Phuket
Thailand in April
The James Bond island, famous as the backdrop from The Man
With The Golden Gun, the face-off between Roger Moore's 007 with Scaramanga.
Asians
and Westerners all posing, hands clasped together with index fingers pointing,
loaded weapons ready for the photo opportunity. Seeing the 2 Asian ladies
posing, so different in style and yet both so equally mesmerising…in a
car-crash / "WTF" way!
The
posture of the Chinese tourists in the waiting room....don't worry if it’s a
public area, just relax, treat it like home. Belch,
yawn, snort the phlegm in and eat it. It’s all perfectly acceptable. Oh,
feeling a bit warm? Cool off by raising your t-shirt over your belly. That’s
better…
On
the return the air stewardess…. "boarding paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.....". I
think I was sitting by the time she ended that word (more on the local use of
English at a later blog-date).
Tourists
are weird. So interested in visiting other nations, seeing what must be seen,
getting themselves as many photos as possible, and yet often so unthinking of local cultures, and what is appropriate.
The
Chinese tourists are probably the worst we have seen overall, but not just from
our trip to Thailand. When we went to buy a new TV in Mustafa's, Chinese
tourists would loudly walk in front of everyone, no regard for people other
than themselves, literally as if no-one else exists. It
has just never happened, in any society where I have spent any time, that while
shopping, looking at shampoo, with barely 30cm between you and the shelves,
that someone comes and stands in front of you. And yet it happened to Roby. All
it needed was a Chinese tourist who had an interest in looking at the same
goods.
But
in Phuket, it was the Russian tourists who stood out as the biggest wankers; no
modesty on display, the women in bikinis, the men topless in shorts, all of
them bright red from too much sun.
Still,
the best tourist moment….(drum roll)…. goes to China and the Chinese gentleman
pretending to take a photo of the rock formation, whereas when I passed behind
him saw he was actually taking close-up photos of Russian cleavage.
Maybe
such “materials” are not readily obtained from the internet in China? Or can
only be secured at personal risk?
Just think, he might literally explode with excitement if he went to the
Jeju Island sex park.