Word: thais
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...Thailand, which has not experienced colonization, designers are less hung up on identity. "If we use elements of local culture, it's not so much a way of expressing 'Thai-ness' but more about placing things found around us that might be funny or surprising," says Pijitra Lalitasakun, who turned Hanuman, the monkey god from Hindu epic the Ramayana, into a motif that adorns items by Bangkok's Hey Pilgrim! label. The 28-year-old says that if Bangkok has identity issues they are not cultural but to do with market perception - it is seen as "the place where...
Even when we landed in Beijing, no one at the airport seemed to pay much attention to the Thai weightlifters. They should have stood out in the crowd, these well-muscled men and women hefting giant boxes of tom yum (hot and sour) instant noodles off the baggage carousel. (I guess we now know the secret ingredient to their success.) But as they pushed their luggage carts full of noodles past the airport crowds, no one came up for an autograph or asked them to pose for a picture. Dashiell, though, seemed to remember the man who retrieved his duckie...
...Dashiell, I must stress, is a good international traveler. But a nine-month-old boy appreciates a little diversion, and during my flight from Bangkok to Beijing this month to cover the Olympics, those helping hands came from several rows of Thais sitting nearby. When Dash dropped his yellow duckie, a powerfully built young man in Row 57 obligingly returned it. Another man played peekaboo, his forearms bulging as his hands uncovered his grinning face. Then, a female traveler who - how shall I put this? - was built rather more solidly than the average Thai maiden, gave my son a friendly...
...bronze medalist in the 53-kg class and anchor of this year's Olympic squad. Even though I live in Thailand and am covering the Olympics, I admit I had to Google her name to identify her as the woman on the plane. (I also had to Google another Thai weightlifter, but that was because I was not entirely sure of the spelling of Prapawadee Charoenrattanatharakul, whose surname is also written Jaroenrattanatarakoon). The history of Thai women's weightlifting is short but impressive. The kingdom's first-ever female gold medalist was a weightlifter at the Sydney Games...
...fellow travelers does win, they will be treated lavishly by the Thai government on their return, which has promised a generous Olympic bonus of around $310,000 for a gold, $190,000 for a silver and $130,000 for a bronze. (The money will be doled out over a 20-year period, lest athletes blow their cash too quickly.) But for the athletes who don't win big, life will return to normal, sweating anonymously in sweltering gyms. Only the youngest can dream of another moment of glory four years from now at the London Games...