Man, lady and dude

We live in Bangna, this small little district about 20 minutes (in good traffic) from the heart of Bangkok. Bangna is growing, but it is small none-the-less and sometimes we have a hard time getting taxi-drivers to understand where it is we really live, or finding taxi drivers that want to take us "aaaaaalll the way to Bangna." Despite kind of living in "the boonies," we love Bangna. We love it because we are forced to try to learn a little bit of Thai here and there since people around here really speak NO English. Additionally, it is not nearly as polluted or busy as downtown Bangkok and we really have everything that we need within 10 minutes of us.

As we have gotten to know Bangna a little bit better, we have started to recognize different vendor's faces and food places We frequent getting grilled fish, soup (see soup haiku) and fruit from local vendors in the area, but due to our lack of conversation Thai, we haven't learned these nice people's names. Instead, we have affectionately referred to these three people as: "Fruit dude," "Soup lady" and "Fish man."

Within the past few weeks, "Fruit dude" has become a "friend" of ours. He greets us on the street, even when we aren't buying fruit from him and will wai us. He has also taught us the names of the different fruits that he says. He revels in calling us "farong," which means "foreigner" or "guava," depending on the tone. He was the first person to call me a foreigner too-- which makes me like him even more since he didn't assume that I was Thai. I finally got around to learning how to ask someone's name, so we found out that his name is Tong Soo. Don't ask me which tones to use though. I've said his name to him several times and I am sure that I have botched it up every time, but he just smiles and says yes that is his name. I think he just likes that we try... that we try to get to know him, that we try to learn the fruit names, that we try to make it a point to say hello even if we aren't buying fruit.

And isn't that what everyone wants from others--to feel acknowledged, appreciated, payed attention to, loved, and valued?


Pictures and names of "Soup lady" and "Fish man" to come! :)