geck-O!

We’re back in Indochina!

Southeast Asia is poor by Western standards. A dollar buys you a lot. English has become the lingua franca of the region. Many signs have English and nearly everyone can speak a little. US dollars are an acceptable second currency most places, and preferred as the first currency in countries where local note values fluctuate rapidly.

Southeast Asia does not give a gecko’s ass about Western “intellectual property”. Nobody “licenses” Windows. The moment a movie hits the theaters (or before that, the net) its on everyone’s television screens, and in the store on VCD for a dollar. Knockoff brands of clothing, bags, watches and sunglasses with big name trademarks abound.

The careful, pleasing design of European cities is absent. Urban areas are new, mostly built in the last 15 years. They’re thrown up in the American utilitarian (cheap!) style but with inadequate infrastructure. The poor just set up shacks between buildings. Smaller towns are able to retain nice traditional architecture. There’s not enough money for the tight rules of the west to be enforced, so everything is pretty loose.

Everything possible is done to save precious money. All lights are florescent. There are even more motorcycles and scooters than in Europe, cars are comparatively rare. Drinks on the street are served in small plastic bags with a straw because cups are too expensive.

The animals are different. On any given wall or ceiling there are a couple of geckos. I love them. They eat all the bugs, and go “cheep cheep cheep!” and “gECK-O!” Bigs ones get loud. Elephants are used as cranes and tractors. There are more colorful birds than people have found names for. Monkeys roam free in the smaller cities and there are cobras. In the wilderness there might be some tigers left. Siam has only one predominant breed of domestic cat. Burma too.

The people are small and thin. In America, I’m kinda thin. In Europe, I’m heavy. Here, I’m a giant. Every movement I make is accompanied by a duck or crouch. Doorways clip me all the time. Awnings and shoddy electrical wiring stretched over the street come to about my neck. Boats, buses and planes are cramped affairs and I can just forget about clothing. As for Mandy, her feet finally touch the ground when she sits and she buys large sized clothing.

Southeast Asia takes boxing very seriously. Its kick boxing with knees and elbows as the primary weapons and gloved hands and bare feet acting as softeners. In Burma you can head-butt. Every Sunday everybody stops and watches the big match. Everyone, boys and girls learn boxing in school. The only thing they might love more than boxing is beauty contests, which are staged on every occasion.

The countries that make up the region vary quite a bit, so I’ll get to them as we pass through…