The Body Shop
As I have recently learned, Thailand is a bigger, and therefore more important country than either Macau or Hong Kong (which I'm still not sure are countries or not). It would then logically follow that I should spend more time talking about Thailand. But as logic has never been a large part of my experiences here in Asia, I make no assurances that Thailand will be give the weighty respect it no doubt deserves. I will merely write until Sarah's MacBook battery runs out, and not a minute longer.
Here are the things that I know Thailand loves:
1. My body. I made some claims to the same effect after the last time I was in Thailand, and more time there has just strengthened my conclusion. I'm pretty sure that the Thai theme song is unofficially Mariah Carey's new hit, "Touch My Body," since massages were everywhere, cheap, and thankfully, G-Rated. Interestingly enough, "Touch My Body" appears to be banned in Cambodia where I am now, as YouTube says "This video is not available in your country." This is probably a backlash from when those free-wheeling French left, but more on that at a later date.
2. Food. Specifically food courts. One mall (MBK) had three food courts, an expensive one, a cheap one, and a super cheap one. We discovered them in that order, so there might be an even cheaper food court waiting for us when we pass through Bangkok on the way to Malaysia. Oddly enough, I had a huge hankerin' for the Halal food at this Egyptian and Lebanese place. Plus, I got to use my very limited Arabic and say thank you (shukran), which made me feel cool.
3. Malls, and movie theaters within malls. There was one main street in Bangkok where there were only malls and food carts outside of malls. You think I'm exaggerating? Only marginally. And they're all magnificent. It was like being in Macau again with all the casinos trying to out-do each other, except all the people walking into the towering shiny buildings in Bangkok know they're going to lose money. It's much more honest. Oh, and in the few days we were in Bangkok we got to see Indiana Jones 4 (mostly hooray), Penelope (mostly aww), and Narnia 2 (mostly Jesus as a lion). All three were movies, and for that I loved them dearly. My only desire is that I could somehow smuggle one of these beautiful malls back to Terengganu where movie theaters don't exist. I mean it's just not fair. I'd be happy taking one floor of one mall back.
4. Break-dancing. Every night the walkway between the malls turns into a place for "those youngins" to break dance their little hearts out. This is pretty much what it looked like.
5. Their bodies. It's just mind-exploding to see how two cultures in bordering countries could be so different with respect to the fleshy things that everyone seems to have. The really weird part came when I realized that both cultures started with the same basic premise- "we're addicted to our bodies." With that as a starting point Islam-influenced Malaysia took the recovering alcoholic's approach of never being able to touch the stuff, while Thailand (at least in Bangkok and Chiang Mai) decided to make the addiction profitable.
You can buy anything to show off your body, to feed it, and to get it touched, touched, touched. It's strange because Buddhism isn't really all about the body; it's more like the main obstacle to enlightenment since it houses the desires and the Buddha was able to transcend all that low "body stuff."
Maybe it's just capitalism, which kind of presupposes a body in order to make any kind of sale. Buying stuff, after spending some time in the commercial heart of the city, is alive and raging in Bangkok. The love of the body around all malls makes sense. That's what materialism does so well: it makes a virtue out of spending money on the body, which feels good inherently, so it's an easy sell, so to speak.
The great thing about Thailand is how the only thing more numerous than malls (and more attractive to foreigners) are the trillions of temples all around the country. They are without a doubt, gorgeous. They can hold their own against the glitziest Macanese money holes, and with a good deal more attention to Buddhism to boot. But it's strange going to visit temple after temple for a religion that I don't specifically belong to, because it kind of feels like going to a nice mall when I don't have the intention of buying anything. Hell, I'm not even sure I have any Buddhism Bucks to spend. All of my money is still in Sex Fines.
On a completely unrelated note, the massages in Thailand were awesome, and the conversion is about 20 Thai Massages to the Sex Fine. Which, when I think about, seems just about right.
Here are the things that I know Thailand loves:
1. My body. I made some claims to the same effect after the last time I was in Thailand, and more time there has just strengthened my conclusion. I'm pretty sure that the Thai theme song is unofficially Mariah Carey's new hit, "Touch My Body," since massages were everywhere, cheap, and thankfully, G-Rated. Interestingly enough, "Touch My Body" appears to be banned in Cambodia where I am now, as YouTube says "This video is not available in your country." This is probably a backlash from when those free-wheeling French left, but more on that at a later date.
2. Food. Specifically food courts. One mall (MBK) had three food courts, an expensive one, a cheap one, and a super cheap one. We discovered them in that order, so there might be an even cheaper food court waiting for us when we pass through Bangkok on the way to Malaysia. Oddly enough, I had a huge hankerin' for the Halal food at this Egyptian and Lebanese place. Plus, I got to use my very limited Arabic and say thank you (shukran), which made me feel cool.
3. Malls, and movie theaters within malls. There was one main street in Bangkok where there were only malls and food carts outside of malls. You think I'm exaggerating? Only marginally. And they're all magnificent. It was like being in Macau again with all the casinos trying to out-do each other, except all the people walking into the towering shiny buildings in Bangkok know they're going to lose money. It's much more honest. Oh, and in the few days we were in Bangkok we got to see Indiana Jones 4 (mostly hooray), Penelope (mostly aww), and Narnia 2 (mostly Jesus as a lion). All three were movies, and for that I loved them dearly. My only desire is that I could somehow smuggle one of these beautiful malls back to Terengganu where movie theaters don't exist. I mean it's just not fair. I'd be happy taking one floor of one mall back.
4. Break-dancing. Every night the walkway between the malls turns into a place for "those youngins" to break dance their little hearts out. This is pretty much what it looked like.
5. Their bodies. It's just mind-exploding to see how two cultures in bordering countries could be so different with respect to the fleshy things that everyone seems to have. The really weird part came when I realized that both cultures started with the same basic premise- "we're addicted to our bodies." With that as a starting point Islam-influenced Malaysia took the recovering alcoholic's approach of never being able to touch the stuff, while Thailand (at least in Bangkok and Chiang Mai) decided to make the addiction profitable.
You can buy anything to show off your body, to feed it, and to get it touched, touched, touched. It's strange because Buddhism isn't really all about the body; it's more like the main obstacle to enlightenment since it houses the desires and the Buddha was able to transcend all that low "body stuff."
Maybe it's just capitalism, which kind of presupposes a body in order to make any kind of sale. Buying stuff, after spending some time in the commercial heart of the city, is alive and raging in Bangkok. The love of the body around all malls makes sense. That's what materialism does so well: it makes a virtue out of spending money on the body, which feels good inherently, so it's an easy sell, so to speak.
The great thing about Thailand is how the only thing more numerous than malls (and more attractive to foreigners) are the trillions of temples all around the country. They are without a doubt, gorgeous. They can hold their own against the glitziest Macanese money holes, and with a good deal more attention to Buddhism to boot. But it's strange going to visit temple after temple for a religion that I don't specifically belong to, because it kind of feels like going to a nice mall when I don't have the intention of buying anything. Hell, I'm not even sure I have any Buddhism Bucks to spend. All of my money is still in Sex Fines.
On a completely unrelated note, the massages in Thailand were awesome, and the conversion is about 20 Thai Massages to the Sex Fine. Which, when I think about, seems just about right.
Comments
Sweet, sweet 1984.