Jun 02, 2013 10:42 AM
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(Updated Jun 02, 2013 10:43 AM)
Pattaya, a popular beach resort of Thailand, reminded me, a distant land-locked north-westerner, of my yesteryear trips to our very own Goa though the beaches here are cleaner with clear sands and water, and it boasts a more vibrant and busy (read sleazy) nightlife. My hotel in Pattaya was barely 300 meters from the bay with the balcony of the room on the 3rd floor looking out towards the sea. Bulk of the tourists comprised the fair and slim men and women from other South East Asian countries and the rest from Europe, with, of course, a thin smattering of my own countrymen. The young ladies manning the reception counter at the hotel wore typical Thai smiles wishing graceful ‘SAWASDEE KHAs’ ( a namaste kind of salutation) but lacked the Indian warmth, poor articulation in English worsened by the difficult Thai accent only compounding the misery.
A stroll on the famous (infamous for the saintly and the sinless) Walking Street was an interesting and a never-before and never-again experience. This street - a busy shopping hub in the day - looks incredibly transformed in its night avatar. The traffic ceases giving way to western music, orchestra and boisterous bustle and fun. The ‘go-go’ bars come alive with the mini-skirted girls with heavy make-ups standing boldly in front holding invitational placards and the furtive boys materialising from nowhere before you with lurid pics, luring you to enjoy a ‘sex show’. “Hey, sex show?” you would hear. “Just 300 Bahts, bery gud.” I stumbled into a couple of these sleek guys but the trite sleaziness of it all was a little too much for my (Indian) senses and sensibilities and I beat a hasty retreat with Ghalib’s lines dinning in my ears: “… Dil mein taaqat jigar mein haal kahaan?/ Hamse chhootaa qimaar-khaana-e-ishq/Vahaan jo jaayen girah mein maal kahaan?” (Heart is exhausted and body sapped/ Those dens of love now for me no more/ Where have I the requisites for entry to that door?) Further on, there was a gay bar housed by young boys in skimpy underwear signalling you in; the Thai special sports bars with Thai kick-proboxinggear1 bouts going on; and some others with high-pitched live bands for their customers sitting in the open, enjoying the music, the drink and the spectacle unfolding in the street.
The street food in Pattaya was a gastronomic delight. A big bowlful of steamy Tom Yum Goong (spicy shrimp soup) loaded with bountiful veggies and herbs in a roadside eatery provided a bellyful of a good Thai meal without burning a hole in the pocket.
Lady?...Er… Ladyboy
The ‘ladyboys’ (transsexuals and transgenders) are another unique feature of Thai life and they are known to be as stunningly captivating as the svelte Thai ladies, and difficult to tell apart as well. Sadly, getting woefully late on each occasion, I missed out on both, the Alcazar and the Tiffany’s - the two very popular culutural/cabaret shows - performed by the ladyboys. ( But wasn’t the tall, long-, raven- and straight-haired stunner of a Thai beauty who showed me and fellow tourists around a very professionally-run gem factory in Bangkok our lady guide took us to, a ladyboy ?…Her deep husky voice I thought betrayed unmistakable traces of masculinity.)
Tuk tuks - colourful versions of our own desi auto rickshaws - are a very convenient, affordable and preferred mode of transportation both for the native and the alien. And don’t be surprised or shocked (I certainly was) if you find among the commuters a good 70-year-old ‘firang’ sitting just across you with his gnarled but amorous hand stroking the smooth, bare thigh of his 20-year old Thai girlfriend, with absolute nonchalance and without the slightest blush.
Wats and Bahts
Joined by a young couple from Bangalore with a toddler, Nikki, our articulate, cheerful and sprightly guide in Bangkok takes us round the two famous Budha temples called Wats. Wat Pho Tho is the temple of the Reclining Budha- a splendid work of art in gold leaf. Its sheer size (46 metres long) and grace and grandeur take your breath away. It attracts hordes of visitors - both the devout Thais and the admiring tourists – who are left marvelling at it as they go about circumambulating this unique image.
The second one that we saw was Wat Mahathat, close by. A centre for the study of Budhism and meditation, it has humbler proportions but the serenity and tranquillity that exudes out of this Budha image in a sitting posture against the soul-soothing background music is a surreal kind of experience.
These Wats comprise a part of the Grand Palace which is a complex of buildings - and was the old royal residence of the kings of Siam/ Thailand once - located on the west side of Chao Phraya river.
On our way back drive after the city tour, Nikki sitting in the front tells us about the changing Thai society, improving gender equality and status of women, and how tourism (commercial sex tourism - a legacy of the Vietnam war - contributing significantly) came second after exports as a driver of Thai economy. “How about the crime rate against women in Thailand, Nikki?” I find myself asking her as our vehicle glides (the flow of traffic in Thailand is smooth, disciplined and noiseless- such a welcome change for Indian senses) past the Democracy Monument, constructed to commemorate the ‘1932 revolution’ and the establishment of ‘constitutional monarchy’. “Are women safe here walking the streets alone in the night?” chips in my Bangalorean co-tourist. “It is as safe or un-safe both for men and women as any other place anywhere. Only, you have to be alert, ” she says rather diplomatchandru021y. Of course, crime, sex and drug trafficking get to be a part of any modernising society, Thailand being no exception. But with such openness and free-spirited abandon that characterises Thai life, things like the Delhi gang rape and the Khap diktats would perhaps be rarer than common, to my mind.
While Wats delighted, the bahts disappointed. Both in Pattaya and Bangkok, I had difficulty getting my humble Indian rupee exchanged for the Thai bahts both in the hotels where I stayed as well as at the various exchange counters. When I mentioned this to Nikki, to my relief, she promptly obliged me by exchanging the rupees for bahts at a reasonably good rate.
A Touch sore
One sore point in this touch-and-go package tour that rankled all through was the brashness and show of temper by a lady representative of the travel agency to my rather mild remonstrance about the delay at the Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok.
Must-do
A Thai massage. It lasts a fleeting one hour, costs you at least 300 bahts and with an all-smiles, ‘Sawasdee kha’-wishing Thai lady (or a boy/lady boy, if you like) all over you with her hands, feet, knees - kneading, pressing, squeezing, twisting your weary and staid limbs and muscles – you feel light and refreshed; and the sensuous feel of the soft Thai-an thighs that pressed against you lingers on…
Subhash Sharma (subsharma51@gmail.com)
