Lowlights and highlights

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I'm aware that my pronunciation isn't great but what language makes squid and pork sound so alike? Thai - that's what. To my credit, I tried to pay the cook for both meals: the mu and the meuk. But of course she wouldn't have it. And the pad prik mu was aroi!

Sorry, that was a diversion.

I guess it happened because I cringe at the thought of the real blog. It's about my second trip to Bangkok. I went to a travel agency in Surat to book my plans. They even sent a tuk-tuk to pick me up at the corner by my house and take me to the bus station. No sooner did I get out of the tuk-tuk than an aged Thai man came barking the most reassuring English to me about the upcoming portion of my journey. Sitting at the station I witnessed about twenty loud and tall farang men get off a bus and parade into the station. As though we were kids on a field trip, the old man gave us all yellow stickers that would alert us to which bus we were to get on. He must've overlooked the fact that our bus was actually red.

That is the good part.

No sooner was I congratulating myself on being a self-reliant traveler than I was foolishly robbed on the bus during a nap. I assumed that the kindness I had been experiencing all day would also be doled out by the bus attendants. Only cash was taken though so I guess this could be seen as a sort of kindness. Well in the end I pissed off a cab driver who was also trying to rob me and I finally got my visa changed.

Tonight well - tonight was probably the best of all. A waitress at a restaurant I frequent for dinner had been refusing to communicate with me on account that I have poor pronunciation. That waitress took my order tonight. I don't know why that thrills me; maybe I'm feeling accepted.

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