After sleep

by Eugenia Espona (Argentina)

I didn't expect to find Thailand

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I flew 36h to get from Buenos Aires to Bangkok. I am used to heat and humidity in the city where I live. But upon reaching my destination, it felt different. The amount of odors that was in addition to the weather made me feel upsettingly uncomfortable. It was much more than I could get to organize in my head. I arrived and the first thing I thought was to return even though I was literally on the other side of the world. I felt that the smells invaded me in every corner, I realized that they were different but I couldn't finish distinguishing them, they seemed like different winds in motion. It was 5 p.m. on a Friday and everyone was leaving their activities at the end of the week. There was a lot of movement and I could not join and also circulate in that orderly chaos. I think that not being able to get on that and not being able to understand the smells made me feel very strange. Everyone understood where they were going, even other travelers, except me. In addition to not understanding the characters, street markets sold all products in unlabeled bags. Nothing was labeled, everything was just what it was. That plastic transparency lead to more confusion. Then I decided to finish the day early, I went to bed and fell asleep without brushing my teeth or bathing or eating. The next day I had to cross the entire city first thing to leave a bag in a hotel, and return to then go to the airport and fly to Chiang Mai. When I woke up I took a bath and went to breakfast at the little hotel. I was the first to have breakfast and almost to get up! I got into a tuc-tuc and showed him the address on the phone. It was quite far from where we were. Suddenly, with the sun fresh out was a pretty spectacular day. I saw the whole city dyed orange. Felt energized. The people who opened their street food stalls lit Bankok's smells. Everything seemed so animated. I started to understand the dynamics a bit and be part of that movement too. In every street, in every spot I saw life. The contrasts of the modern constructions and the very old ones and girls. The flowers, the colors, the vegetation. Abundance and lack all together moving from one side to the other. I traveled 36h by plane to get to Thailand, and want to return. It took me 30 minutes in tuc-tuc to fall in love and not want to come back.