Old but sad and funny news item in Pattaya Mail

[short 215]

Just now MSNBC did an article on the Royal Jomten Hotel fire on Phuket. (huh? thats what I said). In the process of looking for more info on the net I ran across this old but funny story about a falang dealing with the language barrier.

 

Reminds me of the first time I came to Thailand. I am surprised that I didn't end up sleeping in a brothel on koh san road the entire trip.

 

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A lost tourist from Finland, who apparently could not find his hotel and who spoke no English, approached a police officer and spoke to him in Finnish. The confused officer did nothing but stare at the confused tourist.

 

Instead of taking the man to the police station, the resourceful officer tried Thai accented English combined with ‘sign language’. Of course, sign language is different from country to country. This increased the confusion.

 

The persistent officer then began a mime session which looked like a combination of Marcel Marceau and Swan Lake. The tourist was highly entertained but not the least enlightened.

 

The police officer did not yet know what the tourist wanted. After a few more attempts, it was understood that the tourist could not find his hotel. The two then went looking for the man’s hotel. Neither knew the name, so the officer pointed toward the Tourist Police Headquarters.

 

The tourist police managed to communicate that they would like to look at the man’s hotel receipt. Unfortunately, the hotel’s name was not printed on the receipt. It merely said ‘Room 419’ and ‘paid, Baht 500.’

 

The police took the Finn on a tour of Pattaya in their squad car, hoping they might run into the hotel. After approximately 1 hour, the tourist became frustrated, got out of the police car and went to drink beer on Soi 8.

 

No-one knows whether the Finn made it back to his hotel or not.

[SunnyValentine 173]

Instant classic!

 

A few years ago, my wife and I were on the baht bus heading home from Walking Street, where we encountered a Russian couple desperately seeking their hotel. No English, me no Russian, so sign language was the call of the moment.

They mimed something resembling a big "V" followed by what must have been waves .... Royal Cruise Hotel Beach Road, Bingo!

 

And off they went, happy!

[gaijin 146]

I always carry my hotel's business card with me in Pattaya. Although I don't need it anymore for myself, it helps to show it to the girls so they'll know where to come find me for afternoon session. But yea, for the newbies, always carry your hotels business card, it will usually have directions to get to it written in Thai. It will save your ass at least once.

Edited November 22, 2010 by gaijin

[ttk 236]

The Finn story reminded me of a story one of my co-workers told. He was the coach of a soccer team that went to Finland for a youth tournament. He knew no Finnish but one of the team memebers was Finnish so he got the boy to write down the hotel and how to get there. Later that night after a round of serius partying, he grabbed a local lady and hailed a cab to go back to the room. Cab driver looked at the note asked if he was sure looked and asked a few more times. Turns out, the kid had written directions to the local nut house.