Brittany left her phone at school, so she has no alarm clock. It is then my job to go find her an alarm clock at 9pm and thus starts my first adventure out, alone, and at night.
Chiang Mai is very small. It has the same population of Columbus, but it could be fit inside the outer-belt like, 4 times. They have one large highway called the super highway (original, right?). Here is the route I took. As you can see, the starting location is where I currently live. The end location (approximately) is Big C (Thai Walmart). This is a very long trip in Chiang Mai standards, its pretty much across town but it only took me about 10 minutes to get there.
I got to Big C and I asked three people if they had alarm clocks. Two didn't speak english and passed me on to the next one and the last guy still spoke no english, but I made a hand gesture like so "Tick Tick Tick Tick RIIIINNGGGG" with one finger and then on ring I made a sleepy face waking up from my hand pillow. They had no alarm clocks. I then went to Home Pro (Home Depot without the lumber) which was next door walked right in, found an three attendants all standing in a...
Sidebar.
The unemployment rate in Thailand is 1.2%. Unreal right? The reason is (from what I can see) is everyone loves this country. Everyone who has some stake in the country genuinely wants the country to succeed and the people to succeed. In America, it is all about money, which is not always a bad thing (this is not political at all) but in Chiang Mai, if you walk into a place like Big C or Home Pro there are at LEAST 25 workers on the floor doing next to nothing. Just standing around waiting to help someone. I would have to say there are almost always more workers in a store than customers (a typical, small "verizon" type mall stand selling phones will have 4 or 5 workers).
These companies hand out jobs like water. All this talk in the States about job creation and how its all politics blah blah blah, but could you imagine if Wal-Mart decided to hire three people per shift per location in America? I know those spots would never get filled (working as a cashier at a Sams Club, I can tell you that they are never going to turn away an able bodied cashier if they want a job) but that is what happens here. The stores all hire random 20 somethings just because they want their people working and they understand that working people means money is flowing and since most all the money stays in Thailand, they can hire hundreds of useless workers because rice is cheap and the extra money will be spent on things. This is one of the most fascinating things about being here so far.
Anyway.
I walked into Home Pro looking for an alarm clock. Walked right up to three dudes all standing talking and said "alarm clock" then I made my hand gesture. They all looked at me like "what is this kid on" and one of the guys said in near perfect English "We don't have alarm clocks, sorry"
The rest of the story is boring, I walked downstairs and found an expensive alarm clock (300 baht) in some random mall stall and left to ride my bike home in the beautiful weather.
It's dark here and close to bed time. Hope you are enjoying the sunshine in the states. Till next time.
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