On my second trip to Thailand I met her somewhere at the end of week one of a five week trip. The most beautiful smile and eyes you have ever seen…well that I have ever seen. She knew very little English and I knew even less Thai., but it worked out. We easily understood each other when words wouldn’t work by gestures or looking at the Thai/English dictionary.

Well time has moved on and I inevitably had to come home and get back to work. We decided that we would pursue our relationship and that means lots of phone calls and e-mails. What became second nature in person can be quite difficult on the phone at times…like tonight for instance.

The conversation started out easily enough…”how are you”….”how was your day” ….”how is mama” (mines been sick). And then the conversation evolved into my next trip to Thailand. My next trip my brother will be joining me and this will be his first trip to Thailand and since he has seen the many pictures I have taken and being that his background is in agronomy he is very interested in going to Nong Nooch gardens. My girl has known this and we have talked about going again…but tonight she tells me “we cannot” so I ask why and here is what I get…..”I talk to lady who talk to Buddha and say no good” I pry a little deeper and find out something to the effect that Nong Nooch is not good for love and if we go there together bad things will happen to us.

The Thai people can be very superstitious and once they have it in their head about a superstition then thats the way it is. So I tell her that in a nutshell…. in hindsight….not the smartest of things to do. I know what you’re thinking…she was offended that I belittled her culture…that I didn’t share her concern of the foreboding omen. Nope, worse….she thought superstitious was a polite way of saying STUPID! Yes, I not only called Thai people stupid but more specifically Thai ladies stupid…and worse yet I called her stupid. I fumbled a bit but laughed and tried to explain to her that they aren’t the same. I even tried the good old Thai/English dictionary but no help was to be had.

She tells me she’ll help me find a new lady when I come to Thailand if she can find one thats not stupid but then she stops herself because she thinks she’s too stupid to do that for me! And then I hear it… very faintly but theres no doubt about it…she giggled. The giggle became a laugh and I realized my girl is a bigger smart ass than I originally thought. She said “I not know this word superstit but I think I play joke”. I been had but I’m still gonna be careful about the big words I use on the phone… you might call it being gun shy but when you have the combination of beauty and smartass thats just too good to lose.

Seems we still aren’t going to the gardens though, stupid or superstitious, Buddha has the last laugh.

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