In the morning we head back over to the temple where Nuey’s family has gathered. I remember Nuey taking up a collection last month for her temple and she was here to make a donation. If I’m remembering correctly she raised nearly 6000 baht (a tad shy of $200 USD). I think I contributed 20 or 40 baht of that.
That morning after temple we went to the bus station to see about getting back to Bangkok. We were told that the first bus wasn’t until Monday. That’s another four more days. I like Phetchabun and all but I’ve got work to do. There’s no internet out here. There’s an internet shop about two miles down the road but it’s in some shack with no air conditioning. I can’t see going there and sitting for two or three hours trying to get through emails and such.
We decide to pay her uncle some cash to drive us back into Bangkok. Bus tickets would have run 500 baht each ($15 USD) but we agree to pay her uncle 2000 plus gas (about another 1000 baht) so basically 3x what the bus would have cost. No biggie though. $100 for a four hour ride is still a bargain relatively speaking.
Next we went to Tesco Lotus to do some shopping. I picked up some sun block (SPF 50) since at this point I pretty much know that I got fried yesterday. My legs and arms are bright red. I’m just trying to avoid any further damage to my skin.
My girlfriend’s cousin Sep is about 9 years old and though he really can’t speak English he seems to have taken a liking to me. He follows me wherever I go.
When we were at Tesco, the aunt, uncle, and Sep joined us. They all went to the food court but I wasn’t in the mood for any more Thai food. I have been eating Thai for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the last two days so I wanted a change. I ordered a pizza for later and had a hot dog at Chester’s Grill.
Like any growing nine year old, Sep had plowed through his meal before anyone else had finished. He saw me with a hotdog and asked my girlfriend to spot him 20 baht on a 22 baht hotdog. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t normally eat much farang food but he saw me eating a hotdog and wanted to try.
I like him though. He understands that my Thai isn’t that good and dumbs down his speaking to try and communicate with me. That’s very different from all of the adults I’ve met so far who speak to me like I’m a native Thai speaker.
So Sep and I can actually talk. He pulled out his Thai language school book one evening and he and I worked though some of the examples. He’s maybe 6 months to a year ahead of me but I can tell by the way he has to sound out words when he reads Thai that he and I aren’t all that far apart. I think that’s why he understands me.
That night we were invited to some sort of party to celebrate one of the neighbors building a new house. They had food and whiskey for everyone so we had dinner, had a few drinks, and started to head back up the road. Along the way we stopped off at my girlfriend’s grandmother’s sister’s house. She’s 96 years old but a spry lady.
Before we left she insisted on doing another one of the string tying ceremonies and after she had tied the string around my wrist she gave me 500 baht. I thanked her but asked my girlfriend if it would be impolite to refuse it. She told her in Thai that I had money and she should keep the money for herself. She refused to take the money back but my girlfriend took it from me and stuffed it back in the old woman’s hands.
We made another pitstop on the way back at her aunt’s house where the women were preparing some food for a party the next day. Nuey came by and we hung out for a few beers before making the last half-block stretch home.
Sep had been at the aunt’s house (and at the party earlier in the evening) and I think he assumed I was drunk (I wasn’t) because he walked me home holding my hand. I asked him if he wanted to kill that pizza that I had bought earlier with me and so we chowed down.
I can’t help but thinking maybe we should have roshambo’d it for the 500 baht . . .
