Why Come to Thailand?

Phi Phi islands - one of the hardest hit areas after the 2004 Tsunami

Note: As I was returning to Thailand to lead a volunteer group in the Tsunami-hit area of Kao Lak, Hurricane Katrina and Rita were attacking the Southern coast of the U.S.

I was talking today in Bangkok with a Thai woman who is interested in sending a group of Thais from here to New Orleans to help fix that city  - She was quite serious and I’m thinking they’d do a pretty good job, being already used to sticky heat, rain and good food – Really, the only thing different about Bangkok and New Orleans is attitude…well maybe the music is a little better in New Orleans.

Her idea reminded me of a famous story about the King of Thailand writing to the President of the United States. King Monkut had read about the problems Abraham Lincoln was having in the Civil War and wrote to offer the President the use of some battle elephants. I kinda wish Lincoln had accepted the offer – that would have been quite a sight seeing those elephants – maybe would have ended the war a little early. Maybe.

Everyone should surrender to Thailand at some point if they are able. I keep surrendering, three times this year – and twice just to do dirty work, volunteering – why? I can do that at home.

At first it may all seem too much: You fly forever, jammed into economy class, to fly to Bangkok – a city out of Blade Runner – the only things missing from its metropolis skyline are flying cars – and then you are hit with heat that can dissolve skin. The urge is to get away – and that you must – to somewhere outside the city until you can handle it. And since every mode of transportation is waiting there for you in Bangkok  - so cheap – it is a very easy city to flee. So do it.

And once you’re out, somewhere else in Thailand, all the sudden you forget where you were before – or what it is you used to do.

I met these kinds of people all over the Tsunami areas – I was one of them – suffering from a virulent Thai strain of amnesia. There was Frankie from the U.K - who may or may not be a successful solicitor with a high paying promotion – if only she can remember to return home and take the job. And my friends Mica and David and Larry, like me, came to volunteer for a couple of weeks, are stll there – they may never leave. I had trouble coming back the last time in May - like that Luis Bunuel movie, “The Exterminating Angel.” where all the guests at a party, try as they might, can’t seem to leave – volunteering in Thailand is a trap. I think I had a pretty good job back in the States, easy work, pays O.K. and then all the sudden I’m near a beach, digging holes, bending re-bar and pouring concrete, gratis – and it seems like the best job in the world – as long as they keep feeding me Thai food.

And what is it in that food?

It a can appear at times that Thailand is mostly food surrounded by some people. It is Thai food, but it is not the same Thai food here in the States – hotter, yes; cheaper, by far – and laced with something that makes me want more. I am convinced a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Papaya on the island of Phi Phi Don, with a menu that’s painted on its wall – everything on it under $2 – makes the best panang curry with chicken I have ever had. And therefore that makes that hole-in-the-wall the best restaurant in the all the world – I would easily travel ten thousand miles again to have another helping – that’s a lot of money for $2, but Thai food in Thailand makes you kinda nutty.

I’m back home now – I’m alright now – but really all I think about is going back.

The travel books don’t tell you this – there is no easy way to express it – why you should go to Thailand. I spent maybe a couple days of the over sixty I was in Thailand this year doing the travel book things – seeing the giant Buddhas and hiking the beautiful mountains that led to the gorgeous beaches, where just below the surface of the sea was Finding Nemo in 3D – it is all there just like in the books, all worth seeing, I guess – but the rest was spent simply living and working, doing some often shitty jobs that came with the volunteering – and yet because it was with some of the best people I’ve ever met, Thais, Europeans, Israelis, Australians, the whole world – it seemed like this was only place to be and this was the only thing to be doing.

Perhaps it was it not Thailand at all, but the disaster? I had never been to the south of Thailand before the Tsunami and perhaps never would  had it not happened. Perhaps I will need to go to another disaster to find out – but I think it’s Thailand – the spirit of it is stronger than the waves.