind of sayings ;-). Well, in my younger days I spend about 6 month doing a research study in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Lot's of stuff happens in 6 month, especially when living in another culture. I swear I'm telling the truth when I tell you that most of what happened in Malaysia fits perfectly under the header 'bizarre' - thus fitting perfectly for my blog :-)

Here goes the first episode in what hopefully becomes a long series of Tales from the East:

Me, a good friend, 3 cd's and a new laptop set out for Malaysia to conduct a research study as part of our masters' degree. Our professor insisted we took a so-called '3-week course' in Bangkok before the real project started, which was fine by us even though we had no fucking clue with regards to the topic (Environmental Management and Waste Water Treatment) - but it seemed like we were doing him a favour for using his contacts in Malaysia and fair is fair, you help each other out, one hand wash the other etc. And hey, who can't spend 1 month in Bangkok for free.

The course was a test-run with a mixed unit of Danish Engineer students and Thai's from the local University of Mahidol, Faculty of Public Health - it already sounds like a cool cocktail right. You probably all heard about Bangkok - read the Lonely Planet guide to Thailand, saw The Beach or whatever (you American's might even know that it's not on Hawaii :-p) - so I'll just quickly go through the basics myths:

- Thai's are shy: Wrong. They are indeed VERY 'forthcoming' - at least those trying to rip-off tourists. 

- Thai's are extremely polite: Partly true. Admittedly they do what they can not to offend you - as long as they think you'll buy something.

- A paradise city: Well, don't trust commercials unless your idea of paradise is heavy pollution, sex-pushers in every level of society and a pedestrians definition of hell. 

- Nice climate: They have a humidity close to 100 through all 3 seasons which is Hot - Hotter - Hottest. Result: Extreme air-con in all buildings (except open air markets) to a degree were you have to put on extra clothes to when you go inside.

- Generally good at English: No - but very good at Tenglish (the local mix of English and Thai). But I'll give them credit for the language, they have their own alphabet and it must be kinda hard to not even know the letters when learning a 2nd language.

- Thai cuisine are great: True - if you have a stomach for chilli. Otherwise you're in over your head (travellers advice - (most) 'western' Thai food is adapted to our local taste. It is only a pale replica of real Thai-food!). More in a later episode.

But those Thai's not related to the tourist industry (i.e. those who doesn't want your money) are actually quite nice and friendly, rather polite and extremely afraid of confrontations. The latter which I will elaborate on in a later episode. I even got some good friends on the course which I had contact with for years... Another cool guy we meet on the course was Slavic of some small village outside Kiev - probably the only guy on the face of Earth who swears more than he blinks. Very nice combo in 'polite country' and it did earn him more than a few anxious looks. 

And yes! Russians (as in ex-soviet union country citizens) do drink a shit load of vodka, but hell - who wouldn't when you can buy a good bottle of it for less than the same amount of water would cost you (which was roughly 2 $ at the time)?

Well, it's getting late. Cheers.