I’M A TRAVELLER GET ME OUT OF HERE…

Watched the Hunger Games on my return from Thailand. It is better than the first film.  The story-line is also very I’m a Celebrity Get me out of Here..... but with the added incentive of avoiding the blistering gas and the fierce monkeys, instead of having to eat testicles and eyeballs.   But then we have Ant and Dec instead.   Puff like this distracts from the real news, as does Strictly and the X Factor. It’s all so irrelevant but it's interesting how art reflects life reflects art so distinctly.   

It was a fascinating trip to Thailand. We went with a group of international journalists, one from France, two Italy, two Germany and four from the UK.    It was striking to see how each nationality communicated in their own way - and I don't mean in the respective languages - and how miscommunication occurred because of cultural differences rather than personality clashes, although perhaps in one case, this may also have been the case.  

The Thai people are very gentle and gracious, don’t criticise and don’t take well to criticism. They do not complain, so it’s a case of get it right quietly and get things gone quietly, albeit there was a demonstration in Bangkok while we were there but we didn’t hear it (it must have been very quiet also).

Contrast this with the German culture which is very direct  - as in ‘why are you tapping my phone President Obama’ rather than the British way of doing it which would be, “I’ve noticed you’re tapping our phones. If possible could you not do that again, if possible.”  Not that Obama thinks there is anything worth listening to in the UK.  The different style of communication was evident on our trip, even to the point where the British wanted to say something at various stages, but didn’t. They talked to each other about it, but didn’t address the person in question. The cultures behaved to the stereotypes, almost in a surreal way, which made me think how despite our travels we remain true to our type, and our culture which is probably a good thing.  Just pity about the mis-communication, after all it is usually the thing that creates the wars.      

But Thailand was wonderful, even better when looking back at it, like an after taste or perfume that lingers and gets better as one thinks about it.    Beautiful country, beautiful people.