Thai Girlfriend in Tow in the Philippines
2009-08-06 16:54:50
Thai Girlfriend in Tow in the Philippines
I have a Thailand Girlfriend in tow, I often have to push here across the street or tow her along behind me, this is a new experience for me. I never wanted it this way, we have always been able to talk, communicate, and understand each other, travel is moving too fast for her, I cannot explain as fast as the world turns.
Thai Girlfriend next to Horse Carriage in Vigan, Philippines.
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Vigan, Philippines
Southeast Asia
Friday, August 7, 2009
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Thai girl walking at the Hotel Playa de Oro near Vigan, Philippines, I kept trying to make a joke, saying this is not Playa de Oro, it is
“Playa de Roca.”
She does not understand.
I cannot slow life down enough for her to understand English above the traffic, trikes, Jeepneys, fans, and general roar of noise here in the Philippines.
In Thailand she understands about 85 percent of my English, while here in the Philippines she understand less than 50 percent. I can tell if a person understand, I can look at their eyes, I can feel the people around me, I am overly sensitive to this, I am Betazoid. When my Thai Girlfriend and me traveled in Thailand I could allow her to be the boss, try to follow her, she truly is the Alpha Female. However, the Philippines are 20 times more dangerous than Thailand and she just does not understand how to cope with world problems. I am amiss, I will not allow her to just have ungodly amounts of problems, and however she has one of the hardest heads I know, she does not like me towing her or pushing here, who does?
She is a control freak, she is normal, she believe she is in control of her life. She does not want help, refuses to be coddled, controlled or guided along the path. She does not trust me, I often think she does not even like me, I have known her for at least five years and we are best friends. I am not sure a Thailand person can have respect for a Farang.
This Thailand culture is so arrogant, it cannot or will not have faith in anyone but a Thai person, if I was a Thailand man she would just obey and not fight. She is torn between wanting to be this Westernized women who is independent, and she is Thai. The world is moving way to fast for us, however she is bored out of her mind, and she is on my computer more than me, trying to find something to occupy her time.
Tourist are insane, bloody nuts, they walk around 24 hours a day trying to use ever hour for something. They are not on vacation, they are in a race to see everything, they are so greedy, so in love with time, they cannot enjoy the time they have.
Both my Thailand Girlfriend and I know we cannot and will not walk around eight hours per day. I admit, she has realized the life of a Traveler is not as glamorous as she imagined. She now realizes I spend endless hours just sitting in the room reading books, doing mundane and trivial things. I know she is not happy, she is Thailand and the culture says she cannot complain, from an empathy point of view, this is painful for me to watch. I am powerless to enable her to find something enjoyable, I keep saying,
“What do you want to do?”
Thailand culture almost demands she allow me to make this decision, however all cultures will tell you when they do not like something. Truly annoying, I try to come up with ideas, and she tries to accept them, however often what we do is boring for her. She truly believes all tourism is great; she is still delusional like 99 percent of tourist.
I convinced here that if she studied tourist destinations, looked at the map, read the Lonely Planet it would be better, and then she could be in the lead.
Pagudpud
I said, let us plan a trip to Pagudpud, she surfs the internet trying to find Hotels, she reads the Lonely Planet guidebook, she finally says,
“Pagudpud destroys my brain.”
She reads in the guidebook, the cheapest room is about 40 US Dollars, she surfs to Hotel sites.
“Why can’t they tell me the price?”
The travel industry makes used car salesmen look like Saints, there is nothing transparent, honest and up front about searching for hotel rooms in Pagudpud. More or less, bend over and say you like it, this is not Boracay, and this is not Koh Samui.
I told her, the Philippines is a nightmare for Backpacker, she does not want to pay 2000 Pesos per nigh for room. We have traveled to many Islands in Thailand; she knows we can get great room in Thailand for 300-500 Baht.
40 Dollars in Philippines for what we pay 9-15 in Thailand, she can do the math, and it destroys her brain.
She earns about 20,000 Baht per month, she has a Masters in Pharmacology, she knows the prices of Thailand and she says,
“A Philippine person cannot afford to pay 2000 Pesos per night for room.”
She is saying,
“The average person in the Philippines cannot go to Pagudpud”
I make a joke, about rich families earning money from corruption, or working for the government, this bounces off her. I try to explain, they will put 10-20 people in a room, I try to tell here about the cots outside the room we are in, and she does not know the word “Cot.”
There is too many words, she is bombarded with new this and new that, I cannot slow down the world.
She is a normal tourist, she pretends she loves to travel, the illusion is still there, and there is something glamorous about travel. A person can feel stupid 24 hours per day, and pretend they like it.
I said,
“We will leave by bus very early for Pagudpud, if we find an acceptable beach and Hotel we will stay. If we do not, we can return back to Vigan the same day.”
IF, do you know how hard it is to understand IF in another language?
She got upset, says her English is bad, I said she speaks English better than any Thai person I know. She still feel inadequate, I try to appease her. If you spoke Thai, I would understand less than one percent, I am ignorant in the Thai language.
An Asian walking into the English speak world is a brave person, go to China, you will learn empathy.
We go to Pagudpud tomorrow, I expect to find empty deserted beaches, I do not hope or expect to find her dream beach in Pagudpud. She will not fall in love with the Philippines, however she will fall in love with Thailand.
Thai Girlfriend in Tow in the Philippines