I can't completely recall how we came to speak to him. A girl had approached me and started talking to me out of the blue in a mixture of Thai and broken English. She wanted to know my name and where I was from, but made no indication of what her intention in talking to me was, her friends constantly trying to pull her away. Gomsat just appeared in that little chaos. I don't recall his first words either, but they were accent free German words. I think I haven't ever met a German speaking Thai before. I think I've never even met a Thai speaking any foreign language fluently before. Until now. Gomsat invited us to his hotel room he was living in for a couple of days. For drinks. Drinks again. Oh dear!
His story was simple. He'd lived in southern Germany from the age of ten to the age of twenty. And even though he spoke without accent and fluently, you could actually hear the influence of all the friends he had had. Italians, Arabs, Turks. I felt like back in Berlin somehow, but only until we sat on the floor of his room, a bottle of cheap whiskey and some coke and ice on the floor with us. This was Thai style. But this time I just took the honour of pouring the drinks, so mine wouldn't be too strong. This is how I felt okay this morning, just having slept a bit too little. My brother though, he had my previous day's aftereffects. This would not be a productive day.
I opened the day be announcing to by a car of my own now. Everyone liked the news. I felt like I wanted a bit of freedom in a vehicle of my own and I could go as cheap as I liked while my brother had always been bound to his wife's precondition of buying a truck not too old. It was decided that the Honda, a scooter and my car would then be finally good enough for the number of vehicles. While the women had actually wanted to go to Phitsanulok in the morning, they changed plan and we went buying a scooter first. Within half an hour, my brother and I were on the scooter and the rest of the family on the way to Phitsanulok.
With our new mobility we decided to have a look around at the available cars. I was aiming for an old pickup, as cheap as I could get a reliable car. We still knew the used car shops from the first time we'd looked around for cars, but this time we were looking for a different kind of vehicle, older, cheaper, not as big. Soon I learned there wasn't much in the lower price range available. Not anything you could buy. Other dealers called for outrageous prices. With not much luck with the car dealers we decided to go into town for a meal first. Right in the center we saw a couple of pickup trucks for sale in front of a small business and stopped to chat with the owner. We told him about the purpose of the truck we were looking for and he pointed out he had another car that might just be the right one for us. So off we went with him to the garage.
A test drive and a close inspection later we decided to buy. At a price that could hardly be beaten we had a monster pickup truck at hand. We came back the next morning to close the deal after Tuk's brother had a look at the car, too. It took half a day waiting and it was insured, had security inspection, new tires and the owner change done. We spent the time with some shopping for odds and ends. Then we could drive Jimmy Datsun (the car's already got a name!) home where he will now wait for some minor adjustments to be made before he's good to go.
The afternoon was exciting as well. Tony, my brother and I had our first two lessons in Thai reading and writing in the primary school. About every kid in school was looking at us walk through the school. We learned the first 11 letters in 2 hours and it was tough, I can say. Really wonder if I will still remember tomorrow, when we learn the next 11 of a total of 44 letters.
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