Cooling off in Bangkok

Did you know that, in the 1960s and 70s, women in Kabul were professors at universities, they were doctors and lawyers, worked in hospitals, taught at schools and played an important role in society? Couldn't the same be said about women in Tehran just before the Islamic Revolution? In a couple of years, will the same be said about women in Cairo? These are some of the questions I asked myself while reading Khaled Hosseini's "A Thousand Splendid Suns".

Ene and Kairit left Thailand a couple of days ago. Just before their departure, we still managed go to Chinatown to pick up the leftovers from the celebrations related to the Chinese New Year, take a boat along the Chao Praya River and enjoy a few farewell drinks. As of their departure, I've been spending most of my days reading, which has been allowing me to rest and hope that I will be walking properly before the end of the month.

By now, most people would have already seen the Grand Palace and the temples but not me! I've just been enjoying the comfort of my "Prision Break" inspired guesthouse. For those of you holding your breath, it's actually a cool place to be. And the fact that I can hear the other guests burping, coughing, sneezing and farting is not that disturbing because I've been totally into Hosseini's fantastic storytelling abilities:

"The women in this part of Kabul were a different breed from the women in the poorer neighborhoods (...). These women were (...) "modern". Yes, modern Afghan women married to modern Afghan men who did not mind that their wives walked among strangers with makeup on their faces and nothing on their heads."