Hello from Thailand | Day 3
Okay, so today was...difficult. My sister and I ventured out on our own for the first time and, my, was it embarrassing. Never before has our foreign background been made so obvious. We went to lunch at this nice little restaurant, Jade Crystal. We ordered easily enough, but there was a huge air of discomfort as the waitress waited at our table for a good five minutes as my sister and I scanned the menu, not knowing what to order. Of course, she left just as we picked out what we wanted. But that wasn't as bad as the mafia-like family in a back room having, what appeared to be, an important conversation. Not that it was anything that strange, but the fact this restaurant had it's own private back room that was just open enough for us to see into was quite unsettling since the family inside seemed to be having a heated, and fervent talk on something I did not understand. It really did feel like the mafia, as if that family had owned the restaurant and were talking of illicit dealings. Lol, my mind. Seriously, it was a stereotypical characterization of the mafia family.
As we were paying for our meal, the waitress bowed at us, which is customary, but my sister ended bowing back which was 'inappropriate' because we were the paying customers and her bow was a sign of respect. The bow on our side was simply excessive and a sign of our epic fail. Of course, she didn't take it too seriously; the waitress simply gave my sister an awkward, embarrassed smile as if she were saying, 'I understand you have no idea what you're doing'...which was true.
As soon as we left the restaurant, the rain came pouring down and we hurried back to our hotel after buying some baked goods and chocolates from a local bakery/supermarket.
I bought something called 'Choux a la Creme'. It tasted really good. ;A; Like an eclair.
'Via Ton Ton' is obviously the store I bought my Choux a la Creme from.
And this was my food~ <3 Do you like my fail artistic nonsense?
Well my sister and I chilled for a little bit after this in the apartment, but soon after we went to the mall. And this was where the drama began. After walking around for a bit, my sister noticed that we were dragging a lot of attention to ourselves and not even because we were strange looking, but because we were speaking English. As we rode the escalator, Namie pointed out that two Thai kids going down stopped their conversation and turned their heads noticeably to stare at us as we got away. Frankly, it irritated me plus I didn't like the attention. Well, ordering food became a horrible problem. When we went to an ice cream shop, we basically went through the motions as we would have in America without any specific direction from anyone because, even if they had given us some, we really wouldn't have had an idea what to do because we don't speak Thai anyway. But the ice cream was really good although I only had the whipped cream and felt like a fatty immediately afterward.
Namie ordered some chocolate nonsense. She kinda just pointed at whatever she thought was nice, because the waitress didn't understan us, nor did we understand her. OTL.
But this whole trip made me realize how big the language barrier really was. A lot of people can't speak English at all and not that it's so bad, since we are in Thailand and not any English first-language countries, but considering how...wide-spread, widely used, and widely taught English is, I was expecting a little...more. Real problems came about during dinner. I ordered a seafood dish, but they ended up bringing me tofu soup and when I asked them to take it back, they didn't even bring me the correct order. The waitress and waiter saw that I was pretty annoyed since I had a distressed sort of face and went on to try and get me my order. When they came back to take away the mistaken order, my dad said that we had already eaten out of it and that we'll keep it. Unknowingly, he had implied that we didn't need the seafood dish and the staff didn't even put it in. I knew that something would go wrong as soon as my dad said that, but when I tried to correct it, my dad kept saying misleading things and so my order never went through. After a third round by the wait staff, we put in my order again and they brought me my meal, but only after my sister and dad finished theirs. I was far too irritated to finish up since I was, essentially, eating on my own and so I just stopped half way and we left.
But yes, the language barrier. It is a problem and I don't know what to do about it. Other than this one piece of unpleasantness, everything is great.
As we were paying for our meal, the waitress bowed at us, which is customary, but my sister ended bowing back which was 'inappropriate' because we were the paying customers and her bow was a sign of respect. The bow on our side was simply excessive and a sign of our epic fail. Of course, she didn't take it too seriously; the waitress simply gave my sister an awkward, embarrassed smile as if she were saying, 'I understand you have no idea what you're doing'...which was true.
As soon as we left the restaurant, the rain came pouring down and we hurried back to our hotel after buying some baked goods and chocolates from a local bakery/supermarket.
I bought something called 'Choux a la Creme'. It tasted really good. ;A; Like an eclair.
'Via Ton Ton' is obviously the store I bought my Choux a la Creme from.
And this was my food~ <3 Do you like my fail artistic nonsense?
Well my sister and I chilled for a little bit after this in the apartment, but soon after we went to the mall. And this was where the drama began. After walking around for a bit, my sister noticed that we were dragging a lot of attention to ourselves and not even because we were strange looking, but because we were speaking English. As we rode the escalator, Namie pointed out that two Thai kids going down stopped their conversation and turned their heads noticeably to stare at us as we got away. Frankly, it irritated me plus I didn't like the attention. Well, ordering food became a horrible problem. When we went to an ice cream shop, we basically went through the motions as we would have in America without any specific direction from anyone because, even if they had given us some, we really wouldn't have had an idea what to do because we don't speak Thai anyway. But the ice cream was really good although I only had the whipped cream and felt like a fatty immediately afterward.
Namie ordered some chocolate nonsense. She kinda just pointed at whatever she thought was nice, because the waitress didn't understan us, nor did we understand her. OTL.
But this whole trip made me realize how big the language barrier really was. A lot of people can't speak English at all and not that it's so bad, since we are in Thailand and not any English first-language countries, but considering how...wide-spread, widely used, and widely taught English is, I was expecting a little...more. Real problems came about during dinner. I ordered a seafood dish, but they ended up bringing me tofu soup and when I asked them to take it back, they didn't even bring me the correct order. The waitress and waiter saw that I was pretty annoyed since I had a distressed sort of face and went on to try and get me my order. When they came back to take away the mistaken order, my dad said that we had already eaten out of it and that we'll keep it. Unknowingly, he had implied that we didn't need the seafood dish and the staff didn't even put it in. I knew that something would go wrong as soon as my dad said that, but when I tried to correct it, my dad kept saying misleading things and so my order never went through. After a third round by the wait staff, we put in my order again and they brought me my meal, but only after my sister and dad finished theirs. I was far too irritated to finish up since I was, essentially, eating on my own and so I just stopped half way and we left.
But yes, the language barrier. It is a problem and I don't know what to do about it. Other than this one piece of unpleasantness, everything is great.