Bangkok Day 3

Okay. First let me just say: it's official, I have hives. They are all around my mouth on my face - seriously attractive I tell you. I don't know what caused them but I do know that I am smearing Benedryl cream all over my face twice a day and popping Benedryl pills. Oh, I ran out of Benedryl and had to venture into a Thai pharmacy. Lovely experience actually. The lady behind the counter stared at me - I said/asked "Benedryl?" and pointed to a liquid bottle. I said "pills?" and she brought out a giant bottle of pills and told me they were 5baht each and asked how many I wanted. Not expecting this - I blirted out "10" and she counted them and handed them to be. So, 50 baht (circa $2) I have more Benedryl. They are pink and white like normal Benedryl so I would guess they are legit.

Okay, more interesting stuff. Thai movie theaters are ridiculous. Sarah, Megan, Shannon, and I went to see Sex and the City last night at a theater Lonely Planet recommends in the Siam Center. It cost 500 baht (like 15 bucks) for the VIP theater and about 200 for a normal. We went for the VIP (figured what the hell, you are only here once) but let me tell you - well worth it. First, drinks and food weren't much once you were inside. Second, while we waited we were lead to the VIP waiting lounge that had a full bar (not included in the price though sadly), massage chairs (free), waiters and waitress, couches, mood lighting, chandelers (spelling?), the works! Third, there were about 8 other people in the theater - bringing it above 50% capacity. It was a giant theater but rather then cramming people into seats and having stadium seating, the Thais took a different approach. Each set of two people got to sit in full on recliners. Picture a giant couched formed from two lazy boys. On each lazy boy couch was a pillow and blanket set for each person. Seriously awesome.

Our hotel is basically a high in escort service. I learned this while taking a 3am midterm and sitting in the lounge chairs by the elevators near the business center where the wireless worked the best (which isn't saying much). Every few minutes old business men and young (like my age Thai women be brought to the elevators by the hotel staff and escorted to their room. Some pairs went, some groups. Also, there is a disco in the hotel parking lot where you can pick up these women. It was a rather interesting thing to witness. The men in Thailand don't hit on you, why bother? Tonight we will given a tour (yes, we hired a tour guide) of the red light district after eating dinner down in that area (called Pat Pong or something similar) and visiting a sex worker empowerment center.

This morning in our talk about the 100% condom policy for sex workers in Thailand we got to make a long condom chain by tying condoms together. Then we saw pictures from a fashion show that had occured on World AIDS Day in 2006 with costumes made entiring of condoms (do I hear an idea for the next America's Next Top Model competition??). Some of them were very cool.

The hotel, which is called the Ambassador Hotel, has a shopping area in it with a suit shop and earlier this week the seller tried to lure me in with the phrase "ma'am we have been waiting for you, please, come in!". Needless to say I didn't take the bite. Oh, the electricity at our hotel also went off during the rain the other day. I thought that was rather interesting.

In Thailand, the have both Starbucks and 711. Starbucks are similar but 711 sells random Thai things, along with double big gulps. Oh, I also saw an Ethan Allen - random! Also, to make it more interesting there were beggers outside and vendors on the street lining it. Not quite the suburban setting you normally see the store in.

Another interesting thing about the language - they only have one syllable words which they say in different tones to change the meanings. Then, when they write in Thai, the string all these syllable words into one long line read right to left (which is the opposite of English for you trying to figure that out). There are no spaces and no periods. Seriously odd. Oh, and everyone is Thailand goes by nicknames, not there very long, sanscript based legal names. They get these nicknames a babies/kids and they stick for life. Most of them are terms like apple (which are considered special in Thailand for some reason and in Thai sounds like "Bun"), or pig (which are considered cute here), one (as in first born), red (pink baby), etc. Glad we don't have that tradition in Thailand - I prefer Aubrey to something like "pig".

For those of you who are interested, the AIDS epidemic in Thailand is very different than the one in Africa. It has been interesting learning how different the courses of the epidemic are. For instance, in Africa there are no "high risk groups". The group in Africa with the most AIDS is young women. Not sex workers, just your average women ages 17-30ish. Also, there isn't much injection drug use (IDUs - public health LOVES it acronyms) or homosexuality (aka men who have sex with men or MSMs for you acronym lovers out there). In Thailand, the epidemic started really to take off in the sex workers which is why the 100% condom policy was so successful. Condoms prevent AIDS transmission as well as sexually transmitted diseases (STDS or STIs). This is important because having an STD dramatically increases your chances of getting AIDS - makes it easier to sexually aquire the virus. In Thailand, the HIV/AIDS crisis has primarily been in the sex worker community, the IDUs, and the MSMs. This is changing somewhat the the newest risk group is married women (who's husbands sleep with sex workers and bring the virus home to their wifes - nice right?). In Africa, the 100% sex worker condom policy would be almost irrelevant. Africa is a unique in the nature of the epidemic - all other ares have risk groups where the virus is concentrated. Alright, there is your public health lecture for now.

Well I promise to report back on the red light district. I hear we may be going to a pin pong show - use your imagination. I have also heard about potential darts shows and smoking and scarves - we shall see. I am prepared to be overwhelmed and very uncomfortable but hey, it's part of the culture.