How many times do Westerners and Chinese have the frustration about understanding each other ?   When will it ever cease?  Most likely ... never ...

Our taxi driver had said little during the journey from the airport to Patong. He had exchanged a few words in Thai with Noi but that was at the Tesco Lotus superstore. The taxi took about another twenty minutes before we reached our hotel but not before negotiating the notorious Telegraph Hill on the approach to Patong. I only learned of its notoriety from Noi. It had been the scene of many deaths owing to collisions between vehicles and larger trucks and buses overturning.

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“This would never happen in China,” she said, and I had to admit she was absolutely right. Taking away citizens’ right to own a gun removes the possibility of mass killings in a society the same way that getting a vasectomy eliminates the possibility of becoming a father. Although I recall reading a year or so ago about a killing at a train station in Kunming where a guy with a knife killed 4 or 5 people, that scenario is light years from the killing of 50 and wounding of 53  that had just taken place at a nightclub in Orlando.

Daniel worked as an anthropologist and specialised in psychopathy, humanities, traditions and cultures of Ancient Greece. His work over the years had become a little mundane, but had somehow become revitalised when he discovered he had a deep-seated interest in Greek Mythology.

There are some, many or numerous foreigners who often make an interesting comment about Chinese people and their social behavior or thinking .  I have heard (and in the beginning years of living with Chinese I also used the same comment ... ) -- Chinese have no logic!!  In other words, these foreigners assert that Chinese social behavior is devoid of rational logical thinking ... So, I am going to write more than enough blog posts to consider this assumption .  

Night. A sleazy bar in Bangkok. A man, frozen solid inside the ice bathtub used to water down the drinks...  

I climbed into the front seat of the Mercedes taxi at the airport. Noi suggested it would be better for my long legs. She sat behind me on the 45-minute trip to Patong hotel. She threw her arms around my neck and kept them there all the way to the hotel I had booked before leaving England. She talked and asked questions, mainly about the flight. She asked if I was tired. I told her that surprisingly I felt fine. Noi spoke in a gentle soft voice. I found it soothing. It was so calming that I did feel sleepy but fought the jetlag weariness. There were moments of silence between our initial conversations. There was nothing awkward about that. It felt natural. When Noi was silent, she would gently massage my neck and shoulders. The trip in the taxi took about forty-five minutes and it gave me an opportunity to see Thailand from the ground for the first time.

Julia was still sound asleep as Daniel gingerly crept into the bedroom. He quietly slipped off his clothes and slid slowly into bed beside her. He wasn't safe yet. It was nearly 4am and it was cold outside. If Julia unconsciously came too close and touched his cool body, she may awaken and ask questions. Questions that Daniel wouldn't know how to answer. Especially in a way that would satisfy her insatiable appetite for knowing how he spends every second of every day.

I recently told a really good Chinese friend of mine ..  maybe one of the myriad of reasons for the misunderstandings between Chinese and Westerners belong to Ethnocentric social behavior on both sides of the proverbial fence.