Lazy days and Sundays

Sunday, August 29, 2010
Pak Kret, Nonthaburi, Thailand
A very ho hum Sunday today. I had my cabana boy clean the apartment for me so I just hung out on the rooftop garden and read for a bit. I don't know his name (neither of us speaks the other's language) but he looks to be about 15 which around here means he's probably pushing 30. Thais look sooo young until about age 40-45 and then -presto- like someone hit a light switch, they look very old. I don't know why. A Thai my age would be very grandmotherly, sitting home and getting waited on.

I took a long walk up past the Tesco Lotus in Pakkret as Watcheree had told me there was a California WOWX gym there. I wanted to compare prices as I think the gym at Cental Plaza is too expensive at 60/month, but maybe I'm just cheap. Anyway, when we discussed this, she said that it was within walking distance and there was a Burger King nearby. Twice now I have walked up there and asked anyone with a pulse where it is only to have them return blank stares. One school student (I find their English is the best) said it's way down by Big C , near where my first hotel was. Huh? So I bite the bullet and call Watcheree who says "oh, it's not the Lotus in Pakkret, it's by the Lotus in Chaeng Wattana (which is where the Big C is.) So why did she say it was within walking distance? This is yet another example of one of those circular conversations I have with Thais where we both come away with opposite conclusions.

Anyway, I went into Tesco Lotus and bought some groceries for the week. I didn't have too many bags but they were heavy and I didn't feel like carrying them home the mile or so plus in this heat so I got a taxi. I'm sure he was thinking Lazy American to drive me such a short distance, but oh well...

Yesterday I took one of the many white vans that stop at the bus stop at the end of my soi and went into Bangkok proper. It's fast, it's comfortable, takes about 20-30 minutes depending on traffic and cost 75 cents. Can't beat it. They all converge at Victory Monument and from there you can get the Skytrain to almost anywhere.

I took it to Asoke, where I met up with my friend Ji. She is teaching refugee children in a Catholic Charity school in Bangkok. From there we stopped in Tops supermarket, which specializes in imported foods (remember, imported over here means the stuff you see on the shelf everyday- ie, typical American food.) Ji pondered over about 8 different kinds of prepackaged ready made dishes for over a half an hour - I thought I was going to pull my hair out. When she picked up the same packages and compared them for the fourth time, I had to walk away.   "This looks healthy. But oh look, this has mushrooms. What do you think?"  They have a whole different temporal mentality here, and although I have no where to be, I just can't belabor things like that. From there we stopped at a dried fruit kiosk which had no less than 30 differnt kinds of fruit (and some vegetables) along with free samples of each. I should have known this was way too many choices for Ji ! While I quickly settled on dried red peaches and dried cantaloupe (outrageously delicious) Ji sampled everything and was good for another 20 minutes. While we sat down to order tea afterwards, she got a call that her friends were waiting for her at the university library, but she said, that's ok, we can get there soon, and we sat down to tea. It's a whole different mentality here - you or I would cancel the order and rush out the door, but here we're on flexy time.

We took a taxi to Ji's university where three of her friends were working on their master's thesis. Ji is still deciding on a topic and changes her mind a couple of times within the hour. Last year when I was here I thought I had her convinced to come to America and do a comparison study of American and Thai education, but that idea has apparently been dropped. One girl, Ah, is working on brain-based education and asked me for information. I told her that I didn't know much, but would ask my friends. Sue Boyer immediately replied with a wealth of information which I forwarded to Ah and I'm sure she is very happy. I think they must present their master's thesis in some kind of forum and I know that Mahasarkham University paid its teacher's expenses if they were invited to present abroad, so maybe Ah could come to speak at Wallenpaupack - wouldn't that be great?

After lunch we said good-bye to my new friends and Ji took me to Siam Paragon as I had said I might want to get an iphone (no cheaper over here, but did you know they have an audio translator?) Plus over here, you don't have to sign your life away in a contract, just buy top up minutes at the local 7-11. Calls are 1B (3 cents) per minute, so a 100 or 200 Baht card lasts you forever.

They didn't have any iphones but we did spend an incredibly long time in a huge bookstore - many English language books. I asked the girl where would I find a book on learning Thai and she replied (to the best of my auditory discrimination) "Rang Ruining" and flung her arm out to point in that direction. I know from experience that it will just be a pissing contest to ask her to repeat it, so I head off in that direction in search of further clues. Circling around the aisles a few times finds me face to face with Thai language books in the "Language Learning" section. (Note to self - always consider the R vs L transpositon.)

Ji considers all the 'relationship' books one by one -  I don't know why.

Ji tells me that there is a great 'garmount' store in Siam Paragon - when I look puzzled, she spells it -" g-a-r-m-o-u-n-t."
 "Oh, a garment store?"  I ask. 
"Yes, yes. "
 Odd, I think, but I've seen stranger things here. 
 On our way out, I notice a sign for a 'gourmet' grocery on the first floor and it clicks.


On our way back to Victory Monument where Ji will get a bus and I get the white van home, we stop at many, many booths around the square. I bought two $2.40 watches (you can never have enough cheap watches), a $1.50 Louis Vitton knock-off purse, and a belt as once again, my pants are starting to fall down. We eat almond waffles and guava and red beet juice from vendors and head home.

I am surpised how much my day out has exhausted me - I think I dozed off in the van. Is it the heat or is my age is catching up with me? Must be the heat.









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