Me, new phase, Thai life!

The boyfriend is back, after two days at work. His employer alters or adapts clothes, lampshades, and shoes to order.

Customers bring in clothing or furniture items, wanting braid, flowers or other decorative bits and pieces put on them. Can do!

That information is more than six months old, dating from the last time I asked the boyfriend about his work.

When he goes to work, he tends to go for at least a day and night. This time, he went for two days and two nights. He sleeps over at his boss's place.

I tried calling a few times on the phone, but he was too busy to answer. Until recently, we sent text messages to each other. I used to send one just before coming home from work, prompting him to do whatever household tasks I asked him to perform while away, such as washing the dishes.

Now, I don't bother. I know the job will get done eventually, and life is made of bigger things.

We must have reached a new level of understanding in our relationship, where we both know that those tiresome SMS messages are no longer necessary.

Apart from that, I have made a new farang friend at work, who calls regularly at night, after our shifts end and we have returned home.

We work the same shifts, on the same days. We have hit it off, even though he is irredeemably straight. We have been drinking at Mum's shop a couple of times, and talk almost every night during the working week.

He is the first foreigner I have befriended from work in years - maybe the first ever. Before, I turned up my nose at the company of foreigners. I wanted to immerse myself in Thai life, so all my friends became Thai.

Later, I realised that this was not working. Most of my Thai friends are at least 10 years younger, are still studying, or busy carving out careers.

We have nothing in common, outside Mum's shop.

When Thais see two farang, laughing and enjoying themselves, they want to join in the fun.

They come over, hold up their glass, and say 'Cheers!'

We clink glasses - then they walk back to their drinking table, to rejoin the relative safety of their Thai friends.

My Thai friends and I talk better when my farang friend has gone home, and we are alone. But I don't call my Thai friends during the week, and they rarely call me.

Before, I relied on the boyfriend for company, when not with my drinking friends at Mum's shop. Now, thank God, I have found someone else, who couldn't give a toss about my boyfriend, or life outside work.

We haven't reached that topic yet. We are still too busy talking about life in the West, good novels, work, our shared profession...

Thai halfie threat

The company where I work is taking on more Thai-Caucasians, which might be a bad thing.

Thai half-breeds - look kreung in the local vernacular - are a potential threat to foreign migrant labourers such as myself.

Thais born to foreign parents have a distinctive look. They also tend to have good English language skills.

Like most foreigners working in Thailand, I am employed for my native English skills. Some employers hire foreigners no matter what their background or experience, as long as they have English.

My company is guilty of that sin occasionally, but on the whole tries to hire people with relevant experience and qualifications, like me.

It is obliged to do so under the labour law, but that is almost beside the point. This is Thailand, after all.

Employing foreigners involves paperwork and expense. If my company could find fluent English speakers among Thais, it would not need me.

That is why I regard the presence of look kreung in the office as a potential threat. I don't want one to supplant my job one day because he happens to have been educated overseas.

I am not privy to this company's employment strategy. Beyond the small corner of the huge open-space office which I occupy, I know little of what is going on. But I have noticed more young Thai look kreung wandering into my ambit of vision.

I saw one just now, dressed in scruffy jeans and a dark patterned shirt. 'You know what's going to happen on Monday,' he said in a broad American-accented drawl.

He was talking to a Thai guy in his 20s who wears a telephone earpiece all day. At any moment, he can start talking to himself, as he sits in front of his computer. That's what it looks like, anyway. 

This young man gets many visits from look kreung staff, perhaps because they work in the same specialist area.

They do creative, design-oriented tasks. As a mere migrant labourer, I just fix people's English.

No look kreung have yet penetrated my department, perhaps because fixing English is not seen as glamorous enough.

Some look kreung have lousy Thai, maybe because they spent too long overseas, or lost interest in their language while they were there. They insert so many English words into their Thai that they may as well make the change to talking wholly in English.

Do employers consider this lack of Thai fluency a drawback among look kreung? I have no idea.

If they work together, and have limited contact with Thai-speaking staff, then possibly not.

I suspect they are paid more than ordinary Thais without their English language skills, but less than foreign workers for whom English is their native tongue.

If the company could find more of them to hire, I am sure it would. I cannot assume that my skills will be needed forever.

Thais tighten belts

I have lost two part-time teaching jobs in the past week, with rising fuel prices cited in both cases.

I teach English to the offspring of a regular customer at Mum's shop. The children go to a school in Nonthaburi, outside Bangkok, where the family has another home.

Usually, they travel from their Bangkok home to school and back every day. Their mother drives them there, and picks them up. The journey takes about 30 minutes.

Mum told me the other day that their children would start sleeping the night more often at their home in Nonthabuuri, which is five minutes from their school, to save on petrol.

On those nights when she does not bring them back to Bangkok, my teaching services would not be needed. Normally I teach them on my nights off, soon after their mother brings them home, about 6.30pm.

I also teach a group of students close to work. A few days ago, the father of one student called to say they were busy studying for exams. 'I'd like to cancel in the meantime,' he said hurriedly.

The extended family runs a restaurant close to my office, where I eat before work. Last night I asked one mother how the students were going.

'The real reason they have quit studying is that I have no money,' she said.

The father gave me the exam explanation to save face.

We were standing in front of a small grill which stands next to the restaurant, where the mother makes pork satay on a stick.

Two young women from the neighbourhood ordered half a dozen sticks of satay, which is dipped in a sweet sauce.

Thais love sweet food. As soon as those customers left, another couple of girls arrived. I stood on the mother's side of the grill, where we were enveloped by a cloud of smoke.

Every night, she takes her children home via the Pra Ram 2 motorway, a 15-minute drive. 'It is costing B80 a day just in petrol,' she said.

I offered to teach for free in the meantime, as I do not want to lose a regular source of income.

Mum, who looked embarrassed to get such an offer, said she would talk to her children again.

I do not hold out much hope of getting the students back, as the family is struggling with other financial problems - the air con in the upstairs part of the restaurant, where we meet for class, is broken.

But if I do end up teaching English for free, then I hope oil prices go down in a hurry. Then they can start paying me again.

Helping hand (2, final)

'Why are you single now?' I asked the young Vietnamese.

'I can barely earn enough to look after myself. I can't look after a woman as well. I have nothing to offer her,' said Kai.

Kai is not gay, nor looks it. But he needs money, like anyone else. That's why he was showing an interest in me.

His male Vietnamese friend, Nam Kaeng, has been here about a month, though this is his second visit. He was last here three years ago.

Nam Plao, the girl, has lived in Thailand about a year. All speak good Thai, which they say they learnt from friends.

'Why are you still here if you earn so little?' I asked Kai.

Kai says he wants to go back to Vietnam. He was trying to save the B6000 fare, but it was hard.

That's when he asked me if I would like to travel to Vietnam with him.

I did not reply. Kai turned to Pao, and mouthed the words, 'It won't work.'

Naughty Pao had probably suggested that Kai try chatting me up, to see if I would help with the return fare.

I am not made of money. I had just bought the group a bottle of whisky, and before the night ended, gave Pao B1000 to buy himself new shoes and clothes.

'I saw that...that's not a nice thing to do,' I said to Kai, crossly.

'How can you carry on like that in front of me, and think I won't understand?'

Kai looked unhappy, and apologised. He went to another part of the restaurant and sulked for 10 minutes.

When he came back we chatted some more. Then his Vietnamese friends declared it was time to go home to bed.

As they prepared to leave, Kai asked if I have a cellphone number.

'I do have a cellphone,' I said, without giving the number.

'Will you be here tomorrow?' he asked.

'No. I'll be here next week. I'll see you then.'

We said our goodbyes.

Now there were just three: me, Pao, and the cook at the eatery where he works.

The day before, I had suggested to Lek, the cook, that I entrust to him the money that I wanted to give Pao for new clothes. Then the two lads could go shopping.

Lek is older, so I thought he would be safe with the money.

However, when he saw me pull B1000 out of my wallet, his mood changed.

'Can I have money to fix my cellphone?' he asked.

'No. I've just met you,' I said.

Pao jumped in.

'That's right - we've known each other about a year now,' he said.

Lek looked miserable, and asked me another half dozen times.

I gave up on the idea of entrusting the money to the cook. I gave Pao the money directly, then went home.

Now I know why I do not live close to Mum's shop. I would never have any money if I did.

Helping hand (1)

'It won't work.'

A Vietnamese man in his early 20s, Kai, mouthed those words to my young Thai friend, Pao, who was sitting opposite.

He meant: 'I don't think the farang will part with money.'

That was cynical of him, particularly as we only met that night.

Kai had just asked me if I had ever visited Vietnam.

'No. I am going there next year with my family,' I said.

'Why not travel there sooner,' he asked sweetly.

Kai meant: 'Why not let me be your guide? We could pretend to be gay travelling companions.'

I met Kai an hour before, after I sat down for a drink with some young people from the shop where Pao works. It is next to Mum's shop in Thon Buri.

A Vietnamese girl, Nam, works at the shop with Pao. Over the last two nights, I have been getting to know her friends.

A young Vietnamese man who grew up with her in the same village turns up late at night to see her, when the shop is ready to close.

His name is also Nam.

'How do you tell yourselves apart?' I asked the boy.

'I'm Nam Kaeng [ice], and she's Nam Plao [water],'he said.

Nam Kaeng insists that he and the girl are just friends, though they look close.

Nam Kaeng works at another karaoke/eatery place about 10 minutes away. Last night, he brought along a male Vietnamese friend, Kai, from the same restaurant.

They all live together in the same rented room.

Thai employers must like migrant labourers such as the Vietnamese. They can employ them cheaply, and ask them to do work which Thais would refuse.

The Thai owner of the restaurant employing Kai pays him just B2000 a month. He gets tips of up to B300 a day on top of that.

Kai told Pao how little he was earning at the restaurant down the way. Pao nodded sympathetically.

Pao gets paid nothing at all, as he is still in debt to his shop for about B1000.

That bill stems from a spot of legal trouble Pao fell into more than 12 months ago, when he first arrived in Bangkok.

His relatives, who run the restaurant, paid a police fine on his behalf. Now he is working at the restaurant to pay them back.

Kai has pale skin, and a wide, friendly smile.

He stood up and stretched in front of me as he told me about his life in Bangkok since he arrived three years ago.

Kai is single, but has gone out with Thai girls. One relationship ended in heartbreak, he says. Kai showed me scars on the top of his wrist where, in grief, he attacked himself with a burning cigarette.

now, see part 2