Well I decided to change the look of the blog because, honestly, I was tired of the green. :)
A short story about laundry. So in Thailand laundry is, bottom line, ridiculous. For 90 Baht (< $3) you can get a large load of laundry washed, dried and ironed in less than 24 hours. All you have to do is drop it off anytime of day at one of the many laundry places scattered around town. I chose a small one located on the main road and none of the workers there speak English -- well I guess that is the case for most businesses in town!
Ok so that is the background. About a month ago I dropped off a load of which consisted a pair of my favorite shorts. I went back the next day, and it wasn't until I got home and unwrapped the carefully taped plastic bag holding my clean, dry and ironed clothes, that I discovered that my shorts weren't there. Instead of my shorts I found a small "Save Burma" t-shirt -- not mine. I went back to the laundry hut and returned the shirt and through hand hand motions and speaking slowly and loudly in English (by the way, speaking louder in English doesn't work...just so you know) I tried to explain that they had not given me back my shorts. She "pretended" not to know what I was talking about... as people here are very shy and to make a mistake is definitely not ok -- especially when it involves a farang (a foreigner in Thailand from European descent). After I stood there for way to long trying to explain what "shorts" were, she finally "got it". She told me to come back the next day....
The next day I returned and no shorts. I returned 2 days later -- no shorts. The next week -- no shorts. Yeah, basically they didn't have my shorts. I went in 2 weeks later and her boyfriend or brother was there prepped and ready to translate. He explained that a Thai woman had stolen them -- which is classic because the ladies that own the shop are Burmese. Stolen them??!? Yeah, nice. I said ok, and just walked away because I had already counted these shorts as gone a long time before.
Yesterday I went back to drop of a new load of laundry and she had my shorts washed, dried, and ironed waiting for me. Where they came from, I have no idea. Maybe the Thai woman who stole them felt guilty? Or maybe she wore them and needed them washed??? Apparently, the girl at the laundry hut understood enough of my English to know that these shorts were mine -- how she knew, I am clueless.
Anyway that it laundry in Thailand. All I know is I'm happy to have my shorts back. Rad.
W
A friend of mine, Abby, and I took the short 10 minute motorbike ride to the Thai - Burmese border. There are such a variety of things going on at the border, you could spend hours just marveling over the guards with machine guns, illegal crossing of the border in inter-tubes, the poverty, the illegally imported goods from Burma that are being sold through the fence to residents of Thailand. Along the border there is a pretty well known market that we did some brief shopping.
