25 Years Life in Thailand

Post Office (2) In December 2002, I wrote a few Calendars with the Seasons Greetings to friends and family. I went to the local Post Office to send them. There was a lot of people that day, I took a queue number and joined the queue. Suddenly, a lady entered the Post Office, took a queue number and went in front of me. She was dressed in old Thai style (a shirt and a a sarong) and started to talk loudly and said that I was a foreigner and foreigners should respect Thai people and let them go first. I did not respond to her rant, but that seemed only to have an averse result. She continued her rant about foreigners and Thai people. "Foreigners are only a guest in Thailand; Foreigners are filthy people who take only 1 shower a day; Etc." While she was shouting her rant, 2 employees of the Post Office came from behind their desk, took the lady and escorted her to the door. One of the employees told her that she was not welcome in their Post Office and she should seek for...

Post Office (1) In December 2002, I received a letter from the Retirement Funds which I needed to fill-in and return within 1 month. It was a "Proof of Life". If the letter was not returned in 1 month, the retirement funds would stop to pay my retirement. By the time the letter arrived in Thailand, almost 2 weeks were already gone. I filled the letter and let it sign by the Immigration Police in Nakhon Ratchasima. The post office was already closed by the time I finished at the Immigration Police, but at The Mallc there was a post office which was open until 8 pm. I went to The Mall and send the letter by EMS, whih would be in time to arrive in Belgium. I received a tracking number which let me follow the route of the letter. But 2 days later, the tracking showed that the letter was still in Nakhon Ratchasima. I went to the main post office and asked the person at the counter why my letter was still in Nakhon Ratchasima after 2 days. He went to the room of the Chief of t...

Kalina End 1999, while on my visit to Thailand and meet my new employers, I had a last meeting before returning to Belgium. The meeting place was at the Condominium of my new employers in Bangkok. We discussed the details of my job at the Petro-Chemical plant in Rayong, my salary for the job, etc. Around 6 pm, we took a break to eat dinner. The daughter of one of my future employers, Kalina, was also present at the meeting, but playing in the swimming pool. Kalina's father was divorced and his wife left him with their daughter. As we were having a break, Kalina (about 9 years old), took the opportunity to have a chat with me and showing me the facilities she had at the Condominium. She grabbed my hand and lead me to a hall full of music instruments. Proudly, she started to play on a piano. She was learning to play the piano by a teacher engaged by the Condominium. But she didn't know that I had several degrees in Music and had been teaching Music in a school in Belgium. I...

My Father's Ring In January 2013, the relation with my wife had become impossible and I choose to divorce. At first, she started to ask for huge financial demands to sign the divorce. But after a few discussions and pointing her to the facts that I had prove of her gambling addiction and that she was failing to be a good wife, she agreed to sign the divorce papers without a court case. I let her take her belongings and she left the conjugal home. A few weeks after we divorce, she called me to tell me something "very important". Since 2008, when I found out that she was constantly "stealing" money out of my pockets while I was sleeping, I decided to buy a small safe where I used to keep my valuables and my purse before sleeping. But somehow, she had managed to open the safe and steal a ring that I had been keeping for many years without being noticed. Later I found out that she had instructed my daughter to watch closely which numbers I was dialing to open t...

 Winter Music One evening, in the cold season end of 2002, while watching TV with my wife and my daughter, I hear a strange sound outside. It was a sound like a violin with only 1 string. Same as cricket sound. I went outside, but could not see what was making this sound. The sound came from far away and it was already twilight. I asked my wife what that noise was, but she did never hear something like this. So, I decided to inquire it the next day. The sound, which had turned into an annoying noise, kept playing the whole night and keeping me awake. In the morning, after my breakfast, I wanted to look what was causing the noise. But it was quiet outside. The annoying sound was gone. I went on with my daily business, until sundown. At sundown, the noise started again. Not only did the noise start again, but now the sound seemed to come from different locations. Needless to say that I spend another night without sleeping. In the morning, while I was watering my garden, the postman c...

Teaching English In 2000, while on holiday for Songkran, I went with my girlfriend to her home village in Chaiyaphum It was a very small farmers village with old wooden houses and very little comfort. No kitchen, no bathroom (people took a shower outside near the water collecting earthen tanks), electricity was generated on limited hours by a diesel generator at the house of the head of the village, etc. The village counted about 50 inhabitants and everybody helped each other as much as they could. The head of the village owned the only car (pickup). There was also a very modest Buddhist temple which served as the local school. The children were taught basic knowledge from 9 am to 12 pm by the monks and were required to clean the temple and the surroundings in the afternoon. Each farmer had been given a little piece of farmland (rice field) and a few chickens to provide for their daily life according to the "self sufficiency plan" from King Bhumipol. When I arrived at th...

A snake In May 2006, I was reading my emails while my wife was washing the laundry in the back of my house. All of the sudden, I hear my wife screaming for help. Fearing that she had an accident, I ran outside. My wife was standing at the washing machine and on the concrete fence of my house was a snake dangling. The snake was about 1.8 meter long. I took my wife inside while watching the snake. This was my first encounter with a snake. I took the ceiling broom which had a long shaft and tried to kick the snake of the fence. After a few kicks the snake fell on the ground and slithered under the washing machine. The washing machine was a semi automatic machine with 2 drums. As the snake was hiding under the washing machine, I switched it on. The machine started to run but after a few minutes, the machine made a loud noise and stopped. I tumbled the washing machine and strangled in the belt was the snake, cut in pieces.

Cables In 2007, I called an electrician to make some additional wiring in my house. Some lighting and outlets in my carport, lighting around my house on the outside, some outlets in my kitchen, etc. The electrician came to look at the work to do and made me an estimate of the price. In Europe, the electrical wires are embedded in the wall. More aesthetic and safe. I asked the electrician to do the wiring like in Europe, embedded in the wall. He looked at me, at my wife and asked: "Do you really want me to put the wiring in plastic pipes in the wall"?. I answered him that I wanted to electric wiring in my house embedded in the wall. Outside the house he could do the wiring "the Thai way"? I looked at my wife and she nodded her head. We agreed on the price and the next, early in the morning, he came back with 4 helpers. 2 workers, very young boys, started to cut a slice in the wall and insert an electric pipe whilst the other 2 workers were...

Smoke In 2000, while commuting with my boss from Bangkok to Rayong, we pass a Buddhist temple. It was cremating a corpse and there was a lot of black smoke coming out of the chimney. I said to my boss, "I have been working the last 8 years for an Incinerator company, and the company was proud to build incinerators which didn't produce smoke. Environment friendly. In Belgium, any factory or individual who was producing such a lot smoke would get a hefty fine and closed down immediately." My boss started to laugh as he answered me: "Thai people have a different logic than in most western countries. A factory which has a chimney and is producing smoke is a good factory. The people who live around the factory and see smoke coming out of the chimney, that's a sign that the factory is good working. When no smoke comes out of the chimney, it is a sign that the factory is not working anymore. The same logic applies to the temples." That was my Lesson #1 in Thai logi...

 Kindergarten In 2005, my daughter had reached the age on which she needed to go to school. "Kindergarten" school. I discussed about this with a few friends and they recommended to send my daughter to "Khor Kai" Kindergarten school. This school was located near my house. I went with my wife and my daughter to visit this school, and we all liked it. We enrolled my daughter to this school, got a list of the things she needed to bring to school "a small backpack, a sleeping mattress, pencils, paper, etc. and 2 sets of uniforms. As I had no car at that time, I asked to bring and fetch my daughter with the private schoolbus. The next Monday, the schoolbus came to pick-up my daughter, a Nissan minivan with a driver and 1 teacher. At 3:40pm, the schoolbus returned with my daughter. Everything seemed to be fine .......... until end October 2006. End October 2006, the schoolbus came back with my daughter. The driver stepped out of the schoolbus and fall down. I t...

Electric Counter In 2004, I received a letter from the retirement funds that my pension would stop because of some papers that were missing. I send a few mails to the Retirement funds and even called their help-line, but at no avail. I needed to go to Belgium and fix my pension. I told my wife that I would need to travel to Belgium and she (and my daughter) wanted to travel with me. I booked a flight to Belgium and started to pack everything. But I had already spend lot's of money on house items (television, DVD player, synthesizer, kitchen items, etc.) and was not keen to leave my house unguarded. Specially because there had been some burglars roaming in the village and ransacked some houses. Also some bills, like water, Cable TV and electricity needed to be paid in cash to the collector and required the tenants to be home. Talking with my wife about this, she proposed to let her mother to live in our house while we were in Belgium. I was not keen to let her mother live in my ho...

 McDonald's I like to eat Thai/Esan food. "Pad grapao lae kai daew" (rice topped with basil leaves and minced meat and a fried egg on top), "Som Tam thalae" (Spicy salad with seafood), and my favorite "Sen lek tom yam moo" (fine noodles soup with pork and very spicy). But every once in a while, I liked to eat Western food too, In Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat) were not many Western food restaurants and one of the best places at that time was Mc Donalds in The Mall. One day, I went to The Mall to buy some IT stuff and I wanted to try the hamburgers of Mc Donalds. On the door of Mc Donalds was a flyer (in English) that they were recruiting people and the minimum requirement was an University degree (that's maybe why the flyer was in English as most Thais who didn't had an university degree were illiterate in English). I went inside and looked at the menu. Arrived at the cashiere, I ordered a "Big Mac menu but with 2 Big Mac's". The cassi...

Town Hall On May 12, 2002, at 7:05, my daughter was born. While I was in the room with my wife and the baby, a nurse came in the room and gave me some papers. Everything in Thai language. I asked the nurse what the papers were meant for and her answer was that the papers were for the town hall to register my daughter. We agreed that she would be named after my aunt, "Carmen", who had passed away a few years before and at 9 am, I left for the town hall with the papers. Arrived at the town hall, I took a queue ticket and after a short time it was my turn to be attended. The lady at the counter spoke a little bit English and I told her that I came to register the birth of my daughter and gave her the documents I had received from the nurse. She started to fill in some papers, in Thai script, and after a few minutes she looked up and asked me "What name have you chosen for the baby?". "Carmen" I said. Her face turned pale and she looked at me as if I was...

A dinner table In 2003, when I had moved to Nakhon Ratchasima (Khorat), I rented a freestanding villa with some garden and a carport. The villa had no furniture or kitchen installed, and so I needed to do some upgrade work. At that time, there was almost daily pickup's loaded with furniture driving up-and-down the village. One day, one of these pickup's was driving by with a complete teak table set with 4 chairs. I went to the street and halted the pickup to see the table set and it looked quit nice. My Thai knowledge was very poor at that time and I called my wife to bargain about the table set. About a half hour later a deal was agreed (about 450 USD) and the workers started to unload the pickup and place the table inside the house. That evening, I had cooked Spaghetti (my wife's favorite meal) and asked my wife the invite our neighbours to sit with us at the new table. While I was preparing the table and the dinner, my wife went to invited the neighbors to come to e...

A Broken Arm In July 25th, 2010, my daughter asked if she could go play with her friends who lived near our house. She wanted to go skating with the skates I bought for her in June that year during a trip to Belgium. I agreed and brought her to her friends. As I needed some computer parts, I left her with her friends and went to the IT-Center. The mother of her friends was at home and watching the kids playing. Barely arrived at the computer shop, the mother of her friends called me and told me that my daughter had fallen whilst riding her skated and was crying very hard. I rushed back to the house and my daughter was crying from pain in her arm. I made a quick support for her arm with a towel and rushed to the hospital nearby. As I passed my house on the way to the hospital and told my wife that I was bringing our daughter to the hospital. But she was too busy chatting with her group of ladies about "the lucky lottery numbers". At the hospital, the Emergency doctor ask...

Songkran สงกรานต์ On April 13th, 2000, the Thai new-year was celebrated. Songkran was the Thai new year and also the start of the rainy season. Normally, people visit Buddhist temples during Songkran or sprinkle clean/scented water over statues of Buddha. Younger people also pour water on the hands of elderly relatives and friends to show their respect and ask for blessings in the coming year. But an other side of Songkran, is people (mostly foreigners) throwing water with buckets at passers-by. Mostly this water is stored in big storage tanks with ice in them. Others use high-pressure pumps or water hoses. Also, most people have talk powder with them and smear it on the face of passers-by. Needless to say that this is very dangerous and every year, Songkran counts for hundred of deaths and near a million people injured. In 2018, 679 people died from accidents in the 3 days of Songkran. I didn't like the water splashing and avoided it as much as possible, but I got splashed wit...

Loy Krathong  [ลอยกระทง] On November 21th, 1999, I had a meeting with my employer. He told me about an upcoming national festival in Thailand, "Loy Krathong". He explained that it was a big festival, where in the evening on the full moon night in November, everybody went to the sea/lake/river/etc. to float ("Loy") a "boat ("Krathong)" made of the banana plant stem and leaves. His Thai wife made every year herself this "Kratong (boat)". The Krathong was decorated with flowers, a candle, and 3 incense sticks. At the water (sea, lake, river), everybody would put some coins of money, some pieces of their hair and nails, etc., into the "boat" and push it into the water. Everybody would dress into the traditional Thai outfit for the occasion. The meaning of "Loy Krathong" was that the "boat" was supposed to carry all your troubles and bad luck away and sink into the sea. A new beginning. "Loy Krathong" w...