You experience everything in Thailand (38)
When you are in Thailand it is good to know what you can, but especially what you cannot do to respect the morals and customs of the population. Although not consciously, blog reader Wim den Hertog did something that was absolutely unacceptable. He would also have had problems with such an incident in a Dutch restaurant. This time it went pretty well, read his story below.
The flying slipper
In the early years of my visits to Thailand, it must have been in 2004 or 2005, I had invited some friends and relatives of my Thai girlfriend for a Thai or should I say Korean barbecue. Was still very cheap at the time, namely 99 baht pp excluding drinks, but you had to make a lot of money with 12 people to exceed 3.000 baht. The exchange rate was then still € 1.00 – 53 baht.
We had a long table and next to us a party of 10 people was also sitting at such a long table. A few weeks before, during an inspection, I was also examined for my reflex, you know that a tap with a hammer under your knee. In addition, I usually make fun of letting the reflex end up on my other leg, laugh anyway.
I'm telling this to my friend, including the movement, but hadn't taken into account that my slipper was only half on my foot. Well, it shot up like a rocket and sailed right into the middle of our neighbour's table. That gave me a consternation of do I have you there, because the feet and certainly the footwear are among the most unclean things in Thailand.
The neighbors jumped up and were very offended and I don't know what was said, because I had started laughing, partly due to nervousness. They thought I was laughing at them too, which was definitely not the case. By now my girlfriend had stepped in to calm things down a bit and make excuses. However, they wanted nothing to do with it and indicated that they would no longer take a seat at that table.
I offered them to settle the bill and after another thousand apologies they took a seat at another table, which the staff had prepared. My girlfriend was pretty upset and also angry with me because, she said, this could have ended a lot worse.
The amount I had to pay was, if I'm not mistaken, 500 baht just for the food that was on the table at that time, so a stroke of luck too. Of course, this event has been told several times in scents and colors, whereby I keep laughing myself, but my girlfriend really can't laugh about it and is even getting angry about it now.
Well, that was about dinner!
Could it have happened the other way around? That you were sitting at a table yourself and suddenly one came flying and fell in the middle of the table between or on the food. A club of white noses may have also become angry about this. Especially if the Thai started laughing again. Perhaps readers would then say 'yes, they laugh to prevent loss of face'. I would say something like this can happen to anyone, so can the reaction to anger (but another table could just as well have reacted differently: calm, tjai jen-jen, mai pen rai, don't worry, can happen, sand er about).
In retrospect, it's better to laugh at some embarrassing/stupid incident than to get worked up about it again. But that too is not typically Thai or Dutch. Thanks for sharing, have seen multiple scenarios as a movie in my head and now have a smile. 🙂
So that was an intense meal. I can imagine that those at the other table are shocked and feel very upset. The Thais have little understanding on this point.
You could also have all looked up, no one knew where it came from anyway.
Hilarious !! I can totally see it. You must have been telling very vividly when such a slipper shot that far away. Have I ever had arm gestures that are so violent that a bottle or a glass fell over.
But this is really slapstick. I understand the consternation but also have to laugh a lot!!!