Murder in a Thai Soi (lane)

Murder most foul. Our soi (lane) is single track, so we could not get the car out when the police vehicle parked outside the house of our neighbour. And you don’t ask armed police officers, anywhere in the world, to move their car for you. They park where they want to park.

A crowd had started to gather outside the house. The locals wanted to know what was going on and they were waiting around to gather whatever snippets of information or gossip were available.

Ratchanee told me that one of the brothers in the house was dead. There had been some heavy drinking the night before and the men’s mother had heard some shouting downstairs. She had thought nothing of it. In the morning, the mother found her son lying in a pool of blood.

The police were now investigating a murder. They will start searching for two Burmese.

The brothers drank regularly with the same group of friends from neighbouring sois, all Thai nationals. Not my type, but friendly enough.

I’d never seen any Burmese, legal or illegal, in the area, and neither had anyone else.

The police didn’t stay long and the family immediately started to clean the house and tidy the garden. Monks come round quickly after a death in Thailand in order to start the funeral rites, and it’s best that everything is spotless before they arrive.

Chairs were put in the garden ready for the people who would soon be coming to pay their last respects. A small fire was started in one corner to burn the garden debris that had just been cleared.

We may learn more about what happened in the coming days. More likely, we will not.

Daily life in Thailand is never mundane. Nothing surprises me anymore.

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