Gone Troppo.

What is it about Asia that drags so many poor souls away from their "western" homes? What species is this that persists in prowling around on foreign turf, doomed to a life of an outsider? I don’t know a name for such a soul, but I sure know a lot of them. Here, Thailand, it’s crawling with them. Male and female alike, in all sizes and all sorts of souls. Lost souls, found souls, good and bad.

Perhaps something in the mythology and dream of "exoticism" draws them. This is something that the west has always been drawn to in many ways, this perception of the exotic east. Spaghetti, gunpowder, the printed word, possibly the wheel all came from Asia. We, the west, were literally living in caves while in Asia; great kingdoms were built with magnificent palaces and huge walls. Asia is stuck in the mind of the west. "Don’t waste your food Sonny, there are children starving in China". I remember my mother saying something like that, must have been about 1961 or so.

There is much to be said about what the attraction is.

For me it was two things: The heat and the weirdness.

Simple. The tropical heat and the associated acceleration of life. For so many years I was drawn here but I never knew really what it was that drew me. Sure, I was in love with the region. A real physical love for the region. But there was something under that, something more than physical. It was some kind of attraction at the most basic level. Even now I know what it is, I don’t know why I feel like this.

It is the tropical heat that attracts me here. Underneath the intellectualized love for the place lies some primal attraction to tropical regions. With this wet-heat comes steam, mist, and rain and lush vegetation growth. The vivid greens of the tropical forests of the inland of the island I live on are stunning. The valleys, waterfalls and mountains of tropical green take your breath away. What comes with all that rain and steam and vegetation is growth. Rapid growth. Plants grow so fast as to seem animate.

Walking in the rain forest, the floor is littered rotting vegetation and fallen branches. Green mosses and yellow-green fungus covers the fallen debris and grows and prospers. I see a dead dog over there, hosting a lush new growth of mountain ferns. The smell is what sticks in your mind. In here you can smell it, something like mildew smell, or moldy something or another. But you can’t quite put your finger on it. Steamy – moldy – decay/growth smell.

What you see in the rain forest is a very rapid cycle of birth-life-death-decay-birth, the oldest cycle of all. Speeded up somewhat. Things grow and die and rot and grow. Quickly. So quickly that it generates an odor. An odor you can smell anywhere in the tropics. Funny thing too, you can smell it even in the cities when you are inside air-conditioned buildings. You can smell it on the street. Your olfactory factory is really buzzing as it is assaulted with this onslaught of odors. And the heat, the humidity, the never-ending sweating. It nearly drives you crazy sometimes, but when you are stuck on it you stick it out and acclimatize in the end, as I have now after a few years.

Walking along a tropical beach at nighttime it’s like black velvet. The darkness looks grainy, furry. It looks like black velvet. The night is hot but the night breeze is cool. It rubs against you and feels like a touch of velvet against your face. Fireflies buzz around making trails of light like neon signs moving around in the air. Looks like one of those cheap black-velvet "Mexican" style wall hangings you buy in cheap markets worldwide.

It’s just that feeling. That feeling of "rapid life cycle" that I get here. That is what hooked me. It was love, sure. But underneath that at the "machine code" level, hardwired into the circuits was a habit for tropical heat and the smell of the rapid cycle.

Many Farangs (westerners) living in Thailand call it "the weirdness". They say things like, "hey, that’s one to put in your book of weirdness!" and "TIT" (This Is Thailand). Between the Thai and the Farang there is a cultural gap so vast as to be unfathomable. That is a fact. So at times things seem weird here, you just don’t understand so you give up trying to understand and you run with it best that you can.

You are an Alien in Thailand if you are a Farang. This is not necessarily a bad thing. From my point of view it is a good thing. In my home of Australia I always felt like I was alien to the general run of society. Here in Thailand I KNOW I am an Alien. There are very few Farangs in Thailand who have attained resident status and almost none that I know of who have citizenship. Thailand is restricted to immigration quite heavily.

This makes for some inconvenient but often entertaining events for a Farang living here. Each three months, most Farangs – work permit or not – have to leave Thailand and re-enter again. This usually involves a trip to Penang or Kota Baharu in Malaysia. Or perhaps further. No matter you have all the papers, no matter it is all legitimate. Almost all Farangs here, even many with resident status, have to do the pilgrimage to Malaysia. Take all their money down south, spend it in another country for a few days then come back. Make any sense to you? Weird, eh?

Sometimes, everything here seems upside down and twisted around. The culture is complex and difficult to understand. And when you do understand a little of the culture – it is weird to any Farang. No matter how "asiaticized" you have become, you will never really understand the Thai, never have Thai heart. You are always alien. So why do Farangs stay here?

Fatalism? I don’t think so. Many of the westerners I know over here are very happy to be here and live happy and fulfilling lives. Many are down and out too. But it is not fatalism that is the attractor here.

I guess it has something to do with many things and perhaps one of those things is "risk-taking", an attribute that apparently we are all born with. I was asked some questions once by a psychologist friend of mine, questions regarding her perception of my "risk-taking" psychological attribute. That’s how-come I know about that one.

Maybe the desire to live in a foreign land has something to do with possessing a risk-taking attitude.

Spiritual? Perhaps. I feel attracted to the Buddhist faith, and I feel attracted to what I perceive as certain peacefulness in the way the Thai’s live. The chants of the monks can simply send me away; I shut my eyes and drift in the clouds of sandalwood smoke drifting in the breeze outside the temples. I hang out in temples now and then. I think some Farangs here are attracted to this aspect. I know people who have joined the monkhood. For them, of course, there is no question as to the name and nature of the primary attractor.

Physical? I simply see and reiterate here, it is true that there is a sex industry in Thailand. It may be smaller or bigger then you believe, but certainly it is there as it is in almost all countries. Some Male Farangs claim to be here simply because they perceive Thailand as a place with lot’s of sexually easy women and/or men. I do not see Thailand that way, and I am yet to meet any "easy" women. Thai women for the whole are hardheaded and, in my opinion, a damned sight more on the ball than the average Thai male. Funny you know, I speak of the physical and I sit here trying to think of who I know here is really into sports and such and has reason to be here for that. There is the Hash House Harriers on the island for sure, I run with them. I am The Hash Law for the island in fact. But that is not sport. Ah! I have it. The dive instructors. All over Asia there are scuba diving schools. And in every one is a bunch of Farang dive instructors. They are here for the "sport" and the work.

The Work? Many Farangs are here simply for the work and the money. Although now things economic are slowing down somewhat in the region, not so long ago it was hot. And many young professional came to work in foreign offices in Asia to boost their income and their corporate experience. They had and have little feeling for Thailand or the rest of Asia. It is just a stepping stone in another course altogether. For many Farangs in Thailand it sure as hell is not the work. Many Farangs here work for peanuts. Many work at the local rates of pay and sometimes – less. I know a guy who just spent the last four years managing a large motorcycle rental business. He was manager, his salary was about US$ 200 per month. Oh yeah, plus he got a thatched hut thrown in and a meal of rice a day – for free. For some, work is the reason to be here, the attractor, but not for most.

Weirdness Factor? You know, when you are in someplace and you don’t understand the culture around you and you start to feel weirded out by it all? Some travelers call it "culture-shock". You get to a country that has a vastly different culture and language to you own and you begin to feel displaced, you’ve lost your roots and are starting to drift. You are loosing touch with your personal reality. Then a few days later you are OK.

But even after you live here for some time, it is the same. It comes back. It comes and goes. Sometimes you just come unstuck again and feel that weird feeling that your not real anymore. "Culture shock" creeps back into your spirit. Whether you like the idea or not, I reckon your "culture" has tiny roots going back to your DNA. Culture goes that far back, to when we crawled out of the swamp. So no matter what, you get it here. The weirdness. And for some reason I am attracted to this feeling. I like it. And after speaking to many Farang friends here I can tell you I was surprised to find that I am not alone at all. Many weirdness addicts are here, working, living, dying, going away, and coming back again.

The Food? What can I say about Thai food, eh? I like the food. So do you probably. Sure it’s the food too; the food is one of the things that many Farangs living here say is a reason to be here in the first place.

Whatever it is, and I am sure it is a mix of many things, there are many westerners, Farangs, who feel a need to remain in Asia. A need to not return home. A friend of mine up in Bangkok once said to me, "Buddy, you know, I’ll die in Asia that’s for sure." I don’t feel that strongly, but I understand that feeling, that you could simply forget your roots, your home, and just run it the rest of the way over here.

For me, it IS a mix of things. But perhaps the most compelling to me is the weirdness factor and the tropical heat. And my firm love, beyond explanation, for a region.