Our neighbor (can't remember her name... lets call her Suey) offered to take us off the beaten path to a temple. She runs a little bar a couple houses down on our soi. Brian started drinking at her place because the beers are cheap. She sales them for the same price as 7-11 without the walk. A good place for a social gathering too.
It took all day to put together her story in a linear form... Here's my attempt...
She moved to America at the age of 10. Her parents sent her to Catholic Boarding school in Pennsylvania by herself. She did ROTC in High School and went straight into the U.S. Army. She went to law school for the army and medical school for the army. She served for 38 years. She flies an American flag outside of her shop on our soi. She is proud to be an American and have served. She has dual citizenship. She is divorced and has 3 daughters. All of them are in the Army. Two years ago she learned how to speak Thai.
She married a guy in law school who turns out to be a Scott. Apparently, the Scott family is a rich plantation-slave owning family from back in the day who owned property in the south.
These details matter little except... they don't really equate to an average Thai person's life.
We got pulled over twice while on our way to the temple.
Prior to getting pulled over I asked about how tickets work in Thailand. I told her our story earlier when we first arrived with the taxi. I said they pulled us over but gave us no ticket. The driver didn't give the officer money. She said the driver probably did hand over money, I just didn't notice. The police are so corrupt here that you every time they pull you over its for extra change... especially if your a farang. That wasn't any new news to me, but I still didn't understand how I missed the exchange of money when I first arrived.
I was sitting in back of the driver. Yes, she has a personal driver. She doesn't driver herself in Thailand...in her words, "Are you crazy?!?!?!"
Anyway, when the police approached the window with his pen and notepad, I did notice that he leaned his hand into the car. It looked like he was just leaning against the window with his pen, but I'm sure this is the standard position where you would slip some money into his hand. I must have missed this my first day in Thailand.
They kept jabbering away in Thai. Finally, the driver got out and walked with the police man to the back of the truck. I thought that was where he was dishing out some money, but I was wrong. He was showing the officer the license plate.
After we got back on the road, Suey explained to us that it had her family name on the license plate. Later, she explained it wasn't her name on the plate but the number 3 at the beginning that means something. She was very candid in talking about it, but equates it to be like the Kennedy's in the States.
My mouth dropped. We keep running into the riches people in Thailand.
As the day continued she explained that two families own Pattaya and Jomtien. Her mom's side and her dad's side. She got lucky and wasn't forced to marry her cousin. She said she got lucky again when her betrothed cousin got killed in combat and really didn't have to follow family plans. When we drove back through town, she pointed out everything that was her uncles, aunts, grandfathers, ect... and talked about how it used to be mango plantations or fields. Reminded me of my fathers recollections of good ole' Hawaii.
When we were heading toward the temple, we saw a funeral. Similar to the States, there was a line of cars following a police car. However, there was no hearse with the coffin... no no... just an open pick up truck with the coffin sitting in the bed of the truck. Family members were letting money fly in the wind down the road, and held picture frames of the recently deceased next to the coffin. Suey said they probably died in an accident or in a hospital. If they would have died at home, the whole funeral would be different. The money is to pay way for the spirit to find it's way back home since they died somewhere else... or something to that effect.
I dug deeper. She had mentioned her parents died last year. She came back to Thailand to take care of the preparations a.k.a her inheritance. Her fathers funeral lasted 15 days and 10-20,000 people showed up. I do not know who her father was, but needless to say he was a VIP. They made 3 million baht in donations. They donated it to the temple.
I realize you have to take everything with a grain of salt when conversing with other people... especially Thai's... but somehow I don't think her stories are complete bullsh*t. Maybe a little bit exaggerated... but not completely false.
So at this point... I'm putting all the pieces together... and actually realizing who we are rolling with. I must say as I am writing this, I need to reiterate how broken the stories are and how nicely I have put them together.
So... in short... it's good to know SUEY! haha.... To bad shes heading back to the States in the next month. Hopefully, she will be back :0)
We made it to the temple. Long drive.... practically drove to Koh Chang! Seats over hear are not comfortable!
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| These little 'rock' houses are everywhere with temples/statues on top. So interesting. Monks live in them. |
We went to a Buddah Park. It's like an outdoor temple museum. Definitely not something you would find in tour books or be aware of unless someone showed you. Very nice quiet place set up in a forest. It was a nice cool day, but the mosquitoes were out full force. The ground is covered in moss and makes for a slippery walk. Luckily, I didn't fall!
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| Some of the deadly moss. |
We were suppose to go to the beach afterwards, but the driver got word that his mother had died. How awful is that! Apparently, they were trying to reach him for 2 days!!! Talk about foreshadowing... anyway, next weekend we might try again.
Yay for meeting people on our street!
