日曜日の午後。この新しいスタジオの扉を開いた瞬間から、休みなくタトゥーを続けるCOREYとHAN。このブログを書いている今も・・・いよいよ明日はおれの番だ・・・

It’s sunday afternoon and as I do my blog thing COREY and HAN are tattooing ,just as they have been since we opened the doors of our new space…it will finally be my turn tomorrow…

for now all I got to show are the photos of my last trip to Thailand last week…and again being in Thai was both relaxing and invigorating , maybe because I come from a part of the planet below the equator myself I just can’t help thinking that humans are meant to live in a tropical climate… simply, it just feels right…anyways , this time the island was KOH PHI PHI…even though the place is a very famous tourist destination you can find peace and quiet…as long as you don’t got to MAYA BAY…the place where THE BEACH was filmed…it’s very upsetting to see hundreds of people feeding the fish with cheap bread…

If you haven’t had a TOM YAM GOON at a food stall on the street,sweating under a 34c sun you have not been to Thailand…it’s always what I’m thinking about as I’m giving my passport to the immigration officer when I arrive.

Besides all the pleasure of being in this place this time I just could not help thinking about the TSUNAMI as soon as I arrived in PHUKET…the magnitude of that disaster and how most people don’t even talk about it anymore is bothersome…but I understand how at the same time is important for a country so dependant on the tourism industry to put that behind and show people a good time…the reconstruction of the infrastructure and image of the place has been possible due to the help of other countries and donations from individuals from all over the world and of course the willingness of the Thai people to go on…but it just seemed obvious to me that the psychological recovery is a much more complex issue…I did my prayers on my last day and left Thailand on a more thoughtful mood than usual…

今、見せる事ができるのは先週タイへ旅行した時の写真だ・・・いつも通り、タイではリラックスして充電する事ができた。自分が赤道直下で生まれ育ったせいかもしれないが、とにかく人間はトロピカルな気候のもとに暮らすべきだという考えが頭から離れない・・・シンプルに、それが自然な姿だと思う・・・今回向かったのはピーピー島・・・映画「ザ・ビーチ」が撮影された有名な観光地だが、マヤ・ベイを避ければ静かで穏やかな場所だ・・・押し寄せた観光客が魚にパンくずをやっているのを見ると辟易してしまう。

３４度の灼熱の下、道端の屋台でトム・ヤム・クンを食べなない事には、タイに来たとはいえない・・・。空港に着いて入国審査官にパスポートを渡す時、必ず脳裏に浮かぶ事だ。

この場所を存分に楽しむ一方、プーケットに到着してからずっと考えていたのは津波の事だった・・・その被害の大きさにもかかわらず、ほとんどの人がもう何も語ろうとしない態度に困惑した・・・この国は経済的に観光業への依存度合いが大きい。それを見せずに楽しい時間を提供する事が大事なのも同時に理解できる・・・世界の国々からの援助と個人からの寄付、そしてタイ人の進み続ける意志によって再建された場所とインフラ・・・しかし人々の精神的な回復はもっと複雑な問題だという事がはっきりと見てとれる・・・最終日には祈りを捧げ、いつもより感慨深くタイを後にした・・・