On Sex: Now this is always an interesting topic and one that occupies the consciousness of many of my gender via the good god granting men hard-wired limbic systems with subtle arrays of complex receptors throughout our mortal body-life from between ages of about 13 and 200. The male moral compass is one that usually simply points firmly upward, at least in theory. It is probably why men do not need complex maps. There is a part of them that never really gets lost.
I'll prepare an essay on this topic and put it here soon.
It is interesting not only because it is interesting because women are interesting but also it is interesting how Thai society is bound to a 'binary relativism' in just about every aspect of life, and has been bound to this for 900 years; it's a mindset that doesnt stem directly from Buddhism, but co-exists quite well with it. Morality, or whatever one wishes to call what is 'appropriate' in any culture, as in every single individual, has variations and intrigues that cannot be understood.
Gender is interesting in Bangkok. Thus the large numbers of beautiful transgender folk (ladyboys, kathoeys)working in women's make up shops in the upper-strata centres. Often sexual re-assignment is both a personal choice, sometimes a bad one, and sometimes a smart economic move as well as a simple exuberance of physical beauty echoing a deep feminine beauty in the soul. Thai folk, women and men, to me, have a certain 'beauty DNA' that is quite common here yet rare elsewhere. I think the Thai Prime Minister is very beautiful, and far more beautiful than the Australian Prime Minister. That one is a man and the other a woman is hardly the point.
I've always been an admirer of beauty whether it be physical, intellectual, spiritual or mechanical. The Ducati 996 for example. The new Lambhorgini. Vespa motorscooters. Fresh flowers. The beauty of the human voice. The beauty of dialect. The smile. Laughter. Chinese songs. The writings of Yukio Mishima, Yasunari Kawabata, and Michel de Montaigne. To admire beauty and indeed have an interest in human sexuality doesnt actually mean one is out there rooting all the time, to use an Australian vernacular. There is not much 'natural beauty' as in landscapes and perfect skies in Bangkok, but there is a giant array of human and mechanical beauty.
For instance, Chinatown 'runs' on and because of Vespa motorscooters from the early 60s. There are tens of thousands of them and they cart pretty well everything that can be sold in the narrow alleys of the markets. They are, to me, beautiful machines. As for the beauty of the clear night sky, well, we've seen stars maybe on 20 nights in 3 years. There are the frequent clouds of course, but also there's the dense opaque layer of suspended carbon that you can acually wear home from Chinatown. On any sunny day there's no need for hats, sunglasses or sun-protection lotion in Bangkok city.
Usually talk of sex/massage in Bangkok is based in one of two convictions: 1: That it is a social evil and a crime against women perperated by foreign devils. 2: That Bangkok is a very exciting & dreamlike destination for disillusioned overweight middle-aged men from Australia, England, America, Germany and France. I'd like to put together a far more succinct portrayal. Many are from Japan and from the Middle East although the majority are middle to upper class Thai men. The median age is around 28. A lot of English speaking guys seem to be in their early twenties and some especially like to have sex for hours and run off without paying. This perhaps perfects the 'social evil of men' aspect more than anything else. Not only are young women corrupted, but also robbed.
How do you know if a Thai massage shop in Bangkok is a legitimate Thai massage shop or a sex place when many are exactly both? I was talking to a young guy from Collaroy in Sydney who explained it thus: "If you are not very bright, mate, you can get a bit of an idea when you are having a foot massage and the masseuse sticks her perfect pink tongue in your ear." I can understand that. Something would dawn.
Personally, I find the most beautiful looking women come from North Eastern China, especially Shen Yang, and both North and South Korea; where Thailand overtakes them I guess is also in the physical beauty of the men; and of those inbetween the genders especially.
On Theft: Street theft/pickpocketing etc. This has only happened to us once in 3 years and the thief, who was very adept and opportunistic, was a young Western European tourist, most likely an Englander, in a Starbucks coffee shop at MBK.
Being a fastly vastly modernising metropolis, the thing one really needs to be careful about is wi-fi theft of identity. the number of false-sites that look so perfect when you try to connect anywhere is remarkable.
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