Bangkok is a very modern city and not just in terms of architecture and technology. It predates Indian economic surge by almost 30 years and has experienced a stock market debacle in the early nineties and a crash of its currency – the Thai Baht in last nineties when the IMF coached its financial recovery. So in many ways it has gone through what the US and Europe are going through now and what India and China have not since their economies burgeoned.
Whilst Mumbai dreams of becoming the next Shanghai, and New Delhi hopes to become Taiwan, Bangkok offers a template of how Indian cities might look in the future. This is because of the cultural similarity between the two nations – particularly in the way religiosity of the common Thai, their reverence for the royalty, much like our reverence for our political royalty, their tolerant and welcoming manner, their love for bargaining about everything, and finally the importance eating and sharing within families has. Their ‘cool heart’ or jai yen characteristic means that you are unlikely to see heated arguments and certainly no fights. In fact we hardly saw a single policeman – traffic or otherwise during our time there, despite hour long traffic jams and a thriving sex industry. They regulate themselves. No honking, and no shouting. In fact Thais will look at your with alarm if you raise your voice and become rude. They tend to smile or laugh nervously as they don’t know how to react. Do bargain when there for most things, even in big shops are inflated in price. The best bet is to start at 50% and stop somewhere between 2/3 or 4/5 of the asking price. Do this with a smile and be aware whenever someone says ‘ this one costs 100baht but only for you I’ll give it for 90baht’. Its more likely to cost around 50-60Baht. One GBP is 45 Baht, which is valued 1.5 times that of Indian Rupee.
Thais are 80% Buddhists and this religion receives royal patronage. However people are free to practice any other religion and we saw Portugese churches, Mosques, and Indian temples. Thais practice Theravada Buddhism where they believe in one Buddha who attained Nirvana – they call it Nippana, and hence no Dalai Lama for them, unlike the Mahayana group which believes in the reincarnation of Buddha, who comes to earth again and again (like our avatars) through the Dalai. In fact the northern Asian countries of China, Japan, Korea, Tibet, Taiwan are all Mahayana while the southern countries are Theravada – Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos, Burma and Cambodia. Thai Buddhism is a conglomeration of Hindu rituals, ancient animistic practice of worshipping spirits, and Buddhism. Thus, you will have priests presiding over Buddhist temples (which are not called pagodas), offerings of food, fruits, flowers, incense and money are made to appease the lord, requests are made to god (‘If my daughter gets married, I shall offer you Baht 1000, and so on), and a great deal of superstition abounds. In fact you will find in every temple, the Chinese practice (this one comes from Mahayana) of shaking a container full of wooden/bamboo sticks with numbers written on them, held within two folded hands, until the rapid rhythmic shaking throws out one stick. ON the wall would be a stand with messages/advice written on paper under various numbers and you would be expected to go check the number you got. Much like the Indian practice of the parrot picking out a sheet on the roadside. The difference is that Thais take it very seriously as though the advice is straight from the Lord Buddha himself.
In Bangkok, the ancient lives alongside the modern. After the Thai economy crashed in early 90’s increasingly Thai women from the northern districts turned to catering to men by offering traditional Thai massage for small earnings as the men folk turned to alchohol and domestic abuse. This coincided with the end of the drug trade in the Golden Triangle (wait for a blog covering this in the next few days), where thousands of poor farmers were stopped from growing poppies for opium (much like the situation is in Afghanistan today), making them paupers overnight. Now Thai massage is like Ayurvedic massage where the masseuse uses elbows and knees gently to apply pressure in key points to release stress, tension and pain. But some women turned this into a sex trade and others found that much more income could be made if they offered themselves after their skills.
This coincided with a boom of cheap and gratuitous tourism from European countries where men flocked in hundreds every year to benefit from cheap sex industry which was safer than the more vicious industry of the West. Some of these men started marrying these poor women, usually middle aged or older European men, often British. The women jumped at the prospect of leaving a sordid practice behind, going to the UK (Germany, and eastern European countries) and living a comfortable, albeit a lonely life. I remember chatting with a London cabbie once who’d a young Thai wife. He said the reason he got married was ‘because western women think selfishly, but Thais know how to respect and love their men. When I get back home, my bath is ready and hot sumptuous food is on the table. She does not ask for much exceptt respect and equality. I’m more than pleased to provide that’.
In recent times the Patpong and Nana areas have become havens for gay and trans-sexual men. Thailans has a larger than usual share of hermaphrodites (eunuchs in lay terms) according to a local friend, who have always been accepted as part of the society, unlike India where they are marginalized and ostracized. These men, called 'ladyboys' are now offering themselves as consort and attracting a type of tourism that Thailand can do without. But its tolerant nature means that the government does not put a stop to it nor does the religious nature of the society abhor this blatant sexuality. The funny part is that these places, called go-go bars abound and nestle comfortably next to normal shops and restaurants. I found even burkha-clad women (the little Arabia is smack in the middle of Nana district) with their husbands walking calmly through lines of women and gay men standing on the sidewalks. No cheap cat-calls for those soliciting busines and no lewd gestures by those walking through their districts - that's 'Jai yen' or cool heart for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment