Thailand

Numerous years back, I was going on a nearby transport to the city of Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. It was an end of the week and the transport was full with a couple of outsiders, however generally an enthusiastic gathering of Thai individuals talking ceaselessly. I out of nowhere recalled a story that I had perused quite a while past by my preferred travel author, Paul Bowles, and I really wanted to roar with laughter.

In the story, Bowles was depicting a transport trip he took from the old capital of Ayutthaya to Bangkok, in 1972, joined by three priests he had gotten to know. Supposedly, it was a packed transport and as it moved, a traveler in the back began to shout at regular intervals. None of the nearby individuals appeared to be irritated by this. As the shouts proceeded, Bowles inquired as to whether they suspected the traveler was okay and why he was shouting. The priest replied: "Sunday. Occupied day." Bowles considered this reaction for a moment and believed this was a "peaceful and sympathetic" answer.

In Bowles' brain poor people man was clearly not well, potentially upset. As the transport moved toward Bangkok's terminal, the shouts became stronger and more continuous. Bowles was to some degree stunned by the absence of worry for the man's prosperity by different travelers. After everybody had left the transport Bowles asked the priests once again: "What was the helpless man shouting about?" The priest answered: "He was advising transport driver to back off, put transport in second apparatus, vehicle originating from right, truck originating from left, etc. He is the transport driver's associate." Bowles inquired as to why, as the transport driver's colleague, he would not sit in the front close to the driver? The priest answered: " Driver in the front, collaborator in the back… this way the entire transport ensured."

I assume as a voyager, the lesson of the story is to open our psyches, relinquished our pre-imagined ideas and suspicions, and simply appreciate the magnificence and humor we find along the way. An exercise learned and recalled in Thailand.