Lao Lady

Note: Thai and Lao are related, but distinct languages. Many Lao nationals, especially those who live near the border between Thailand and Laos watch Thai TV broadcasts, and from this have learned to speak and understand Thai.

As she slid down the perspex tube of the slide, the static electricity made her coal-black hair radiate from her head like that of a golliwog, making her look twice her real size.

I was at the Burger King for a child’s birthday party, my son being one of the invited guests. That was where I saw the little girl with the flared hair, and then I saw her mother. My first guess was that the mother was a Filipina, but she turned out to be Lao. Not Isaan-Lao, but genuine north-of-the-Mekong type Lao. Her daughter was also a guest at the birthday party, so we were soon talking to one another.

My Thai was better than her English, so we were able to talk to one another, and none of the other parents were able to understand us. Sort of like the farangs in a Bangkok bar, who do not know what the girls are saying about them, I guess. I soon established the most important facts about the lady, She was from Vientiane, she had married an Aussie man, had abandoned him when he started to occasionally hit her, and she was currently unattached. Her daughter’s father was her Lao boyfriend from 5 years ago. She also established my current details.

So we had about 90 minutes to talk while the children did their thing. She was amazed that she had found an Aussie who spoke Thai, and her daughter was a bit taken aback too. I guess that I am not a common bird in this area. The one who was left out a bit was my son as he does not speak much Thai at all, but children seem to speak a common language, and he coped.

There was a lot that I did not know about her, but I did catch her name and telephone number. There was also a lot about me that I did not volunteer to tell her, so it was almost mutual anonymity by consent.

Towards the wind-down of the kids’ party, Pom (real name removed) offered to cook me some Lao food that night. She said that all she needed was some meat (no pun there) and a few herbs/spices. I asked her what herbs she needed, and was pleasantly surprised when she asked for items that I had growing in my garden. I also had a half-kilo of chicken breast meat that needed to be used, so I volunteered these goodies as my contribution to the prospective meal.

Having a Thai lady who visits me from Thailand, I was very careful to not take Pom to my home, the last thing I would need is for the Lao lady to turn up on my doorstep while the Thai lady is visiting. I took her to her home and got the goodies from my home alone. I figured that a magnum of good wine might also be an excellent extra for the evening, so I threw one of them in the car as well.

One condition that I made was that the food should not be too “pet” (hot type spicy), and she complied, but added a lot of dried and crushed chilli to her and her daughter’s portions.

My little boy was starting to get tired by the time the wine was half-gone, so Pom put him in her spare bed, and her daughter went to bed too. That left just us and the DVD player. And the main bedroom.

I’ll definitely be interested in another meeting with Pom, but only on the condition that she understands that there can be no ties made with me; I’ll sort that out with her over the coming weeks.

It sort of surprises me what a little bit of Thai can do for me here. I can understand a lot of what the Thai women here are talking about when there is a party, and my spoken Thai has opened a few doors – as per this episode. Not like one man that I know who thought that he could speak Thai OK. He was at a party, and started to count in HIS Thai. Neung, song, saam, hee, hah…

See = 4

hee = impolite term for vagina

Good one.