Getting charged local prices!
I took the boat back to Aonang before a major storm, but not before having a nice swim in the sea first thing in the morning.
My lunch of Pad See Ew (fried kway teow noodles in soya sauce) and Iced Coffee opposite the hotel was a pleasant surprise. The man collected THB55 (EUR1.30 or NZD2.20) when I expected to pay about THB140 which is what it would have been according to the menu. I checked but he was insistent.
When I asked the lady at my hotel she thought it should have be around THB 140 as well and wrote me a note in Thai to take back to the cafe. The man at the cafe said it was OK, still.
Back at the hotel, I asked the lady receptionist to reprice my meal at local (rather than foreigner menu) price … it came to THB60 so I must have been charged as a local. Very nice! All I did was look brown and order using the correct Thai name of the dish … everything else was in English though.
A truly integrated society
I went to the shop next door from my hotel for a haircut and reflexology. I got talking to the hairdresser who was in a short spaghetti-strap dress. It turns out she is Muslim and I got to understand a bit more about Thai Muslims.
Being Malaysian, I got the impression that many Thai Muslims are ethnically Malay (or Yawi as they’re called in Thailand). In fact, she considers herself ethnically Thai and explains that Muslims can be Thai, Chinese or Yawi. Yawi are found in only the south-east while other Muslims can be anywhere, even as far north as Chiangmai.
The nice takeout from that is that the very fair (rather Chinese) and very dark (nearly Tamil-coloured) people all consider themselves Thai. They claim to be ethnically Thai and speak no other language apart from Thai … regardless of any differences in genetics … that’s all put behind them.
If only other countries could do the same! This could not have been achieved without some controversy though … the Chinese language was banned for a while in Thailand (as it was in Indonesia). I feel people in these two countries have become more integrated (at least on the surface) compared to in Malaysia where many Chinese send their kids to Chinese-medium schools where they are educated in a system that is separate and parallel to other people.
I didn’t get to speak to the many Indian or Pakistani shopkeepers on Aonang beach though. I wonder if they’re as integrated?!