An Interesting Pick-Up Line...

Today, a man at the bus stop asked me for the time. He was sitting about three feet away from me. It was a little odd because I'd noticed him walking past me and then he did a double-take (for no reason known to me) as I was counting change in my pocket to see if I had enough for the bus.

"It's 4:30," I answered. (This was all in Thai.)

He kept staring at me. He appeared to be in his mid- to late-30s, wearing a navy shirt and pants and flip flops. I put on my sunglasses and deliberately stared off into space, not facing him. Then he asked me something in Thai I couldn't quite catch.

"Pardon? I'm sorry, I don't speak much Thai." (Only half a lie, and why did I even care if I did?)
"Are you Korean?"
"No, I'm Chinese." (Hell no was I going to tell him I was American. The perception here is that everyone in American is rich and that asshole in my Thai class doesn't help things. I didn't want to be ripped off.)
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"I'm going home."
"Where is home?"
Oh shit, I thought.
"I don't know how to say it in Thai." (Another lie.)
"Rama IX Road?" he asked?
"No, no, I live off Patthanakan Road, near Soi 53." (Not true.)
"Can I go home with you?"
"Excuse me???"
"Can I go home with you?"
"Um...NO YOU MAY NOT."

And with that, he jumped off the bench and jumped onto a nearby sawngthaew, bringing me much relief because the last thing I wanted was for him to follow me on the bus, which arrived a minute after he left.

Over dinner, my cousin Hui (not Hua - Hui is one year older) and Ying, one of my cousin's nannies for the kiddies, asked me why I didn't put on my headphones and ignore him. I said because my headphones obviously belonged to an iPod and I didn't want him thinking I was a good target for a mugging. They agreed with this and my explanation for why I didn't say I was Amerian and only knew English. For all I knew, he could have spied the Calvin Klein watch on my wrist that was a gift from Hua and Hui during my last visit here or my Nike jacket. Nike isn't that big a deal in the U.S. but in Thailand it's quite expensive consiering you can get a warm-up jacket at the market for $5.

I don't speak English in public unless absolutely necessary and even then, it's only after I try Chinese or labor through Thai anyway. But my progress in two weeks of class is a really pleasant surprise, in addition to my recollection of Chinese. This morning I managed to have a conversation in Thai and Chinese with my aunt, and now I can speak to my cousins more.

Samut Songkhlam has to wait until Saturday because of schedule conflicts for my cousins, so that means instead of a leisurely Friday morning followed by a 90 minute drive to the resort, I will once again wake up at the slightly after the ass-crack of dawn to hitch a ride downtown so I can stop by the Vietnamese embassy to pick up my visa before, yup, you guessed it, yoga and class. I'm not sure how yoga will go tomorrow though, as I did something to my hipflexer today, but I made friends with one of the instructors, Anand. He so cute. I'm taking his class tomorrow. Today he assisted Dr. Adrish, who is really cool. Dr. Adrish asked some people in the class why they were doing yoga, and some of the stick thin ones answered "to get in shape" (to which he replied "um, you are in shape, you are tiny") or "to lose weight" ("you have no weight to lose!").

He told us that Indian men liked their women fat. That's what their minds were accustomed to seeing and to break the habits of the mind is difficult. Indian men grow up seeing fat mothers, fat aunts, fat grandmothers and learn to associate that fat with beautiful. I guess they must not be attracted to any women in Thailand then...