The Thai Message

As a child, I remember seeing this nomad on cartoon network who used to run tirelessly after the Sun so as to not lose sight of it. I found his running amusing and inexplicable.

My last holiday had been more than a year and a half ago. A break was desperately needed from the daily grind, the same set of issues, perspectives and people. Time and space to introspect, retrospect, get some fresh ideas, meet new people and take myself out of the equation to be able to understand it better was desperately needed.

Thailand seemed like the best place to go to owing to acquaintance, proximity, ease on the pocket and of course for being the ideal destination with a multitude of offerings – diversity, culture, cuisine, night life, beaches and adventure sports. Unlike last time when we were busy partying, this time I wanted to explore Buddhist culture, interact with a lot of people and go for adventure sports.

A recollection of some of the memorable experiences during the trip from Jun 7 to Jun 12:

The Monk who had a Galaxy:  Banjong, the monk from Bodhilam (around 300 km from Bangkok) had just spent 4 months at Bodh Gaya was 49 (looked 25), didn’t know much English, knew “Paratha”, “Samosa” in Hindi, meditated for 12 hours every day and had a Galaxy tab. I met him at the Kolkata airport where he showed me pictures of his monastery and invited me for a visit there.

The Indian Couple: Upon reaching the Don Meung airport I met these two gentlemen from Kolkata who worked in the same IT firm. We shared a cab and all along the way they talked about their office problems, blamed each other for not having planned properly and made up like newly-weds. I was thanking my stars for traveling alone.

The Unicef Girl: I met Xenia on Friday at the conference and then we met again on Saturday at the hotel lobby. We talked about the use of ICT in education and if it was actually helping students learn better. She was from Greece doing her MS in Stockholm. We went out for lunch to a Korean place where most of what we talked about was education, research and potential project collaborations with Unicef.

The King Khan Couple: The next day I was eating Pad Thai at the Chatuchak market when this Indonesian couple sat next to me. They were married for five years and went out on a honeymoon every year. The wife was a huge SRK fan and sang popular numbers with ease and a cute accent.

The Thai Student:  On my way to Pattaya, I met this school girl who wanted to be a doctor. I saw her text books of Chemistry, Biology and was surprised to see that they were so nicely structured with lots of images. She talked about her school, parents and friends.

The Egyptian Papa: A loud, energetic and fat Adil was the owner of the eatery at the crossing of one of the streets at Pattaya. We talked about Egypt, why he came to Thailand, his eight children back home and my plans to visit the land of the pyramids later this year.

The Kuwait Kings: Met these four friends from Kuwait on the boat that took us for parasailing and then to the Coral Islands. They were fun, completely chilled and I loved the way they called me “My Brather”

The Leggy Lass: Pagy the Thai girl with Indian mom & Chinese dad would have given Maria Sharapova a run for her money. It was but a coincidence that I sat next to the prettiest girl in the bus wearing micros. Apart from her fascination for everything South Korean and Johnny Depp, she worked as a real estate agent. We talked through the entire journey about marriage, relationships and more.

The French Connection: I was sitting next to the driver and next to me were these three French girls. Emilie (the cutest among them) and I started talking and they invited me to come to the Sky Bar with them. The world's highest open air bar had a panoramic view of Bangkok and the Chao Phraya River. An enthralling ambience, great music and fine cocktails got us in gyration mode till the wee hours of the morning.

The Burmese Surprise: Nuan, the receptionist at Olavi Travels arranged for my tour for Ayuthaya. She looked very Indian and I asked her about that. Then started a four hour long conversation from 11 pm to 3 am where she shared her life story, the trials and tribulations which were no less than a Bollywood story.

The Crazy Couple in Love: Andy – a British Juggler and Rachel - the Australian Nutritionist had both left their countries, were crazily in love and had been working in Kolkata and Rishikesh respectively for the last six months. We talked about India, her people, the chaos and discussed possible solutions to the problems with optimism realizing the undercurrent of  diversity, inertia and forces beyond control.

The American tattooist & teacher: Brollins, a tattoo artist and Kareena, a teacher of special children from Nevada had both been working in Japan. Both of them were very well travelled and like most Americans were pretty loquacious.I had some of the most interesting and intellectually stimulating discussions with them.

A Chinese Affair to remember: Met Ling on a rainy evening when we were taking refuge under a shelter. We went to a coffee shop and talked for the next three hours. An entrepreneur herself, Ling told me about the innovative method to teach English in an informal environment. We bought raincoats together, walked through the flooded streets with our shoes in our hands, had dinner and then walked around Bangkok randomly. We had flights to catch the next day and the entire experience was somewhat similar to Before Sunrise.  In retrospect, the most cherished moment of the trip.

A Dutch couple – Steven & Rachina who were living together (as they didn’t believe in marriage owing to the high divorce rates), a Korean Lady – Moon Xi (who I drove around in a golf car around the king’s palace) and an Israeli who gave wonderful insights into the problems in his country and how they tackled them, along with some more were casualties of the Bhaatentum Effect.

Some of the other things that I remember were walking continuously for 4 hours at night in Bangkok, spending time at the various monasteries at Ayuthaya, shopping at the Chatuchak market, travelling in the sky train and of losing and getting my passport all soaked up on the beach.

Of falling in love with people, of reinstating that we are all inherently the same, of realizing that ultimately we need to find a balance with everything around us, of knowing that there will be order in chaos if things are done with the right intentions and of continuously exploring, experiencing and discovering oneself is the true way to be intoxicated with the spirit of life were perhaps the reasons behind the nomad’s pursuit.

As a famous traveller once said - "I have seen more than I remember and remember more than I have seen."

p.s – A special thank you to my mom for pushing me to go for the trip & Thailand for being such an amazing potpourri, you are so much more than a massage.