Trouble in The Office

Bangkok Stupor

Always begin at hotels
Where at 4 in the morning
You wonder about
The service, the class, the history
Of bellboys and cleaning maids
Nicking your room
Have you been
Robbed today
While being ripped off
By tee shirt vendors
By a hundred baht or so
In Pratunam?

Or was it Platinum?

Locals have their own way
Of saying everything,
Meaning extremely
Different things
To a farang like me.
Like their s’s and their ch’s
Pooch instead of Push
Their r’s and their l’s
Load instead of Road
V’s and their w’s
Wan instead of Van
While S’s at the end of words
Disappear like the French’s.

(By contrast,
Thais know Pilipin
By their rolling r's)

So, how does one say
Back to Radisson Hotel on Rama 9?
It’s Ladisson Hotel, Lama 9.
To Emerald Hotel?
Emelald, Ra!cha!dah!
Central World, Siam?
Centerwould, See-am.

Once the driver mistook my
Paragon and asked “Poseidon?”
Absolutely off their chart
Of quirks and syllables!
I corrected him by saying
See-am, PalaGone.
But
Had I not, it must have been
At the least
A wely intelesting lied

posted by Elyss @ 6:13 AM