Today on November 10

Today on November 10th is my dear friend Aom's birthday. Knowing that she prefers to buy gold, I gave her a sum of money as a present and we went to the  Market Village drove to Hua Hin, so she could pick something nice there, while I went shopping in Tesco for a while.

Well, we're going to have a bite to eat on that occasion food court to eat. There is a choice of about fifteen stalls, but in the end we only have two favourites, one of which is shared. At the far right is a stall where Thai curries are sold and fortunately they sometimes alternate. You can almost always find something I like there.

But today I went to my other favourite, the Japanese stall… nothing really to write home about, but they have a pretty tasty katsudon. Not comparable to the ones I used to eat in Japan, but it's a not too big portion with sliced ​​pork schnitzel, egg and onions over rice. We don't eat there too often. At most once or twice a week, when we have to be in the shopping mall.

The same foreigners

But it strikes me again and again: we meet the same foreigners almost every time. In the afternoons there is always a man with blond, semi-long hair, a red-blue striped shirt and shorts sitting in front. He ALWAYS sits on the same chair, ALWAYS in the same position and ALWAYS wears the same clothes. I don't know if he ALWAYS eats the same thing. Sometimes I think, what would he do if we just sat down there? He was not there in the summer, but I think he hibernates in Hua Hin.

Then there is a bearded man who looks like my old geography teacher. He often sits there with his wife and sometimes also gets food from the supermarket to eat it there. He seems like a nice but serious man. I think he is also in Market Village every day, because we almost always see him. And let me say it again: sometimes we don't come for days.

Then there is a group of older gentlemen, Germans and Swiss who are also there around that time. A group of a man or four. You also see them almost every time we are there. Although they are in about the same corner, they apparently do not have a seat reservation, because it may well be a different table. Maybe they are a little more flexible.

It's always nice to sit there and people watch. For example, a few months ago we had seen a group where, we think, mom or grandma had forgotten to change. The clothes she was wearing looked very much like pajamas.

Also very nice to see, when a man in his seventies comes to eat with his beer belly in a sleeveless transparent shirt. Luckily we didn't see him too often. I thought it looked a bit distasteful.

Norse expression

When we had finished eating and my girlfriend already went to the gold shop, I walked to Tesco. There I made a round. Let's take a look at the electronics and men's toys, where I bought a saw for my mini angle grinder.

When I was doing this round, I noticed a man who was very fat and who was just having his sandwiches weighed. He did so with such a surly expression on his face that the question arose again, what kind of people come on holiday in Hua Hin or Thailand in general. Or is that a normal person from the west and they all look like this?

At the checkout I had to wait and saw a family coming, apparently from Russia. The ladies were both very curvy and dressed in clothes I remember from the XNUMXs. Haircut included; they were such striking beauties too.

After I had paid, my girlfriend was already at the agreed spot and because it was raining we walked through Market Village for a while. I wanted to go to the third floor where all the IT stuff was and looked at some tablets and cell phones. Awesome. Maybe it's time to buy something new.

On the way up we ran into my former geography teacher, who darted past us quickly and skittishly. Maybe he thought to himself, there's that weird guy with his wife who always looks at me when I eat in the food court.

Captain America

A little later, when we wanted to go to our scooter, it turned out that it was still raining. My friend, who had a few baht left from her birthday money, saw some nice tops, and she picked one out. While waiting we saw another figure walking around, which made us both laugh.

A tall, thin man, with long, stiff legs, a sleeveless shirt tucked into a pair of very small, narrow sports trousers. It had the colors and stars of the flag of the United States of America. Captain America so to speak. But I also suspected that he came more from a former Eastern Bloc country.

What a figure. We made an extra round to check that out. What does such a person think when he puts on such clothes. Does he think he's so beautiful? He stands in front of the mirror and says to himself: 'I'm a handsome man and let's see what I look like. And it looks better to tuck the shirt into the pants than to let it hang over it. And especially wear scary pants, so everyone knows what I have to offer.'

Awesome. There are always people to watch, but then we are happy to go back home on our scooter. Both in a bright orange raincoat. Me driving with the raincoat hat on under my helmet. People also have to wonder how those two get along. It doesn't stand at all. Anyway, we don't get wet and we stand out in traffic, which also has an advantage.

Jack Schulteis

Sjaak's previous contribution, 'I am proud of my new pond', was published on Thailandblog on 13 September.

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