"Stop that noise this minute!’ a Thai man yelled.
Sitting at my computer, I heard the noise come through my window, and sat up with a start.
I hardly ever hear Thais around hear raise their voices.
It was almost 5pm last Friday, and a Thai living in my condo had obviously had enough noise for one day.
His target was a group of labourers, demolishing part of a condo next to us (see picture). In the several weeks they have been working there, the noise levels have grown steadily worse.
The labourers promptly stopped work. No one stood up to the man who lost his temper. I barely heard a peep from the labourers as they packed their tools for the day and left.
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I would like to borrow the services of the hot-headed man, should I ever identify him, to tackle another noise problem around here.
A teenager who lives in the slum section nearby races through the precincts of this condo on his motorbike many times a day.
His motorcycle is fitted with one of those noisy exhausts which teens love. He passes through this condo on his way to the main road.
It is a convenient shortcut, and the security guards obligingly lift the barrier arm at the entrance and exit to the place whenever he approaches, to let him through.
‘Why do you lift the barrier?' I asked one security guard the other day.
'That young man races through this place at all hours of the night, just for fun. He wakes up residents, and doesn’t even live here,’ I said.
Aged in his 60s, the guard speaks softly, with his head bowed so I can barely hear what he says. ‘If I don’t lift the barrier, I am afraid he will come back with his mates from the neighbourhood in the middle of the night and beat me up,’ he said sadly.
I will have to fix this problem, I told myself. I could tell the condo office that they are employing a security guard who is too timid to do his job, but that would be mean.
I could try finding the hot-tempered Thai man in my condo building, to ask him if he’s as annoyed as I am by the young man with the noisy bike.
Or perhaps I could try tracking down the lad himself, or his parents. I know where he ‘hangs’, as young people like to say. Shall I risk it?
4 comments:
ReplyDeleterobert20 September 2009 at 02:15
this post really made me laugh...... especially as the house across the street here in chiang mai is having some remodeling done and the noise is awesome.... the bangkok owners came, spent a weekend and realized they had let it go so long it now needed major repairs..... naturally they are gone and we who live here hear the noise..... so please ask your loud voiced neighbor if he would make a phonecall here and accomplish the same???
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Bkkdreamer20 September 2009 at 05:53
Thai builders are notorious for doing their own thing when no one is around to supervise. When the owners return they might find the builders have turned their home into a bath house.
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Anonymous20 September 2009 at 07:35
At the risk of sounding like a prudish old lady....going round to his place would just make him worse, l'm sure, and put you at risk. :(
Are there higher authorities you can turn too, to stop his access? Police or tacs on the road, what about one of those nail things police use to stop cars...oops who said that? :P
Wilko x
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Bkkdreamer20 September 2009 at 07:47
I might have to wait to catch him myself, though I would have to be standing at the barrier arm just as the time he hoped to pass.
Kids don't listen, do I can't see much point in talking to him alone or even with friends. Still, I might be left with no choice if no one else is prepared to tackle the problem.
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