how i love thee

before i get too immersed in my new vietnamese way of life, i have to write about my thai peoples lest i forget all the things that made me love them so much. here is a list of generalizations that jessy and i came up with. understand that our analysis is based on like .01% of the population. but they still made an impact on us.

thai people:

1. are not good at following context clues. there have been numerous situations when jessy and i tried to communicate by sign language, acting out the sitch, pointing, etc. for example, we both ordered coconut oil massages. it took repeated attempts pointing two fingers in the air, then one at me, then one at jessy, then pointing at the oil, etc. in a cycle that still ended with jessy getting an oil rub and me getting a skin scrub.

2. are scared of traffic and if there's the slightest threat of there being a traffic jam they will not take you or take you and be unhappy about it. similarly, they are not good at estimating the length of time that it takes to get to and from; we were told it takes 2 hours to get to the airport in heavy traffic and it took 40 minutes, and that it takes a quick 1 hour on the ferry to get to phi phi when it took over 2 hours. you just never know.

3. are not aggressive bargainers. we learned this early on. the thai person would say "500 baht," to which you can reply, "300 baht," and then he or she would say, "ok." then you kicked yourself for not going lower. but the prices were so affordable most of the time that you felt kind of bad for bargaining.

4. love soft rock. it was constantly playing; in the taxis, in the minivans, the airports, jai's mp3 player, etc...

bye thailand i can't wait to come back.