On
a pleasantly warm but occasionally sticky Saturday morning I find
myself once more in the reassuringly cheap and cheerful restaurant
(seems too grand a name...) of The Jolly Frog. I seem to enjoy the
ambience of this place more than most, perhaps because of its
slightly tropical atmosphere and the rather lovely gardens at the rear. Customers, as
ever in this place, seem to be considerably outnumbered by staff. As
I tap out these words there are five guests, two of us on laptops,
one texting away on a mobile phone and two actually eating. To cater
for this demand we have, in sight at least, some nine staff most of
whom are also happily tapping away on mobile phones. Two of the staff
have chosen to bring their sproglets into work with them and are
currently showing them off to their colleagues who, as ever in these
situations, are making the appropriate cooing noises.
Oddly,
given the plurality of staff, it is strangely difficult to get one to
actually serve you. A tall lass of about 40 did make the effort
originally but then the menu she was carrying fell apart in her
hands and this distraction was enough to make her forget her original
purpose. She returned to her seat and resumed her semi-comatose state
until steadily more desperate hand waving from yours truly alerted
her to the presence of, surprise surprise, a customer waiting to be
served.
This
situation is not untypical of my experiences so far in Thailand.
Justifiably it is know as 'the land of smiles'. People do seem to be
quite genuinely happier and more relaxed than many other places I
have found myself in during my travels. There is often a delightful
warmth and friendliness here that renders Thailand, apart from the
ever-present heat and stickiness, a pleasant place to be for the most
part. It is also the land of an all-encompassing laziness that has to
be seen to be believed.
A
couple of examples may make this point clear. Firstly, Thai don't
walk. If the distance to be travelled is greater than 75 metres they
will invariably take a scooter or some other form of convenient
nearby transport (jump on the back of a friends bike, take a
songthaew, climb into a tuk-tuk, etc. There is a plurality of choices
because, in basic economic terms, the demand is so great here). When
I first arrived in Thailand I took a coach down to Hua Hin, a busy
seaside resort on the Western side of the Gulf. The bus dropped me a
couple of hundreds yards from my hotel and I had to walk alongside a
busy road full of cars and bikes for most of that distance before
turning down a side street. Something struck me as slightly eerie
straight away but I could not put my finger on it. I went into the
town centre later that day and again had the feeling that something
was a little different but I couldn't quite figure out what it was.
In conversation that night I was discussing the situation with an
ex-pat when he immediately responded pointing out that the pavements,
apart from food sellers, were empty. After that first observation I
began to notice the phenomenon everywhere I went in this land. You
could have a busy little town like Kanchanaburi buzzing with
shoppers, diners and café goers and yet the pavements, apart from
the immediate environs of these places themselves, would be almost
totally devoid of people.
Due
to some physical challenges in my life there have been times when
walking even short distances was very challenging. In the last couple
of years these things have improved greatly for me so I very much
appreciate the joys of being able to walk relatively normally once
again. As a flaneur, one's duties entail partaking of the occasional
slow stroll but my pleasure in indulging in this activity seems not
to be shared by the average Thai. Where I am currently residing the
owner's family live some 70 metres from the office and cafeteria at
the front of the establishment. If they have any need to go there,
even if only to pick up a coffee or take some rubbish to the bins,
they will utilise one of three mini motor bikes at their disposal. If
evolution takes its normal course we may well be witness to the
phenomenon of Thais growing wheels in place of legs in a few thousand
generations...
Secondly,
there is an inherent laziness in the approach to life in general
here, a love of simply hanging around and doing nothing. For my own
part I have to confess that I am not the right person to dare to
criticise such behaviour as I am quite fond of such a lack of
activity myself. The joys of simply being are often unappreciated in
the West where there is a constant and almost obsessional need to be constantly
doing something. Yet few of us are unaware of the simple pleasures of lying in
on a Sunday morning, swinging in a hammock on sunny afternoon or
sharing a coffee and a chat with friends for no other reason than the
simple fact that we enjoy it.
Buddhist
meditation is very popular in Thailand; many Thais spent a portion of
their lives in the practice and people come from the world over
attracted to schools and retreats where they can learn these simple
yet profound techniques. Yet, thinking about it, could there be any
clearer demonstration of the joys of sitting around and doing
nothing? Meditation takes this attitude and promotes it to a
discipline, a spiritual practice. It is no coincidence that Thailand
is perhaps the world's leading centre to learn the subtle arts of
these disciplines. One often hears people criticise meditation on the
grounds that you are really doing nothing. How right they are! But in
that criticism lies the germ of a simple truth that is often
overlooked by such observers. At times in one's life it is no bad
thing to desist from the constant need to do and just simply allow
oneself the chance to be. It is no accident that many of Thailands most beautiful Buddha statues are reclining...
Laziness
has its benefits in the political sphere too. The ongoing political
death match between the red shirts and the yellow shirts seems to
have quietened down for now. Not that the situation has been resolved
in any way, the same bitterness still divides the two sides, the same
issues remain. Yet a few weeks ago it looked as if we were on the
brink of a civil war. As far as I can tell nothing was resolved, no
great changes were made, no one won and no one lost. Yet it has all
become a whole lot quieter now. I think that this relatively peaceful
period has not been due to any political initiatives or any movement
in the situation whatsoever, rather the amount of energy involved in
keeping the intensity going is far, far too much for the Thais. This
'can't be bothered' attitude may be saving the country from all sorts
of potential problems. The Thais are a passionate and intense people,
they care deeply about their politics and the affects that these
things have on their lives. The intensity and the passion do not tend
to last for very long though. In temperatures that are consistently above
30 C it is hard to maintain that kind of commitment. The temptations
of 'what the hell' and going back to the hammock are just too great.
It seems that in this area, as in many others, the benefits to
laziness are manifold and subtle...
Back
at the Jolly Frog a few more customers have turned up and the speed
of service has climbed considerably from fully comatose to a snail's
pace. The girls still spend most their time perusing catalogues and
magazines and the customers are also far too hot to be that bothered
anyway. It all gets done somehow or other. I would imagine that the
denizens of New York or some other such fast-paced metropolis would
be driven mad in such a place as this but, for my part, I know where
I would rather be. I spent a few days in that most awful of cities a
few years ago. I remember it as being perhaps the rudest place it has
ever been my misfortune to encounter. Almost every place I have found
myself in the last twenty five years tended to have its compensations, its
reasons for looking back fondly on and perhaps hoping to have the chance to re-visit one day. New
York was one of the exceptions (Soviet-era Moscow was another). Its speed, its
noise and its general rudeness were singularly unpleasant.
The
Big Apple seemed to be full of people busily doing, doing, doing,
without even a second to spare to acknowledge your existence. They
were far too busy and their business far too urgent even to stop and
help with directions, as I remember.
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