Indian meeting…

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I knew I had to confront it at some point. I am doing it bit by bit, taking one step forward every time, so I guess that it was only natural that I’ll let my self take this next one. Not that I was interested in seeing anything today, it was more of a “let’s start wondering about and see where we’ll end up” kind of thing. It was 30c outside with disastrous humidity, but I’ve endured so much worse that I couldn’t care less. After wondering up north of the KhaoSan rd I’ve found myself at some palace next to the Dusit Zoo. I was way too late to see anything, but I thought that going inside for the final tour of the day might be a nice change from the bad red tan I was getting outside.

A 100 baht shorter and dressed up in a sarong to cover my unholy feet I waited patiently for the tour to start. Sitting next to me in a mini skirt was this Indian looking girl, so I started joking around with her at how unfair it is that I need to cover up my 3/4 pants while she can wonder about with that tiny thing. Then the tour began and in front of all those people I lost it completely, being unable to stop myself from laughing at the tour guide’s horrible indecipherable English. It was so bad that I had to go out and chill. While I was out I had a couple of more laughs with the fellow tourguides at her expense. I didn’t get to see much of the tour, but the whole thing was hilarious. I can’t remember the last time I had it this bad.

Anyways, they threw us out after the tour ended and I hooked up with the Indian looking girl with the tiny mini-skirt who turned out to be a Hindu Malaysian. Double trouble for me. I wasn’t sure how’d she react to the fact that I’m Israeli and I wasn’t sure how I was reacting to the the fact that she’s from an unfriendly Muslim country. We went on to have what I considered Indian food in MBK’s food court but I think for her it was like what I’ve felt when I had my first Bangkok humus and Falafel that made me want to throw up. But, disregarding the food and the noisy surroundings we had a good time getting to know each other and each other’s culture.

(Continued after two days due to lack of time the first time)

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An interesting twist to the conversation occured when I happened to mention my interest in the Chinese culture and people (Ask my latest traveling mates - no one can shut me up on that even if they wanted to). Since she’s part of a Hindu minority in Malaysia, being about 3% Hindu - 50% Muslim and the rest Chinese, she had her own view on the matter. She couldn’t understand why I would take any interest in them. Her descriptions reminded me of some conversations I had with some of my Israeli friends about Arabs - She has some Chinese friends, or at least she knows a few, but she would never consider going out with them or, god-forbid, marrying one. She finds their features un-attractive and socail behavior aggressive, uptight and too different to find any common grounds. There is tolerance, sometimes, but also an extremely wide gap between the cultures. Remembering Singapore, I could finally gain some insight as to why - unlike Australia - there were no mixed couples between the Indians, Chinese and Malay walking the streets though they did seem to co-exist in tensed harmony. She actually wanted me to promise her that I wouldn’t stay long anywhere that’s Chinese and I had a hard time going around that. Suprisingly, there were no such feelings towards western folks or middle easterns, which made me come to believe there’s something more going on there…

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There was an extremely bizarre moment when, while talking with her, I recognized a familiar Israeli face from my very dark distant work past (Ido, 5) and we talked for a few minutes learning that he just came from India and is still in complete shock over how beautiful everything in Thailand was.

Parting from Hindu Kani at the Taxi stand, I was invited to visit her in Malaysia once I get my Chinese/Taiwanese/Australian/European passport. I know that I would if I ever get the chance …

What a strange day.

[This is the picture Kani sent me later on of her in a traditional Sari dress (on the left). I would love to know who the girl on the right is...]

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