More Soi News

Living as I do out in the ‘burbs of Bangkok, I experience Thailand as very few Westerners are privileged to. Having a Thai family is also a wonderful, and sometimes surprising experience.

The other night my almost eight-year-old daughter and I were watching TV together. On came an advertisement for a super tractor. It was painted bright yellow and it was tearing up a strip of ground like it was set to break all records.

Suddenly, my daughter turned to me and said, “What rubbish! I would never buy one of those.”

“Why?”

“Because we have a perfectly good buffalo on the farm (in Ubon). We don’t have to pay for gasoline or repairs. We just put him out to eat grass and he works for us.”

Wise words out of the mouth of a child. I’m happy to see that my daughter has values that will enhance her life, rather than destroy the environment.

I’ve written about the soi where I live before. Lately, I’ve been walking around the block a few times every day for exercise. I was surprised to see six homes in the block being redecorated.

MORE ON THE DRUNK

Do you remember I told you the story of the drunk who lived down the road? (http://www.stickmanbangkok.com/Reader2007/reader3605.htm) He fell over one night coming home from a drinking session and banged his head on his old, abandoned car. Killed him stone dead.

He worked for many years as a government official before he was forced to retire due to his drinking. I’ve never found out exactly what he did, but it must have been a high-ranking job. He spoke reasonable English. When he died I heard he left more than 20 million Baht for his family. Not bad for a government worker.

The family is using some of the money to completely redecorate their home. And what a beautiful job they are doing. The place has been stripped back to the concrete, repainted in a light cream color. It looks bright and airy now. They have put in large windows with top quality frames, tiled the driveway, and installed a huge kitchen. There’s a bedroom for everyone.

I think the daughter, who is about fourteen years old, is the happiest. When her uncle was alive she never smiled much. Living in a house with a drunk can’t have been easy. But now she positively beams when she walks down the road. She’s already been sent to Australia for an educational holiday and she delights in using her newfound English skills to talk to me.

THE GPO FEUD

Up the road on the corner lives a chap who works for the government pharmaceutical organization. He has a good job too. A couple of months ago someone came and shot up his front gate. The police came and stood guard for a few days.

During my walks now I see he has a camera sitting up on a tall pole aimed at his gate. I asked my wife what it was all about.

It turns out an agent representing a company in Laos went to this chap’s office to try and arrange a deal to buy pharmaceuticals for his client. He tried to bribe my neighbor. But being a straight shooter he said no.

The agent came to his house and shot at the gate to try and intimidate him. It hasn’t worked so far. However, each day he is escorted to and from work by the police.

One benefit of all this is that the police patrol our soi regularly now. Whereas we used to have the occasional burglary or car ransacking if it was parked in the street, we haven’t had one ever since the shooting. There’s always a silver lining, isn’t there?

EXERCISE, FLOWERS, AND SEXY BRAS

As I mentioned, I take regular walks around the block now. I had a medical checkup a couple of weeks ago and found out I was suffering from hypertension. Too much sitting in front of the computer and not enough exercise.

So I decided it was time to get out and do something about it by walking around the block. At first, my knees killed me. But as I have continued I am finding the pain is diminishing and I hope it will go away completely in the near future. Best of all, I feel so much more active these days. Something my wife has commented on with pleasure!

During my walks I am constantly struck by the beautiful flowers my neighbors grow outside their homes. Almost every house has planted flowers and trees in a trough outside the front wall. Some of the trees arch over the road offering welcome shade. As I walk past some houses I can smell a rich aroma of honeysuckle. Other houses have plumeria trees laden with sweet blooms. Yet others have flowers in every color of the rainbow. It really is a feast for the senses.

Walking around the block sure beats going to one of those so-called gyms where you step on a machine and exercise to the deafening beat of crappy music.

I almost got sucked into joining one of these gyms. The salesgirl who dragged me into her lair knew what she was doing. She had on a blue blazer with an open-necked shirt unbuttoned down to her waist. As we talked, she insisted on leaning right down over the table, giving me a very enticing view of her sexy, lacy, low-cut bra. I pulled out my HIP card and handed it to her immediately she asked me to pay.

Unfortunately for her the gym would not take a HIP card. They only accept credit cards. By the time she came back to tell me this I had cooled off enough to smile politely and tell her I didn’t have my credit cards on me. So sorry. As I walked out I thought to myself that the view had been great anyway.

GOODBYE KUNG

I took the family out today for lunch at KFC up on Chang Wattana Road. Normally I steer clear of these fast food joints, but we were in a hurry for an appointment so I relented. My eldest daughter, yes the one who will use a buffalo to farm with, was disgusted with me. She knows my views on fast food and she shares them. The only thing she liked were the cheese balls, which I must admit weren’t bad. My youngest was happy because she got a couple of toys with the order.

But what struck me as I sat there looking out the window at the passing parade (ok, I was girl watching!) was that the Thais walking past were so ‘ordinary’. There were no heavily made up girls who might work in the night trade. Many of the girls were decidedly homely looking, although there was still a good proportion of very beautiful girls. You never get away from them wherever you go in Thailand, do you?

The blokes were mostly working class types, dressed comfortably. No fashionable clothes. Apart from the Asian faces we could have been at any shopping center in the West. These are the real Thais, not the ones you meet in the tourist areas.

 It was a sad day for me too. We were sitting across the road from a pub where I used to sing about ten years ago. In those days it was called the Country Saloon. They have renamed it to the Wild West now and redecorated it a bit. But the reason I was sad is that my wife opened her Thai newspaper this morning to learn that Kung Kittikul has died. He wrapped his Volvo around a tree in the floods down south.

Kung was very famous and well loved by his many fans. His voice was mellow. He favored romatic English and Thai language songs. He sang at the pub when I sang there too. I liked him a lot. He was always kind and polite to everyone. We will all miss you Kung.