Day 22: Gringo, gaijen, ice mutant…farang (“westerner” in Thai)
[ Sally typing ]
I think this trip has caused a bit of an identity crisis in me. I find myself muttering under my breath, “stupid farang so rude!” Oh wait, I’m farang! Dangit! I’ve seen so many westerners being rude, condescending, and presumptious on this trip that I often feel embarrassed and apologetic about my own status as a westerner.
This is strictly an internal struggle. Thai people are incredibly polite and friendly, so I don’t feel that I’ve ever suffered as a result of being a foreigner here in Thailand. Plus, traveling with Tommy, who is half-Chinese, seems to earn me some street cred here in Asia. People are really interested in him, his eyes, often asking about his ethnicity and wondering if he might be Thai. Then they glance my way and the conversation abruptly ends. But I imagine that after working out Tommy’s ethnicity the conversation continues like so:
them: and where are you from? You must be some sort of rare white American of mixed European descent, very unusual, your features are so striking! Your skin…so pale and pasty! You must be an English / Finnish mix?
me: *demuring* no, no, American of English, French, German descent actually.
them: *gasp* how unusual! Very beautiful you are! You a model?
…the fantasy goes on like that for quite a while, them complimenting me, me blushing and giggling, too humble to accept their kind words.
So much for the daydream. I can’t deny it, I am the white devil, despite my 3 weeks of tanning in the tropics which has taken me from a cool-white shade of “ghost” complete with blue capillary undertones, to an ever-so-slightly warmer “parchment” hue.
Tourist ghettos
I find it interesting that tourists tend to flock to places that are catering exclusively to tourist, and as such these places have almost nothing to do with the local culture. It’s still interesting to visit these places, all over the world, to see the local adaptations to westerners expectations.
Today, I voluntarily ventured onto Khao San Road, which is the notorious tourist ghetto of Bangkok. The surrounding area of Banglamphu is actually quite nice and worth a day of wandering. There are wats, parks, cute shops frequented by locals. There’s also some interesting history here, and having the backstory will enrich your visit to this neighborhood.
Khao San is nestled inside Banglamphu and it’s chocked full of guest houses, food carts, vendors hawking inane garbage, bars, and restaurants. If you want a photo-realistic depiction of Buddhist monk smoking a giant bong on a tshirt, Khao San is the place. I find that fascinating. Over years of trial and error, the locals have discovered that one of the best money-making opportunities is the bong-smoking monk shirt. This says a whole lot more about western culture than it does about Thai culture, don’t you think? And it’s funny, but it’s also a bit disappointing that westerners are apparently most responsive to that sort of mindless imagery. The locals are just trying to make a buck, I can’t imagine there is a deep-rooted passion for monk-bong imagery.
Ok, let’s be fair. Khao San is not just for any old foreigner. It’s definitely a twenty-something crowd and that has a lot to do with the high-fiving, beer-chugging behavior that abounds here. But apparently, a lot of these people spend the whole of their Bangkok experience there in the single block of Khao San, never venturing out to explore the rest of the city. More power to ‘em, I couldn’t stand more than 10 minutes in the place before I ran away, stupid farang!
1 year ago