streaming consciousness…

Tagged: Thailand Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

• 

  hardie karges 8:34 am on July 22, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Thailand, women ( 5 )   

  After thirty a woman’s chances with Thai men are getting slim anyway, 

  slimmer than their waistlines certainly, what with a new crop of 16-year-olds always there looking to move up the food chain. So for the minor adjustment of servicing a hairy smelly foreigner for an undetermined number of years, a Thai woman past her prime can likely secure a better life for her and her family, and maybe even score an inheritance in the process. Love lies hidden in the cracks of a warped existence. There’s something for everyone where the algebra of need meets the geometry of desire. Anything disgusting about it, like the sight of twenty-year-old Thai girls sacrificing themselves to fifty-year-old Western men, doesn’t apply to me. Tang’s not that young anyway, not physically at least. She’s got a loyal devoted, if not ever-present husband, not like a lot of Thai guys with as many wives as they can afford. Every time I try to cheat on my wife, my dick gets infected or swells up or something, unsympathetic magic. I like guilt complexes; it leads the world to an ultimately better place. Of course it works best if everyone is similarly possessed. Tang only gets jealous when I flirt with death; that’s her turf.

  hkarges and gregorylent are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
  • 

    gregorylent 1:20 pm on July 22, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    you are smart, a damn good writer, insightful .. and if you just back off the attitude about ten percent, you could be great … unhealed stuff gets in the way of the reader ..

  • 

    hkarges 7:37 pm on July 22, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    If you’re a professional editor, then we should talk. I’d love to know which ten percent is in the way. The hardest thing for any writer is self-editing. Regardless, thanks for the comment.

  Reply Cancel reply

  Required fields are marked *

  Name *

  Email *

  Website

  Notify me of new comments via email.

  Notify me of new posts via email.

  Δ

• 

  hardie karges 6:29 am on July 21, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: PROSTITUTION ( 4 ), Thailand   

  Service workers don’t make jack in Thailand, 

  unless that’s the name of one of the many foreigners who wash up on the beach here. They usually end up in one of the many GI-style bars looking for a little R & R in a World War III of the soul for which an armistice is pending but never imminent. Nurses with ten years experience make the equivalent of a couple hundred American bucks a month, which admittedly goes a lot farther here than there, but still… Prostitution is a dream job for many in a dirt-poor agrarian economy with a highly competitive Chinese-descended service sector. To actually marry a Farang is a fantasy for many Thai women with only the minimum six years of education, an expanding thirty-something waistline and only a smidgin of Pidgin, but still enough to get the new cars and houses rolling in. Of course the big jackpot is the Big D itself (no, not Dallas), inheritance, Easy Street for life if the papers are in order. Many a smart cute cookie foregoes Boogie Nights at the disco and Priapic encounters of the third kind to service an ailing foreign account and go straight for a house on the Boardwalk when the old geezer croaks. Of course some don’t like the long wait and try to help the process along. No girl would ever cop to being an inheritance-chaser, of course, and most probably aren’t, really, unless of course somehow you know in a way with special circumstances events unfold Smith-like by an unseen hand. Even the government gets in on the deal, offering cozy retirement opportunities to anyone who can cough up the minimum $25,000 to deposit in a Thai bank. Some accounts probably go unclaimed when they expire. Call it inheritance farming.
   
• 

  hardie karges 9:29 am on July 20, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 456 ), Thailand   

  Thai Buddhist monks are the ultimate slackers of all time. 

  They drop out of society to join a government-supported temple, don orange robes, and parade the streets once a day begging for food, all to the admiration of a somewhat jealous Thai society, for whose sins they die a little bit each day, not physically but socially. Most Thai males shave their heads and join the brotherhood for at least a temporary period of time. Some Farangs do also, though many more could certainly use it, considering the excesses they put themselves. Cool indeed, but it sends a mixed message to many Thai youths who see it as official vindication for their own slacker tendencies. Most Thais like nothing better than sabai sabai, which translates loosely as ‘fucking off’. The work ethic finds fertile ground only among the business-oriented community, some of them filthy rich, though still far out-numbered by the filthy poor. Of course the average Thai figures that anybody who’s rich simply got lucky and anybody who’s lucky will get rich. Work ethic is a well-guarded secret and admittedly is best utilized by those in an inside position to take full advantage of it. Tang’s teen-age son sees no reason to study beyond the bare minimum necessary to keep moving that desk up to a new level each year. Like many people caught in the gap between fantasy and reality, Thais are lost in their own mythology.eHH

  Bookmarks about Thai is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
• 

  hardie karges 12:19 pm on July 19, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 456 ), colonialism, Thailand   

  Did the passive society create Buddhism 

  or did Buddhism create the passive society? Certainly the two go hand in hand in Thailand. Whether it’s been to their long-term benefit is another question. It’s interesting to compare Thailand and Vietnam, with similar geographical and historical backgrounds. They’ve both occupied virtually the same region for at least the last two thousand years, Vietnam long an explicit colony of China. Though Thailand’s history is far murkier, they, too, received heavy influence from China, before ultimately rejecting it. Both were militant and heavily expansionist half a millennium ago until the arrival of the Europeans. Thailand could see the writing on the wall and co-operated, even giving up land to the French and British in exchange for sovereignty. They are now one of Asia’s newest ‘tigers’ and are steadily moving out of the ranks of the unemployed Third World poor. Vietnam caused problems, over and over and over. They are now one of the poorest countries in the world. How do you spell ‘dignity’ anyway?

  Joram Arentved is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
  • 

    Joram Arentved 3:09 pm on September 10, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    Now, that my labor situation has become a too big complication to me, you’re welcome to receive any of my further & most relevant information, i.e. about, what’s my obligation, so that I can of course tell & e.g. help us both & maybe some good lawyer find out, what’s a good future & maybe even why: to be continued.
    Greetings from Yours, faithfully, Jo-
    ram Arentved, arentved@in.com.

  • 

    Joram Arentved 11:57 am on November 10, 2008 Permalink | Reply

    It also spells out in another way, & of course I can reveal it to you, honesty! Greetings, arentved@in.com

• 

  hardie karges 7:29 am on July 18, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 456 ), marriage ( 3 ), temples, Thailand   

  Some Thai boys too young for sex or labor 

  renounce their worldly attachments to join the priesthood, a shortcut to fulfillment. To renounce something they never had has no meaning. They’re just lazy, looking for an easy life. Their heads are already shaved for school, so it’s not much of a transition. For most it’s just a summer session, then back to the real world. Some kids have no choice. They end up at the temple because there’s literally nowhere else, just like cats and dogs abandoned by their owners. You can even crash there if you’re too poor for a hotel. Don’t abuse that privilege like the Thai parliament members who travel around the country staying in hospital VIP rooms because they’re entitled to free medical care. Temples in Thailand are literally the last resort, for life and death, religion and cremation, social activity, even marriage. Tang and I got married like that in Thailand. We just showed up in the temple first thing in the morning, taking food prepared for the monks, then proceeded to kneel in front of a monk as he lectured us on our responsibilities, ultimately blessing our union. Later we feasted with family and only then did we actually get ‘hitched’, literally. Family members took turns lashing our hands together with white cord while food and drink flowed in the periphery. Fortunately Boy Scouts here don’t learn real knots.

   
• 

  hardie karges 11:28 am on July 17, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: PROSTITUTION ( 4 ), Thailand   

  The real problem is the dark side: 

  child prostitution, sex slavery, AIDS, etc. Even in modern almost-ready-for-prime-time Thailand, such unsavory situations still raise their ugly heads and lower their ugly butts on to the fresh silky-smooth forms of young girls that can only be described as flesh-candy to the mostly lower-class local male population. Everybody gets in on the deal in a situation in which women routinely get the short end of the stick in a society where the first male child is the unquestioned crown prince. Old habits die hard in a Chinese-descended culture. Parents don’t want to pay to educate a girl who’s going to marry and never use it. Many women love the idea of playing housewife to the big strong male, at least until he dumps her for some teen-ager, and she’s left to fend for herself. It’s a vicious cycle. Of course, there’s also another Dark Side: long dark hair and big dark eyes. That one’s easier to swallow. Ignorance lures eternal, twitching its cute little butt with a rhythm akin to salsa, a universality akin to ketchup. All you need is the missing link.

   
• 

  hardie karges 8:38 am on July 16, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: PROSTITUTION ( 4 ), Thailand   

  Thailand’s imperfect mix 

  shows its smiling face to the modern world as a fait accompli with little knowledge of the particular punctuations in its cultural evolution, and semi-deliberate masking of some of its more onerous social problems. Many, if not most, third world countries have grievous social problems. It might even be considered a rite of passage into a higher orbit of civilization if the bumps in the road weren’t so painful sometimes. Unlike the problems of racism, drug economies, violence, corruption, and stealth that other third world countries suffer, the main social problem in Thailand is the ‘victimless’ crime of prostitution, and its convenient scapegoat, poverty. Like other victimless crimes such as gambling and drug use, prostitution is especially difficult to eradicate since it can be a selling point for tourism that brings in the much-needed hard stuff, cash, that is. The much-needed physical love that so many Western men lack in their own ‘femi-nazied’ countries gets filled by professionals in the service of industry, so no one gets hurt. At least that’s the idea. The reality of course can be somewhat different. For one thing, most up-for-grab Thai women aren’t especially professional. Many wear their hearts right on their sleeves, and those hearts can get hurt or hardened. For another thing, the tourists go home, usually. The Thais are left in a society where Buddhist merit making frequently takes second priority to materialistic meretriciousness. Of course, many tourists decide to stay and live or retire, and many Thai women go abroad with their newfound boyfriends and husbands. I wouldn’t say they’re Thailand’s largest export yet, but their numbers are significant. But that’s not the real problem, of course.

   
• 

  hardie karges 9:30 am on May 27, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: REVENGE ( 3 ), Thailand   

  FUTILE SYSTEM 

  “Eye for an eye” is a much misunderstood phrase, typically considered to be encouragement of revenge as the highest form of justice. In fact it is an admonition to limit compensation to no more than actual damages, in other words, NO REVENGE, or at least, no punitive damages. This is a lesson a few American lawyers should consider. Some Thai females take the example to a new extreme, whacking off the genitals of a partner who has done them wrong, or so the urban legends go. Sometimes it can be sewed back on, if it can be found, but not always. One tale even has the unit sent flying to parts unknown by hot air balloon, a forlorn member of a very select club sent on its way to never-never land with no return ticket. Welcome to the lives of the cheap and dirty, humanity laid bare for pubic consumption, the American dream, docile natives in service to their superiors. As weird as Interzone is, Thailand is even weirder. Like Navajos in turquoise, Thais like to wear their bank accounts around their necks, 24 K gold redeemable in cash on demand. Most have never had credit cards, and for good reason. They run up a huge bill, and then wonder why the credit gets cut off, and the bills keep coming. Very few Thais use checks for the same reason, so nobody will take them. They bounce, and bounce, and bounce. This is the futile system, in God we trust, as long as he pays cash. But I digress.

   
• 

  hardie karges 1:29 am on February 9, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: life ( 33 ), Mexico ( 7 ), Thailand, travel ( 14 )   

  Night Life 

  The girls of Ensenada will never make a Playboy shoot.  I know that there are a lot of lonely people in the world, but this is ridiculous!  Nightlife in Mexico is surreal.  With their bouffant hairdos and gaudily painted faces, it’s like something from a dream, or a circus, or maybe just the past.  Mexican women are to normal women as Mexican food and music are to their ‘normal’ counterparts, an acquired taste.  Ensenada comes awake all of a sudden when the love-boat lands.  It’s like night and day.  The only thing I’ve seen like it is in Songkhla, Thailand, where bar girls watch and wait behind counters deadly silent, counting I guess, as if something will surely happen if only they wait long enough.  It does.  The foreign off-shore oil-field support workers come in, somebody rings the bell hanging over the bar, and all of a sudden the place is an uproar, with dancing and drinking erupting as if from a long dormant volcano.  Of course, nothing beats the ‘wookie bar’ along Sukhumvit in Bangkok for surrealism.  If you turned Thailand up on edge to sort out the loose nuts, this is where you’d go to pick them up.  Is this where you end up after cruising the parking lot of Shoney’s Big Boy in Jackson, Mississippi, as a teenager?  It’s bumper-to-bumper on a Saturday night in Ensenada.

  Sukeri is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
  • 

    Sukeri 9:49 am on February 11, 2009 Permalink | Reply

    Great post! Found another site which I must admit has come in handy while working remote: TravelMonks

    They have a pretty good dynamic map of a lot of places and things, like this one on nightlife or this one on wireless internet places.

• 

  hardie karges 1:03 am on February 6, 2008 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: sticky rice ( 2 ), Thai food ( 4 ), Thailand   

  Northern Thai Food 

  Then there’s the dark side.  Northern Thailand has its own food, most famous of which is probably kaow soi, though more typical would be nam ngieow, a hot murky tomato-based concoction served over khanom jeen or rice noodles, and which people here in Chiang Rai go ape-shit over.  Ditto for gaeng awm, something like lahp that apparently got lost and then rescued a few days later, older but wilder.  They also go ape-shit over som tam, which is shredded unripe papaya salad mixed with peanuts, tomatoes, crab, hot peppers, and only God knows what else.  He still ain’t tellin’. If you’re eating papayas to help promote bowel movements, this’ll get you there in a hurry.  Naturally it’s eaten with sticky rice to help repair the damage.  Does raw papaya sound strange?  Thais also typically eat their mangoes green.  Go figure.  By the time they get ripe, supermarkets are discounting the price and I’m stocking up.  Some varieties are actually quite tasty green, but I can’t help feel they’re missing the boat on this one, ripe mango being one of the finer flavors in the world.  So, if you like green mangoes, hot spicy raw papaya salad, and gut-slashing spicy noodles, then northern Thailand might be just the ticket for you, especially if you like Mexican food already.  Mexicans in LA are some of the best customers for Thai food in the not-so-fancy restaurants.