Two Guavas: 1-12-2010: Guava girl in the Big Mango

As foreigners in Bangkok, we are always aware that we are aliens, tall, pale and awkward in a crowd of small,thin Thais with honey colored skins. In a game of "one of these things is not like the other", we stand out.

Thai people even have a special name for us westerners; Farang.

In an amusing twist of Thai linguistics, the word Farang can also mean Guava. Normally a neutral word, "Farang" can take on a mocking tone. Especially when referring to especially unkempt packpacker types with ratty hair and beach clothing. Thais take great care to be well groomed so it's not surprising that they would call them "Bird-Shit Foreigners" - Farang Khee Nok.

Bangkok is not a particularly beautiful city but is exotic and fascinating, an international modern city where people are rarely in a hurry. We live for part of the year here, renting by the month in the heart of the central business district on the 41st floor looking out over the world below. Here in Thailand, we can afford a little more luxury even though the value of the dollar is not high (even here!).

Life here, for us, is not a vacation. We can often be found at a Starbucks for hours at a time, hunched over our laptops answering emails and using Skype to make calls to customers through a Wi-Fi internet connection. But it's not all work, we do take time to play.

We love living here. Bangkok is such a fascinating, vibrant city, a city of intense contrasts; A place where dull gray concrete buildings give way to glittering, brilliantly colored temples or modern glass shopping towers, Jasmine-scented air and exhaust-choked streets. It is hard to pinpoint why we like it here so much; I have thought about it a lot. It’s not a beautiful city but is profoundly fascinating with beauty that is found in small doses in sometimes odd places.

Christmas decorations are finally coming down, artificial trees dismantled, thousands of strands of white twinkle lights unwound from palm trees. The Firework displays from the ‘western’ New Year celebration are done, gone are the miniature alpine villages with the seven dwarves (courtesy of Disney), nutcrackers, snowmen, and Santas. You may think a “Christian” holiday somewhat anomalous in a Buddhist country, but the Thais love a party and what’s better than a holiday where you get presents?!

As Christmas is slowly removed, red and gold decorations are just now starting to appear; dragons and tigers for Chinese New Year and hearts for Valentine’s Day which fall on the same day. In a few weeks the malls will be awash in red lanterns and red and gold decorations and the city will be full of vacationing Chinese from Hong Kong, Singapore and China.

As a foreigner in Thailand, we get 30 day visas to stay here but once our time is up, we must leave for what the ex-pats call a 'visa run'. For some, this means heading to the nearest border for a few hours before returning but for us, it is just as easy to take the opportunity to travel. If you know us well, you know we tend to be creatures of habit and like to return to places we like, but this year we resolve to go to some new places.

Problem is, where to go? There are so many choices. You probably also already know we have a hard time deciding...