Its 7:57 am – Fathers day – December 5th 2012 –
The Thai King’s birthday – I woke at about 5:20 and had a quick look on the
internet to find Schoolshape and looked at their offering then I finished packing and prepping for this trip.
I shaved, showered and took my tablets
and went down stairs to grab the Scoopy key and pop out for breakfast
I try to make sure I get to JWaawaa for one meal
most days – especially work days, after nearly 4 years of living in
Thailand I eventually discover that to tell others I am a vegetarian all I have
to do is say “Poom gin Jay” and they
understand.
I got to the restaurant for about for
just after 6:00 Baw was there as usual and she served me and I sat down
to eat and reflect on the circumstance. I was a little surprised at how busy the
streets were at that time of day though I shouldn’t have been knowing that Thai
people wake early to avoid the heat and having seen morning markets in the
north on my first visits to the land of smiles, and after all Surat Thani is a
market town or city as they Thais like
to call it. As I ate I reflected on how quiet it was and considered my
attatchment to the food I was eating – even though It is “meant” to be seen
merely as fuel to sustain the body and its pursuit of a spiritually enlightened
existence.
I finished went and paid my 35 baht, trying to engage Baw in
simple conversation, 1) to help improve my Thai and 2) to try and crack her
veneer of detatchment, she is after all an attractive lady and I am very single
at the moment. As I left I decided to
stop off at the market and buy the simple pre packed breakfasts from the market
to make offerings to the monks. I find
it amusing that a small cottage industry
hasestablished itself at the market – You can pay 20฿ for
a set (that may or may not contain meat – You are handed a bag and thurn around
and are surrounded by monks offering their alms bowls so that you can pop their
daily bread into it to then pop off your shoes kneel in front of them and
receive a blessing – It works – I have given up considering the nature of the
process and whether the monks should be offered meat or not – In some ways its
not important , though I did wonder why these queues weren’t out side the
veggie establishment I had just been to.
I hoped back on the scooter and stopped at the baton go
street stand 30 yards further on and back on the main drag. Baton Go is one of
my weaknesses here foodwise, Essentially they are a Thai style finger
shaped doughnut. Lightly stuck together with water they are deep
fried batter that is cooked in these pairs, lovely with sticky milk though I
tend to avoid that now days for the usual health reasons , I sat on the bike
and waited for my 10฿ worth of heart attack food , I noticed the usual sideways glances usually followed
by a quick grin as I purposely make eye contact and smile , I may not be the
only falang in Surat but we’re certainly still a novelty in these parts especially in the
traditionally Thai public spaces, the markets and day to day meeting places.
I felt quite calm and mindful as I pulled away at a slow
pace, another 100 meters down the road
and two kittens play by the side of the road caught my eye , one doing one of
those poised pounces on the other as I passed – probably only three months old
it flashed across my mind
Thich Nhat Hanh
talks about a rose
talks about a rose being all the elements
that were not rose – I wondered how kittens became so obviously kitten and cat
like in their nature so quickly – It is an amazing experience this life that occupies us all.
I got back to the house and made a coffee to eat with my
cholesterol pointing out to the Burmese
house keeper that I liked my coffee falang style – lots of water in a mug
topped up with a bit of cold to stop being scalded and usually black. She
passed this on to the other house keeper
obviously amused by my odd behavior.
I finished my breakfast and grabbed my bags to be greeted by
Mel who was driving me to the airport, heading out of the town she reminded me that it was the Kings
birthday and explained this was why I had been greeted by a sea of yellow
shirts. I joked about how I doubted that any one would wear red shirts on a day
like today – referring to the Thai convention of associating seven colours to
the days of the week and respect for the
regent being shown by wearing a coloured
shirt that represents the day he was born on. We went through the week -
Monday = pink, Tuesday = Yellow,
Wednesday = Green, Thursday = Orange,
Friday = Blue, Satuday = Purple and Sunday = Red. My reference to red shirts
wasn’t to Sunday though it was to the other political party here in Thailand
the red shirts.
So I am finishing of this short narrative of my morning on the flight, BRIGHT
RED air asia BIG BIG BIG – I arrive in
BKK at 10:00 am and will finish and post on the blog when I get to an internet
connection
Bing bong – seat belt sign comes on so I try to save the document to PC the Laptop
away locked keyboard, I try to save bit never mind – put it to sleep and put it
away the plane is landing – And then it all starts to go “wrong”.
Some guy is pushing to get off the plane, I follow the signs
to the wrong baggage belt, I get a taxi easy enough but then I cant remember
the name of the building … its close to Asoke BTS - The taxi driver is particularly friendly as
we travel in he chats in his broken English and I chat in my broken Thai mostly
about the Kings birthday (of course)
Then as we get to Asoke station he slows and
blap.. there it is its Supalai Plaza I’m going to
I pay the fare and tip 50฿ and get ushered straight into the lift
– I don’t know which floor I’m going to… I find my phone and type in the number
I’ve been given no answer
Eventually this got resolved after phoning friends in Thailand in different places but I had started to wonder if there was some tradition in Thailand not to answer your phone on Kings Day
Eventually this got resolved after phoning friends in Thailand in different places but I had started to wonder if there was some tradition in Thailand not to answer your phone on Kings Day
