Same old stuff. Nothing really exciting happening around this side of the pond.
Last weekend I met up with my friend Ji who was my teacher when I took that TEFL course in Ban Phe in 2006
. We met at the Queen Sirikit Convention Center as she said there was to be a festival there but I couldn't quite get from her what kind of festival - I'm thinking like, maybe, the Honesdale Fair - but it turns out that downstairs they were having a shopping expo and upstairs they were having a travel convention. Somewhere else, I'm not sure where, there was a huge bridal show, too.
Ji shopped and shopped for trinkets and baubles and I was able to cover the entire convention floor and come back and find her in the same shop, buying costume jewelry and shawls. She must have closets full of this kind of stuff in my estimation. Then we went upstairs to the travel convention and she debated over MRE's for nearly an hour while I once again traversed the floor. I have no clue why she was buying MRE's but she seemed so excited. "Oh look, you can make coffee without a pot. And this one is chicken!" Is she expecting some kind of Armageddon and stocking up? At least she'll have enough shawls to see her way through to the end of the world
.
And all the while, her elderly father (whom I have named Poppa) sat and watched our bags. He must be a saint.
We finally got a cab to Victory Monument and a van to Ji's sister's house in Bang Saen on the beach.
I like Bang Saen - you may remember I spent Songkran there in 2006 and they had this mega sand castle contest.
It's a completely Thai beach, I didn't see any farangs at all. There's a lovely brick promanade along the beach side with all sorts of stalls and people selling food cooked over cement lined paint cans. They double park the cars along the beach side of the road and if you are on the outer layer, you must leave your car in neutral with the brake off so that the inside cars can push you out of the way when they leave. (And we did exactly that.)
We rented beach chairs under umbrellas tightly butted against each other so that you never really have to see the sun, which seems to be the way most Thais enjoy the beach
. Touts came by hawking hot food, cold food, drinks, fruit, huge shrimp, cotton candy, wind up toys, foam airplanes, fortune telling, foot massages, and many things I didn't understand or didn't recognize.
When we finally went in the water, we rented a sort of sofa-tube pulled (or I should say whipped) around by a jet ski.
We visited Ji's sister's (I think her name is Rung, not sure) friend who just had a new baby, maybe one month old. She looked very slim and had apparently had a Cesarean. Someone once told me that most Thai women opt for a C-section to avoid getting stretched out. Ji told me that many older women go in for "a repair." What a crazy world.
The baby was cute with straight standing up black hair like a shoe brush. His chue len (play name or nickname) was Juno. His mother was so attentive, and there was all sorts of pillows and blankets and baby paraphernalia about the room
. She had an inflatable airplane hanging from a coat rack above his head and no less than 3 large fans trained on him. I noticed both Ji and her sister playing eye training games with him - holding a toy up high and dropping it, moving their faces across his field of vision, turning his body around to make him have to turn his head to the opposite direction to see them. Funny what comes naturally in all cultures. No Fischer Price development toys needed here.
Ji's sister is an accountant for a large firm and she works six days a week, until about 7 or 8 pm. Sunday she got up, did laundry (starched, ironed uniforms for 2 kids for the week) and cleaned house before going to the beach. She just bought a brand new house, husband left her with two kids and they don't get child support here. Plus Poppa is living with her (no social security here, either.) She has a tough burden to carry.
Ji bought many lottery tickets for her dream of building a sustainable farm up on her parent's land in SokoThai; Rung bought a special tree for inside the house that will bring money to those who have it. How I wish I could help them. Or a least find them a falang boyfriend!!
SOS
Saturday, October 02, 2010
Bang Saen, Chon Buri, Thailand
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