This article is about Thais and their ways.
It all started about a month ago. I was going to Spain by plane and had to wait for a while at Oslo Airport in Norway. Nice airport, but I had to wait for four hours for my plane to take off to Alicante, Spain.
I was picked up by a friend that I met some years ago on Crete.
We weren't the best of friends. He was a very controlling man and had problems in changing his attitudes, especially towards women. He blamed them for broken relationships, when it actually was him who couldn't handle the relationship. He lived alone mostly; didn't want to be disturbed in his every day activities and routines.
He was there when I landed in Alicante airport. He'd bought a new car and drove me the half hour to his apartment in Torrevieja. So far so good. I settled in and we took a trip around in the streets. Mainly looking for accommodation, as I wanted to have a place in Europe to come to and stay in. When we passed a hotel he said that he recommended me to stay there. I was a little surprised , mostly by the way he presented his proposal; in an abrupt way as if he didn't want to see me too much. He had turned into a hard man since the last I met him. Actually he wasn't too forthcoming in any way.
Well, the next day we went to the hotel and I booked a room for one night to begin with. It turned out that I would stay for three nights. During those days there was no phone calls from him and I started to think that this wasn't a place to stay and decided to book a plane back to Thailand where I live with my wife.
I had a taxi taking me to the airport this time...
We were going to fly to Tegel Airport in Berlin, Germany and go on to Bangkok after an hour, but the one hour turned into five; which is not unusual in aviator circles.
I waited out the five hours and we could finally leave for Bangkok. I was happy to be on my way to my quiet life in a nice suburb where I could live and write in peace.
Landing in Bangkok I checked fro a plane up to my town: Khon Kaen in the North Eastern part of Thailand,
but the plane didn't leave before 06pm and was only for business class passengers.
So I decided to find a taxi to take me to the bus terminal. I had no trouble in finding the right bus, but little did I know what was waiting for me the next few days.
Usually it takes 6 hours to go from Bangkok to Khon Kaen. I found the bus and entered and was shown to seat A1 on the second deck.
I sat down and looked forward to a nice trip up to Khon Kaen and felt good to be so close to home again.
The bus filled up with passengers, mostly Thais, but also a couple of 'Farangs', me included as people from other countries are called in Thailand where racism towards this group is well known by the Internationals staying in the country.
In my language Farang means a plague, so there is no doubt about our poor status here. In official documents we are even called Aliens...
It all started about a month ago. I was going to Spain by plane and had to wait for a while at Oslo Airport in Norway. Nice airport, but I had to wait for four hours for my plane to take off to Alicante, Spain.
I was picked up by a friend that I met some years ago on Crete.
We weren't the best of friends. He was a very controlling man and had problems in changing his attitudes, especially towards women. He blamed them for broken relationships, when it actually was him who couldn't handle the relationship. He lived alone mostly; didn't want to be disturbed in his every day activities and routines.
He was there when I landed in Alicante airport. He'd bought a new car and drove me the half hour to his apartment in Torrevieja. So far so good. I settled in and we took a trip around in the streets. Mainly looking for accommodation, as I wanted to have a place in Europe to come to and stay in. When we passed a hotel he said that he recommended me to stay there. I was a little surprised , mostly by the way he presented his proposal; in an abrupt way as if he didn't want to see me too much. He had turned into a hard man since the last I met him. Actually he wasn't too forthcoming in any way.
Well, the next day we went to the hotel and I booked a room for one night to begin with. It turned out that I would stay for three nights. During those days there was no phone calls from him and I started to think that this wasn't a place to stay and decided to book a plane back to Thailand where I live with my wife.
I had a taxi taking me to the airport this time...
We were going to fly to Tegel Airport in Berlin, Germany and go on to Bangkok after an hour, but the one hour turned into five; which is not unusual in aviator circles.
I waited out the five hours and we could finally leave for Bangkok. I was happy to be on my way to my quiet life in a nice suburb where I could live and write in peace.
Landing in Bangkok I checked fro a plane up to my town: Khon Kaen in the North Eastern part of Thailand,
but the plane didn't leave before 06pm and was only for business class passengers.
So I decided to find a taxi to take me to the bus terminal. I had no trouble in finding the right bus, but little did I know what was waiting for me the next few days.
Usually it takes 6 hours to go from Bangkok to Khon Kaen. I found the bus and entered and was shown to seat A1 on the second deck.
I sat down and looked forward to a nice trip up to Khon Kaen and felt good to be so close to home again.
The bus filled up with passengers, mostly Thais, but also a couple of 'Farangs', me included as people from other countries are called in Thailand where racism towards this group is well known by the Internationals staying in the country.
In my language Farang means a plague, so there is no doubt about our poor status here. In official documents we are even called Aliens...
Anyway, we started out on our trip and I was looking forward to be able to have a good night's sleep after all the long flights and delays.
It was late night and I hadn't been sleeping or eating for about 36 hours, and I still couldn't sleep. We went northwards and passed the first city; Korat after the due 3 hours. Then I lost my sense of the roads; the bus veered into some bypass roads I had never encountered before. I thought it would be all right anyway, but then we started crisscrossing the area on narrow roads and into the hills and forests. I started to get a disturbing feeling about this trip, but still I relied on the driver to know his way to Khon Kaen, which were situated by the main road. I trusted that I would see it when we arrived at the outskirts of town. The driver still went on driving through small villages and every now and then he dropped some packages along the way.
Then we went for the small roads and forests again. It went on and on and a feeling of suspicion started to emerge in my stomach. I still kept calm though, but kept a sharp look at the surroundings; only trees and hills around us still. We reached areas of small houses (or shanty towns by the look of it) Then the bus started picking up passengers along the road, all Thais. They sat down and spoke not a word. Soon the bus was filled on both decks. I looked out the window and suddenly I saw some strange appearances along the road: concrete sewage pipes bouncing out in between the trees. I spotted how this was made: there were cables that were cut in certain intervals. The pipes were all white. Then white concrete phalloses popped उप from the ground. There were neon lamps that changed position and ended up in treetops, still shining.
Then small silvery lumps were flying through the air, shining with a phosphorous light. The next magic that showed up were animals, or seemed so, because when we passed them they disappeared. The ground and trees were all white as if it had been snowing, but I suspected it was sprayed there. We were constantly met by orange blinking lights as a signal to continue I guessed. Motorbikes came to meet us and blinked their lights at the bus as signals to pass.
All cars coming towards us were doing the same, and the bus just carried on driving.
Finally we reached a small village and the driver opened the doors for a lady who seemed to have some power (Shaman?) She started directing the bus along the 'right' roads it seemed. She was definitely in charge of this venture. The bus kept on driving and all the "magic" scenery kept on around the bus. Fascinating, but I was not impressed by their show. It looked like scares to people who wasn't given access to the area.
About half an hour after the witch herself ha entered the bus we approached another village and many of the passenger left the bus. Actually they had done that all the time, but I wasn't paying attention to it.
The Witch left the bus with the others and she pointed at me saying that I had to be a soldier from the Vietnam war. She said this in Thai, but there was no doubt in my mind that that was what she said, applying the name Farang. In fact she did that many times during the time she stayed in the bus.
The driver and the witch brought out some packages and left them by a shop.
Then I went down to them and asked them if they now could take me to Khon Kaen, which was my destination. They just looked at me. It was starting to light up outside and another woman came inside. She came straight up to me and asked me for my ticket and she confirmed that I indeed was going to Khon Kaen.
Sitting here writing this I remember that the driver and the witch became silent. I guessed that they had made a mistake by bringing a Farang with them on this peculiar trip, but Thais can never admit that they have made an error because then they would loose face.
Anyway, we left the area and I believed that they would take me to Khon Kaen this time. I asked and the driver nodded. We kept on driving and as I looked out the windows I still saw animals along the road, but when we passed they disappeared. Then I noticed a butterfly इन थे फोस्फोरोउस कलर flying at the same speed as the bus. It was always positioned close to my window. Then parts of the wooden railing across the road broke loose and one stick followed the bus just beneath the butterfly. The bus stopped and took on passengers again and as I looked for the butterfly with its significant turcoise colors had stopped to. I started wondering how this could come about and got the idea that some of the chemicals in the paintings on the bus reacted with this phenomenon. We kept on driving and the butterfly still followed just outside my window. When we came further down to some smaller towns I looked out and the butterfly was gone. The stick from the railings still followed us though. I decided to try and break it. First I 'told' it to get smaller and then to vanish totally and to my surprise it did! Later along the road there was a man driving a motorbike. I decided to lift off the parts around th gas tank and concentrated on the task and then, to my astonishment it वोर्केद, the motorbike was all OK, but the part I had concentrated my mind upon was hanging on the left front corner of the bus. Mind work, and in the state I was it had to happen. When you don't sleep and don't eat for such a long time, the mind takes turns that we otherwise wouldn't know about. We approached the outskirts of Khon Kaen, but still some distance away. The driver said he would take me to the bus terminal and I was relieved after a 13 hours' drive.
We started on the trip, but he picked up loads of people who were going to school and for shopping in town. Half an hour we were in Khon Kaen, but still on small bypass roads. He let some of his passengers off, but there were still many left. Then he turned up into the hills again.
I got angry and went down to him and told him that we had a deal of taking me to the bus terminal. He got cross with me, but I didn't care, and told him to stick to his job; meaning that I वास a paying passenger and probably the only one at that.
So he started for the real Khon Kaen again. I was relieved, but when we ended up in a town 3 hours from Khon Kaen he told me to buy my own ticket to Khon Kaen. At this moment I was so exhausted by the whole thing and just did as he said. I knew this place from before and bought my ticket.
On the bus there was some kind of show about faces and the relationship between the generations of a family. It was nice to watch, but I fell asleep. Finally someone came into the bus and told me that I had to go the bus that went to Khon Kaen. Outside I met a man and a woman who guided me to a rogue ticket salesman and showed me the right bus. The thing is; this couple has helped me many times in this town.
I got on the bus and after 2 hours we turned in to the Khon Kaen bus terminal. I found a taxi and headed home again. It was evening and still I hadn't had any sleep or food, but I was happy when we drove up to our house where my wife and her son embraced me and guided me into the house and soon into bed.
What really happened on this trip, I don't know. I only know that Thais don't care about strangers and they stubbornly keep their mouths shut and smile within their fear of something else than the Thai way.
Sad...
इ हवे नोतिसद बी व्रितिंग थिस ठाट लेत्तेर्स तूर्ण इन्तो थाई लन्गुअगे। एवें मोरे सतरंगे!
इ हवे नोतिसद बी व्रितिंग थिस ठाट लेत्तेर्स तूर्ण इन्तो थाई लन्गुअगे। एवें मोरे सतरंगे!
