People I met along the way!

I just came back from my nightly swim and was reflecting on how many interesting people I met this week just looking for an apartment. Of course, the most interesting for me were the ladies of the night I talked about in the last entry. It looked like they lived in hovel, shared rooms and God knows what else, but were so generous to a stranger, offering me a beer and refusing to take money for it. That impressed me!

Today, I entered the world of little India. A guy was renting his house, or more like a townhouse with two floors and three bedrooms for about $300 a month. It was right beside the klong (canal) and therefore really quiet but to get there you had to wind your way through a labyrinth of streets getting more and more narrow and more and more Indian. It was Dawali today and when he picked me up he had a red mark on his forehead since he just returned from prayers. He was an Indian who told me about his arranged marriage to a Thai Indian and how successful his marriage turned out even though he was from a different country. He also told me that he lived in Bangkok for the past 18 years but when I asked him to speak to a taxi driver in Thai, he told me he did not speak Thai. Later on, I went on a motorcycle looking for more apartments and the driver was also an Indian who was born in Bangkok but still considered an outsider by the indigenous population. I know since I have had many talks with Indian tailors who feel quite like outsiders in their own country. Even though they went to Thai schools, speak fluent Thai they will never feel part of the country.

I should also mention that when I went to look at the house, it was pretty much what I expected with mattresses on the floor, a dank smell and clothes strewn all around. However, I did meet the three young British tenants who were teachers in Bangkok sitting around playing the guitar and hanging out on a Sunday afternoon. I guess I am really privileged and spoiled to have a neat apartment that looks and feels quite airy.

I guess what strikes me the most about all of the apartments is how people live. Some seem so inviting, but most look quite bleak. No wonder people spend so much time out of doors eating and drinking. Who would want to be inside when all you see in 4 walls and naked light bulb or two?

Did I mention in my last blog the two English guys I met who ran the restaurant at one of the apartments I went to? They were sitting in their bathing suits by the pool communicating with each other and the world by way of their computer and supposedly making fabulous business deals. They just appeared to me like two guys on vacation! One of them had incredibly bad luck. For 17 years, he said, he ran some bars in Bangkok, finally sold and got out and was thrilled to buy a million dollar hotel right on the beach in Pukhet. He told me he loved to sit on the beach, have a beer, look at his hotel and just pinch himself at his luck at living in Paradise. Right…you got it. The tsunami took care of that and the insurance gave him nothing which is why he was glad to be able to sell me French toast, one scrambled egg and tomato juice which I wish I did not order. All this for about 60 cents while he talked about making another million.

Of course, I told you about the guy with the language school whose mother owns a fabulous golf course. His father died, he told me, when he was eleven. He certainly seems to be a go getter and is quite involved in buying more important apartments and other businesses.

I also spoke yesterday with a Hawaiian guy who has lived in Bangkok for the past ten years, appears to be about thirty years old and bought about 4 townhouses and is renting out 50 square meter rooms for about $300 in quite a fashionable neighbourhood but away from the maddening crowd down some winding roads. He was very interesting but perhaps the most interesting person I met was a black woman lawyer, probably middle aged, who left a burgeoning law practice in Washington, she said, to just get away from it all for a year. She is about to start teaching kindergarten kids tomorrow. Hope she did not pay for that year lease!