So I’m living it up in Chiang Mai right now. We are staying at the Ban Kang Rao guesthouse in the Chang Puak district of Chiang Mai. We are still in the city, but outside of the city wall where all the crazy tourists thrive. Each room in this wonderful guesthouse is decorated according to a different flower. Gina and I have the “Chinese rose” room, which is green. I guess the Chinese rose is green? Aside from the abundance of mosquitoes in our room (we should get a cintronella candle or something) our room, as well as the guesthouse is fab fab fab: air con, western TV channels(!!), comfortable beds with down blankets, wi-fi, a balcony, and an aesthetically pleasing bathroom. I feel like I’ve become a bathroom connoisseur since living in Thailand. It’s surprising how long of a conversation one can have just on the topic of bathrooms. Our guesthouse has a cozy lobby/outdoor area made up of teakwood tables and chairs, as well as a wonderful rooftop patio where we have wine nights, play cards, and admire the beautiful skyline of Chiang Mai.
Aside from our guesthouse, we’ve been exploring Chiang Mai on foot. This is a nice change from our village lifestyles where it is frowned upon to walk anywhere. This past weekend we went to the Chiang Mai zoo. Not only was the zoo much more humane than I though it would be, but it was literally in the mountains and there was quite a lot of hiking up hills. Our eating exploration began the day we got here, and thanks to Mall’s internship (she’s writing restaurant reviews for a Wellness website) we have been exploring new restaurants. Because of the high population of tourists and expats here, there are tons and tons of really good western restaurants. These restaurants are really good quality, with an abundance of vegetarian places and even organic restaurants and markets. I’ve been surprised by how much I crave vegetables and vegetarian food here. This is because the food at my school and Thai food in general (at least in my opinion and my experience) does not really combine meat and vegetables together in proportion. Vegetables usually come separately as an individual dish. While when eating with a group of Thai people this is not a problem, at school there is never enough vegetables at the meal. It’s either spinach/some other Thai leafy green vegetable or just cucumbers. That’s usually it. Just one vegetable with the meal. I’m starting to order more vegetables in my meals (because when you’re eating alone it’s kind of ridiculous to order one meat or noodle dish PLUS a side order of vegetables),but sometimes Thai people give you strange looks or just flat out say no when you try to “change” a dish. For example, one time at the night bazaar I ordered stir-fried pork with garlic, but this dish is just white rice with pork, and I wanted vegetables with it as well. So I said sai pahk(with vegetables) and the cook said no. Literally, he said no. He also mumbled something in Thai, which I took as he didn’t understand why I wanted to add stuff to the dish. He ended up giving me just mixed vegetables with the rice, which was good, but wasn’t what I wanted. However, another time I was with Caitlin and we ordered pad see ew sai pad pahk gruum (pad see ew with mixed vegetables) and we said dai mai ka? (can you?) and the cook said yes and made us what we wanted (pad see ew doesn’t usually come with many vegetables). So it’s always a gamble as to whether or not the cook will acknowledge your request.
Thai people
Now on to the reason why I am here in Chiang Mai. Yesterday was my first day at my internship and my first interaction with a stereotypical Thai person.
I arrived at the office at 9:30am and was greeted by a small, older Thai lady. By small I mean I am a couple of inches taller than her and twice her size in width so you can imagine how tiny this lady is. My boss is the founder of the NGO which works with, and supports, children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. Affected would mean that the parent(s) has the virus but the child does not and the child has or will eventually lose their parent(s) to the disease. After introductions, she sat me down and went through 69 powerpoint slides about HIV/AIDS in Thailand, the creation of her NGO, her work in Thailand and with children, the various awards she has received both nationally and internationally, and the difficulty in generating money to keep the organization alive and running. It was all very interesting, but also rather funny. In orientation we were told that Thai people do not speak or have conversations like Americans do. Americans are straightforward and blunt. When we speak we get to the point. Quickly. When someone is telling a long-winded story, we get annoyed, distracted, and stop listening. Thai people are the exact opposite. They supposedly only speak in a long-winded, roundabout way. I hadn’t had this experience with Thai people until yesterday. In the 2.5hours it took her to get through all 69 slides, she would start with facts or a story, then sidetrack with a tangent that was somewhat related, then sidetrack with another tangent that was even less related to original point, then go back to her original point she was trying to explain, and so on and so on. While everything she was said was interesting and relevant to her work in some way, her tangents occurred so often that it was difficult to follow everything she was saying, and I often found myself zoning out. Oops.
I thought we were getting along famously until the afternoon when she came back from her radio show and said something that just really upset me. She spent the next 5-10 minutes talking to me about what my diet should be and how much I should exercise in order to lose weight while stealing glances at my chest as if she couldn’t possibly understand how they could be so big. This is hands down, the one thing that really bothers me about Thai people. They say anything and everything that is on their minds and they do not think it’s rude at all. Especially weight. They think it’s funny that many Americans are overweight and they love to make comments about it. They have no concept of different body types and how genetics plays a role, and their perspective on what it means to be healthy or healthy eating is very different from my perspective (not that I am right) or an American perspective. Aside from all of that, the hardest part is how BLUNT they are about their perspective on health and they don’t realize how hurtful their words are. It’s hard not take it personally when a Thai person makes a comment about my weight, and it takes all of my strength to smile, laugh, and make a joke out of it. At school, only one of my teachers makes comments about my weight. While it bothers me, she doesn’t make these comments often, and she’s crazy to begin with, so it’s easy for me to brush it off. But something about yesterday just really bothered me. Maybe it was the fact that she told me I should walk to and from work in the morning and afternoons to get my exercise. Mind you, I live in the same district as my internship, but I am on the other side of the big highway. It seems like a somewhat far but perhaps walkable distance, yet at 4:30 in the afternoon when its 95 degrees outside and I don’t really know where I’m going, there’s not one part of me that wants to walk home. Also, there are lots of stray dogs here, and we have a mutual dislike for each other, so I’m not really in the mood to be barked out/bitten. Granted my boss is a doctor (an immunologist) so I’m sure she feels that it’s her duty to give me healthy living tips, but Thai people do not walk ANYWHERE. I mean it. They motorcy, bike, or drive EVERYWHERE. You think I’m exaggerating? The teachers who live on school grounds DRIVE to work even though it is less than a five minute walk.
When I proceeded to tell my boss that I would take a songtaew home because I would be going to the pool anyway (this also bothered me, because I felt like I had to defend my reasons and actions), she then informed me that I should walk in the pool for two hours, because that’s how she lost weight. It was extremely upsetting, and I left that afternoon feeling defeated and like a huge fatass. I didn’t make a comment about my size or weight. I didn’t ask her for tips on exercise or losing weight. Yet somehow she felt the need to “help me out”. I responded to her remarks by saying that I like to eat, which made her laugh and tell me that if that’s true than I’ll stay the same weight (but only if I do walking and two hours of water aerobics). So a big F.U. (sorry, but I had to) to my boss on that one. For making me feel like shit about my body, for making me stand in front of the mirror when I got home examining my fat, and for making me cry. I love my curves, I love my boobs, I love that my butt has enough padding for two people, and while I’m heavier than I would like to be right now, this is my eat, pray love moment!!! I’m eating my way through Thailand with my friends and loving every moment of it. No regrets (although less rice and more noodles would be nice). So there. :-D
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