Surviving Bustling and Chaotic Bangkok

I arrived in Bangkok without knowing anything about Bangkok. I knew a few people, though: Fr. Chalerm and Rungtip Imrungruang, or Jim as we called her, who were members of YCS Thailand. Jim picked me up from the airport and took me to my place of stay, a place we called Rungsin Flat. It was a dark and old apartment in Bangkok, close to the Ramkamhaeng area. I was to stay at this place for months. And many things would unfold during these few months I was in Bangkok.

I felt lonelier in Bangkok than in Hong Kong. I also felt more lost. Bangkok was a huge city compared to Hong Kong. I did not speak Thai, and not many people spoke English in Bangkok in those days. The good news was that on the ground floor of the apartment building, there was a simple and very local Thai restaurant. There were a few simple tables and stools around them, and food was served on plastic plates with poor-quality, flimsy aluminum cutlery. There was no menu.

People came and ordered what they wanted, and the cook cooked and served. I saw someone eating Thai fried rice, and I pointed at it and ordered. Since then, every time I went there, they would serve me Thai fried rice, with a fried egg on top and a little sliced cucumber on the side, which would cost about 10 Thai baht, about 40 cents USD. I would take a long walk to the Mall at Ramkamhaeng to do my shopping.

I would take long bus rides to Anu Savaree Chai, or the Victory Monument Roundabout, where the Xavier Hall and the YCS office were. I would get stuck in traffic jams for hours in buses, some of the worst traffic jams I have ever experienced in my life, until I discovered the madness of Manila traffic!

I actually did not have much to do. There was no Internet, no laptops, no cell phones. Often, I would travel to the Xavier Hall and hang out with young Thai folks there, Fong, Dan, Keaw, etc. Sometimes, Dan would sing Thai songs or old Simon and Garfunkel songs while playing the guitar, and I would listen and enjoy.

It was also a few weeks after the infamous 8.8.88 crackdown in Burma, and Bangkok was flooded with Burmese visitors. I was introduced to the Jesuit Refugee Service, and at the JRS I attended a lot of Burma solidarity meetings and even heard informal briefings by persons like the Swedish journalist Bertil Lintner, a correspondent for the weekly Far Eastern Economic Review. I was hearing firsthand testimonies from students who had escaped brutalities in the streets of Rangoon during the August protests.

I drew parallels with what was going on in Sri Lanka then: the violent and brutal crushing of the second Marxist youth insurgency, killing over 60,000 youth and students. Somehow, the Burmese students knew about the situation of the students in Sri Lanka.

During weekends, Fr. Chalerm would come and drive me in his white Toyota sedan to Chonburi, close to Pattaya. He was an excellent driver, but at times he would suddenly pull over to the hard shoulder of the highway, switch on all four indicator lights, recline his seat, and take a nap for about 10 minutes. I would patiently wait for him to wake up. He would house me at the Bishop’s house, where Bishop Lawrence Thienchai was staying. I would get a lot of time with this Bishop, especially during meal hours.

It was during one of these visits that I was accidentally introduced to the Young Christian Workers’ Asia-Pacific Council, which was going on at the Redemptorist Centre in Pattaya, where I would meet many people, including the famous Sri Lankan theologian Fr. Tissa Balasuriya and labour activist Bertram Frederick Silva Candappa. Events that unfolded at that meeting are described in the article entitled Bertram.

Hanging out with a priest had its own advantages. In Thailand, the priests were treated like gods by fellow Catholics. So, wherever Chalerm would go, there were people to treat him. He loved eating and often took me to some of the best restaurants run by his parishioners. I would now learn that Thai food has so many more variations than the fried rice I used to eat at the ground-floor restaurant at the Rungsin Flat building.

I fell in love with Thai food, not the kind you get at Thai restaurants outside Thailand, but real local Thai food!

During this trip, I also visited Kanchanaburi, Ratchaburi, and Hua Hin. My loneliness began to disappear, and I began to love Thailand. And right then, it was time for me to return to Hong Kong!