I once read somewhere that humans are the most plastic species on Earth. Plasticity meaning that there's the greatest variety in size, shape, color and just about anything else you can think of in our species.
Last night was truly an indication of such. I was at this outdoor club in Ko Samui and it was just mind boggling. I'm a pretty open minded guy...probably more so than any of my friends back home in Pittsburgh. Still, though, i'm a lower middle class white boy from the suburbs of Pittsburgh. Being surrounded by dozens of hookers, lady-boys, unsavory backpackers and other less than delightful characters was quite shocking. A friend of mine said the other day that 90% of the Thai women you meet here are hookers. Of the remaining 10%, 5 are lesbian and the rest (the good ones in his words) are taken. Coming to the resort places in Thailand you really see this side of the amazing country.
As night descends and the moon rises, so too does the seedy side of this country. I liken the lady boys around here as something akin to vampires. When the sun goes down, they come out, ready to suck gullible traveler's into their snares. Some of them look even better than real girls, but certain things can give them away easily...narrow hips, man hands, a sort of bad pantomiming of girl's mannerisms. Usually the end of the encounter is marked by a much lighter wallet if you catch my drift.
Upon entering Thailand, one can see tons of books about the country. The most visible of these are usually the horror stories about poor foreigners (falangs) who get caught trafficking drugs here. Drug offenses are no joke here. The minimum sentence is usually around 25 years. Maximum is the death penalty (over 100g of heroine will get you that one.) Conditions in Thai prisons are about as horrendous as you can possibly imagine. No sanitation, medical facilities, privacy, or compassion. Random beatings and brutal, often humiliating punishments are administered by guards to prisoners...for any infraction whatsoever.
The reason they are so harsh on drug offenders is that they (the authorities) see trafficking as an offense against all humanity (whereas murder say is just a crime against an individual.) Basically, once you're in, your stuck there and your only hope really is a pardon from the Thai King. Foreign governments though can and do have programs where they send foreigners to their home countries to serve their sentence. Conditions are so brutal in Thai jails that in America, one year in a Thai prison is considered to equal 6 years in an American Jail (so, if i understand this right, if an American is sentenced to 25 years in Thai jail and spends 4 of those in Thailand and then gets transfered, s/he basically only has to serve one more year in the US.) Other governments have other systems and will automatically commute a sentence to what the equivilent offense would bring in the respective country.
I suppose the Thai so prominently display these books and stories of life on the inside as a warning to foreigners coming here: Don't fucking smuggle drugs asshole! And really it's so true. Every year you hear about some poor backpacking soul sucked into the trafficking schemes and getting caught. Knowing what the consequences here are, you'd have to be an utter imbecile to think it's worth it to smuggle stuff here....that or so hopelessly beyond desperate that i couldn't even imagine.
Now I'm pretty sure that the books are shown as warnings, but it also shows how fucked up their legal system is here. For instance, police officers work off of commision. If they're in on a drug deal, they get a certain precentage of the street value of the bust. Or if they pull over someone for a traffic offense, they get a certain percentage of the cost of the ticket. Often this means that you can pay your way out of trouble (usually not the drug kind though) so if my friend in Bangkok gets pulled over on his bike, he is often asked to show his wallet and give a little payola to the cop. Corruption is so rife in every level of society here from police to mayors and even Prime Ministers. We have corruption in our own countries, but nothing like here....nothing like here.
Still, having said that, this is an amazing quirky place. Heinekiin in a club is a mere $2. Every meal i've eaten has been cheap and oh so marvelously tasty. The bargains you can find on clothes and other items are great too. T-shirts for a few bucks. Shorts for a few more. The thais are incredibly warm and friendly too. Very helpful and polite (until they really want to sell you something that is). Yeah, it can be annoying and tiring with everyone trying to sell you something, but i can't blame them either.
I'm not sure what the point of this post is really. I suppose jsut to let you know what it's like and that if you ever come out this way, you should be careful But you can sure as hell have a lot of fun too. Oh well i hope you enjoyed my little foray into travel and culture writing. Maybe i'll try it again at some point.
Last night was truly an indication of such. I was at this outdoor club in Ko Samui and it was just mind boggling. I'm a pretty open minded guy...probably more so than any of my friends back home in Pittsburgh. Still, though, i'm a lower middle class white boy from the suburbs of Pittsburgh. Being surrounded by dozens of hookers, lady-boys, unsavory backpackers and other less than delightful characters was quite shocking. A friend of mine said the other day that 90% of the Thai women you meet here are hookers. Of the remaining 10%, 5 are lesbian and the rest (the good ones in his words) are taken. Coming to the resort places in Thailand you really see this side of the amazing country.
As night descends and the moon rises, so too does the seedy side of this country. I liken the lady boys around here as something akin to vampires. When the sun goes down, they come out, ready to suck gullible traveler's into their snares. Some of them look even better than real girls, but certain things can give them away easily...narrow hips, man hands, a sort of bad pantomiming of girl's mannerisms. Usually the end of the encounter is marked by a much lighter wallet if you catch my drift.
Upon entering Thailand, one can see tons of books about the country. The most visible of these are usually the horror stories about poor foreigners (falangs) who get caught trafficking drugs here. Drug offenses are no joke here. The minimum sentence is usually around 25 years. Maximum is the death penalty (over 100g of heroine will get you that one.) Conditions in Thai prisons are about as horrendous as you can possibly imagine. No sanitation, medical facilities, privacy, or compassion. Random beatings and brutal, often humiliating punishments are administered by guards to prisoners...for any infraction whatsoever.
The reason they are so harsh on drug offenders is that they (the authorities) see trafficking as an offense against all humanity (whereas murder say is just a crime against an individual.) Basically, once you're in, your stuck there and your only hope really is a pardon from the Thai King. Foreign governments though can and do have programs where they send foreigners to their home countries to serve their sentence. Conditions are so brutal in Thai jails that in America, one year in a Thai prison is considered to equal 6 years in an American Jail (so, if i understand this right, if an American is sentenced to 25 years in Thai jail and spends 4 of those in Thailand and then gets transfered, s/he basically only has to serve one more year in the US.) Other governments have other systems and will automatically commute a sentence to what the equivilent offense would bring in the respective country.
I suppose the Thai so prominently display these books and stories of life on the inside as a warning to foreigners coming here: Don't fucking smuggle drugs asshole! And really it's so true. Every year you hear about some poor backpacking soul sucked into the trafficking schemes and getting caught. Knowing what the consequences here are, you'd have to be an utter imbecile to think it's worth it to smuggle stuff here....that or so hopelessly beyond desperate that i couldn't even imagine.
Now I'm pretty sure that the books are shown as warnings, but it also shows how fucked up their legal system is here. For instance, police officers work off of commision. If they're in on a drug deal, they get a certain precentage of the street value of the bust. Or if they pull over someone for a traffic offense, they get a certain percentage of the cost of the ticket. Often this means that you can pay your way out of trouble (usually not the drug kind though) so if my friend in Bangkok gets pulled over on his bike, he is often asked to show his wallet and give a little payola to the cop. Corruption is so rife in every level of society here from police to mayors and even Prime Ministers. We have corruption in our own countries, but nothing like here....nothing like here.
Still, having said that, this is an amazing quirky place. Heinekiin in a club is a mere $2. Every meal i've eaten has been cheap and oh so marvelously tasty. The bargains you can find on clothes and other items are great too. T-shirts for a few bucks. Shorts for a few more. The thais are incredibly warm and friendly too. Very helpful and polite (until they really want to sell you something that is). Yeah, it can be annoying and tiring with everyone trying to sell you something, but i can't blame them either.
I'm not sure what the point of this post is really. I suppose jsut to let you know what it's like and that if you ever come out this way, you should be careful But you can sure as hell have a lot of fun too. Oh well i hope you enjoyed my little foray into travel and culture writing. Maybe i'll try it again at some point.
Anyway Italy v France final, guess what are the two teams Scotland have for the 2008 Qualifying Group?