Wine with dinner, ka?

April 1st, 2002 at 12:00am

Reporting live from Railey Beach, Thailand. Waiting patiently for the waitstaff here to open the bottle of wine I gave them – you would think that they’ve never opened a bottle of wine before from the way they are crowding around the waitress. Actually, I think they have never have opened a bottle of wine. My vision of a nice relaxing evening in the restaurant at my bungalow is diminishing quickly. First the wine (still not opened), then the menu (only vegetarian item is fried rice with vegetable, and after nearly 6 months in SE Asia that option gets old fast), and then the Thai news blaring on the tv here happens to be grating my nerves as well. I mean, what kind of ambiance are they shooting for here? As a farang, I really don’t fancy watching Thai news on the large screen tv. Give me some Thia music, no problem. And now my food is here and I still don’t have the bottle of friggin wine. And I’ve asked for it back to open myself and they won’t give it to me! I feel like walking out. Oh well, so much for the relaxing dinner.

Arrived here today from Ao Nang after spending yesterday with my Thai freind Noi. Good thing I saw her when I did because she left today for Australia! It was great to see her again. I was calling her The Godmother by the time I left after going around town with her and seeing how she knows everyone and how everywhere we went our food and drink was free (her family owns The Nicest and Most Expensive resort in Ao Nang). It was pretty cool to high-style it for a day!

Well, some time has passed now. I’ve eaten my dinner of fried morning glory (yes, the weed) and garlic with NO wine. What I found out happened is that they broke the bottle while trying to open it. Then they tried to sneak out and buy a new bottle and meanwhile I’m sitting here like just give me the stupid bottle I’ll open it myself. It ended up with the katoy (lady boy) receptionist ordering me a watermelon shake on the house, giving me the money that I paid for the bottle, and confessing to me that they did actually break the bottle and the store was sold out so they couldn’t replace it. We all had a good laugh over it which is classic Thai style – never to stress, just to laugh it off. We were joking that her brother used a hammer to open the bottle. Guess I’ll have to do the wine with dinner another night!

Railey Beach, Thailand

Fishermen out at sunset, Railey Beach

Entry Filed under: South,Thailand