So at last the Xmas and New Year celebrations are over and normal service resumed. New Year here was celebrated as usual with the Florist "do". It all looked lovely set out on the beach and the food was a bit better than the Xmas do. The receptionist and Thai, the head housekeeper looked resplendent in their golden outfits.
But by the time 9 o'clock came and I had seen the entertainment highlight - the juggling bartender again - I gave up on the party and crept back to my room. The band weren't too bad though singing lounge type music, but instead of the normal American accents singers tend to have, these guys were clearly singing in Tinglish! John Denver's "Tae me hoe, coutree row" will never sound the same again.
And I am finding another linguistic use of the spurious "a" that is so useful in my Tinglish here - as in "your sawimmng pool is satill gareen". I have been trying to find a particular battery so I asked in a shop where the batteries were. Blank look so I tried the singular, battery. Still got a blank look. Even trying to mime battery proved impossible after I realised her calculator was solar powered... Then she came up with the idea of Google translate and got her phone. I duly tap in "battery" the result is that she gave us that smiling realisation and an "ah, batterya". That extra "a" did the trick again. In the end she didn't have the one I wanted so I tried a couple of other shops. In both the request for battery produced the blank look, but then asking for "batterya" was immediately smilingly understood! Another tool in my linguistic armoury.
And now that the holidays are over Carole has got here and we are chillin' out with the best of 'em and of course doubling the why why throughput in Mae Nam. The odd crisis when the French Cafe had no rose or why why and we he to resort to beer but we manage... We also went to a new lunch place that's opened yesterday. The first couple of times we looked it all looked a bit healthy with vegetarian tapas and Yoga sessions but as soon as we realised why why was available in we went. The guy running it recognised us from last year. He used to have a rather hippy looking bar on the beach with hammocks and daybeds and sunset cocktails. It appears some Russians made him an offer for the bar that he couldn't refuse so he sold it and now has a clothes shop and this restaurant on the proceeds. From what I can understand he insists he warned the Russians that road access wouldn't be available if a non Thai bought the land but the Russians ignored that. And now if you walk past he says you will see the Russian family sitting on their bare patch of sand with no business at all. A salutary lesson in Thai property transactions. We did make sure we double checked our bill....
Chinese tourists get a really bad press over here due to their bad manners, general hygiene and complete lack of cultural sensitivity. A couple of nights ago we got an insight into some of that. A Chinese couple came into the little Thai restaurant we were eating in with a load of takeaway food they'd bought elsewhere. They ordered some drinks and then proceeded to feast on said takeaway and at one point demanded chopsticks to use. If you are eating your breakfast, look away now.... a well as the noise of said eating with great open mouths, every so often the half chewed food was taken out and inspected before putting it back for further chewing. They were completely oblivious to the retching imitations, disapproving looks and loud tut tutting coming from the two Brits at the next table... Really gross.... And then as we walked home some Thai's had set up what looked like a mobile barber's shop with people queueing up for ear cleaning, just what you don't want to see on your way home after dinner! This sort of cultural diversity I can do without.
And by the way, for anyone still wondering, there are occasional Xmas miracles, the Mont Claire sparkly Brut, whilst not like champagne, was a drinkable wine. Result!
