You experience everything in Thailand (71)
Everyone who has been to Thailand or even still lives there experiences something special, funny, remarkable, moving, strange or ordinary. It doesn't have to be spectacular, but such an event will linger. What could be more fun than writing that incident down and seeing it on Thailandblog? So join in, write it down and send it to the editors via the contact form. with possibly a photo taken by yourself. If you follow the series, you know that every contribution gets a lot of appreciation from the readers.
Take Frans de Beer, for example, who has lived in a house in Nakhon Sawan with his wife for many years. After all these years, sometimes things happen that you don't count on. Frans wrote the following story about it.
The plumber
It happened sometime last year that the sink in the small bathroom had broken off the wall and could not be used. In the Netherlands we then google to find a good plumber who can take care of this. Unfortunately, this is not possible in Thailand. There you have to rely on your local contacts. All air conditioning devices are supplied and maintained by an acquaintance to our full satisfaction and we asked him if he could recommend a good plumber. He knew one and would send it over.
When the best man came we showed him the broken sink and he said it was no problem to fix it. He got to work right away and after an hour or two he said he was done. I went to see the result and it turned out that he had connected the drain without a water stop. I told him that was not the intention, because there was also a water stop on it before the sink broke. He said that the water stop was broken, so I ordered him to buy a new one, because without a water stop the water is drained, but we get the stench from the septic tank in return.
The man then went to buy a new one and spent another hour installing it. When he said again that he was ready, I went to look again. He had reversed the supply and drain, so that the water tank was protruding forward instead of down. I then made a sketch on a piece of paper how such a thing works and how it should be connected. After an hour of further work, it was really well connected.
All in all, it took him more than half a day to mount a sink against the wall and to install the supply and drain. We had to pay him 200 Baht wages. We only made 500 of these, but it was definitely not a plumber.
Hi Frans, because you could tell the best man how to do it, I don't understand why you didn't do it yourself.
Yes I know now you have helped a poor slob a little bit.
I think that's still a pretty high tip for bad work!
That is called kamlang jai.
Also reward someone who is not good for the work that has been done. He has learned from this and next time he will not ask the main prize for another job.
Live and let live and understand. We are not talking about an hourly wage of 35 euros per hour.
I see this exactly the other way around. Knowing the Thai, he will do this, he thinks: that was easy…
I admire your patience in this "plumber" and credit you for rewarding him for his time and labor more than he asked for. Incidentally, in the Netherlands nowadays it is not as easy as you assume to find a good plumber by googling. Many, after engaging a plumber through Google, especially if they go from the top search results, are disappointed by being confronted with sky-high bills and sometimes with poor results. Call-out costs, hourly wages, especially in the evenings and weekends, which, for example, a surgeon cannot match, and all kinds of other additional costs can result in an invoice from which you can, so to speak, buy a plane ticket to Thailand with the two of you. Consumer programs regularly warn against this.
What do you want Leo, nobody really wants to work with their hands anymore. Teaching a real craft is no longer something that young people do, that is too difficult. They only want to become engineers or doctors, usually under pressure from their parents.
I know some very good professionals in Belgium and they earn much more than an average monthly wage. They have to put in a lot of hours, yes, but at the end of the month they are well paid.
I'm lucky enough to be able to do just about anything and have already saved a lot of money in my life. Here in Thailand you cannot and may not carry out certain activities yourself. When I sometimes see those Thai bunglers busy, I do get gray hairs.
We have also experienced this. Washbasin installed near the toilet without gooseneck. The smell came back into our house too. Explained how and what and then repaired. He is actually a rubber tree cutter but next to us he has now built a whole new house.
Having read this once again with great pleasure, I am glad that I can still do the installation work, both electricity and plumbing around the house myself.
Because I've seen many houses here in Thailand over the years and don't break my mouth.
Jan Beute.
yes, when I had the extension built on the house here, I also did the electricity and plumbing myself…. they weren't even allowed to touch it. Ditto when my girlfriend, in Isaan, had a house built for her parents, I also installed the electricity and plumbing there myself…. didn't want the parents to die from electrocution….. Remember when the electricity was connected there, during my absence, when I got the message that NOTHING worked…. the gentlemen from the electricity company had connected the N to my ground…. and for that I could make a ride of 850km…..
Lung Addie,
Electricity is a different story.
Earth what is that?
They look at you to see if they see water burning when you show them a grounded wall socket and point out the grounded connection.
Power wires are tied together a bit and some tape is wrapped around them, because they have apparently never heard of welding caps.
A friend of mine once held a voltage tester screwdriver on the drum of the washing machine and the light in this screwdriver came on.
It is not surprising that a house is destroyed or someone is electrocuted.
As unfortunately with so many, they just do whatever.
Gr. Arno
The broken sink.
I have memories of that.
A few years ago I had rented a bungalow where the sink was attached to the wall just outside the shower cabin.
The first day we stayed in the bungalow, we took a shower and when leaving the shower, we looked for support with one hand on the sink.
You can easily slip when leaving a shower cubicle.
I had only lightly touched the sink, but it spontaneously fell off the wall, right next to my feet.
Luckily that heavy thing hadn't fallen on my feet.
Apparently no good plumber had been on the job in the past either,
Immediately got another bungalow and inspected the sink.
I know Thailand and its inhabitants very well, but I would NEVER have such a job done without my supervision! That is asking for trouble, especially after the first error… Why not stand by the 2nd time to see that everything was connected properly? Own fault.
And I have already experienced that under my supervision the Thai 'craftsman' patiently listened to my comments and calmly continued with what he was doing wrong. I got his beautiful smile for free.
It's all easy to talk Jan, but a Thai doesn't want orders from a Farang.
This is true as a bus Bart.
When I built in Thailand at the time, my father-in-law supervised the works, together with my wife. Even he was hardly listened to, everything went wrong! An utter disgrace.
When we threatened not to pay, a number of 'professionals' were replaced by others. It was therefore agreed that if something went wrong, we had to report this to the owner of the construction company. Suddenly the mistakes were corrected.
So a farang, he is kindly laughed at in his face and if you are unlucky they indeed just continue.
Hello French,
I do have two comments about this.
Washbasin drain in Thailand is connected to the 'grey' water drain, or directly to the water drain around the house. An odor trap is then not necessary, but it is useful to keep pests at bay.
Secondly, I think it is an act of a tourist to give such a large tip. The fact that the original bill was only 200 Baht, very low, is no reason to tip 300 Baht, especially if the plumber is a klutz. Som took after.
Many Thais then think: Farrang jai die. White nose with a good heart 🙂
Well Hugo,
That's what a Thai calls “nam yai”
Moreover, Frans is not a tourist, but has lived in Thailand for years.
That € 13= is not a tip but labor wages, and the good man will serve Frans at his beck and call in the future, although it will not be plumbing work.
I once had an electrician in Ubon who did a damn good job, he also had a stubby foot and only 2 fingers on his right hand.
He still worked with such a “safe” bamboo ladder.
Didn't dare mention the amount I owed him.
Took it to HomePro, straight to the aluminum ladders.
“Just pick one out,” he didn't dare, so I gave him the best one there was.
I can always call him for a job.
In principle, a professional who works on electricity with a ladder should NEVER use an aluminum ladder. A bamboo ladder is much safer.
There is a spelling mistake in this sentence: it should be “inhabited” and not “inhabited”.
Take, for example, Frans de Beer, who has lived in a house in Nakhon Sawan with his wife for many years.
After four years, no one has noticed that yet?