A spooky story about Thai people abroad

Westerners in Thailand seem to be divided into three kinds when it comes to social interaction with other westerners who are strangers to them. And these differences are most commonly exhibited in Tesco Lotus and Big C stores up-country. There are some who will go out of their way to make contact, by eye, a smile, or a greeting. There is another group (larger?) that will avoid any contact at all costs. A third group doesn't quite know what to do but usually adopts the avoiding practice while feeling a little guilty about doing so. A blog I read recently deals with this whole matter in an interesting and amusing way and you can read it HERE .

This never seems to be a problem for Thais living abroad, at least not when there are very few other Thais in the area. They always seem to seek out others and are completely un-selfconscious about doing so. And they don't get snubbed, except when the 'Thai' turns out to be a Filipino/Filipina.

Here are two people Pensri and I have got to know here in England. Perhaps you can distinguish certain facial characteristics which might suggest why we get on so well together.

Yes, that's right. They are from Isan. (And they only dress like this at Christmas.)

But that is only part of the story. How we came to meet is an example of the kind of spooky occurrence (coincidence seems much too light-weight a word for it) that Thais are prone to.

Pensri woke up one morning and told me that she had been dreaming about her parents' house in Phana.  Nothing unusual in that, almost all her frequent dreams in England are located in Phana and involve her parents.  This dream was about the steep stairs which had been re-located when the house had been extended some forty or more years ago. She went on to say that she had probably dreamed about this because the man who had put in the stairs was the father of Khun Ta Kongrit and she had been thinking about this man a lot in the days before the dream. Why have you been thinking about Khun Ta Kongrit,  I asked. He taught me to write Thai when I was a student at Matayom Phana School, she said. He used to say I was the best writer he had taught. At the time, Pensri was writing a history of Phana, so I could see why she should be thinking along these lines.

Probably because we were thinking about Phana and talking about it, we decided to go to a small town about 20 miles away to have lunch at a Thai restaurant which we had seen but never been to. The owner greeted us and was delighted to hear Pensri say she came from Amnat Charoen Province because his wife did, too. In fact she came from Amphur Muang Amnat Charoen. I'm from Phana, said Pensri. That's amazing, he said, because my wife's brother is married to a woman from Phana and she is our head chef here. Naturally, she was brought out to meet us. And that is how we have become friends.

She is the youngest daughter of Khun Ta Kongrit!

The restaurant is at Pershore, and is called Thai Legend. It is one of the best (most authentic) Thai restaurants I have come across in England, and the head chef is great.

Comments

[Boonsong]

It's known fact that all Thais are related to one another. There's no contamination in this gene pool!
Thanks for an interesting post.

All the best, Boonsong

[Mike]

An interesting tale Lawrence and definitely spooky. I must admit I am getting less sarcastic(sceptical) as time goes on when it comes to some things Duen does and says.

Unless of course its related to winning combinations on the Thai lottery :-)

[Lawrence]

Thanks for your comments. Not sure about the gene pool, Boonsong, since I've done a bit of contaminating myself.

As for the lottery numbers, Mike, we'll reserve judgement because I bet Duen'll turn up the winners one of these days.