Lang Suan fruit and the train journey to Hua Hin

So here I was in this strange town where absolutely no-one speaks English and where TIT (this is Thailand) is very applicable. Let me quickly give you the Thai philosophy of life in one sentence: “Everything that is not too much effort will be done tomorrow, everything else will never be done.” You have to understand that Thai’s have a very chillaxed outlook on life – everything is a game or fun. The moment it seems as if something will upset their serene life they just turn around and walk away with a “No speak English.”.

So this meant that for the first few days I had to go without my ever so important wifi. This might seem trivial, but if you take into consideration that I had to eat EXACTLY the same meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner because I only knew how to ask for Kao pat moo (fried rice with pork) then you might understand my longing for some English/Afrikaans conversation. Please note this is not for a lack of trying to speak to the local people. A normal well established conversation would go something like this:

Brian (big awkward smile): “Hello.”

Overly friendly Thai person: “Haloooo”.

Brian (showing off): “Sawadee khrap.” (Translate – hello)

Now VERY overly friendly Thai person: “Sawadee khrap. Kuhn phuut pasaa dai thai khrap?” (Hello. You can speak Thai?)

Brian (slightly faded smile): “Hehe. Nitnoi khrap.” (A little bit.)

VEEERRRY excited (hopping up and down excited) Thai person: “gibberish gibberish gibberish. Gobledeegook yadda yadd gobledeegook gibberish gobledeegook yadayad.” (If I could translate it I would have used real words – why are you even looking if there is a translation…?)

Brian: “Nit noi khrap. How are you?”

Less excited Thai person: “Yes.”

Brian: “Can you speak English?”

Thai: “Yes.”

Brian: “How are you?”

Thai: “Yes.”

Brian: Grunt “Sawatdee khrap.” (Goodbye)

So eventually after walking in circles for 3 hours (please note that the whole town has one BIG main street of about 5km – but yes I got lost…TWICE), I found an internet café and ET could finally phone home (well sorta). Spoke to Steven and I thought by myself “Self this Skype thing really makes Steven look really pink.” Apparently it was not the “Skype-thing”. Steven had fever – as he told you in the previous blog. So I was all stressed out. I gave him instructions on what to do (from my vast medical experience…). Told him to go sleep and of to my (very empty) flat I went.

The next day I was worried and extremely homesick. Missing EVERYONE I know, knew and still will get to know. I was not in the mood for teaching little energetic YESSES wrapped in skin. And then the most amazing thing happened. If there is one way to make a person feel at home it is to feed that person. My one co-teacher (who became a very good friend – Khun P’Nan) had the whole class bring me fruit. Now imagine a class of 32 learners each bringing you a BAG full of fruit. Lang Suan is a fruit farming village – so there is no shortage of fruit. Here are some pictures of the fruit I received:

Just to give you an idea of the amount of fruit that I received. I took half of what I received down to the other teacher’s office. Half of what was left in my office I shared between myself and my fellow foreign teachers, the quarter that I kept for myself I further halved and gave half to my landlord. Now of the one eighth that I had left I gave another half to my neighbors. The sixteenth that was still left from giving fruit presents to everyone is what is shown in the pictures – you do the maths…

I Skyped Steven that night and everything was going great. He felt better, he looked better, I could eat fruit and not Kao pat moo. And there was only a few days left before he came to join me.

And then the next day everything went Thai on me (ie everything changed like night from day, black to white…) teaching was crap, Steven was very ill. So I decided that first thing on Friday I will get on the train/bus/taxi/whatever and go up to Hua Hin. In the meantime my sis sorted everything out with the insurance and Steven got admitted to Bangkok International.

So on Friday after my EXHAUSTING week I had to go buy a train ticket at a train station of a village where no one can speak English. Deep sigh, massive frustration. Thank goodness for the angel in Thai form that was sent to me. Khun P’nan went with me to the train station and bought the ticket for me. She even wrote me different letters in Thai to show to the people on the train to show me when to get on or off the train.

So there I was on the train station. Having no idea where to go or what to do. And since this was my first time ever on a train it was especially daunting. Here are some pictures of the train station:

 

Once you figure out the system (it took me 4 trips on the train to do this) you realize that Thailand actually has a very good (DELAYED) railway transport system. Rule of thumb is to always add 1 hour to the time that the train is actually supposed to depart. After 7 hours I eventually ended up in Hua Hin. I will write in the next blog about the hospital and the journey back to Lang Suan.