Epilogue
Trip Start
Nov 08, 2011
1
5
Trip End
Ongoing
Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand
Monday, December 5, 2011
As you might recall, the purpose of this trip was to go to Chiang Mai to see if I could find a dog to bite me. I can say that I think I succeeded beyond my expectations. By the way, on that matter, it looks like I have survived the incident with nothing more than a permanent scar as a reminder - along with a new found mistrust of dogs. I didn't even get so much as a hint of rabies. Actually, about a week after the incident, I got a call from Khun Fine from the guest house at which I stayed in Chiang Mai. As promised, she had gone to the temple where the dog that bit me lived - to check if he was still alive. (According to the doctor who treated me right after the incident, if the dog died within a week or so of biting me, that would be a bad sign - not only for him but for me as well as it would have indicated that he had rabies.) Not only was he alive, but he was frolicking around playfully, not biting anyone in sight, which once again confirms my suspicion that he was just having a bad day when he bit me.
And while I was up there in Chiang Mai getting bitten by that dog, I also enjoyed the benefit of escaping from the floods - which ended up not making it to my neighborhood after all. So, as it turns out, I didn't really need to flee Bangkok. Nonetheless, I had, with one notable exception, a wonderful time in Chiang Mai - and now that I've found that lovely guest house, I hope to be going back to Chiang Mai more often - whenever I feel like I need a break and a bite.
During this flooding episode, I was able to learn some interesting things about human nature. Even though the water never reached my neighborhood, the effects of the flood were nonetheless felt - not least in the local supermarkets. Because we expected to be flooded, we were reduced to acting on our most basic human instincts. For example, one of the last things that we humans want to experience is the lack of food. Fearing that food supplies would be disrupted by the flooding, we went into food hoarding mode. I am not ashamed to admit that I was forced into hoarding as well. The reason is that even if you know that there will be no need to hoard food, if everybody else is hoarding, a shortage will be created. So you need to hoard as well. And when everybody does it, the food shortage becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
It was also interesting to observe the hoarding patterns. As an example, tuna is a good food to hoard because it is high in protein; it can be eaten directly out of the can if need be; and it is cheap. But, since Thailand is a big producer of canned tuna, it was never really in short supply. People would go into the supermarkets, look at the shelves, and see them full of cans of tuna. They therefore felt no need to hoard tuna - so there was always some available.
But other things, like instant noodles and bottled water, WERE in short supply. So what did people do? Whenever they saw any noodles or bottled water, they would pounce on them and buy all of the existing supply - which created an apparent shortage - which would make people buy even more the next time they saw the stuff. It was to the point where people were judging what to buy based on what other people were buying and what was about to sell out - regardless of whether they really needed the items or not. In fact, I bought a dozen pairs of ladies underwear myself - just in case. (Just kidding, but you get my point. And besides, I still might be able to use them.)
Related to the flooding: There is a woman working in the gym that I frequent in a hotel near my home. The floods have forced her out of her home and she and her daughter, along with about ten other employees of the hotel where the gym is located, have been living in a sort of meeting room in the hotel, next to the gym - for the last six weeks! The only way I found this out was when I asked the young woman why there was a "Staff Only" sign on the door to the meeting room. She then showed me pictures of her home in the north of Bangkok - under neck-high water. The amazing thing was how cheerful she was all this time. You'd think she had just won the lottery, when in fact she had just lost her home. This ability of some Thais to make it through adversity like this with a smile is remarkable. I think that I personally would have cracked had I been forced to live, together with ten other people, in a meeting room at work for six weeks. (I just got back from the gym a few minutes ago - and she told me that she and her daughter will be moving in with relatives in another part of Bangkok because her daughter has to start school tomorrow. But she won't be able to return to her house for another couple of weeks.)
Although some parts of Bangkok remain under water, for the most part it seems like things are back to normal - by which I mean a return to political infighting, corruption, etc. I just hope that lessons will be learned from this disaster (by which I mean the handling of the flood as much as the flood itself) so that this does not become an annual occurrence, although I am not hopeful on this point. So many of the decisions made by the authorities during this disaster were politically motivated rather than in the interest of "the people".
On a totally unrelated matter, some of you received an email from me recently asking for your preference between two pairs of glasses that I was considering buying. I ended up choosing the one that most of you liked (thank you very much for your input), but of greater significance is what I learned from asking my family and friends for their input: One of my friends (dear Nick in Greece) pointed out to me that there are websites that sell prescription eyeglasses - for a mere fraction of what we are used to being charged at these eyeglasses shops in the mall. I hope this concept takes off, because I am sure they are ripping us off down at the mall. (Through my investigations, I found out that most eyeglass chains around the world are owned by one greedy Italian billionaire, one Leonardo del Vecchio. He grew up as a poor orphan, but now he's making the eyeglass wearers of the world pay for his former misfortune.)
One of the websites that Nick told me about, apparently the pioneer in this business, is Zenni Optical. Their website allows you to upload a picture of yourself and virtually try on glasses before you buy. These are prescription eyeglasses - that cost as little as seven dollars a pair. At that price, I could buy forty pairs for what I paid for my one pair bought the old fashioned way. And even if I had to throw away thirty pairs because I didn't like them, well, the economics really make it worth giving this concept a try. I will start by ordering reading glasses from the website, and maybe a few back-up pairs on my current new prescription. For the sake of full disclosure, I should reveal that I get a billion dollars for every pair of glasses sold to my friends from that website.
In the meantime, if you're interested, here is a useful website about buying eyeglasses online. And here's another. And another. Okay, I think I've made my point.
And finally, for those of you who might not know, today is the 84th birthday of the King of Thailand. There will be big celebrations during the coming week, during which apparently, political divisions will be temporarily set aside. So I'm going to go out now and look for signs of these celebrations.
On that pleasant note, I wish to bring to an end another adventure in the Land of Floods and Political Intrigue. As always, thanks for joining me - and see you on the next trip, hopefully under more pleasant circumstances.
Comments
Maybe you can make little gift packages with that underwear and present them as Christmas presents to your favorite local ladyboys.
Do you think the tuna was available because it was local?
Hmmm ... tuna and ladies underwear ...