Everyone is Seen as a Friend in Thailand

All my family will be there including my cousin’s German husband. You’ll enjoy meeting him and joining in with the village festivities. It lasts all day. Plenty of food, plenty of drink. My neighbour, Khun Fon said I would be able to talk to a fellow foreigner.

A beer was poured before I even sat down and the food arrived whether I wanted it or not. All the houses in this small village had similar parties underway.

The official reason for the festivities was that the local temple was asking for donations to build a new toilet block. So, people kept popping in and putting a 20 baht or 100 baht note on the family’s “money tree” which would be taken to the temple later. Some neighbours gave a sealed envelope with their name on and stayed for a drink and a chat. Often the envelope is an airmail envelope: much prettier.

The reality was that it was as an excuse for the whole village to get together for a day-long party, share the local gossip, and have some fun.

We visited several homes in the village and had the same Thai welcome. The lady with the German husband, Nonglak, turned out to be a close friend of the family and not a relative. That was no surprise.

Close friends, family. It’s not an important distinction to Thais. However, she had married an Italian and not a German. And she was now divorced and no longer married. She ran an Italian ice cream parlour in Germany for eight months of the year and holidayed with her family in Thailand in the low season.

Nonglak obviously works very hard and has been able, with funds from her former husband for sure, to build three houses in the village. One for herself, one for her parents, and one for her grandparents. I’d put the value at over 16 million baht.

An unfortunate postscript. One effect of the Covid endemic is that there is now more xenophobia in Thailand. Not all Thais, of course, but many are avoiding foreigners as they’re falling for the government propaganda that visitors are spreading the virus.