Tag Archives: Samut Songkhram

Taking Fu to the Floating Market

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You know it is a small, digital and virtual world when you start receiving guests who are friends of friends, when all the parties have met through the internet and, in the case of the friend and the friend of the friend, they’ve never met in person!

So it was this week as I had a visitor who was recommended to contact me by Curry.  After completing five years studying in Hiroshima, Japan, Fu was traveling around Asia on his way back home to southern Malaysia.  Nice guy and this is his first visit to Thailand.

Originally, Curry had recommended Fu contact me so I could take him to Pad Thai Ari.  This ended up not being part of the plan as Fu was in his final days in the country and was interested in seeing the floating market.  There are several floating markets but the only one that runs every day is the one in Damnoen Saduak (“convenient pathway”) which is near the school in Bangkhonthiinai.

I met Fu at 6:30 so we could beat the crowds and we arrived at the market just after 8:00.  Things were still cool and uncrowded and I negotiated a two-hour ride in a dugout boat.  Tawn suggested that I use this negotiation technique: after rejecting the original quote out of hand, I was to say “phom mai bpen muu” – I am not a pig, a reference to the slang term of someone who is an easy mark.

The lady running the boat tours thought that was funny and decreased the price a bit.

The two hours were nice, the occasional annoying buzz of a long tail boat (which are powered by old Toyota pickup engines) breaking the otherwise tranquil nature of life along the canal.  Of course “life along the canal” means people who sell tacky souvenirs from shops in front of their homes.  Each shop is the same as the next, some selling vaguely “Thai” souvenirs and others selling things that are totally incongruous.

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Above: Sampling some khanom khrug – a rice flour pancake that is a little sweet and a little savory at the same time.  Below: Along the way, I purchased a few bottles of local honey from this lady and her young daughter.

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Above: Even Thais come to see the floating market!

By the time we were wrapping up after 10:00, the Russian tourists had arrived by the boatload and things were less pleasant.  It was a good time to be finishing.

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After taking some pictures from the shore, we headed to Bangkhonthiinai for a quick visit.  I wasn’t sure if the school was back in session after their winter break, but everyone was there (except for the now-retired Ajarn Yai) and so we spent about an hour with the children, practicing basic questions and answers.  Hopefully a good experience for Fu.

Of course, the grapevine works quickly and by that evening I had a call from Ajarn Yai, pretty much along the lines of, “You came to Samut Songkhram and didn’t call me?”

Oh, you can’t win.

 

In other news, our contractor Khun Guang assures us that we’ll have access to the house next Friday.  Still some fixturing after that, but only small things.  That should give us two weeks to get moved in.  Below: Tawn test-drives some mattresses.

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The Big 0-2

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As hard as it may be to believe, yesterday marked my second anniversary here in Khrungthep.  Sure enough, on the evening of October 31st, 2005 I arrived on the THAI Airways nonstop from New York to begin the next stage of my life with Tawn.

What’s transpired since then?

I’ve had the opportunity to learn to read, write and speak Thai and, I’ll say with a mix of modesty and satisfaction, I’ve had some success availing myself of that opportunity.  Many days it is a struggle and there’s plenty of times when I still don’t know what the heck people are talking about, but my confidence and skill is pretty high and – the best measure – I don’t hesitate to use the Thai I know.

I’ve had the opportunity to volunteer for a year as a once-a-week English teacher in Samut Songkhram province.  While I’m very sorry the opportunity has come to an end, the experience has shaped me and the lessons learned will stay for a lifetime.  I also hope that the influence I’ve had on the children has been positive and that the lessons they’ve learned will shape them, too.  Also, I’m very thankful that I could share this experience with so many other people including Kobfa, Ken, and Markus as well as numerous visitors including Pat, Aaron and my family.

I’ve built the beginnings of a wide network of good friends.  While they are predominately gay men – admittedly, there is still room for some more diversity – they come from a variety of backgrounds, countries, cultures and walks of life.  In the first half year here, Tawn and I didn’t have much to do most evenings.  Nowadays there is something going on most every night, to the extent that we have to excuse ourselves from participating in many of them.

I’ve started getting to know some areas of the city from on-the-pedal experience, gaining the confidence to navigate on two wheels and to explore stretches of the city and the surrounding countryside that you cannot fully appreciate from inside a car.  I’m convinced that this is one of the best ways to see the real Thailand.

Finally, and most importantly, I’ve started to gain an understanding of Thailand, Thais, Thai culture, and “Thai-ness” in general.  I say this with utmost awareness that the minute I say it, I’ll wind up getting bitten in the ass, and I say it with the awareness that I have taken but a single step on a journey that I cannot complete in just one lifetime.  But from time to time, I can look at things here and “get it”.  Those are fleeting moments, to be sure, but are a rich reward for the time and effort spent learning to “be” here these past two years.

Here’s to another year in this extraordinary adventure.

Below: For about five minutes yesterday afternoon at 5:50, the entire sky in all directions was bathed in an ethereal pink light.

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