Breakdown in Thailand

Today I sit on my veranda hearing the roster cock-a-doodling, a dove cooing, and a ..........tweety bird tweeting, not to mention the chirping of the gecko's. I have noticed I am aware of all the noises longtime ex-pat's seem to treat as our white noise. But for me it is amazing the number of animal sounds there are in Thailand, even in a small city. I notice because I am still new and not quite used to the difference, or is it different noises, that are available for the ear to hear.

Speaking of differences, a couple things happened to me that would have been very different experiences in the Western world, particularly the U.S., to which I am familiar. Three days ago after teaching at Vijarari, a school run by Christian missionaries, I came out to start my motorbike. And it wouldn't start, this was bad, but not terrible as I was still in the city, and motorbike shops are as plentiful as 7-11's. As I kicked away, hoping I could somehow kick some life into it, one of the Thai women in front of the school came over to help me. She was one of the woman vendors on motorbike-carts that sell food to the children.

Anyway, she came over and immediately bent over and fiddled with a gas switch I didn't even know was there. She told me something In Thai and pointed at my spark-plug and then at my seat. I figured she wanted me to open my seat, which I did. To which she remarked, Oy ..........something ......... and then pointed at her bike. She went over to her bike and got a collapsible spark club and came back. She proceeded to take out my Spark-plug and with a small piece of sandpaper, she proceeded to clean the plug. Then replaced it and it started on the fourth kick. She pointed at me, and at the spark-plug wrench and motioned down the road. I figured she was telling me to get a wrench. And off I went. How many times would this happen in a Western country? No one would help you, they would just say take it to a shop. But, the Thai people are so friendly. It really amazed me.

So the next morning I was a little worried my bike would not start. It fired up fine and off I went to the countryside school Banfon. It is about ten kilometers from Lampang out into the countryside. I finished teaching and went out to start my motorbike.

Guess What? It would not start. I kicked it, and kicked it, and kicked it, and looked up. There where three Thai school children standing there looking at me. I kicked they looked. I sat, they watched. I kicked again, they watched. By this time a large crowd of kids had gathered and I had begun to start sweating, profusely. At this time when they figured out I didn't know what I was doing and that my only solution was to kick the kick starter harder . So when I stopped kicking the poor machine they started fiddling with the gas level, which I knew about now. And pulling the choke. I got off the bike and a school kid got on and started kicking. He kicked, and kicked, and kicked. Nothing. He pushed the bike and tried to jump start it. But he was too light and the back wheel just locked up. Now by this time I had half the school around me and luckily, a student yelled to a Thai teacher from the English department who walked over. She talked to the student and said, follow this student I have told him to push your bike to the repair shop. What! You can do that? In the U.S. some parent would be suing you for abuse by now. I couldn't believe it. Another difference between the West and the East. This time it worked in my favor.

The poor little kid pushed my bike about two blocks to a little corner repair shop. He told the mechanic, who was an old Japanese looking Thai guy that it would not start. He proceeded to stop everything and start working on my bike. No appointment,no waiting. Wow this was odd. He started trouble shooting the spark plug, spark plug wire, and all the way into the crankcase. Which he took off , and then pulled some electrical condenser like thing out and re-soldered in a new one. And then reassembled the whole thing and told the kid, yes he had waited patiently through the whole thing, how much it would be. The student took out his book and wrote the amount in English . I was gone in 30 minutes and all for about 5 dollars. Expensive..... I thought..., but I was in the middle of nowhere Lampang Thailand. And I was broke down. Not too bad all things considered for my second breakdown in Thailand.