BOM-BKK: Kya mangta hai, boss?

Prostitution is illegal in Thailand ldquoGoogle it if you donrsquot believe merdquo says my local friend Siddhant to a group of us mdashtotally surprised by that fact mdash while visiting Bangkok for a quick weekend inandout trip for a birthdayThat quick inandout itself holds a seedy connotation if the trip is to ThailandBangkok mdash with emphasis on the first and second syllables of the two words for sexual innuendoConsider the Bollywood film Thai Massage 2022 with Gajraj Rao in the lead role of a septuagenarian who goes from a small town Ujjain to Bangkok searching for sexAll passengers on that flight of shame have their faces covered with mufflers lest an acquaintance recognises themIn Bangkok a desi man tells Raorsquos character ldquoPoori duniya yehi karne aati hai isme sharmane ki koi baat nahin hai Entire world comes down for the same thing no need to feel shamerdquoAlso as you know such trips often bear corporate sanction Yoursquore hardly a salesperson in India mdash in pharma stationery cosmetics or FMCG mdash if your annual target wasnrsquot met with the promise of a potential jiggyjiggyboomboom in BangkokThailandCY Gopinath a Bangkok local and fellow columnist tells me he once noticed three such salesmentype desis perhaps after their office offsiteconference haggling with a streetwalker who was demanding around 2000 Baht for an hourrsquos serviceGopinath overheard these desi blokes asking the sex worker instead to accommodate all three of them within the same rate for an hour offering 20 minutes to eachI wonder what that poor Thai woman mustrsquove thought of these Indians Some of whom pose as the nationrsquos worst brand ambassadors on ldquotripsrdquo abroadEspecially I suppose in Thailand And within our own country in Goa That the former feels less expensive than the latter along with the tag of international travel gives Thailand an edge over most Indian spotsIrsquom told Thai people arenrsquot particularly fond of Indians for the same reasons as others mdash wersquore perceived to be loud particularly demanding as customers and we tip terribly if at allWhile Indians could feel cold stares in the West sometimes Thai people will never express how they actually feel Theyrsquore by all accounts the friendliest lot in Asia And perhaps the reason they draw the most culturally diverse set of tourists into their countryItrsquos not like Thailand has superior locations from its neighbours Itrsquos the liberal nonconfrontational Thai people that tourists return forSuch a playful lot that they even invented a lovelife for the celebrated celibate Lord Hanuman with a mermaid in Ramakien the Thai Ramayan the national epic And as Gopinath points out itrsquos not like sex tourismlife whether underground or overground is unique to Bangkok Local origins of which anyway are attributed to the USGopinath says ldquoDuring the Vietnam War Bangkok was the official RampR Rest amp Recuperation point for American soldiers Fear of sexual diseases was highldquoThese soldiers would pay off families in Thai villages to get into an exclusive sexual arrangement with girls of the home Once the war ended those girls got left behindldquoOne Mr Patpong brought them over to a street in Bangkok engaging them in sex workrdquo Hence Patpong only one of the couple of streets that Bangkok gains supposed infamy fromWhich also has gone quiet if not dead post the pandemic The trade perhaps couldnrsquot sustain itself My uneducated guess is that the state legalised marijuana to push up hedonistic tourism still They held a zerotolerance policy on drug use beforeMy friend Siddhant says besides manufacturing automobile parts Bangkok is really known for the best ad films and lots of horror filmsAs we speak Gopinath whorsquos writing a book on Bombay in Bangkok says you canrsquot compare the two cities on infrastructure and efficiencyI can see it in the quiet roads despite heavy traffic Nobody ever honks You donrsquot see any dust because as Gopinath informs ldquoGrandmoms come in early mornings with brooms and plates to clean up crevices that are hard to reach Also for a streetfood capital of the world yoursquoll find no flies on the streetsrdquoGopinath has been in Bangkok for 19 years having moved from Kenya Siddhant moved to Bangkok from Bombay seven years agoThese are expats of course mdash quite different from the large Indianorigin Thai population that often dates back a century settled in lsquolittle Indiarsquo next to China Townnamed PhahuratI suspect a reason why Bangkok hasnrsquot emerged yet as the global expat capital in line with say Singapore mdash that fully adopted English mdash or Hong Kong for long the British hub is that Thai is a complicated tonal language Although Thai people really appreciate if you at least attempt itIrsquom just warmed by the Indianness in it through Pali language from Buddhist expansion mdash as I end up skipping the Hanuman and Mermaid musical to enter Terminal 21 Asok mall where the Zara for Thailand is the apparel brand Jaspal and Irsquom now on my way to Suvarnabhumi literally Land of Gold airportGopinathrsquos building crew calls him teacher in Thai thatrsquos aachan written as aacharya At his kidrsquos school teachersrsquo day was called waikruKru as in guru ldquoWhere do you think wai comes fromrdquo Gopinath asks Itrsquos lsquovaahersquo as in Vaahe GuruMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass cultureHe tweets mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper