-.-.- Posted December 30, 2005 Report Share Posted December 30, 2005 Today was my first trip to Soi Suan Plu in many, many years. I quite enjoyed how things went. Although fees were well up from where they were years ago for an extension the staff was quite fluent in English and both friendly and helpful. Fill out the forms and then go into the other room and hand in the forms. Take a number and wait. After a few minutes looking around suddenly there is loud yelling. A very obese Arab man with two women covered completely in black is furious. The Thai ?handler? is embarrassed and doing the embarrassed smile that Thais do so well. Fat man snarls a bit in Arabic, walks over towards me and talks loudly to his two covered women that I assume were women, but not sure as they were completely covered. He returns to the counters, snarls a bit more in Arabic to the immigration women behind the counter, snarls a bit more in Arabic to the Thai guy, snatches a wad of papers from the counter, pounds the papers up and down on the desk a few times while raising his voice again, of course in Arabic, and storms out. His Thai guy wais and apologies to the women behind the counter who took it well- maybe it was good they could not understand Arabic. I would have decked the fat fuck right there had I been behind the counter. Getting back into my magazine and people watching, the room is again interrupted by three Arab men who are obviously distressed and feel the need to vocalize that distress to each other in, you guessed it, Arabic. One stood at the counter with another Thai male who could understand, you guessed it, Arabic, and spoke, shouted really, to his two cohorts. What made this man unique was not the nose, which was among the largest you will ever see, but the depth that he could put his finger up the nose and move it while shouting. This went on a few minutes. I am sure the women behind the counter appreciated hook man keeping that finger moving the whole time he spoke to his friends who were some distance away. They also seemed quite angry. Rather than approaching the counter they chose to sit some seats and distance back and continue the dialog so everyone could share their obvious distress. Maybe ten minutes of this shit. The passports were mostly green which seems to be the green common in many middle Eastern countries. As the anger increased, along with my delay, I got up to move a few seats back to be sure to not be involved. It was only then that I reallied that at least one of these loud and exceptionally rude and confrontational men was a United States citizen! I felt such pride! In less than twenty five minuets I watched maybe twenty people deal calmly and smoothly with the very nice ladies behind the counter. They were even wishing people ?Happy New Year? Every single person of maybe a dozen nationalities was dealt with smoothly and efficiently. Every single Arab had problems- but before the problems they approached the counter shouting loudly. If I had to give advice to anyone from the Middle East in dealing with immigration I would have to say that pounding your hand on the counter is not a good move. Also speak English if you cannot speak Thai. Speak whatever you choose softly. Give the nose picking a break for just a few minutes out of your day. When you shout in Arabic to people seated some distance away try to avoid pointing your fingers at the faces of the women behind the counter. Even though a glass partition actually provided a degree of safety they somehow could sense that you were sayng something about them. The best advice of all might be to try another country.. It was a very interesting forty five minutes. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALHOLK Posted December 30, 2005 Report Share Posted December 30, 2005 The best advice of all might be to try another country.. A better advice would be to stay in their own country as they obviously se it as superior to other countries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David_66_UK Posted December 31, 2005 Report Share Posted December 31, 2005 Great post! Sooo Thailand People never cease to amaze me by failing to at least try to adapt to a different culture. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 1, 2006 Report Share Posted January 1, 2006 himitsu said:Give the nose picking a break for just a few minutes out of your day. . Would be good if some Thais would follow this piece of advice as well. Notorious nose pickers, some of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asiafun Posted January 1, 2006 Report Share Posted January 1, 2006 In many places around the world I have seen the ME's "show their ass" with unusual vigor. I used to think Americans could be the worst but these guys...holy crap... I have noticed that after 9-11 Americans in general have started to tone down their attitudes when traveling. Speaking of digging for gold, I agree with Cary Grant, I saw a crapload going for broke in just about every locale. The skytrain, malls, restaurants, hotel staff, bhat buses. Super hotties, business men in three piece suits to the bum on the street. I was beginning to think that nose digging in public was a national sport. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nervous_Dog Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 I went today with a mate and family to get extensons. Filled out forms/photo/pcopy from across the road. Walkedd in, got a number, walked directly to counter as number on wall was 590, we had 514. Lady very nice, said she called ages ago. We filled out forms, asked how long, told VERY VERY BUSY TODAY, an hour, had lunch at French Embassy (yum and cheap) came back. Nnumber on wall now 540, we worked out we had taken a short cut over a long queue of god knows how many people, and had saved ourselves a few hours DOG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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