About last week

(Thailand)

Last week, CNN and BBC were all over the place, and so were approximately 300.000 stranded tourists, or 3 Million, depending on what channel you watched. Now, you rush through customs in a squeaky clean airport and nothing reminds you of the chaotic scenes of sleeping bags on the floors and shouting Thai in yellow shirts, who wanted to bring the government down by ruining the country's already weakened economy a bit more. And they succeeded.

The yellow shirts could arguably be charged with a rather undemocratic action against a government who a. wear red shirts and b. had (allegedly) won the election in a very undemocratic way. I suppose they both had a point, but that's water under the bridge now. The planes fly again and one of them took me to Bangkok, accompanied by the best wishes of some friends and declarations of sheer madness from others. After all, the problem itself is far from over.

The hotels for one are a bit empty. This is because people are still afraid they can't get out. But who wants to get out? On Sunday morning, after having arranged my train ticket to Hua Hin, I take one last hour to do some shopping in Bangkok. That's right, the shops are open seven days a week. And the assistants always smile and are never patronising. Their sentences never end on "at all" and they don't say "thank you " as if they mean "drop dead" the way only a British Airways air hostess can do. But here is the main point.
I need a set of trousers and when I try them on, they are slightly too long and need to be adjusted.
The shop assistant tells me they can do that in 15 minutes, at no extra charge plus, she hastens to inform me, I will get twenty percent discount which reduces the price from very little to bugger all. She gets to work and I go have a cappuccino, served with a free glass of water and a smile, for the equivalent of 60 Euro cents.

Equipped with my new trousers, I later make my way to Hualampong railway station where a train will take me a few hundred kilometers south for the amount of an small espresso in Zurich.
When I arrive in Hua Hin, the Sofitel offers me an upgrade and a third night free of charge, as they are happy that "farang come again". I decide not to resist.
Instead, I will have lunch in half an hour in 32 degrees in one of their open air restaurants with a view on the Gulf of Thailand. I'm told the red snapper is particularly good.

Hands up everyone who wants to live in Switzerland.