FrogBlog - Thaidings: 05/07/2009

The girls at Yin Yang massage in Loi Kroh, Chiang Mai. No customers, but still smiling!

After such a long break away from Thailand, I was feeling naively cheerful. The Thai Air flight from Zurich was two-thirds empty so we could stretch out in comfort. Arrived in Bangkok bang on time. The taxi touts thankfully ignored us as we wandered around the airport before heading to domestic departures.

The Bangkok Air flight to Chiang Mai was a mere 40 minutes late which was pretty good in comparison to previous experiences. I withdrew some cash with my Thai bank debit card, left it in the machine, only realised what I'd done 24 hours later... but after a few minutes' panic and a dash to the local bank, discovered that no one had managed to withdraw a fortune in the meantime. I felt good, and was sure I'd got away without contracting swine flu.

Everything was going great.

Then the dreaded lurgy struck. Thankfully not the H1N1 version, but a pretty mean competitor, the way I felt for the next week. Blogging was out of the question, but the mai pen rai approach was working well. It still felt good to be back.

The smiles are still there. Chiang Mai may be dead, bars closing, restaurants struggling, hotels almost empty, monsoon rains coming down... but the Thais carry on smiling. There's a knack to it, I'm sure.

Everything was going 'swimmingly'... or so I thought. Then the body blow...

The new tenants of part of my home in France cleverly decided to use my swimming pool, without my permission (it was empty when I left, awaiting repairs). They decided to part-fill it, and long before it reached a safe level, held a party. A 17 year old (guest) dived in, crushed some neck vertebrae, nearly died, is in an induced coma for some ops, but before losing consciousness had no sensation in arms or legs. The prognosis is not good.

So that's why I haven't been blogging since bouncing back from the bug. It's touch and go whether I shall have to return to France, at least for a while, to try to sort things out. It sometimes amazes me how mind-bogglingly stupid people can be.

The mai pen rai attitude doesn't quite work for this situation. I'm desperately sorry for the kid involved, even if I don't know him from Adam. But I have to say I'm bl..dy annoyed too - I've barely been here a fortnight, and I'm looking at an unscheduled flight home. Unlike Thailand France is drowning in red tape, not quite American-style on the legal front, but heading that way. This story will run for a long while yet.

In an effort to remain cheerful, some more Thai smiles, this time from last Friday's 'Big Buddha Day' celebrations in Chiang Mai. My wife2b regularly tells me that a BBD is in the offing - I've never really taken in what they're all about. But don't the Thais just love them, going to extraordinary and intricate lengths to decorate the floats and people in the parade...

However 'Big Buddha Days' do have certain disadvantages. For no sooner than Friday's celebrations are over, I discover on the point of going out for a quick beer that both today and Wednesday are also BBDs, with bars (those that bother to stay open) not being allowed to sell alcohol. Not ideal for a tourist industry that's already suffering!