The Neighbors chewing beetle nuts part I
The Neighbors chewing beetle nuts part II
The land department person was also cheering them on and said “You have so many rai way don’t you give your neighbor some.” This is a typical Thai small village mentality and it drove me nuts. It was the same problem when my friend had a motorbike crash into her car in Phuket. Of course, it was the motorbike’s fault but the police say “ahh Khun Ying you have big car and big money, motorbike now have no money. Its ok he does not have to pay.”
The guy from the land department said that he was leaving now and he was going to write in the report that my girlfriend and the chewing lady can not agree, so he cannot do his job. He said that we wasted his time. We had been there for two whole hours.
My girlfriend got very angry by then and with me as her only back up (and I do not speak more then a few word Thai), she asked the land department person what he actually came there to do. He made her have a fight with the next door. He said, “I am sorry I can not measure your land I do not have the right equipment.”
My girlfriend said “What! Why did this entire crowd come here today then?
You can not measure it anyway?”
The orange shirt said, “No we only have one camera and we gave it to another land they doing 60 rai you know, very important. “
I thought to myself yeah and he paid you a handsome kick back for it too I guess. The land department could therefore not decide who has the right to the dyke and we said we do not care we just want the right person to have it. However, they said they had enough and said that they will make a new appointment but it will be two months later for us. He also said that he would not be coming and I think that was the best thing he said the whole day.
Some people think you should give the department some money when they leave and the staff thought so too. She also thought that we should give some money to the neighbors because they had come all the way to look. But I was thinking, where can I dispose her body? Maybe in the pond and then hope for some more rain.
This is also typical small Thai village mentality, by spending your money for any reason so that she can gain face. Moreover, that is very important even more important than getting the money. If you have a girlfriend from up country she will sometimes order food for the whole year, give your money to the monks, buy drinks she will never drink, give tip to anyone even if it was a crap service as long as it’s YOUR money. Next time she will come to this place without you she will then gained face.
Back to the story, the land guy went off in his pick up truck and we went to the land department to book a new time. After saying our goodbyes to the beetle juice ladies we called some friends we had in the village and they said not to complaint it will only make it worse. The land department guy will loose face and next thing we know the land had shrunk. I asked my girlfriend if she still wanted to tip the guys before we left for Bangkok, now was the chance. She just looked at me.
Epilog
The department came over once more two month after and they told us they did not like last person that was so rude either. They had the measurement camera with them and I guess when the next-door screaming women saw that they did not even showed up.
Their mother came one week after and signed the papers and one month after when we start making a fence some of the pole got kicked down one night. The guys that put the poles up for us went to their house and told them to stop this silly stuff or they would go to the police. They stopped but they came back two months later screaming at us one time from the other side of the fence. They had already signed the papers it was to late to change anything but I guess she needed to tell her story so we told her to tell it to our dogs. She stayed there screaming at our barking dogs for twenty minutes then she went off. We have not had a problem since.
