Human grime

After a week in the tourist trap of Bangkok's Khao San Road, I'm ready to get out of this place. I have a sore chest from the pollution and my throat feels like I've been smoking 20 a day (not that I've ever done that, but after feeling the effects of just a puff or two on one, I can imagine).

There are always new people to see-- tourist-watching is possibly even more interesting than watching Thais at this point. International backpacking is clearly no longer a phenomenon of Western Europeans; I've met travellers from Morocco, Korea, Singapore, China, Japan, Argentina, Brazil, etc. And heaps of Israelis.

It is fascinating to watch the diversity of travellers' tastes, styles, attitudes. There are lots of try-hard 'cool' types--ravers, hippies, self-conscious fashion victims. Then there are the typically Australian or British beer-swilling types (they do little else except often seem rude to Thais and assume Thailand to be like any other Asian country.) I was with a few last night; they bought drinks and then refused to pay for them, and stole the glasses; they kicked the taxi when the driver offered his lowest price that they still thought was too high (it was actually the lowest I've heard for that time of night); they shouted at the taxi-driver all the way home; one of them offered him drinks while he was driving and constantly messed with his radio and radio-settings despite everyone's protests to stop; it was embarrassing to be identified with this race.

It's not surprising the owner of the guesthouse I'm in is grumpy and rude to foreigners; this is all she sees, and them bringing back prostitutes nightly and drunkenly. We're always an ambassador of our country and our culture and race when we travel; I'm not moralizing when I say so, it's just how it is. It's so disrespectful to misbehave like that and so much worse in someone else's country where you're a guest. It's sad. But it's /really/ common, and it's not only the beerswillers who are unpleasant, rude or disrespectful to Thai people. I suppose it's a racist thing, partly.

It backfires too, of course. We travellers get conned and ripped off, so it becomes a vicious cycle of hatred and exploitation. The owner of my guesthouse is rude and unpleasant and unhelpful, and doesn't clean the rooms properly, and the place is disgusting. It's not necessary for somewhere to be disgusting to be cheap, surely. There's little expense in basic cleanliness, and that's all that's required. It's only polite to the guests.

I'll tolerate a certain level of grime if the sheets are clean, for a good price. But there's a good price and then there's just an unacceptable room. I have been in one that I learnt to accept for the past week. 150 Baht for a bed and a fan, with holes mosquitoes can get in, cracks in the walls that let in light from the corridor, a bed that is the shape of a basin, and a couple of hooks on the bare walls, and a fan that works. The fan was nice. Everything else was barely OK. But better than camping, so I was content. I didn't mind the ant highways going over my backpack or the piles of flying-ant wings that accumulated in a corner or the gecko shit on the walls or the wasp on the inside of the penetrable mosquito screen. It's a shame they never clean the walls though; there are all sorts of stains of god knows what, and peoples' cigarette ash in nooks, and I think it's just unnecessary to leave them there. It would also cost next to nothing to put in a waste-paper basket and a shelf, but hey.

Today my friend Monique is arriving, so I arranged a room with two beds. This is almost the same size as the room I was in before, so even less floorspace (if you can call it that) around the beds, and the beds are narrower. There is only one window (the previous room had two, being on a corner), with a worse view, looking at people's lower halves under tables in the restaurant just metres from the window, and no privacy. And everything is a little bit grosser. However, the price is DOUBLE the previous price at 300 Baht. I always thought the whole point of sharing a hotel room was to reduce the price per person. However, I was kind of desperate to find a room so I took it dejectedly and somewhat resentfully. All the more reason to get out of Bangkok. For the same price or less in Phetchaburi you can get a huge room with two double beds and an en suite bathroom with an amazing view of the river and enough space to do not only yoga but a dance class in your room. And welcoming people at reception. Rather attractive prospect at this point.