Another cool taxi driver in Bangkok

Well, these days the only time I use my Thai language skills to the their full extent seems to be in taxis…  it’s a bit of a waste really, I should try and learn the language properly but I seem to lack motivation (and a will to spend $) on lessons. 

Today I had the coolest taxi driver ever.   I am sure this guy has spent a lot of time as a monk, he looked like a monk (not sure why, but he looked monkish) and he had a really really good vibe!   I could tell straight away that he is a good person, with a good heart – if vibes had colour this guys vibe would be a very strong colour.   This sounds hippyish, but I want to get across how cool this driver was.

So the drive home ended up being a great Thai lesson as the driver chatted with me for a good 30 mins, he could speak some English but I would say the conversation would have been about 98% in Thai!   He asked me lots of questions so I had to actively participate in the conversation…. wow, it was hard… but good.     It made me think, I really ought to try and learn some more Thai properly…  I could be nearly fluent if I put my mind to it! 

The banana story – I made a bit of a ‘boo boo’ when speaking Thai!

Last week I was at a restaurant with my friend Cim and my Dad.   Earlier that day Cim and I had been talking about how yummy Banana Rotis are, seeing as the restaurant had many Roti dishes in the menu I thought I would ask the waiter if they could make us some Banana Rotis for desert. 

So…  I said, “Me roti sai gooway mai?” (thinking I was saying : ‘Do you have roti with banana?’).   The waiter looked at me very puzzled, so I kept repeating the word ‘Gooway’  and started to do actions of a monkey enthusiastically eating a banana saying things like ‘Ling gin Gooway, me roti sai gooway’ (Monkey eats banana, do you have roti with banana?).  The guy looked at me as if I was a bit crazy, he politely smiled and said ‘Mai me’ (no have).    So I said, mai pen rai (never mind) an ordered something else.

I was telling the story to someone at dad’s work the next day while munching on a little banana .  The lady at dads work started laughing and told me some very important information…  the word for banana is not ‘Gooway’ its Gruway (with an ‘r’).    It turns out I was asking the waiter for a roti with a piece of the male anatomy on it!   Oops!   No wonder he looked at me as if I was a bit nutty!