Few Speak English here
There is something very special about Thailand. To me its my retreat, an inner sanctum of self inspection and evaluation of my life and simply an escape. When I get off the plane here I am surrounded by people who I cannot communicate with due to the fact I do not speak Thai and few speak English. Yet I have misspoken in that we do communicate the basics–go here, buy this, how much is that etc etc. Yet there is no substantive conversations. This is good for me. I don’t have to talk or think about others much.
In my real world that is all I do is think about others and put a lot of effort into communication. “What do you mean you want a natural looking breast” I have to ask when a patient tells me they want that. Its all about communication. Thats what we in plastic surgery must do if we are to have a happy patient. What one lady thinks is a “natural breast” is another ladies vision of saggy breast. Again its all about communication and Thailand to me is a place of little communication and lack of need to communicate for me. So its a good thing.
Pool at Condo-no talking here
I recall the first time I came here and found the Muay Thai Gym and how no instructor spoke English. Yet they taught me with hand signs, grunts and other noises with many facial expressions thrown in. If I did something wrong they had no difficulty in letting me know. They did this by making an angry face and when I did good they showed a happy face. To instruct me the right way they simply did a demonstration using themselves and I copied their movements. Simple. practical and it worked. I think in plastic surgery the same applies. Words are inadequate so we allow the patients to demonstrate to us with pictures what they consider a natural breast. Simple and practical with few words.
It is also a good place for me to think about people I know as I seem so far away from them. My wife is here but we dont talk so much after 20 years of marriage. Of course we talk about what we need to. Yet after that time of being around each other for well over 20 years, we know what each other will say, like it or not. We know. So relationships with workers or friends– is a good time to revaluate. I am not in the middle of things and can see much more clearly—is this person really a good worker? Should I stay in a business relationship with this person or that person? These type of things are always resolved by the time I leave Thailand. I think about what I should do then I decide and then do it.
River Taxi no talking here either
What I actually do in Thailand is pretty basic. On this trip our company Thaidox LTD is getting ready to launch and I am going through the business process and set up. That is my web development company which is based here in Bangkok. So I take care of that. Doing business in Thailand is not easy nor is it as crazy as some would have you believe. One must get used to the Thai way of doing things. This is not different from getting used to doing things the Hawaii way. I came out of New York City so adapting to the Thai way is certainly easier than adapting from New York to Hawaii.
The other thing I concentrate on here in Thailand is training in Muay Thai. Every afternoon around 2pm I get on a river taxi, which is a long boat made to run in the canals for a 15 minute ride to my Muay Thai gym. I usually spend about three hours a day with this. I also go down to my gym in the Condo here and work out as well in early morning. I do this pretty much everyday.
In the evening I may go to a movie or simply sit on the Balcony working on the computer. This is easy life for me. Its an escape and a place to make life decisions.
I suppose I wanted you to just see why I come to Thailand in this post. Next post I will show you my world here in more detail about this place instead of about me.
Doctor 808
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