The Bright Side of Thailand

I spent my one week in Thailand without Charlie in Krabbi province, in Ao Nang and on Koh Tao.

I spent my time on my own on the kind of "packaged tour" holiday that could take place just about anywhere in the world with a nice beach. I took a snorkeling tour. I got a Thai massage almost every day. I read a couple of books. I swam a bit in the ocean and sat by the pool, when I could find a chair. (All the chairs got snapped up in the whole place by about 8:30 am. Blame it on the Germans.)

To be fair, Thailand has more than its fair share of picture perfect, white sand beaches and that is why the people come to visit en masse. (In the photo above, I strategically positioned my head so that it blocked the many people in the water behind me. The beach was by no means deserted.) I am sure I would have had more fun if Charlie had been with me, truth be told. I also made some strategic errors, like booking a hotel sight unseen and then discovering it was located right to a mosque with a LOUDspeaker and a very early call to prayer delivered well before sunrise and by someone who was completely tone deaf. The hotel was full of honeymooners and German families and the end result was that I also spoke to almost no one other than my masseuse and the couple of guys who tried to chat me up and then abruptly turned on their heels the moment that they noticed my wedding ring or I mentioned that I was married.

I had several positive experiences that I will always hold dear. When I walked through a beachside park frequented mostly by Thai families for about an hour on a Sunday afternoon, I was invited to join no fewer than three picnics (where tom yum soup was being served, no less). I can't imagine that happening in Los Angeles - a foreigner wandering around by herself and you invite her to your family's Sunday picnic? Yeah, right.

I was routinely pleasantly surprised by the number of articles in each of the Thai English language newspapers I read devoted to environmental issues, like reducing carbon emissions and enforcing a ban on the harvesting of old growth trees for lumber. Although this is of course anecdotal, there appears to be more awareness and dedication to these issues in Thailand than there is in the US media.

And I continue to both be curious about and admire what I perceive to be Thai culture's more liberal attitude toward sexual orientation and gender bending than that of "the West," at least as I perceive those to be. If anyone has any thoughts on this, I would love to hear it. (And if you think I am off base, please let me know, too.) Is Thai culture as tolerant as it seems to be? Is this tolerance attributable to Buddhism? Are other Buddhist countries, like Vietnam, as tolerant, or is there something unique about Thailand? Strangely, I saw more gender-bending among both men and women the further South - i.e. more muslim - in the country I went, but maybe it is because I was in the tourist-y areas.

When a drag queen walked out of a tour operator's office, I asked the tour guide what Thai people's attitude was toward transgendered people and her was simply, "Ok, ok, no problem!" No problem indeed. That's Thailand.