Poetic embellishment
Second piece in travel mini-series
This piece is part of “An American Mouth in Thailand,” a mini-series I created on a recent trip to Thailand and Malaysia. Catch the flight that brought me to Bangkok.
I embellish experience with wordplay.
I haven’t experienced the world of the man whose dining room, living room, and bedroom is a two-foot-wide strip of tile with one wall of corrugated shutters on a shop he could never afford to enter, while I drink a $5 big beer on a riverside terrace as the partyboats go by Gangnam-style and the 8-story mall shines honey-strip zigzags, all the way up: ICONSIAM.
Things are getting good here, says Sammy from Yangon, who rattles me up a Reptilia at a bar out of my inner hipster’s dry-martini dream.
The Canadian couple beside me says the mall is a miracle. We bought nothing, but it changed our lives.
I ask if it might change mine too.
Sammy had a good friend back in Burma. On a warm day, they gathered at city hall. They were split down the middle by the government’s people. Half were gunned down.
He recommends $10 passion fruit cocktails to save up for his dream of Switzerland. It’s very expensive, I tell him. He says he’s patient.
As the river boats rumble and the wind blows my hair into a mop, the wake strokes the pier. A lonely red plastic jug-o-gas bumps about in the water, tethered to a drowned tree trunk. It’s a buoy. I will never see what vessel it berths, as The Luxury White passes on K-pop for a second round.
The driver on the way to the airport says he has a Burmese employee. They’re pushing everyone out of a job. I don’t like them.
Did he actually say that? Or do those lines fall into grooves?
I don’t ask follow-up questions, and I’m only in town for one day.
I love these kinds of narratives, they show we all have stories to tell and opinions to share. Your relaxed vibe must have made them comfortable to share them with you.
I also sent you a small idea in your inbox that I think you will personally appreciate. When you have time, you can check it out.
Caught the vibe nicely—you need to explore S.E.A. in greater depth!