When traveling to foreign land....

I have recently come home from an afternoon at the beach followed by my usual trip to the Thursday market for corn, pineapple, chicken on a stick, and watermelon.  Life is rough here, you can pity my life later, first enjoy this post.

While standing in line with pineapple in hand and watermelon a short distance away from my hungry paw I am patiently waiting to pay when a lovely(?) woman pushes her way in front of me and grabs a pineapple.  I stare in disbelief and slight amusement, as I often do when this situation happens.  I laugh and think "how are you so oblivious?".  But instead of pushing my way through I figure I will see what other antics this woman has in store.  This proved to be a fruitful decision.  No pun intended.

She grabs her pineapple and shoves it at the guy taking money, all while he is clearly involved with another customer.  He gives a glance and smile, she pushes the fruit closer to him and yells, in Russian.  By her gestures and she has told him she "Wants the freaking pineapple now!  And cut it for me would you?"

He calmly finishes up what he is doing and makes a gesture to her about her wanting the stem broken off and she nods.  So he does as indicated puts it in about 3 plastic bags because that is how they roll here in Thailand and hands it back to her.

She then raises her voice yet again and demands more.....  then points at the woman sitting a few feet away carving away at pineapples in this beautiful spiral.  Seriously, it is gorgeous the way that they cut pineapple here, making it perfectly edible.  Anyways.  The woman carving the pineapple is clearly belonging to another sort of business and her pineapples are different.

Naturally the kind Thai guy indicates not the same, by saying, on English "not the same", and then hands her her bag again.

She proceeds by raising her voice another 3 octaves and spewing out even more Russian, which is clearly not  language often used by Thai's and then stands there and stares at him.  Of course I have a grin on my face as I watch her antics in a foreign country.  I then pass him my fruit and tell him I would also like a watermelon, in Thai.  He laughs at my smile and we share a small moment of enjoyment of this woman's distress over her un-cut pineapple.

This obviously makes her more upset as she begins to yell and demand more, not just to the guy but now to the woman cutting the gorgeous pineapples.  Asking, in English, how much it costs to have that done...... 45 baht the woman answers in English, and the pineapple is 30 baht.  At least we have reached a common language here, though broken, communication is happening!.

I can no longer control myself and I laugh hard, which only causes the fruit guy to laugh and smile and then the woman cutting the pineapple to chuckle.  Not a wise move because now the Russian woman is yelling in Russian, and I think she is saying "I want the pineapple and I want it cut so get it for me now".  The more she yells the harder we all laugh.  And even though I have what I want I cannot simply walk away from this amusement.

To top off the whole scenario, while they (her friends have now joined her at the fruit stand), stand there and stare at the pineapple being delicately and lovingly carved they decide to try some random packaged fruit.  Being that I have eaten this "random" fruit before I recognize it as durian, which quite honestly tastes pretty decent if you can get past the smell, of gym socks, that it is well-known for. They tear into it and before they can realize the smell they shove it in their faces, and low and behold it is time for me to walk away because once in their mouth the smell hits them and they begin to pale slightly in shock, then grab their pineapple and walk off briskly.

Still laughing as I walk away we share another moment of enjoyment in the yelling and impossibility of foreigners.

So, I write this post because I think when you travel to any country you should learn a few words of the language rather than just assuming they will speak your native tongue.  Words like "how much", "please", "thank you", "yes", and "no" will suffice.  Gestures are great and do wonders but words will at least let people know you acknowledge you are no longer in YOUR country and you understand that things might not go your way.  In addition, understanding does not come from raising your voice or speaking slower.  It comes from compromise on both parties behalf.

Language is important and equally important is an understanding of the cultural norms wherever you are traveling.  So buy a lonely planet and read it when you travel, or use the wonderful invention of internet to find out such things like when you yell in Thailand you will either be ignored or laughed at.

PS: please do not come to Thailand and strut your beautiful body around half or fully naked on the beach, most Thais swim with their clothes on and the body is exposed with discretion.

Love!