Talk seven.
Bangkok, 25th November
- A year ago Bangkok looked completely different, didn’t it?[1]
- Fear of the flood continues. Look at these sandbags. These shop entrances walled up to various levels. You have to go over a kind of wooden footbridge to get to some of them.
- To get to the consulate of Myanmar, where we applied for the visa, we had to jump over a brick wall.
- These piles of bulky plastic bags in front of that shopping mall look as if they were selling here some soil for plants and flowers.
- The direct menace is over now, but our hotel still has its entrance blocked with a pile of sandbags.
- Nature afflicts the Thais with disasters but they bear the fate with dignity and immediately afterwards they get to work.
- But the flood situation in the upper country is much more tragic!
- I was told that all the energy went to saving the centre of Bangkok letting the flood take over vast rural areas of the country. The poor have a lesser say.
- Changing the subject. Here we’re often talking about the United States. But touring Europe, didn’t you have any thoughts over your life?
- My trips for which I had been working beyond measure a dozen or so many hours a day, in order to…
- What was so tiring?
- Six hours with the Medical School students in the morning …
- Of English?
- As a man of the old school (!) I could do/teach just anything! In agreement with my education, at the beginning of my career, I would first teach chemistry, then biochemistry. Ever since I graduated, I’d teach English and Spanish as an extra kick in the afternoons. Another five or six hours. On a free day I’d give classes at home.
- Some dough!
- No complains. As I didn’t have much of a personal life, I could and I wanted to work a lot. My friends would have families, kids, and a stabilized life. That was a kind of communist stabilization attainable then.
- What would you spend the money on?
- On buying dollars. I would make about fifty dollars a month. My basic month salary would range from fifteen to twenty dollars.
- What was it enough for?
- Abroad? For example, a cup of coffee in Paris cost three dollars. You could really go spending spree!
- What determination to be able to see the world!
- Believe me or not! Only sometimes would I get the feeling that it was a kind of substitute of a normal life.
- What were you looking for in that world?
- Figure it out for yourself!
- Did you find it?
- Even though I hadn’t found anything or anybody for myself, I had seen many things. Those things reassured me what my way in life should be, what I wanted and how I decided to live
- What was it that you saw?
- In the summer 1975 I spent a short time in Malmö, Sweden. One day I paid a visit my Argentinian friend who at that was doing his PhD programme in architecture in Szczecin.
- Gay?
- As far as it was possible.
- What did he teach you?
- He didn’t have to teach me anything. I saw how he lived. I met his partner. For the first time in my life I saw how a home formed by two men worked. Sweden wasn’t yet that advanced in the matter as it is today, but still quite ahead of the rest of Europe. Their home was everything it should be. A beautiful apartment, many friends, an intensive cultural life an trips abroad. Unreachable for me. But I learned a model to pursue.
- I’m gonna be provocative: Have you pursued it successfully?
- Let the others assess it. I’m a happy man. Those two men are going to celebrate their fortieth anniversary of the partnership and marriage this year.
- Like in the movies!
- Don’t be mean.
- I’m not. I just admire them and envy them. A little bit.
- Everything is in front of us.
- I’m changing the subject again. As you didn’t have many contacts with men there, you might have been at least joying western cooking?
- You mean Coca-Cola and popcorn, don’t you?
- You pig!
- As you saw in the pictures from my youth, I was as thin as a lath. Until I was thirty, I considered eating as a painful necessity which distracted me from more interesting activities. I was not interested in food at all. I’ve always been at odds with sweets.
- Not a lollipop?
- No need to exaggerate. Some good stuff from time to time. As far as other tastes are concerned, I had no interest in distinguishing French cuisine from the Italian, the Italian cuisine from the Mexican. Besides, I didn’t use to frequent western restaurants since I couldn’t afford them.
- Somehow this reluctance of yours has got lost, hasn’t it?
- Now you are going to keep reminding me my being fond of eating? Yes, I’m fond of good food. I like various cuisines. I like exotic tastes.
- Which cuisine do you like best?
- I used to recognize French cuisine as the most exquisite and tastiest. Then for a short time I was fascinated with Italian cooking (I don’t have pizza in mind, though), than Mexican one, and in the end I discovered the charms of Polish food. Ever since we’ve been travelling to Thailand, I’m fond of Thai food.
- What’s so special in it?
- On the surface it looks like the Chinese, that we all know, but in effect it’s quite different.
- Where’s the difference?
- Denying the food critics – Thailand is not only lemon grass or coconut milk, but a wealth of exotic flavours. The Thai cuisine joins traditions of Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. Naturally, there are many influences of China. Thanks to a skillful combination of local ingredients, mainly herbs, with other products which originate from all over the world, (tomatoes, chili), the Thais make dishes of unusual tastes.
- Only if they weren’t so spicy!
- There are less spicy dishes as well. There’s always something milder for tourists. But you have to be careful. What is mild for a Thai, it could be very, very hot for you!
- You like it hot!
- What a nice ambiguity! No, not everything!
- What amazes me is the number of street kitchens. And those crowds eating all day long.
- One can get an impression that the Thais work only during short breaks between meals.
- Specially those who cook all day long!
- Thanks to that, if you happen to be hungry, you don’t have to be looking for any restaurant. You just stop and pick what you fancy from what the street kitchens offer.
- On top of that, the food is always hot (I mean warm), always fresh and always looking good and tempting.
- Judging by the faces of those who are eating it, always delicious. Now it’s time for dinner. Some steps from here there’s a restaurant or rather a place to eat where you can mainly see the locals.
- It’s a secure guarantee of quality!
- Let’s go!
- It’s a pity it’s such a short distance, and we can’t go by a tuk-tuk!
- We can come home in a tuk-tuk after tonight clubbing. These machines have a great natural air-conditioning!
- I like that wind in my hair.
- Their proper name is samlors. Some of those three-wheeled taxis look like beautiful toys. Colourful and well taken care for. We must remember to negotiate the fare before we get on one of them.
[1] Bangkok floods 2011
