Asia trip - July 2015

Bangkok/Patthaya, Thailand, July 11, 2015

Have you ever had your passport or visa photo taken at a CVS or similar? You may have experienced some surly looking shop assistant motioning you to stand in front of a hastily drawn down screen and quickly grasping some old camera to snap a fast photo before you have had much time to put yourself in position. The result tends to correspond to this hasty arrangement: a passport photo from hell.

Not so in Bangkok. The man appeared to be a proper photographer, insisted on your standing in front of a mirror to adjust whatever you wanted to adjust and politely led you to an already positioned leather chair in his upstairs studio. He then indicates with his hands how you should hold your head: a bit down, a bit to the left, no too much, bit to the right, bit up now, down again, and flash. To make sure it's right a second picture is taken. I was quite impressed (and this for a quarter of the price they charge at a CVS) - though I haven't seen the result yet; the photos will be ready tomorrow. But it has to be better (unless it's me of course who might be a hopeless customer regarding passport photos).

The other thing you wouldn't find at a CVS was the fact that the photographer's mother sat just behind the entrance of the studio, preparing some vegetables for lunch while staring intensely at a televison screen without even so much as acknowledging my presence in her son's work place. I trust lunch was delicious and the photos may still be visa pics from hell.

In the afternoon a two-hour trip to the beach resort Patthaya by mini bus. Patthaya has the reputation of being Thailand's answer to "Ballermann" on the Spanish island of Mallorca (all German readers will know what I mean: "Ballermann" is the part of a beach on Mallorca that is frequented by a large crowd of extremely loud and badly behaved young (and not so young) Germans who do their best to ensure that they drink too much, smoke too much, do other things too much and spend their 2-weeks holiday in a state of constant intoxication with permanent hang-overs. After this they fly home and proclaim that a good time was had by all, never having seen anything much of the island at all, apart from "Ballermann" that is). However, as I have never been to "Ballermann" I can't really say whether or not Patthaya is similar. Probably not.

Patthaya's beach is ok, it's not great. It's full of noisy vendors trying to sell all sorts of things you never wanted to possess. There is a mixture of tourists from varioius countries and a few Thai people too. There were quite a good number of oldish European looking men but only very few were in the company of a much younger Thai lady. Perhaps this only happens at night. I had a relaxing time just lounging about and having a few swims
.

On the way back I ventured into one of the entertainment quarters in Patthaya: lots of bars, restaurant, strip clubs, all sorts of shops and stores, cheap hotels, loud music, flashing neo lights advertising the Crazy Horse bar and similar establishements. I even came across the end of a boxing match between two fighters who had attracted a good audience and seemed to live on the tips they received after the fight (no idea who won and why: they both looked pretty fit to me after the fight was over). And of course this part of the city of Patthaya was full of people: men, women, couples, whole families. Soon it was becoming rather crowded and busy and the bar ladies were beginning to position themselves for the business of the night.

Unfortunately, at exactly this time, I had to head toward the autobus terminal to ensure not to miss one of the last buses back to Bangkok. But I wasn't too saddened, I must admit.

And while I am writing this, the Greek crisis is culminating. In Brussels the Finance Ministers met for the last two days and right now the heads of government and state are talking. It doesn't look good. I very much hope that Greece can remain in the Euro zone but the pretty useless Greek government does need to provide proper guarantees that this time it will actually embark on serious economic reforms (which should not mostly hit the pensioners and low income classes, of course). I can't remember ever having seen such an incompetent government as the one in Greece right now (this is saying something as there have been many incompetent governments in Europe). A clear case of promising much too much during the election campaign and now it is becoming ever clearer that none of it was realistic. Tough for any party to admit this and reverse course and still hope to remain popular at home (highly unlikely).