The Face of Thailand

This guy deserves a post of his own. It was 36 degrees with high humidity at 11:30 am and he was planting poles in the high sun. I had just come off the peak of Din Daeng Doi ( Doi is mountain in English) and I didn't see him at first and when I was a lot closer, seeing the beads of sweat running off his back , I wanted to take a discrete photo so I walked back up a few stairs to use the zoom and take a tightly cropped photo. It was not to be as he dissappeared from view. I walked down again and he walked back into view and I asked if I could take a photo which I think he appreciated. You have to pinch zoom into the photo to see his hands and his fingers to know that they have grafted many times. Not an ounce of fat on him. His jeans are wet from the sweat and you can see the sweat on his body although my original view was these massive beads of sweat rolling off his back. He epitomises what I see generally with the Thais. Friendliness, peace loving, hardworking. So whats the meaning of this. Well, back in SA I met an Afrikaans guy who couldn't get over telling me that the Thais are lazy, etc etc . Every country has bad actors , feels like SA more so, HOWEVER where I stay which is more Thai than foreigners, I can tell you that there are many that truly graft their butts off. When I go for a morning walk along the canal at 5.00 a.m. the morning street markets are open and selling freshly produced food. That means maybe a 3:00 am wake up to get ready. And you see this all over. And then also while walking you will see the street cleaners, many being women, sweeping the streets at 5:00 am. Quite insane and very little mechanical/automated solution and I suspect this is deliberate as they keep unemployment under the 1%. So to you Sir, I salute you !