I now know what it means to be a foreigner, ha! As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, everyone has been joking that Natie looks like a foreigner. I have learned that the Thai word for foreigner is "Farang" (see wiki page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farang). Of course, being a foreigner or minority has taken on a whole new meaning here for me. One of the first nights in Phrae, we went to a festival that one of the family members organizes. So, as he was taking us around the festival and showing us all the displays, I definitely felt a lot of stares or just folks looking at me. It didn't bother me at all, but I definitely could tell folks were looking. Then all of the sudden, I see a little boy who turned to look at me and then suddenly took a double take as if he couldn't believe what he saw. He then continued to tap his brother on the shoulder and whisper and point at me. Again, I thought it was pretty funny, but it certainly was an experience.
Then the next day we were Ba Nai's house (Natie's Aunt) and we met one of his cousin's and his family. They have a little girl about 3 or 4 and when she saw me, she ran to her mother and made her pick her up and wouldn't look at me. Everyone told me that she was scared of me because she had never really seen a white person before!! Again, I didn't take it personally, but it is not something you experience everyday. I learned that it is pretty rare to see a white person in this area of Thailand, so I can understand why a kid would be scared. She eventually warmed up to me (sort of), but it was definitely a joke for the rest of the day :)
Now here are some pictures of yesterday's outing to the original capitol of Thailand (731 years old) and lunch.
Awesome bowl of hand made egg noodles with all sorts of goodness. Only 30 bahts = 1 dollar.
Now we are off to Chiang Mai for a couple of days.
No offense... but you are pretty scary ;) haha. Is there anyway you can smuggle some of this food back so that i can try it?!? It looks amazing!
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Did anyone else notice the Buddhas hiding in the tree roots?
ReplyDeleteInteresting....I never had that problem in Thailand. They just thought I was odd because I spoke Thai and hung out in ths sois. The only issue I had was people trying to cheat me or charge me too much. So, I had to speak Thai a lot and bargain like the Thai. There is this misconception that farang have a lot of money.....lol. :) However, I'm surprised they didn't say you were suay mak mak....very pretty....oh and throw in the poo ying farang bit....:)..You will get a different response in Bangkok or other parts of Thailand. You are right in that Natie doesn't look Thai....Don doesn't look Vietnamese. When we go to Thailand they won't speak to him in Vietnamese. In Thailand they thought he was Chinese Thai.
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