Wrestling with Thai logic

Hi ya! Wassup? Keeping your ever-logical mind active, I hope.Pull up a mug and a virtual treat while I relay this story from Thailand that I heard yesterday...

"I thought I was so clever......need to provide a map to my home for my request for extension of temporary stay.

Got all the other arsenal of paperwork ready......so I spent today using my navigational and slightly artistic skills to draw a freehand map so the immigration people can find my home. (Note: I live out in the sticks and no Google map even knows where I am).

I even used Thai writing, not that I can read it yet.....but the cruncher was.....a gate.

To find my place one needs to turn left off a paved road onto a dirt road which is not very easy to see (especially for someone who has never been there before) lots of trees and bush.

About 100 metres before our dirt road, there is a gate on the opposite side of the road, it stands out all by itself.....easy to see. So I show this gate on my map, indicating that 100 metres later is the turnoff for the dirt road.

Proud as punch, when my wife comes home I show her the results of my blood sweat and tears......"what's this?"

"It's that gate on the other side of the road just before we turn into the dirt road."

"But there is no gate on our road"

"I know...it's on the other side of the road before our road"

"Too confusing"

"Why"

"You show gate on road and that is not our road"

"No.....I have shown that it is on the opposite side of the road and is 100 metres before our road"

"Thai people not understand....you make too confusing"

"WTF!"......it is a stand alone gate that opens for a large property where the residence is some 300 metres from the road.

So I reach for another beer. Sigh! "

Now that may not make much sense to a lot of folks...unless you have spent time in Thailand but as the Abbot said in Bangkok Eight, "Fortunately, the peoples of Southeast Asia have never been poisoned by Western thought!"

See ya, eh!

Bob