Land of Stares

I like to read :P and my recent interest has been Thai history, current political climate, and foreigner views on the country. I won't bore you with the history stuff I've been reading. I thought though maybe sticking with current Thai life might be more everyone's speed. I know I'm interested in Thai life too.

I've been reading alot from the gayboybangkok blog. He's spent some time recently delving in to the current climate for farang (foreigners) living in Thailand. The pictures aren't so rosy, and from his perspective things don't look so good... I hate to admit it really, but I agree with him.

The swine flu (in Thai it's translated to the flu of 2009) is here in full effect, and Thai people believe in part that it's a 'western' disease (sound familiar?). Government estimates have the infected number at around 2,000 people, but there are people that believe the number might be close to 50,000 (the Prime Minister doesn't want to alarm people). The point is, this is Thailand and no one really knows, but everyone is scared.

Do they think it's a farang disease? I don't know, but I've noticed something in Thai people recently. There's less play, and more seriousness. I thought it might be me, but my friends have said it too. We went out to dinner at a Thai market last night. I can't count how many REALLY uncomfortabe stares we got. No smiles, and mostly quizzical looks regarding our presence. It's not exactly the face the Thai tourism authority wants to portray, but I see it.

I go places and see people. I ride in cars, watch people as they stare during brief stops at traffic lights. In the beginning I felt that there was more play there, smiling as they stared. Maybe it's because I'm almost a year older, but alot of the smiles are gone.

They're replaced with disconcerting stares, and random stops at police checkpoints in Bangkok. The other day I was riding home in a car with my farang friend. It was early evening and the police stopped us on a side road, trying to talk with my friend. When the police officer kept seeing my friend look at me, he came to my side of the car and told me that my friend needed to go to the police station. He said there was something wrong with the car, at least from what I understood. I had already read about these checkpoints, and knew this was probably a call for money.

I showed the officer my empty wallet, and told him that neither my friend or I spoke Thai. I asked if he could help us with getting home. "Sure," he said "1000 Baht." He started talking angrily, and I told him that we were close to my house and that I felt really sick. Not about to lose face, he took a picture of me and my friend with his camera. I'm not sure what that was all about, but if I end up in some kind of international prison documentary, I'll tell the story again :-).

Combine all of this with political tensions continuing, and there's a general sense of uneasiness here. Below the surface (which is the case with most Thai), there is still resentment between political parties and economic classes. Maybe even more resentment for foreigners too; all parties have voiced concerns... I'm pretty sure it's there though, students and Thai acquaintances still bring up their shirt color affiliation...

The airport now is also infamous with some kind of extortion scheme targeting Duty Free buyers. Rather than dealing with this, the Thai government has warned of a crackdown starting next week (take note all illegal workers at the airport :-P) on illegal taxis and tourguides working the airport scene. That oughta take care of the problems.

I gotta admit, Thailand isn't looking too attractive for farang. If something happens, a dramatic social event (I'll let you guess) maybe, I have to wonder where things are going. I wonder what might happen.

These are just thoughts, but the wheels have been turning lately. I wonder if gays are safe?