Reflexions ...

Today I was taking the MRT to again another random location to pass time ;-) and while I sat down with my music playing I realised that after 3,5 months of being here I still hadn't gotten used to some of the behaviours here. I started thinking about it when I noticed that the guy sitting across from me (big, tall and macho guy ... for Asian norms ;-) ) had nails that were about 1cm longer than mine and seemed perfectly manicured. Well most of the times it's just the pinkie nail but this isn't the first guy with 'female hands' I saw.

Okay this comes close to what I deal with on a daily base ;-)

Another thing I haven't gotten used to ... is the burping and the sniffing of their snot. People who know me can probably imagine the evil look I give them ;-) but they just continue sniffing away 15cm away from my ear.

Another thing ... now that I'm getting the hang of this ... even though I sometimes check my clothes to make sure I haven't accidentally forgot to wear clothes that day when some Indian guy is staring without shame and without looking away ... It also sometimes feels that to other people I could easily take the MRT naked and probably nobody would even notice ... that is to say that a lot of the times I just feel like I'm invisible ... and I guess this is one of the things that still annoy me the most. To give you an example: for the last 3,5 months, every time I walk to the MRT I always seem to pass two or three people walking next to each other and they NEVER move for me ... right before bumping into somebody I always have to walk on the street or in the grass because really, they don't move ... so I developed a new walk where I walk really fast and kind of slightly wave my arms when I march so they might get afraid of me ... :-) ... sometimes this works, sometimes I end up just "accidentally" hitting someone in the side. Today however I came home from the store and since I don't have a car here I'm always loaded like a mule with 5 bags in each hand ... while this tiny little lady and her husband were walking on the same path ... my arms were about to fall off from the weight ... I was like ... "this time I'm not going to move one inch" ... result ... frontal collision, where I almost dropped my bags and I started swearing in Dutch but she didn't even look back ... they just kept walking. Also, today, I was waiting in line in a store because I bought a new skirt ... when this lady pretends to be looking at something near the cashier and just cuts in front of me ... this is not the first time off course this happened ... so I said "excuse me I'm waiting here" but she just nodded like "yes, lady I can see that" and she didn't move. When the lady before me had finished paying it was a battle of who had the longest arms me or the other lady (which kind of made me feel like a 5 year old ... but she had it coming) ... so this was one of the times I was glad to be 1m80 and therefor have longer arms than the average population ;-)

Well enough complaining for today :-) ... normally I would complain to Wim about all this but he's back in Belgium for a few days and I should probably not nag too much when I'm on the phone with him ... because I'd like him to still come back ;-) ... but my next post will be one of peace and tranquility since it will be the report of me and Wim going on the first trip just the two of us since we've been here ... to lovely Krabi :-) :-)