Farang in Isaan

Saturday, 17 Feb 2007 | Journal

A farang is a sight to be seen in Isaan, that is one thing I noticed on my trip. Even this afternoon, sitting at the hotel swimming pool, kids were very aware (the hotel allows kids from the area to swim here) of me sitting here and regularly put on a show for me.

I first started noticing it when I was walking through the market 2 days ago, my first real encounter with Kalasin. As I have said, people everywhere were looking at me, talking about me, etc. It is a very strange experience and I just retired to the idea of them not seeing a lot of farang in this area, so of course I was ‘weird’. I regularly asked Nat if it would be ok to take a photo of something, she kept telling me I was an alien to these people and anything I would do was just fine.

Having a farang in Nong Bua Ngo (the village) was just as much, perhaps even more of a novelty. Everywhere I walked, people would look up from what they were doing and stare and smile at me. If I said hi (in Thai) to them, they would all start laughing and say hi back and ask me if I was ok. Which I of course confirmed. Sometimes you could hear the word ‘farang’ being said inside the houses and people came outside. The coolest thing that happened was a small little girl from the nursery, she must have been Givens age, and she came running outside and pointed at me while jumping up and down and excitedly yelling “this guy, this guy, this is the guy who came to my school today and he had big food with him and many balls!” … too cute for words. People from the outskirts of the village walked all the way over to catch a glimpse of the farang. They walked inside the house, struck up a conversation with others there and then said “ok, I’ve seen him now, I have to get back to work”. I was a sight to be seen, thats for sure.

Something that was of course an incredible boost to my ego, was the fact that people were genuine in their thinking of me as handsome. Just before we departed from Kalasin City on the VIP bus, there were a few girls in their twenties who walked up to Nat and started asking questions about me. They thought I was really handsome and could she introduce them to me, etc. She laughed, did and of course there was not much conversation as my Thai and their English is fairly limited. The reason for this as it turns out is that the only farang most people in such remote areas ever come into contact with are retired westerners. And then it makes sense.

I didn’t see a lot of farang. I was told about a few of them in the Nong Bua Ngo area. And while they had gorgeous houses (which would set you back about 30,000 euro to build) I honestly wondered what they were doing there. I guess if you are retired and you’re looking for ‘the easy life’, this is a great way to live. But it is not for me, as I’ve said. Still, being a young farang visiting this area, you get a lot of positive attention. And there is nothing wrong with that!