Phuket Airport

Across the waiting room and behind a glass a wall, a stream of glassy-eyed tourists are taking their first breaths of Phuket air. Across from me, my friend is groggy and recovering. What a difference 2 days can make. 2 days of riding around on my scooter. My face and neck and arms are burned by the sun, seared by my lack of precaution, lack of protection.

2 more days in Phuket and my conscience might be seared as well. The arrogance of people using this country to do what they would never do at home.

Last week, on the way to the JDC, Tze pointed out a shirtless couple riding a motorcycle. (the girl had a bikini top). "Not polite" he said, "but they are farong (foreigners) so its OK." Tze's understanding is encouraging but the couples lack of understanding is symptomatic of so much that is wrong with Thailand. Over a hundred miles from the beach and they are riding through a city like they would never ride through Sweden or London. Like no Thai person would ride through Chiang Mai. This is their playground. It does not matter that it is someone else's home.

Patong is the same mentality amplified to an absurd extreme.

Innocent sounding ping pong shows are actually a huge tourist draw, one of the most popular and ubiquitous events. They feature women shooting ping pong balls from their vagina. The show escalates to women opening bottles of beer with it, inserting whole bananas, and that is where I asked the descriptions to stop.

A few interns thought it would be important to attend a show to understand what the women go through. They wanted to understand so much, some of them went twice.

I am not sure if I follow the logic, but then again I have only the description in my mind, shocking me to disgust- they have vivid close up images. On the other hand, they were well drunk by the time the show started, so maybe the images are not so vivid after all.