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Part 1

Nights in the village are usually the time when everyone gets together to eat, chat and visit around the neighborhood with their friends and relatives. It's a communal thing. Different houses and shops around the village are, or seem to me anyway, the 'IN' places to hang about. Each family group and their friends has their spot for this gathering of kindred souls. Ours is Sis Mun's shop, next to our family houses. Sis Mun has a little wooden shack with a wooden column supported tin-roofed area in the front, the roof extending about twice the depth of her shop in front of the place, where she has the ubiquitous bamboo and wooden plank lounge platform where women of the family sit and chat as they prepare different foods for the evening meal. Friends and neighbors stop by often and chatter away about whatever it is they chatter about. Day and night. Mostly they gossip about who has a mia noi (minor wife/mistress), who is a mia noi, who's bedding who, who's gonna kill who if they catch them bedding whomever, who got drunk and beat up their wife this week, how bad a beating he gave her, and how she also was drunk, who got a job in Surin, or Bangkok, or Korat, or where ever, who's pregnant, who died recently, and who had their baby. Gossip and Thai politics mostly, never world topics, as for most village Thais there is little of consequence happening outside of Thailand from what I've seen for the most part.

Although to be fair and honest I must add that when I was there just after the 9/11 WTC terrorist attacks many of the villagers came up to me and told me how sorry they were to hear of this tragedy. They all know I'm American. I was touched to see this, and realized later that I must be seen as part of the village community for them to be concerned about it as much as they seemed to be. Just my take on this (but then I'm not as cynical as some). More gossip will be on the upcoming Thai holidays, or the elections, or what the stupid village Boss has done, or not done usually, lately, and what the hell that crazy farang (foreigner) Cent has been up to, etc., etc., can be heard most of the time. It's basically gossip central at Sis Mun's shop. As it probably is at most of the other gathering spots around the village, and most places around the world where people, especially women, gather to shoot the breeze. Sis Mun sells a lot of goods, foods, and beers too during all this. So Mun is clued in on the day's gossip and sells a good bit at profit. A win/win situation for her and she's never lonely.

In Sis Mun's shop I've seen it's fairly common for whichever girl is 'in the dough' ('has some money' for you non-Yanks) at the moment to spring for a bottle or two of beer Chang for the gals to sip on as they chatter away. This can start fairly early in the day as well, especially if there was a party the evening before and they are all a bit 'overhang' as my wife confusedly calls it in English. A little 'hair of the dog' as it were this seems. I try to avoid going over there on these mornings, as the old bats always try to suck me into getting a glow on with them, which can be a dangerous thing, and will usually end up with me springing for a box of beer Chang, or even a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black if things get out of hand and my mood and wallet is up to it.