The First Week … A Review

Alright, I feel in certain aspect as if Thailand is the inverse of America.

In Minneapolis, just like across the rest of the country, Farmers Market are very popular. The fruits and vegetables are loosely in boxes and the customers can touch and select the best items. Even supermarkets try to sell their produce in a loose manner. In Bangkok, it is considered a sign of affluence and luxury, if you buy fruits and vegetable prepackaged in styrofoam trays and seran wrapped, while buying fruit from a street vendor is reserved for the poorer class. Interestingly, we have also heard about dedicated farmers markets, but with the exception of JJ market we haven’t found or better visited any, yet.

My second observation, that I’d like to tell you about has to do with suntan lotion. In America tanning is fashionable, heck people even spray themselves to look as if kissed by the sun. I myself am happy when my winter pale, turns to a light brown after a few Spring and Summer bike rides. While sun tan lotion in the US promise an extra bronze tan, that will last a bit longer, in Thailand, sun tan lotion promises the exact opposite. Nivea that has made a business luring millions of “tannistas” across Europe with its tanning promises, promises in Thailand the exact opposite – extra whitening, I kid you not. I have observed quite a few workers that earn their money outside, wearing caps covering their face and long-sleeved shirts and gloves – not for protection or the hiding of a disfigurement purposes, but to prevent tanning and maintaining a pale skin shade. I find this very interesting.

But most of all, we like it here. The food is fresh, spicy and has tremendous flavor and offers a wide diversity. The people are friendly and smile a lot. But there is also a flip side that shows abject poverty. There are plenty of youths running around between cars stuck in Bangkok rush hour begging to clean windows for a few Baht.

Before I forget a complete switch of gears. I have been running twice since we arrived last week. The first time I ran indoors, where I cam close to instant liquification of myself. But then I ran on Sunday morning from our apartment to Lake Ratchada and twice around it. One lap is 1850m (~1.2miles), so I figured that this would be the right venue to train speed. It took me about 8 minutes running to get to the lake. The first lap I ran in 9:05min – sweating properly. Then cam the second lap, where I wanted to explore how fast I could manage to go given the sun and increasing heat and humidity. I cranked out a 8:05 about ready to explode. I am so not used to such heat and humidity. I’ll need to train my body to deal better with the heat, so I will go out tomorrow morning again before work and push again.

Anyway, the first week has been very great and we are looking forward to more explorations and insights.

Take care

Yours Markus \m/