Taste of Thailand

I just got back from having coffee and cake at the Four Seasons Hotel with my landlord. He dropped me an email the other day asking if we could get together because he had a gift he wanted to give me for new years. He called from the lobby and I went down and met him where he gave me a very nice gift basket and a thoughtful holiday card. He asked if I wouldn’t mind sharing some coffee or tea with him so we walked over to the Four Seasons and had a really great chat.

That’s one of those things I think a lot of people miss about Thailand. Sure it has world famous nightlife and just about anything is possible here but it really is the hospitality of the Thai people that makes it such a wonderful place. In the many years I rented apartments back in the US or even in Europe I’ve never had a landlord offer me a gift like that.

It’s like I told my landlord, I’ve travelled to a lot of different places and the one thing that makes Thailand stand out is the people. Even if you look at the surrounding countries like Burma, Laos, Cambodia, and Malaysia you would be hard pressed to run into so many people who are genuinely nice. Sure, you have your scam artists and such but there are just so many pleasant and enjoyable people who will jump through hoops to make sure you are taken care of.

A great example of that is what happened to my friend Alex on one of his trips here. He was staying in Pattaya and they didn’t have room safes so he put his passport, credit cards, and cash in the hotel safe. Well, he ended up spending all the cash he had on him one evening and went to the hotel to get some more. But the hotel has a policy of not allowing access to the hotel safe after 9pm so they told him he couldn’t get his money until the morning.

Broke, he walked out of his hotel and passed by a bar where the owner invited him to come in. He told him the story about not having any cash on him and the girl reached into her purse and peeled off 2000 baht and told him he could pay her back tomorrow. When he went back the next day he tried to slip her an extra 1000 baht for her kindness but she refused to accept it and said she was just happy she could help him.

Hmmm . . . what else?

Last night I went to Tawandang brewing company. I invited a girl I had met recently and she asked if she could bring a “friend.” That’s somewhat common in Thailand. As a tradition it comes from the whole chaperone concept but more often than not these days it’s a way for a girl to get her friend a free meal. Hey, it’s a poor country and a free meal is a free meal.

I was a little surprised when her “friend” turned out to be 3 friends. I think a lot of people might get angry at that but you have to look at it in the overall context of things. The entire bill for five people came to about $60 and that included buying a 3 liter tower of beer which I ended up drinking most of since they weren’t big beer drinkers. In Thailand that’s an expensive meal but anywhere else in the world $60 for five people is pretty cheap so I just laughed it off.

Actually, come to think of it, it was a pretty cheap dinner all things considered. I think the beer was 750 baht or so which means that dinner for five came to about 1250 baht (about $38 USD). For that we had an entire fish, rice, stir-fried vegetables (one of my favorite dishes), edamame, spicy seafood salad, and a seafood curry.

Even though Bangkok is a city of well over 10 million people it’s amazing how small the place is. On Saturday my friend Rob and I did a little pub crawling and one of the places we stopped off to shoot some pool was a place on Soi 33 called The Office. Well, one of the “friends” who my date invited along looks at me and says “I know you. You came to The Office the other night. You were with your friend with big hair.”

I guess the hair thing deserves some explanation. If you look at my pics on the Boxing Day post the guy with the big hair posing with the juggler is Rob. Part of that event is to dress up in something strange. Rob decided to sport a crazy hair wig for the occasion.

So, yeah, somehow this girl I took out had a friend who works at The Office and had remembered me because Rob walked in with his wig on. Small world, eh?

Sometimes I get a laugh at how some Thais see things. One of the girls said something about The Office bar being a hi-so place. In Thailand they seem to divide everything up into hi-so or low-so (lo-so) meaning high society (classy) or low society (for poor people). The Office is on Soi 33 which is filled with overpriced bars. For whatever reason the owners of the bars think that Soi 33 is exclusive in some way and they charge higher prices than nearly anywhere else.

The Office is basically just a pub. Nothing special about it at all. It’s just a standard English/Irish pub with two rather beat up old pool tables and several flat screens showing football matches. But they charge 150 baht for a beer. To put that in context, you would probably pay about 100 baht in a similar bar anywhere else in Bangkok and probably 85 baht during happy hour.

Right across the alley the owner of The Office also owns a place called Mojos which has a live band, coyote dancers, and some really top of the line pool tables and they charge the same price as The Office. What exactly you’re paying extra for at The Office eludes me.

But that is such a Thai thing. Even though most of the bars on Soi 33 are deserted apart from the bored staff sitting around, lowering the prices is not even a thought worth entertaining for most bar owners.

In Thailand things often operate in their own little universe. For instance, I had a friend who used to own an after-hours street bar (basically a temporary bar they put up at night and tear down in the morning). On each side of her bar were other similar street bars that would be packed with tourists and expats. Many nights I was her only customer and the only reason I was there is because I was friends with her cousin and was trying to help her out by giving her a little business.

One night I said to her, “All of the other bars play farang music and they have lots of customers. But at your bar you always play Thai music and you never have any customers. Maybe you should play farang music.” As if it made perfect sense she responded “But I like Thai music better.”

So rather than change the music and make a lot more money she would rather struggle and enjoy Thai songs.

Anything else? . . .

The Thai stuff is coming along. I was in Pratunam shopping complex the other day and I was buying something in one of the shops and one of the other girls working there said something to the girl who was ringing up my purchase. I hadn’t been paying attention so the only thing I heard was “farang” (foreigner) and “klap baan” (go home). From her body language and the fact that it was near closing time I assume she had made a comment about after I left they could go home. Even though I only heard foreigner and go home I’m fairly confident that what she said was not derogatory. She just seemed bored and wanting to finish work.

So when I heard her say that I sort of looked over in her direction and her eyes went wide as saucers. I then looked at the girl ringing me up and her eyes did the same. She looked at me and said “Phuut phaasaa Thai, mai?” (Do you speak Thai?). I responded “Chai, Phom phutt phaasaa Thai nid noy” (Yes, I speak Thai a little bit).

The girl who had made the original comment buried her face in her hands and ran behind one of the display units to hide.

The girl ringing me up then said “Nakrian, mai?” (You’re a student?). I said “Chai, khap. Phom pen nakrian” (Yes, I’m a student).

We continued chatting along a bit and then she yelled to her friend “Falang phuut phaasaa Thai dee mak” (The foreigner speaks Thai very well). From behind the display unit I could hear a yelp of embarrassment and then she peaked her head out and gave me a wai (bow with your hands in prayer-like position) and meekly said “Sawadee, ka.” (Hello/Goodbye).

Actually, my Thai isn’t all that great. At least not compared to other people I know. I’m probably what they call bar or taxi Thai literate. I understand enough phrases to get by chatting with a taxi driver or in a bar but that’s about it.

Reading and writing Thai is a challenge. One of the biggest challenges is that many Thai characters resemble Roman letters but there is no correlation to the Roman sound. For instance, พ looks like the Roman “W” but it’s pronounced as a “P” sound. It can be a little tricky when you’re reading something and you keep seeing letters/characters that your mind instantly associates with a different sound.

Some other tricky ones are: ท ป ผ ฑ บ ล ฝ ฬ ม แ ฟ ง ฃ

It’s actually much easier to remember the ones that have no resemblance to Roman letters. For instance ภ looks nothing like any Roman character so it’s easier to remember the sound since it’s unique.

One of the things I can never figure out is why letters even exist in Thai. For instance, there is no “V” sound in Thai but they use the letter in many words when they Romanize/transliterate them. They just pronounce it as a “W” which they also have a letter for. For instance, the main airport is called Suvarnabhumi but it’s pronounced Sue Wanna Poom. One of the main roads in Bangkok is called Sukhumvit but it’s pronounced Sook hum wit.

And just to make things more confusing Thais often name things words they can’t pronounce. One of the largest shopping complexes in Bangkok is called Central World. But Thais seem to have a problem with L’s at the end of a word so they often just call it Centan. Not even Centan World. Just Centan. When you’re finished with your meal you ask for the check-bill but the Thais pronounce it check-bin. Oddly, they don’t call me bin. They pronounce my name Bee Ow.

Anyway, that seems like enough jabbering. Have a great New Year and best of luck to everyone on the poker tables.