Viva la difference

It is 7am in Chiangkhong. Chiangkhong is a small sleepy farming town with one small coffee shop. 

The shop is located only about 150m from my hotel but on this day a heavy fog makes the walk seem so much longer. As  I walked pass the closed and shuttered shops I felt a sense of mystery envelope me.  This day was the beginning of something new, something big.  Something was waiting for me outside of that fog and I didn't know what.

I needed to clear the fog inside my head and to do that I needed coffee.

Stepping into the lovely coffee shop I was greeted with the customary Sa wat dee ka by the shop’s owner.  I in turn replied with Sa wat  dee krap.  The pleasantries over I ordered my coffee and I did so using my limited Thai. Coffee Americano lon mai sai nom mai sai lam tan krap.  Coffee hot no milk no sugar.  As is usually the case my words were greeted with a  wonderful smile and some helpful hints on pronunciation. 

With coffee in hand I head outside to sit in a very comfortable looking swinging bamboo chair. As I sipped my coffee the fog began to slowly dissipate, both inside my head and the world around me.  With nothing better to do I decided on another coffee and was enjoying the morning quiet when a group of four women came towards the shop for their morning coffee. With smiles all around and a slight nod of our heads  the women passed me and entered the shop.

I turned to watch the beautiful backsides of these women as they entered the shop and I continued to watch them as they spoke amongst themselves trying to decide what to order.

The first to order stood up to the counter and completely ignored the customary Sa wat dee ka and immediately began to babble.

With her head tilted up to look at the menu board she said “Ya Ya I want a coffee. Perked not instant I don’t like that instant coffee. I also want some milk with my coffee not coffee mate cause that stuff is bad for you. Real milk, skim if you have it but 2% will do if that is all you’ve got. Oh and I want some sort of bun not a donut but something more like a croissant. What have you got like that? You got anything like that?”

The more the woman spoke the less I heard. The less she interested me. My gaze shifted to the shop owner and as I looked into her eyes I could, for a brief moment, see what she was thinking and I completely agreed with her.

Her eyes said, “Lady what in the world are you talking about? Why in the world would you think I speak English? You do realize that we are in rural northern Thailand don’t you? Oh you poor foolish lady.”

Our eyes then met and they spoke to each other.

She said, “Did catch all that?”.
“Yes, sorry I don’t know what to say.” And I shrugged my shoulders.

To which she replied, “Ah mai bhen rai no worries” and smiled that lovely smile.

We said more without speaking than the woman, who had now finished ordering, had.

As I turned my chair to once again face outside. I noticed now that in front of me the fog had lifted and then behind me I heard the Thai woman say.

“Americano lon?”

I smiled.
Perhaps the fog inside was lifting also.