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UNKNOWN THAILAND

Has an elephant passed over you? Have you ever seen “the Crocodile Show”? If you haven’t, I recommend you to pack things, because you are about to go to Thailand.

When our plane arrived at the Bangkok airport it was too stuffy outside (nearly 30oC). I could not expect to see such magnificent, glittering sky-scrapers right after I had left the airport. It is wonderful, but when our van went to the seaside Pattaya, I often met pictures of the King of Thailand (not far from ads of Coca-Cola).

My first entertainment was shopping. Only a few shops work in the daytime, some supermarkets. They are constructed in a very strange way, e.g. one is decorated with a plane that had just flown into it; in the other you can see jumping fountains, but everywhere you can try Thai noodles with spices… Thai food, to my mind, is a special topic for discussion. Thai spices are, probably, the hottest in the world; so when you eat it is sensible to have a glass of water or a plate of Thai rice nearby. In fact a meal eaten out in Thailand is cheaper than at the hotel. I remember that not far from our hotel there was a Russian restaurant, and every shopkeeper knew some words in Russian, especially the name “Natasha”.

The best time for going out begins after 7 p.m.; as a tourist, you can visit famous cabarets, or just go to any bar to look at Thai boxing, where a barman will teach you national Thai games. By the way, the greatest privilege for a Thai man is to have long nails, which means respectability and wealth. Thai men plan to have a family in their 30s, they want to be well-off first; so usually young Thais provide for themselves by dancing in cabarets where they change their clothes for women’s dresses. Cabaret is a good source of money, like many other kinds of entertainment.

Thai people respect tourists if they are also polite. One man who lived in Thailand told me a story about two new Russians that kicked a Thai waiter…in a few minutes they were arrested and ruined by police because they had to pay an enormous fine, including expenses for treatment.

I could easily name Thailand “a mixture of centuries”: side by side with a magnificent gold Buddha, and one million old stones, there are Aqua Parks and sky-scrapers. Still, Thai people value ancient nature. They simply include it in the entertainment for tourists. For example, elephant and crocodile shows. By the way, after the crocodile show you can try crocodile meat and hold a crocodile baby, or if you do not want to risk this – make pictures. You can also ride an elephant or a camel, see and touch a big tiger, or watch baby-animals. And the sight which strikes one most of all is a huge garden, where trees look like ancient walls and other green figures, complemented with old white stones.

The last portion of this article is devoted to the Siam Bay, which is not as clear as it seems. There are only a few places where tourists can swim and dive; the Coral Island is one of them. It is very quiet – only water, sun and small jewelry-shops with very cheap diamonds and corals. The fact that it is better to use swimming-pools surprised me; but later I found out that the Siam Bay is full of waste.

Aqua Parks are wide spread in Thailand; you can see them even on the top of sky-scrapers. Thailand is full of rivers that serve perfectly as transport.

I tried to discover some peculiarities of wonderful Thailand. But every country is better seen…

 

 

By Nika Osadtchaia