Thailand: thaimless memories from a place where the only constant is chang

Well loving loves - the freaks and geeks - a rite of passage has come to pass. It feels surreal. Perhaps it is impossible, and perhaps I have entered a new realm of time and space where I am actually free to go places before restricted - a place where the assignments of possible and impossible have been redistributed. That's right, I've now been to Thailand an back folks, sit in surprise and awe. It's gonna suck when the coffee maker doesn't work though.

It's been a long time coming to be sure. I tried to go for a month for a volunteer/adventure trip one summer, but then this plan was disallowed. Then a couple years later tried to study there for 8 months. Again, disallowed. After being smacked down twice, it was not difficult to think I may not just go there ever. BUT. It was not true. I tried to go for 8 days, and apparently, that was OK.

Thus, with a little elbow greese and six years in the making, I have travelled to Thailand folks. And it delivered. NO, folks, this was not a vacation. It was an experience haha. That is for the amount of wonderment, question marks over your head, and minor strife you may at any time experience in this country. Now, had I lived there, or had an extended stay without working, it would have morphed into a vacation to be certain. But the war waged on your body by insects, food, and sun is enough to challenge most anyone's definition of a vacation.

Now, that's not to say a vacation in Thailand isn't possible. Let me explain from the beginning baby.

Thailand

We walked out of the airport into the sweltering heat we hadn't experienced since the summer before. March in Thailand. The first thing we do is wait in front of the doors for a cab. As we're sitting there, I see my friend look up and eyes widen ever so slightly. "Well haven't seen that in a few hundred years."

I wanna go ahead and add this subheading just because it perhaps doesn't fit in other subheadings and it overshadows everything you do in Thailand. It feels good, in spite of a knee jerk reaction of anyone from the West to call it bad. This is that THAILAND LOVES THEIR KING.  This is what my friend was looking at:

If this picture has done nothing but made you lean forward, squint, and lean back feeling defeated, below is a better picture of it.

And oh boy. That's just the beginning. The King of Thailand is a pretty popular guy to make a gross understatement. Thailand loves their king as much as Japan loves Frozen, and pictures of this Monarch are about as common as your Japanese drink machine. Check out how many different situations I was reminded of the king in:

Not sure about this particular pic, but it does seem like even organizations not at all associated with the government purposely and voluntarily pay their respects to the monarch.

In front of an official looking building, but it looked like a rather minor building rather some kind of headquarters or gov't center.

If you happened to be walking down the road and forgot the King was great, then here's a friendly reminder.

This is over a major roadway

Pic was just chilling by the sidewalk

Airport

Shopping. And while this is not necessarily a direct reference to the King of Thailand, it certainly does seem to try and wear the word "king" in order to make its products more attractive. As if being associated with the word king is beneficial in Thailand because of their love for the King.

 For some who are let's say American, this could set off alarm bells and make people immediately feel like the Thai people are oppressed. Nope, not the feeling I got. Also not the impression I have from what I've been told. It is illegal for you to say bad stuff about the King, and if you do, I've heard that sometimes folks will personally go tell police if you've said something off about him. I've read that Thais love their King, and actually the King does a lot of fantastically admirable stuff. I must say, after seeing all those signs, I'm starting to like him pretty good myself. 

Bangkok

This city has gained considerable infamy from movies like the Hangover 2 or the aptly and idiotically named Bangkok Dangerous (it's a Nick Cage movie), and to be fair this city IS more nuts than other cities I've been to, but come on I did love it. It's nice and not just insane like one would be led to think. But okay from what I saw yes it's kinda nuts.

The first thing you notice, or the first thing I noticed, was some difference in infrastructure. I have no clue why, but the telephone poles have more wires than anyone could ever ever ever ever ever ever ever possibly figure out.

Second thing you notice, is a few of the smells. Of course I can't picture smells but I'll just go ahead and let you know that walking down streets I walked down, I went through a range of emotions associated with smells. Some bad some good and mostly a bit unpleasant. But as is goes.