Farang Entertainment

I biked to the train station today to buy my sleeper car tickets from Bangkok to Chumphon.  I went up to the ticket counter and the following conversation ensued.  [4 Characters in this story: me, ticket lady, uniformed ticket man who stood behind ticket lady, person uniformed ticket man was talking to on the phone.]

 

Me - Sawadee Ka.  (Hello)  Do you speak English?

Ticket Lady - (Turns to Uniformed ticket man)  somethinginthaithatididn'tunderstand

Ticket Man - (Gives me the phone he was talking into)

Me - (Thinking that the person on the phone would help me and speak English.)  Hello?  Can you help me?

Phone Man - HAHHAHAHAHAAAAAA

Me - (Still trying)  Hello? 

PM - Hello?

Me - Do you speak English?

PM - HAHAHAAAAAA

Me - Hello?

PM - HAHAHHAHAAAAAA

Me - (Turning to Ticket Man) The man is just laughing.  HAHAHA laughing.

Ticket Man - HAHHAHHAAAAA   (Takes phone from me)  somethinginthaithatididn'tunderstand

Me - (Waits, unsure of what to do.  Fear that I can't get to Ko Tao to dive surface.  How will I get there?  What am I going to do?)

TM - (Hangs up phone and then in perfect English)  How can I help you?

 

I was entertainment.  Pure and simple.  Just because I am Asian, doesn't mean I can speak Thai.  Just because I don't speak Thai doesn't mean I deserve to be laughed at.  Farangs (foreigners) like us help drive your freakin economy and put money in your wallet.  Why were they so rude?

 

Regardless, I bought my tickets.  And even though I checked on the website to confirm that there is a sleeper train, in reality, there isn't one.  I will be riding in a night train for 8 hours sitting up and go diving 4 hours after arriving.  With my luck, I'll be sitting next to a fat smelly guy who's going to try to grope me.  Exciting isn't it?