Briefing from the land of smiles

From the land of blocking, blogging is hardly possible. Facebook, youtube, blogs of any kind, sites with sensitive words (words you are not supposed to even think about, let alone mention them here), etc, etc are all blocked. For some of these, even proxy sites would not penetrate them. You are supposed to dig too deep to get around the great firewall for which I have no motivation nor time. That's the most obvious reason why this blog had been inactive for months now. Other reasons being busyness and laziness and writer's block (if a non-writer is permitted to have one).

H1N1 was a big concern and it scared us a little bit. But the trip's been planned and petitioned (upwards) for too long. Efforts to cancel turned out to be too mafan (that's troublesome for you), and off we went after consulting all sorts of people in the know practically from everywhere. Suvarnabhumi airport looked a little deserted at 2:20 in the am and we were rather happy about that. The visa fee had been cancelled till sometime next year and the immigration officials looked extra friendly and welcoming. After all we were among the few who dared to be in this land when every one else decides to stay out of trouble.

But what is this? Only very few people were actually wearing masks in the airport and we looked sort of out of place here with our masks on. We decided to take them off as well in the end. Airasia was giving some kind of promotional tour to some special guests. As we fly off to Chiang Mai with these special people we sat right behind the star of the group and the cameramen were all the time focusing on her moves. Nothing to make your heart skip a beat though.

I remember me six odd years ago, all impressed with the people who smiled at you and looked angelic in Bangkok, the city of angels (that's the meaning of the name). But I am now convinced people seemed to smile without actually smiling in their hearts.

Chiang Mai reminds us of home. Tin roofs, green hills, blue skies - they are all here. We begin to realise how deprived we have been. I love Thai food for one, seafood especially. Temples? Am not too big on it. Go to one, they're more or less the same. One is quite enough. Not even sure if we are going to any this time around. Let's just be here and enjoy and relax a little more before we get back to where you need to talk in tongues and hope someone outside would know how to interpret and get your message across somehow. The feeling of freedom in the air, the knowledge that you are not under the radar of anyone and the anonimity you have is sufficient to give you satisfaction and enjoyment in this land for now.

Khob kun krub and khob kun ka!

This is what one writes when he is too restless to sleep and uninspired to do any serious thinking. That's all for now. Yeah, non-sensical, isn't it?