After two years in Bangkok there are fewer times that I feel foreign. I mean clearly I am still an outsider: I look different and I only speak a bit of their language so I am often plunged into situations where I have to play charades to make myself understood. But I have got used to the fact that the majority of people around me are speaking a language that in the main, I don't understand, so it feels normal.
Today however I went to buy myself an external hard drive ... oh there I drop it - into the conversation as though I have any idea what it means. Normally I would wait until the weekend and send Husband out to buy it, but I was feeling confident (and wanted it
NOW) so I braved the IT Mall. Yes, here in Bangkok we have two malls dedicated to ITy things: one is known as
Fortune and the other as
Pantip Plaza (affectionately renamed
Pantstip by me).
I went to Fortune because it's a bit easier to get to on the MRT (underground) and oh my god, it was horrible. Never have I felt so like I've landed among alien intelligence: these stalls and shops are terrifying, full of gadgets, boxes and wires with names that I don't understand, with words that don't mean anything to me - but that's not because they're in Thai. Those IT words all appear in what you and I would recognise as English so it sounded something like this:
โปรดระวังการติดต่อซื้อขาย password-protected, Web-based project log กับชาวต่างชาติ โดยเฉพาะจากประเทศ Architected Rapid Application Development ทางอัฟริกา ทั้งจากประกาศขายสินค้า Data ที่ราคาถูกกว่าปกติ หรืออีเมล RATs Remote Administration Trojans ที่ติดต่อเข้ามา เพื่อขอซื้อสินค้าEmail ในราคาที่สูงกว่าปกติ เพราะอาจถูกหลอกลวงได้ ท่านสามารถดู Internet Provider ได้จากเว็บ.
Do you get it? Why I was among aliens? It wasn't being surrounded by Thais, it was being surrounded by the computer geeks...
***
On a more positive note, the lovely
JonM has awarded me a 'thoughtful blogger award' for being polite to him at
Caroline's launch - my parents will be so proud! Thank you Jon. My five nominations are: a Thoughtful Blogger Award goes to
Stray for all the generous and lovely IT geekery she did to promote
In Search of Adam for Caroline;
Liz Fenwick and
Helen each get an Inspirational Blogger Award because they both get on with the job (writing) without all the fannying around that I do;
Jen at Spiral Skies gets an Inspirational Blogger Award too, because she makes me laugh while she's fannying around; Carol, at
Only In Thailand gets a Charity Blogging Award because although her blog doesn't go on and on about it, she does lots of good work getting volunteers into charities. Now you all need to go
here to find out how to get that coveted prize and make your own nominations.
