ใจดี (jai-dee= good heart, kind person)

as soon as i start to settle in to my surroundings and get more and more used to the friendly aspect of the thai people that i love so much, something beyond the reliable smiles and sa-wa-dees (สวัสดีค่ะ) happens, reminding me once again that i really am in an extraordinary place with exceptional people. after embarking on an after-school shopping adventure to central festival, one of thailand’s famous 6-story shopping complexes right on the beach of downtown pattaya, i had a slight issue on my baht bus route back to the home streets of jomtien. to clarify, “slight issue” means that my lack of concern or rush to get home while enjoying the sunset on pattaya beach turned into a 1 ½ hour, 60 baht, multiple baht bus ordeal just to get from the mall back to my condo.



after i have my fill of wandering through shops, wandering on the beach, and wandering from cart to cart of delicious 10baht street food, my ever-so-keen sense of direction tells me that since getting to the mall involved one straightforward baht bus ride, i would just get on a bus going the opposite direction and be home in no time. well since the road i took there was a one-way street, i have to switch roads to be going back in what *i thought* was the right direction. i of course never bother to confirm my excellent logic with another passenger or even the driver, despite knowing absolutely nothing about the baht bus routes in this part of pattaya. after my first driver kicks me off of his bus (the first time this ever happened to me i was deeply insulted and took his abandonment of a young girl on her way home at 4am as a personal affront, but as i know now, this is customary when there’s only one passenger left so that the driver can backtrack his route to the more economically-worthwhile areas…), i am not disheartened in the slightest, and see my change in direction as an opportunity to really see the sights of the streets.


i board another bus heading the opposite direction, and end up (surprise surprise!) right back where i started, at central festival mall. by this time it’s starting to get darker, and the more pressing issue of my hunger is really starting to set in (since apparently the mini fried coconut crème pies I bought didn’t provide enough sustenance to substitute dinner…). so, i board one more bus going in the opposite direction again. this time i make sure to tell the driver “jomtien beach,” but he says he doesn’t go there, and i'll have to stop and change buses. ok…so i just ask him as nicely as possible to please stop when i should change buses, figuring that i'll just take it from there. this request gets a response of raised-eyebrowed silence, him not even bothering to tell me that “hey, lady that’s not at all how this system works.”


to my relief, i am quickly joined by another passenger, and immediately i bust out my longest –but most useful!- thai phrase yet: kuhn-poot-pa-sah-ang-git-dai-mai-kah? (do you speak english?) this time, i am in luck. amazingly, the beautiful thai woman wearing a short blue dress and clutching a matching rhinestone-studded purse not only understands my (surely) poorly-pronounced survival phrase, but returns my plea for conversation with a smile and some broken english of her own. though she is on her way to walking street (surprise surprise!), i tell her my dilemma, and she assures me that she’ll show me which bus to take. relieved, i get off with her on walking street. i thank her again for her offer to help and wait for her to point which direction to go. instead, she grabs my hand and totters her way across the uneven pavement in high spiky heels, me trying to keep up. we cross several streets grasping hands like long-lost lesbian lovers(with me of course having no idea where we are), then make it to a baht bus that she nods to in confirmation. not leaving my side until i am actually safely onto the back of the crammed-full truck bed, i am wishing i could more fully articulate my appreciation for her help. i repeat my kop-kuhn-kaahhh (สวัสดีค่ะ) several times as smilingly as possible. i watch her spring back across the street toward the neon signs of the go-go bar action and am so thankful for the nice people in this country.