Jentao: Leturn of the Governator

Having had some time to spend around our Thai brethren i have noticed many subtle things about their culture, their reverence of their monarchy and the depth of their history. It is inspiring. Remarkable.

But in the interest of staying true to misty form, I'll dwell on something that threatened to ruin my professional integrity over here. I nearly lol'd on many an occaision. lol. (note to self: avoid using lol or variations of in blog, causes urges of self destruction...)

Imagine for a moment if you will, if Arnold Swarzenegger had been born a thai person. Imagine how he would talk. You would not understand what he was saying but you would know not to mess with him because of his tone and obvious capability to crush you. He would probably be holding a gun or axe, ripped with muscle having recently saved the day in voilent haste, spouting glorious one liners to punctuate his merciless victories.

I was fortunate enough to be around a thai man for around a week who was blessed with the exact thai vocal counterpart or vocal awesomeness of arnold. Thai people are very peaceful and considerate people. But because of my view that this guy sounded like arni, his mundane thai discussions with his colleagues were interpreted as either offers of salvation such as "come with me if you want to live" or quips about how he just dispatched unwitting mercenary enemies, "...And please, dont wake my friend. He's dead tired".

In an interesting twist this guy actaully looked like Chow Yun Fat. That kind of luck would not go unpunished at home. Imagine if you looked like Sly Stallone and sounded like Clint Eastwood. Or if someone looked like Oprah and sounded like Dame Edna Everage. Some one with this sort of cataclismic resemblance on multiple levels would probably have to move to unchartered island and live in a bucket or something. But this guy just walks around, looking like he could karate chop me to death, while he mouths off about how i should "let off some steam". Really he was just directing me to the soup and being a great host. But a few times i really got lost in the fantasy and could have sworn he was playing it up. Thats what happens when you spend too much time around people who do not speak the same language as you. You become as stupid as the american public and start hearing Arni's voice everywhere.



Of course there was no shortage of misty material in south east asia. It is an insane place full of paradoxes and absurdity, mixed with chilli and a sex trade. Consumed over ice. Watch this space for more tom yum hornberg.