I've seen the farang part of Thailand now. Farang (speak the r like l) is the Thai word for white people in general. Somehow, to me, that word has a somewhat negative taste, even though it's not negative in it's nature. Must be the way I perceive the common farang myself and the way they are perceived by Thais as well. And that is not counting that farangs are naturally lesser people. In Thailand. Even though they are good for their money. But please don't think of Thais as racists now. Well, of course they might be. But we all are, more or less. Some just would never admit it.
Anyway, back to the topic. Seeing the farang Thailand has brought me a fun night out and new experiences. It all started like a normal day, building walls. Again. Still. We actually didn't get as far as we would have liked because we had to suddenly stop our work when we were told, we had a dinner date. Okay, Buddhas new place did almost look like a room now, so we quit working immediately, took a shower and awaited the things to come. It turned out Tuk had a friend always interested in meeting farangs as she wanted to leave Thailand. Certainly, I was the chosen one. I would lie saying I wouldn't have taken a look. But, shortly after I was dressed Dim, that friend of Tuk's showed up at the house to pick us up. I felt like all of that was not more than a bad joke. I shouldnt have taken a look. And her forty and some years didn't make her any more attractive to me. Tuk must have been kidding. She new what I was thinking before we even left the house. But it wasn't Dim's fault at all and she was a nice person as well, so whatever, we did go out for dinner altogether. I don't know, if I've actually explained before. Us is a whole family. That's my brother Andrew and his wife Tuk and twelfe-year-old son Tony plus Tuk's sister Gop plus her son Bon (who came a bit later) plus me. And now for dinner plus Dim. Now try to fit that into one Honda Civic and a little scooter.
We went to the Poo restaurant. And there we entered farang Thailand. Just about 10 percent Thais are amongst the audience of the place, mostly women looking for a farang to marry. But last night it was even less. A huge group of farang tourists made all statistics look ridiculus. As in our group Thais where the majority we helped fixing the balance.
Farang Thailand is different. It seems to me it's actually very different. First, prices are triple. Just about. Second, the food is not nearly spicy. We had to order chili powder and use loads of that usually quite hot spice to have a meal with a close-to-Thai-food taste. Third, people speak English. That implies difference number four. People are more farang friendly. I definately don't want to say people are farang unfriendly in Thailand. Thais are not unfriendly ever, in general. But the common farang is just not of interest and merely good for making some money, besides being a rare sight in some places. That's how I often perceive it.
So I had an expensive farang drink: Bacardi Coke. Well, three of them, it's still not that expensive. As the tourist group was just a bit too big for the place and the chef had trouble preparing all the dishes, the owner had quickly called in another waitress. She helped out during that busy half hour with the group and then, being a friend of Dim's, joined our table. That's how I got to meet Lucie. What a relief, she spoke surprisingly good English, probably due to her work as a resort receptionist. With our party in a good mood we decided to extend the night for a bit and visit the local club. On a monday. But, believe it or not, the club wasn't empty or anything and they had a live band playing the favorite Thai tunes. Four gogo dancer girls where there for entertainment. All that on a monday. In Sukhothai. The second smallest city I've ever lived in...
A bottle of 100 Pipers Thai whiskey with lots of coke was good enough to keep the party going and people to further get to know each other. It didn't take long and Lucie was invited to join us for our trip to Lampang the next day. With the bottle empty a bit later we left the premises and took the kids home. And to go to bed.
Which brings me to another good news. I live in hong fanky now. Hong is the Thai word for room. Each room has its name of course, just like in other languages. There's the bathroom or water room, hong nahm, there's the kitchen or cooking room, hong kua, theres the bedroom or sleeping room, hong norng. And there's my room. So I named it hong fanky. Why fanky? That's my name! My brother is actually the only person who called me Franky back home. But all people here in Thailand I was introduced to by my brother. "That's Franky, my brother." So here, they all call me that. Or at least they try. As they cannot speak the r, I am now fanky. So in Thai my room is hong fanky. It used to be a holy room, where Buddha and the bones of Tuk's parents resided. Now it is empty, has a coconut mattress that weights a ton and newly installed air condition. But I love it. Now I am the only one in the house who has his own room.
So, with the new room and the whiskey I slept like a baby. And way too long. There wasn't much time to finish Buddhas new room in the morning as we wanted to hit the road towards Lampang. It turned out, that instead of going there to take Gop back home and stay the night, we were actually just go there, get some stuff from Gops house and come back. All of us. And instead of 150 km it was now 300 km. Starting at 13.oo is not a good idea if the way is that long and you want to get to the market on time. Especially not, if you're planning to visit the stone masonry on the way to choose your new kitchen and bathroom tiles. Well, Thailand is like that, I guess. And if it had been a German police officer that stopped us, I don't know what would have happened. With six people in the Honda, we had to fit Tony and his mother both on the front seat. They managed well, but it must have looked funny.
The trip was not much more that driving. And driving more. We got to the market too late, but still managed to buy some special foods. We picked up the things from Gops house. And we had a good meal in a nearby restaurant. Thai style this time. And we went back home. All in all I had a lot of time to practice some Thai and get to know my new teacher, Lucie, a bit more. Seems we're going to practice some more in the coming days and weeks. I can actually read the important parts of the Thai menu now and know some more important words like cool. Now isn't that something!
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