Sabai

2 things stand out from a recent trip to Bangkok that made me think about how jaded I had become.

After dieting for three months I had lost 8 kilos and my pants were decidedly saggy. I hadn’t worn my jeans so low since my early 20’s when I thought it was “gangsta” to do so.

I needed a new hole punched into my belt and asked around at MBK and was directed to a small stand on the third or fourth floor. The nice lady quickly punched a new hole and handed my belt back. Pulling out my wallet, I asked her how much it would be, expecting, and ready to pay, somewhere like 50 to 100 baht.

She smiled and waved us off, indicating that she didn’t want any money. We tried to insist but she wouldn’t take anything from us.

We were very surprised and commented to ourselves that we had never seen anybody in Thailand do anything for us with no expectation of monetary gain.

We were also pleasantly surprised when we were able to get my girlfriend’s iPhone back after returning to a Starbucks she had been to a fortnight earlier.

However after thinking about it for a while, I was kind of disappointed in myself that I was SO surprised by these pleasant outcomes. I mean, had I become so jaded about scams in Thailand and people who come into contact with tourists just trying to get your money that just these two simple acts of kindness were so far out of the realm of possibility in my mind?

So basically, I want to say sorry to Thailand for being so jaded and expecting the worse in people all the time. Sure it’s a good idea to be on your guard and to keep alert, but I guess the lesson here was that you don’t want to shut yourself too tightly, or you just might miss something.

Does this make any sense?