Thailand…well the story if I had blogged two days ago would have been very different to the story that I am going to share with you today.
Arriving in Thailand was the biggest culture shock we have faced to date. After being in Singapore for a week and quite comfortable, to arrive in Thailand was a bit of a shock. We walked the streets the first day in absolute shock at how overt the sex tourism industry is over here. The images that we saw on our first day included many older western men with young asian girls in bars, walking down the street, at restraunts; many young girl scantly dressed hanging out in bars, flashing other customers; men on the street flashing cards of children “for sale” to westerner walking by… it was a bit of a shock after being in such conservative Asian countries. After the initial outrage – and Matt wanting to beat up some middle aged western men with young Thai girls – we have realised that it is quite a complex situation.
The next morning we sat in our quaint little back packers “Suk 11” and spoke with a lady who is doing research into people trafficing. She is actually here to see what NGOs are doing to work on the issue inorder to impliment some interventions in Australia, where apparently we have our own problems! Talking with our friend Wei who has been working in Bangkok for the last twelve months, she said that most of the women that we see as tourists are there (to some degree) of their own volition. It is seen as a big status simble for Thai women to marry western men and the western men generally help the entire families. From what we can gather it is not uncommon for lonely western men to come to Thailand in search of love. Love is a concept for those who can offord it and many of the Thai women see it as their duty to their families to make a good match with a wealthy westerner. So that begs the question who is using who…etc, etc…it is only when you are on holidays that you have time to think about these things.
There is a problem with people trading here, however, apparently they are the “workers” that you generally don’t see on the street. Generally it is the women, girls and boys that “service” the Thai population that are the ones bought from the poor rural families. It makes my blood boil and hence my 10 year plan to change the world is beginning to take shape 🙂 …in Maccas were we took refuge – somewhere familiar and safe.
So that was our first day. Since then we have realised that there is a bit more to Thailand – thank God – because we were wondering what we were going to do for our four weeks that we are here for! Our mate Wei took us out to a restraunt last night called Condoms and Cabbages, which was established to raise awareness of family planning and combat the spred of HIV. It was a very classy restraunt with a bit of a fun twist – the food was fantastic too! It was great to see Wei and she was very generous with her local knowledge, letting us know the amount we should pay for a Tuk Tuk ride and telling us the places to visit around town. She also took us to the largest open air market in the Southern Hemisphere today – it was great! There is a really good range of clothes, homeware…everything, things are cheep and they seemed to be a decent quality. I am beginning to see why people recommend Thailand for good shopping. As Matt and I have been saving so much to go away we are finding it difficult to get back into buying things, especially for ourselves. So in four hours of shopping all we bought was a singlet top for $3 for myself!
This evening we caught a movie…”Meet the Fouckers”…prior to the movie we had to stand for about a minute while a tribute to the king was played prior to the feature. They love the king over here. The really beautiful thing is that the king really seems to love his people as well. He has no problem speaking against the corruption in the government, though I think that he has little real power.
Tonight we were feeling a little home sick so we decided to dine at the Outback Aussie Restraunt. We learnt a bit about what Australian cuisine is 🙂 I think that I will stick with the local tucker from now on.
We are heading to the travel agents tomorrow to make some plans for the next three weeks, I can see beaches and northern hill tribes will probably enter into it.
Thanks for the emails, prayers, SMSs, phone call…we feel very loved…even if we do get a little home sick from time to time. Oh and my registration has come through from the UK!