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decreaseI told my lady my feelings for this tree.
"Suay mahk (very beautiful)." I said.
"You think?" she replied.
"You want buy?" she asks me, smiling.
"Yes. Now that our house finished I think we should buy plants, for the house. Make suay (beautiful) I think." I say back in my best Tonto Thainglish.
"Okay. Me show you shop. Tommolow, okay?" she told me that fine day in her mangled English.
"Dee (good). Kup koon krup (thank you)." I thanked her.
We left and talked some more on this subject of house plants while we drove back to the village.
The next morning we drove our daughter to school in Surin, as I did every day in the village this time. After dropping her off at school we headed for the Thong Tarin Hotel for breakfast. While we were breaking our fast I reminded my lady of my wanting to buy some plants for the house. She remembered this, and discussed it with her sister, asking me a few questions as to what I wanted to get. Now that the front porch was finished, and enclosed, I felt a few potted plants and hanging plants would brighten up the place. They said they knew a good shop outside of Surin where I could find what it was I was looking for. I reminded my lass of my affinity toward the pink and white flowered trees and asked her if this place had these plants.
"Have." she said.
Good. We finished up eating and jumped in the truck, and headed for the plant shop.
We headed in a direction I had never taken before to leave Surin. The roads were all torn up this way also where they were replacing the sewer pipes on both sides of the road. It seems odd the way the Thai people in charge of doing the public works projects do this. Why do everything all at once, disrupting every entrance to the city?
We drove for quite a while before my lady pointed to where the "shop" was. I pulled across the highway, bounced down a gully of dirt, and climbed the trench side where the shop, actually an outdoor greenhouse, was located. It was exactly what I was looking for. I never would have found this place in a million years! A couple, man and wife my lady told me, owned the place, and were there waiting to help as we climbed out of our truck and entered their place of business. They had a bunch of the pink and white flowered trees I wanted. My ladies explained my desires to the couple, and the guy took me over and started showing me all his stuff.
After a while I looked over his stock of the pink and white trees and we started doing the nasty deed. How much? Cheap, it seems, and the more you buy, the cheaper it gets. I ended up buying five of the pink and white trees, which were about three and a half to four feet tall in nicely decorated clay pots, for the front of the house. I also got four rose bushes, each of different flower colors, four potted flowering hanging plants, one of morning glories, which I love, and three or four other bushes ... plus six large bags of potting soil. At one point, as I was wandering about the place, I was overcome by a wonderful fragrance as I passed a certain bush.
"What is that wonderful smell?" I asked my lady.
She pointed to a large bush covered with tiny white flowers. I went over to it and the fragrance from this bush was exuded everywhere around it. I bought this one too. Hom dee mahk mahk! (smells very good)
Once the bill was totaled up it came to a bit less than 4,000 baht (100 USD). Amazing! In the states this amount of shrubbery and plants would have easily been close to around a thousand dollars U.S. I also had noticed he had banana trees, about 8 to 10 feet high, for sale. I got a price on them, and will buy two for the side of the house next trip over. I need some shade for that side of the house anyway. They were also very inexpensive. There is nothing better than going out in the yard and picking fresh bananas for breakfast ‘ey?
Once back in the village we unpacked everything, and put them where we thought best suited for light and sunshine. What a difference a few plants can make!
Afterwards my lady and her sister started complaining of hunger pangs.
"Well, let's get something to eat." I told them.
This brought on a ten minute debate as to what they wanted to eat. In every village I've been to, and I've been to quite a few, there always seems to be these little shops that specialize in certain dishes. The same is true actually in the cities too. This shop have good this, this shop have good that, this lady cook this, only open such and such a time, this sidewalk cart have arroy (delicious) fried chicken, this lady she have good som tam, that man have good fish, etcetera, etcetera.
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