Thailand’s Tijuana
November 5th, 2008I got the news about our new President-Elect first thing this morning.
I’m staying on Patong Beach, which is lively, but also fairly seedy, full of touts who seem to have learned English from New Yorkers: “Hey, brotha! Where you from, my man? You need a suit? I hook you up, good price!” They all want to shake hands so they can physically hold you in place during their patter but I’m wise to that trick. Some guessed I was German, so I also got the following: “Wie geht’s? You Berlin? Alles gute!” There are no zonkeys, though.
The Ronald McDonald statue in front of McD’s on Bangla Road has his palms pressed together in a wai, the Thai name for the gesture of welcome and thanks that looks like prayer.
Dairy Queen is just as prevalent here as in Shanghai, but the Shanghai cup that is called a “medium” there is a large here, which suggests that China will plump out on foreign fast food sooner than Thailand will.
I ate on the beach, though, red snapper and shrimp while listening (trying not to listen) to a two-piece combo murder one Abba song after another (the male keyboardist singing falsetto) at the request of four little blonde Swedish girls who were flitting around the stage.