Thai home
This place is beginning to feel like home. I wish I could speak more of the language and I am constantly frustrated by not being able to read signs, bus timetables or have the most basic conversation.
But I love the people and the scenery, the food and the bizarre mix of oriental and occidental.
Thai's envy westerners their noses with their large bridges, their hair, skin colour, wealth and material items like cars, shops, fast internet. So their culture is a mix of bits they have borrowed from the west mixed with elephants, old American buses, rice fields, high speed internet with the latest webcams and games, high heeled shoes and modestly covering knees and shoulders (well, most of them).
Coming back from Khon Kaen on the rickety bus which hurls you from side to side as it bumps over the many, many potholes I realised how much I love the vivid colours around Namsom. The rice fields are so green - such a lush colour brimming with life. It is not the dark green of British grass and trees but a lighter, more vibrant colour which almost glows infront of the dark mountains.
To hear the cry of falang, falang! can be tiresome. I don't want attention drawn to me every two seconds, but mostly it is well meant. I am western therefore an object of curiousity and a walking ATM machine.
The people smile all the time. I was talking to a man who owns a shop next to Namsom hospital's restaurant. He spoke very good English after working for a year with a Brit in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Like many Thai's in rural parts they warn me to keep safe.
"Thai's have friendly faces but not all have good hearts." Like any small town, the inhabitants fear the motives of Thai's in big cities towards foreigners despite evidence that it is in the rural areas in which people are most likely to encounter danger. Luckily, we have good friends here who make sure we are never alone, are always escorted back to Ban Falang and lecture us on the dangers of being a woman.
Chicago and London are slightly more dangerous than this small backwater, Natalie and I tell them but they just smile.
Now school calls and I must try and teach my children from a textbook that is too advanced. Instead I may try and teach them To be and To have. Boring but after last weeks dancing lesson, I think it is time for some hard work...
But I love the people and the scenery, the food and the bizarre mix of oriental and occidental.
Thai's envy westerners their noses with their large bridges, their hair, skin colour, wealth and material items like cars, shops, fast internet. So their culture is a mix of bits they have borrowed from the west mixed with elephants, old American buses, rice fields, high speed internet with the latest webcams and games, high heeled shoes and modestly covering knees and shoulders (well, most of them).
Coming back from Khon Kaen on the rickety bus which hurls you from side to side as it bumps over the many, many potholes I realised how much I love the vivid colours around Namsom. The rice fields are so green - such a lush colour brimming with life. It is not the dark green of British grass and trees but a lighter, more vibrant colour which almost glows infront of the dark mountains.
To hear the cry of falang, falang! can be tiresome. I don't want attention drawn to me every two seconds, but mostly it is well meant. I am western therefore an object of curiousity and a walking ATM machine.
The people smile all the time. I was talking to a man who owns a shop next to Namsom hospital's restaurant. He spoke very good English after working for a year with a Brit in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Like many Thai's in rural parts they warn me to keep safe.
"Thai's have friendly faces but not all have good hearts." Like any small town, the inhabitants fear the motives of Thai's in big cities towards foreigners despite evidence that it is in the rural areas in which people are most likely to encounter danger. Luckily, we have good friends here who make sure we are never alone, are always escorted back to Ban Falang and lecture us on the dangers of being a woman.
Chicago and London are slightly more dangerous than this small backwater, Natalie and I tell them but they just smile.
Now school calls and I must try and teach my children from a textbook that is too advanced. Instead I may try and teach them To be and To have. Boring but after last weeks dancing lesson, I think it is time for some hard work...
posted by charlie at 12:42 pm
1 Comments:
Keep it coming Charlotte !! It's all so interesting and reminds me of how much I also like the Thai people. Keep safe
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