english

ENGLISH

I met these two great guys about ten days ago, or so I think it was about ten days ago because the days have been so much fun that they are a bit of a blur.  I was eating noodles from my favourite street vendor on Petchaburi Road in Bangkok and another foreigner comes to sit down at my table, the only available seat.  Turns out that he has just flown in from England for his umpteenth visit, and this street vendor is his favourite as well.  So we laugh, order a beer, and basically hit it off.  He is staying at the Opera Hotel, same as me, a place I have been staying twenty years. 

Anyway, he asks me if I have ever taken a motorcycle taxi.  I have, I tell him, in a  different area of Bangkok, but never downtown.  So we leave the noodle stand and take two motorcycle taxis to his favourite bar.  And it's a little bit wild, riding through the dense traffic of Bangkok on the back of a motorcycle.  Motorcycles have different rules, and that's the advantage.  They can weave in and out through the traffic; they can even go on the sidewalk if need be.  They are the same price as a taxi, but they crisscross across the city in a much more efficient way. 

But for sure, on my first experience it was a tiny bit scary. 

When we got to the bar we had a very good time.  English (I call him English and he calls me Jerry, because he thinks I look like Jerry Springer) makes me laugh (and laugh and laugh).  I understand way more Thai at this point than I understand his English, "shagging the birds...", but I've learned to just say "yes, yes," even though I haven't a clue what he's saying. 

So we were sitting in the bar and another guy comes to sit with us.  His name is Mark, Mark from Australia.  Mark is 52 years old, English is a baby (35).  Mark renovates golf courses in Asia.  He was three years in Vietnam, three years working for the horrible generals in Burma.   His Thai is excellent.  We talk about green manure and fertilizers, tropical soils and tree legumes.  And meanwhile English sputters away about shagging the birds. 

We go from one bar to the next, giggling like teenagers, behaving like teenagers.  I've no idea what hour the evening ended, but I think that we'll all be friends for a long time.  They'll come visit the farm.  And now we chitchat on our cell phones (very cheap in Thailand), still giggling away. 

Oh, and about the motorcycle taxis:  my third or fourth time, probably after a few beers, I decided to relax.  I hold on tight, wear a helmet, and then just enjoy the ride.  I think of it as a kind of yoga of motorcycles.  Every driver I've had has been excellent, so I just sit in back and cruise through the city.  I wish that I could relax in life the same way that I now relax on the motorcycles.  Maybe that's for later.

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