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I quickly need a ticket for the underground train to reach my 8 p.m. date with Miss Puy on Silom. From Soi Asoke, it is easiest to go to Silom road by underground train: because on the skytrain you would have to change trains, and a taxi would take hours in Bangkok traffic. For Miss Puy, I don't want to be late one minute. And I'm sure she will be reliable too.
It is my very first time on the relatively new underground train. I don't want to waste time experimenting with the ticket vending machine; I hope there will be a real person, a real English speaking person I mean, selling tickets. And yes: There is a real person selling tickets - with a queue of 20 or 30 hopeful commuters waiting to be serviced.
But I am so lucky: Just only ten or 15 people line up in front of the ticket machines, a mix of Farangs and Thais. I line up for the machine, too.
I remember my destinations: I am on the corner of Sukhumvit Road and soi 21 aka Soi Asoke. The skytrain station there is called "Asoke", while the underground station on the same spot runs as "Sukhumvit". I want to go to the northern end of Silom road; the skytrain station there is called "Sala Daeng", while the underground station on the same spot runs as "Silom". This is confusing, but it does explain why you can't buy combined skytrain-underground-tickets: Where stations on the same spot have differing names, you can't issue combined tickets, I figure. I bet that the bus stations there have even other names again.
At the ticket automat, I stand in line for ten minutes. I missed at least one train by waiting here. Will Miss Puy be angry with me late? Then I have reached the touch-screen - and see Thai writing only! Hell, can that be, the monitor shows just Thai script. I can't find any hint where to switch for English. Can that be?
Welcome to the machine: The monitor graphically displays the train's course through Bangkok, and you can touch your destination to pay the right amount of money. Now from the map and the number of stops I almost figure where to touch for "Silom" station. But who knows for sure?
Behind me is a uniformed Thai school boy with iPod-cables dangling from his oversized earlobes.
"Please, sorry, sorry", I beg extra-loud through his in-ear-noise, entertaining a whole line of bored hopeful underground travellers behind us, "sorryyy, please show me the Silom stop".
"Oh, Silom", the teenie says with a cool grin from under his headphones and presses the appropriate pixels on the screen.
"Ah, khop khun maak khrap, my saviour!" With a plastic token I rush to the entrance gate. At the gate, I want to squeeze the coin into a slot, but there is no slot. I stand around like a dummie looking for a slot which is not there and might not materialize at short notice. Again a Thai comes to help me; the lady explains: "Just touch with token here." I only have to hold the token against a steel panel, and the gate opens for me.
"Ah, khop khun maak khrap", I smile to her, finally through the gate, rushing to the platform, slightly regretting that she goes a different way. Maybe I missed one more train by swinging the token around the unreceiving machine. Will Puy be angry with me being late - a farang unable to use the underground?
There is the escalator. I want to rush down, but Thais block the stairs: They rest two by two on the steps and don't walk one centimeter, but wait patiently to be ferried down on their human beings conveyor belt, like cattle in a slaughterhouse. I stand behind a firm khun-Thai-block, fuming, and cannot proceed down to the train I hear there, stopping and departing; the Thais don't try at all to make it to that one.
8.20 p.m. Finally I reach our meeting point, McDonald's at Robinson's on Silom. No Miss Puy. Maybe she left angry, assuming I never show up, just another farang playing games? I couldn't call Puy from the train, no signal there, but now I dial her with my hand phone.
I hear a thundering noise in the line. "Puy? Puy??! Where are you now?"
"Ah, sorry, I on the bus to meet you, but start too late, sorry, I still on Ladphrao."
On Ladphrao??? Doesn't Ladphrao have an underground station now, I wonder? But maybe she has her reasons not to use the tube?
"On Ladphrao??? How long you need to Silom?"
"Ah, sorry, maybe one-and-half hours."
"One-and-half hours???"
"Yes, sorry, I start too late. Sorry, I think I go back home now, too late to meet you today."
© Hans Meier. All rights reserved by the author.
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December 29, 2007, 21:29
Not making appointments is the symptom of a disease for which in most cases there is no cure. I have spent years in the States working as an Admissions Counselor in schools and colleges. The first step in the application and enrollment process that leads to the orientation and registration process that leads to the going to school and graduating process that leads to the improving your life process is getting to your appointments on time (or just getting to the appointment, or not getting to the appointment but calling to apologize and rebooking another apppointment).
Not making appointments is a sign of functional illiteracy and an inability to even identify self-interest. The school's policy is that we try three times to get someone to honor their appointment. My policy is that if you do not make your first appointment for which I stayed late, or I came in early, or I blew away a Saturday for; then I just throw you in the basket. You would think this would effect my production. You would be correct. I am routinely one of the top performers on the Admissions staff because I do not waste my time with losers.
Not making appointments, or being late or chronically late to appointments, or not calling to say you are going to be late or that you can not come to an appointment; is typically identified as third world manana behavior of a people that are not mainstreamed and will never be competitive.
Well, there is no reason to pick on the Thais or anyone else. The United States is a rich powerful mainstreamed modern nation and it is infested with losers no more dependable or charming then the worst of any third world nation. Is there an upside to this? Yes. If you are considering letting someone into your life for business or personal reasons start out the relationship by setting an appointment with them. Whatever happens will tell you all you need to know about them.