Outdated

Shortly after I wrote the letter to my lovely friend from Saturn, I set off to Bangkok to give a talk.

(Yes, it was the Easter holiday. To make the thing worse, Euterpe, Adler and Vivian were all sick on those days. My Broca’s area and larynx might have flown to Thailand, but I’m sure my soul stayed at home.)

There were three of us on the same flight: CH was the representative of the company, and IL was a young doctor from another hospital. Our flight was slightly late. On our way from the airport to the hotel, we passed a series of dingy huts and old-fashioned shops.

“Alas, Thailand remains quite the same since I was here last time. Everything looks like Hong Kong in the 1970s!” I sighed. (For my previous trip to Chiang Mai, please refer to http://ccszeto.blogspot.com/2009/12/blog-post_15.html and related posts.)

“Yes, the city seems so outdated!” IL nodded.

“Not that bad,” I put up a bitter smile, “Yes, 1970s is a long time ago. Nonetheless, I find that period entirely acceptable – and, in fact, enjoyable. I was brought up in the 1970s and am accustomed to every detail of that era. You find this epoch archaic simply because your were born after the 1980s!”

As Winston Smith noted, history may not exist objectively because people who remember the old days will eventually fade out.