A man in a line

I went today to the Thai embassy to get my visa since I am leaving for Railay on Sunday, woo hooo!!! Queued up because I was early as usual. Behind me, there was this caucasian man in about his sixties, short but fit. Started a conversation with me even though I was evidently listening to music :) He was from New Zealand but had been living in Thailand for a LONG time. Boat builder and English Teacher. He told me how he was the first white guy the townspeople of Lopang or Lampang had seen in ages. He was with some poverty organization that paid him to teach English to people in Thailand free of charge. People would still try to pay him money and would shove 100 Baht in his pockets to which he would give back 80 baht. Then when he would get home he would find food on his porch.

He said that the bar girls found it unbelievable that he would not drink or sleep with them, but instead he would take them outside, sit on the sidewalk and teach them english. It would be a great deal for somebody from that town to travel to Bangkok, but when he left 30 people showed him off to the airport. Talk about life with a meaning, huh?

He said that when he came to Singapore 35 years ago, he had long hair down to his hips (rocker, playing in a band) and that one of his friends told him to wear a t-shirt instead of a shirt. Why? Because in order to exit the airport and enter Singapore he had to have his hair cut. Now that he had a t-shirt on, they only cut it to t-shirt level. Had it been a shirt with a collar, they would have cut it much shorter.