a Thailand affair

I love Thailand. It's my favourite country. I can't fault it even if I tried.
(I'm intrigued by Moscow/Russia and Germany too but I've not been there yet...)

My first Thai experience was Haadyai; it was fun, a group of us by bus from KL. But my love affair with Thailand started when I went to Bangkok on a work trip. We stayed at the plush Metropolitan Hotel, and when my sponsored days were over, we moved to the much more affordable Siam Regency hotel.

We took a cab from Met to Regency. It was drizzling. On arrival, I went to take my luggage from the taxi booth while my partner settled the cabbie fare. As I was lugging at my bags, a guy on a bike stopped nearby, moved his bike away from the traffic, came up to me and started pulling out my bags. I panicked! I thought I was being robbed in broad daylight, in the midst of high traffic!

Fortunately my partner got to me before I could cause a commotion and being one who has a lot more faith in mankind than I do, he assured me that that man was actually just helping us. In my panic I hadn't noticed that the man had gestured towards the sky (indicating rain), towards the luggage and the walkway (indicating offer to help); and more importantly his facial expression - friendly, warm. He was no young lithe fellow and he couldn't have gone far with our bulky stuff - and silly me hadn't thought of all this either. This stranger was simply helping us, simply being hospitable. I've never experienced anything like it.

We went exploring later that day. Map in hand, very touristy in appearance, looking lost. A guy stepped up to us and asked us, "Where you wanna go?!!". We told him, he gave us clear directions and sent us on our way. I thought this too was incredible. We didn't ask for help and he didn't have to approach us. But he did come up to us and small though the act might be for him, it did wonders on my impression of Thailand.

These are just two fond memories I have of the country/people; I've got plenty more from visits to ChiangMai and Phuket. It is my belief that Thais are generally warm kind hospitable unprejudiced people, and so, the ongoing unrest in Thailand, the state of emergency in Bangkok, do very much trouble me. Thailand, for me, is a land of peace, and the people deserve nothing less than just that - peace and stability.