The Thai smile

Mac Mickmanus · June 27, 2021

Can be infuriating at times .

Friday afternoon I found a new Pizza restaurant in the village and I went in there and asked what time they close and they told me "8 PM" .I arranged with my friend and her son to go their the following night .

A Saturday night out to a restaurant , promised the kid a Pizza and his mum a steak.

We all got showered, best clothes on and got there at 6 PM........................just as they were closing .

I asked why they were closing .................and they smiled and said "We want to go home".

I tols them that 8 PM is their closing time

They just smiled and laughed , how funny .

I told them that we had arranged to go out for pizza that night .

They smiled and laughed and said "Come back tomorrow" .

How disappointing .

As there was no other restaurants open in the village , we had to go home hungry .

Due to their unreliability, I wont be going back there again .

Had they apologised and been sympathetic , I may had just forgiven them and gone back another time in the future .

But the smiles and joviality, I just found to be infuriating and I vowed never to go back there again .

I embarrassingly had to explain the my friend and kid that the restaurant was closed and the staff were like *Ha ha , you came to our restaurant and we are closed ha ha *

Infuriating

tonray · June 27, 2021

42 minutes ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

We all got showered, best clothes on

all that for Pizza....I wonder what the prep time is for lobster...

CharlieH · June 27, 2021

Exactly the same when they do anything wrong ! Just a beaming smile.

Works too, hard to get upset when a pretty female gives you a big smile ! Somchai on his motorcy, not so much ????

Johnny Mac · June 27, 2021

A very sad tale, in so many ways...

clivebaxter · June 27, 2021

Sister in law had a coffee shop and if she had a good day would go home at 3PM, closing time was meant to be 6 PM. She went bust ???? She could not see a problem of customers turning up, finding it closed and going to the one across the road.

Skeptic7 · June 27, 2021

3 minutes ago, clivebaxter said:

Sister in law had a coffee shop and if she had a good day would go home at 3PM, closing time was meant to be 6 PM. She went bust ???? She could not see a problem of customers turning up, finding it closed and going to the one across the road.

The Thai Way! ????

Johnny Mac · June 27, 2021

To be fair I can fully sympathise with the op, it's infuriating and very disappointing when you look forward to going somewhere but to arrive and find it is closed, it's happened to everyone on here no doubt, as we all live the dream..

OneMoreFarang · June 27, 2021

1 hour ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

As there was no other restaurants open in the village , we had to go home hungry .

Maybe you should think about moving to a place with at least 2 restaurants, or maybe 20 or more.

Skeptic7 · June 27, 2021

4 minutes ago, Johnny Mac said:

To be fair I can fully sympathise with the op, it's infuriating and very disappointing when you look forward to going somewhere but to arrive and find it is closed, it's happened to everyone on here no doubt, as we all live the dream..

Yep happened on the 24th here in Udon. Messaged twice asking if serving beer as well as food. Answer...BEER AND FOOD. Next day to verify..got big ????. Hours were 11am-2pm for lunch and 5pm-9pn dinner. 3 of us arrive 1230pm for a birthday lunch and they're not serving anything! CLOSED!

Not going back, lost us for good.

chickenslegs · June 27, 2021

3 minutes ago, Skeptic7 said:

Next day to verify..got big ????.

Just a misunderstanding. They meant to give you the finger, not the thumb????.

Kwasaki · June 27, 2021

2 hours ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

I embarrassingly had to explain the my friend and kid that the restaurant was closed and the staff were like *Ha ha , you came to our restaurant and we are closed ha ha *

Infuriating

You sound like you ain't been here very long and if business is not good on the day they shut, " Up to them".

Get telephone number before going restaurants there's pandemic going on ya know.

Grecian · June 27, 2021

If Thai people acquired Scandanavian efficiency overnight we wouldn't be living in a country with a low cost of living and our wife of girlfriend wouldn't have settled for us.I

Let it go. It's all part of the appeal.

Skeptic7 · June 27, 2021

50 minutes ago, chickenslegs said:

Just a misunderstanding. They meant to give you the finger, not the thumb????.

Like this?!? ???? All in good fun of course! ????

Mac Mickmanus · June 27, 2021

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Maybe you should think about moving to a place with at least 2 restaurants, or maybe 20 or more.

I am just visited a friend in a village , hadn't seen her for 18 months due to her moving from the city to the village and covid restrictions , now the movement restrictions have been relaxed , I thought I would visit them .

We had been friends for five or so years and I often took care of her son .

They currently live in poor conditions , without a television or a fridge and I did pity them , and so yesterday I paid 15 000 Baht and bought them a T.V and fridge , what was due to be delivered and installed today . Although the wire from the TV to the satellite dish would need to be paid for , about 150 Baht .

We went out for some noodles across the road from the Pizza shop and I asked the kid whether he wanted a pizza or not and he did , so as I was still boycotting the pizza place , I gave his mother 200 Baht and they went across the road to get a pizza .

I was sat proudly across the road in the noodle shop on boycott , defiantly not going in for a pizza .

Their pizza arrived and they couldnt eat it all and I sat looking at my horrendous somtam .

I thought that enough is enough and I went across the road into the pizza shop and finished off the pizza and the waitresses apologised for closing early the previous .

OK accepted .

I then told the mother to pay for the pizza with the money that I had given her "I gave you that money back " she said .

"No you didnt" , I replied and I then emptied my pockets out to show that I didnt have 200 Baht in my pocket .

She still insisted she did give the money back .

I paid for the pizza (again ) with a 500 Baht note and just walked out and bode her goodbye .

She had the T.V installed today and must have paid for the 150 Baht wire .

How stupid is that ?

She lost a generous friend for the sake of 200 Baht and I intended to pay for the wire anyway .

OneMoreFarang · June 27, 2021

28 minutes ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

I am just visited a friend in a village , hadn't seen her for 18 months due to her moving from the city to the village and covid restrictions , now the movement restrictions have been relaxed , I thought I would visit them .

We had been friends for five or so years and I often took care of her son .

They currently live in poor conditions , without a television or a fridge and I did pity them , and so yesterday I paid 15 000 Baht and bought them a T.V and fridge , what was due to be delivered and installed today . Although the wire from the TV to the satellite dish would need to be paid for , about 150 Baht .

We went out for some noodles across the road from the Pizza shop and I asked the kid whether he wanted a pizza or not and he did , so as I was still boycotting the pizza place , I gave his mother 200 Baht and they went across the road to get a pizza .

I was sat proudly across the road in the noodle shop on boycott , defiantly not going in for a pizza .

Their pizza arrived and they couldnt eat it all and I sat looking at my horrendous somtam .

I thought that enough is enough and I went across the road into the pizza shop and finished off the pizza and the waitresses apologised for closing early the previous .

OK accepted .

I then told the mother to pay for the pizza with the money that I had given her "I gave you that money back " she said .

"No you didnt" , I replied and I then emptied my pockets out to show that I didnt have 200 Baht in my pocket .

She still insisted she did give the money back .

I paid for the pizza (again ) with a 500 Baht note and just walked out and bode her goodbye .

She had the T.V installed today and must have paid for the 150 Baht wire .

How stupid is that ?

She lost a generous friend for the sake of 200 Baht and I intended to pay for the wire anyway .

I think you should try to relax a little.

We all make mistake sometimes. And if people start: You did it. - No I didn't. That can escalate fast. Should it escalate? Is it worth it?

Sometimes when I am pretty sure I am right I give in just to avoid a standoff.

I am aware that we should not always give in and if other people take advantage of us too often then it's time to stop that relationship. But I think sometimes it makes life easier to just ignore certain things.

Carpe diem

rimmae2 · June 27, 2021

12 hours ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

I am just visited a friend in a village , hadn't seen her for 18 months due to her moving from the city to the village and covid restrictions , now the movement restrictions have been relaxed , I thought I would visit them .

We had been friends for five or so years and I often took care of her son .

They currently live in poor conditions , without a television or a fridge and I did pity them , and so yesterday I paid 15 000 Baht and bought them a T.V and fridge , what was due to be delivered and installed today . Although the wire from the TV to the satellite dish would need to be paid for , about 150 Baht .

We went out for some noodles across the road from the Pizza shop and I asked the kid whether he wanted a pizza or not and he did , so as I was still boycotting the pizza place , I gave his mother 200 Baht and they went across the road to get a pizza .

I was sat proudly across the road in the noodle shop on boycott , defiantly not going in for a pizza .

Their pizza arrived and they couldnt eat it all and I sat looking at my horrendous somtam .

I thought that enough is enough and I went across the road into the pizza shop and finished off the pizza and the waitresses apologised for closing early the previous .

OK accepted .

I then told the mother to pay for the pizza with the money that I had given her "I gave you that money back " she said .

"No you didnt" , I replied and I then emptied my pockets out to show that I didnt have 200 Baht in my pocket .

She still insisted she did give the money back .

I paid for the pizza (again ) with a 500 Baht note and just walked out and bode her goodbye .

She had the T.V installed today and must have paid for the 150 Baht wire .

How stupid is that ?

She lost a generous friend for the sake of 200 Baht and I intended to pay for the wire anyway .

Much ado about nothing.

bojo · June 28, 2021

12 hours ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

I am just visited a friend in a village , hadn't seen her for 18 months due to her moving from the city to the village and covid restrictions , now the movement restrictions have been relaxed , I thought I would visit them .

We had been friends for five or so years and I often took care of her son .

They currently live in poor conditions , without a television or a fridge and I did pity them , and so yesterday I paid 15 000 Baht and bought them a T.V and fridge , what was due to be delivered and installed today . Although the wire from the TV to the satellite dish would need to be paid for , about 150 Baht .

We went out for some noodles across the road from the Pizza shop and I asked the kid whether he wanted a pizza or not and he did , so as I was still boycotting the pizza place , I gave his mother 200 Baht and they went across the road to get a pizza .

I was sat proudly across the road in the noodle shop on boycott , defiantly not going in for a pizza .

Their pizza arrived and they couldnt eat it all and I sat looking at my horrendous somtam .

I thought that enough is enough and I went across the road into the pizza shop and finished off the pizza and the waitresses apologised for closing early the previous .

OK accepted .

I then told the mother to pay for the pizza with the money that I had given her "I gave you that money back " she said .

"No you didnt" , I replied and I then emptied my pockets out to show that I didnt have 200 Baht in my pocket .

She still insisted she did give the money back .

I paid for the pizza (again ) with a 500 Baht note and just walked out and bode her goodbye .

She had the T.V installed today and must have paid for the 150 Baht wire .

How stupid is that ?

She lost a generous friend for the sake of 200 Baht and I intended to pay for the wire anyway .

Good investment if you don't repeat........................

Mac Mickmanus · June 28, 2021

15 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I think you should try to relax a little.

We all make mistake sometimes. And if people start: You did it. - No I didn't. That can escalate fast. Should it escalate? Is it worth it?

Sometimes when I am pretty sure I am right I give in just to avoid a standoff.

I am aware that we should not always give in and if other people take advantage of us too often then it's time to stop that relationship. But I think sometimes it makes life easier to just ignore certain things.

Carpe diem

I do think that you need to establish certain lines in relationships .

Like, no lying or stealing , if they think that they can pull the wool over your eyes and get away with lying and stealing, they will take full advantage .

If you turn a blind eye and say nothing , they will continue to do it and it will escalate and you will have never ending problems .

Better to address the problem immediately .

Either put a stop to the lying and cheating or put a stop to the relationship .

Continuing and letting it fester and the relationship will not last

Mac Mickmanus · June 28, 2021

2 hours ago, Sticky Rice Balls said:

And yep ive gotten that smile many times....I was taught that there are supposedly 13 thai "smiles" if you can decode them

Well don't keep it a secret , what are those 13 different smiles ?

1FinickyOne · June 28, 2021

The smile and laughing are reflexive responses to conflict, not meant to insult... it is a cultural thing..

If it is a new business, they are obviously just feeling their way and if it is a small business, their personal life will take precedent...

I understand your frustrations but this was not meant to insult you... they probably sat there all afternoon w/no customers and decided it wasn't worth it to stay open... my experience w/small village restaurants is that they do not keep reliable hours, which is why they choose to open that way and not in a shopping mall...

1FinickyOne · June 28, 2021

16 hours ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

I am just visited a friend in a village , hadn't seen her for 18 months due to her moving from the city to the village and covid restrictions , now the movement restrictions have been relaxed , I thought I would visit them .

We had been friends for five or so years and I often took care of her son .

They currently live in poor conditions , without a television or a fridge and I did pity them , and so yesterday I paid 15 000 Baht and bought them a T.V and fridge , what was due to be delivered and installed today . Although the wire from the TV to the satellite dish would need to be paid for , about 150 Baht .

We went out for some noodles across the road from the Pizza shop and I asked the kid whether he wanted a pizza or not and he did , so as I was still boycotting the pizza place , I gave his mother 200 Baht and they went across the road to get a pizza .

I was sat proudly across the road in the noodle shop on boycott , defiantly not going in for a pizza .

Their pizza arrived and they couldnt eat it all and I sat looking at my horrendous somtam .

I thought that enough is enough and I went across the road into the pizza shop and finished off the pizza and the waitresses apologised for closing early the previous .

OK accepted .

I then told the mother to pay for the pizza with the money that I had given her "I gave you that money back " she said .

"No you didnt" , I replied and I then emptied my pockets out to show that I didnt have 200 Baht in my pocket .

She still insisted she did give the money back .

I paid for the pizza (again ) with a 500 Baht note and just walked out and bode her goodbye .

She had the T.V installed today and must have paid for the 150 Baht wire .

How stupid is that ?

She lost a generous friend for the sake of 200 Baht and I intended to pay for the wire anyway .

geez man, you have got to relax.. people can forget things...

as to some of the different smiles, hello - sorry I misspoke - sorry your pizza got screwed up - - I don't want to fight/argue - I have no idea how to respond so I will smile - you look nice today but I'm not interested, - - you look nice and I am interested, - hope I see you again - hope you are happy - you seem like a nice person - have a nice day... - thanks for buying my chicken in the market - thanks for joking and making it fun while you bargain w/me etc etc...

As I said before, the smile can be a default gesture for any situation... sure, that probably doesn't make sense in your framework of logic but Thai can understand... A blind man can't tell the difference between brown and green... it's a different culture here, there is a learning curve... it's not their fault that you don't get it...

Mac Mickmanus · June 28, 2021

2 minutes ago, 1FinickyOne said:

geez man, you have got to relax.. people can forget things...

as to some of the different smiles, hello - sorry I misspoke - sorry your pizza got screwed up - - I don't want to fight/argue - I have no idea how to respond so I will smile - you look nice today but I'm not interested, - - you look nice and I am interested, - hope I see you again - hope you are happy - you seem like a nice person - have a nice day... - thanks for buying my chicken in the market - thanks for joking and making it fun while you bargain w/me etc etc...

As I said before, the smile can be a default gesture for any situation... sure, that probably doesn't make sense in your framework of logic but Thai can understand... A blind man can't tell the difference between brown and green... it's a different culture here, there is a learning curve... it's not their fault that you don't get it...

I very much understand that a smile covers for all emotions here in Thailand .

I was rather annoyed that they deiced to close early and that was exasperated by them acting like a pack of laughing hyenas .

I was trying to explain the situation that this is the first time in 18 months that I had seen my friends and them closing early completely ruined out night out and I was hopeful they would stop closing and reopen and cook some food for us .

And that it was a bad business practice to not open the restaurant at the stated times and all I got was smiles, giggles and laughs in reply .

Infuriating

OneMoreFarang · June 28, 2021

1 hour ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

I do think that you need to establish certain lines in relationships .

Like, no lying or stealing , if they think that they can pull the wool over your eyes and get away with lying and stealing, they will take full advantage .

If you turn a blind eye and say nothing , they will continue to do it and it will escalate and you will have never ending problems .

Better to address the problem immediately .

Either put a stop to the lying and cheating or put a stop to the relationship .

Continuing and letting it fester and the relationship will not last

If you are 100% sure they lied about something important then I agree with you.

But I think sometimes we think we remember something and then later we find out we didn't remember all of it.

I know a guy who had the same maid for years and he was happy with her work. Then one day he didn't see 2000B in his pocket which he was sure he had the night before. Obviously the maid must have stolen the money. He fired her on the spot.

And then sometime later he found out that he made the mistake and the maid didn't steal any money.

He was embarrassed but he didn't apologize to the fired maid.

And then he struggled to find a new reliable maid...

Surelynot · June 28, 2021

Went into a bar one night.....the manger and his mate were playing pool.........I asked the girl can my wife and I play?.......She said yes and went to tell the owner get off the table.........I said no....it's okay let them finish their game first.

After two or three more shots the manager goes off to make a phone call.......5 mins later comes back......then his mate goes next door and starts chatting to friend........I am thinking w t *.

I tell the girl forget it ,we will go to another bar.....she says sorry, sorry..... tells the owner to get off the table and he has a hissy fit and throws the pool cue at her!!!!!

Off we went.

Edited June 28, 2021 by Surelynot

rodknock · June 28, 2021

i wear a mask in the pool incase the government changes there nimble minds!!!

Cake Monster · June 28, 2021

19 hours ago, CharlieH said:

Exactly the same when they do anything wrong ! Just a beaming smile.

Works too, hard to get upset when a pretty female gives you a big smile ! Somchai on his motorcy, not so much ????

I also observe the sickly look on the Face when they are caught out doing something wrong.

Pretty Girl, Motorcy Driver, it does not matter who with me. I let them know exactly how hacked off I am, and exactly what I think of them.

1FinickyOne · June 28, 2021

1 hour ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

And that it was a bad business practice to not open the restaurant at the stated times and all I got was smiles, giggles and laughs in reply .

what would you rather they do? Knives or guns?

The laugh, like the smile is the reflexive response... they were not intentionally insulting you, nor did they know about your big night out... part of being a business owner for them is that they are the boss of their lives... be it good for business or not.[in your estimation]..

Though if you opened a business, your idea of good biz may take precedence.. their ideas are different... as I said before, if you want people who follow your idea of good biz practices, go to the mall...

But really, I am sure they did nothing on purpose to insult you... try not to take it so personally.

Edited June 28, 2021 by 1FinickyOne

Mac Mickmanus · June 28, 2021

I am just staying in a small "resort" at the moment , just compromising of three bungalows in a field .

I need to check out today and go back home , but there's no one else here , just me , I have no one to give my three nights rent money to .

The owners house is locked and I didnt get my normal cup of coffee this morning .

I dont want to leave the rent money laying around anywhere , looks like I will have to leave without paying the rent money .

Nothing else that I can do

Kadilo · June 28, 2021

I wonder how the OP manages to get dressed in the morning.

I don’t think Thailand is for you.

Mac Mickmanus · June 28, 2021

2 minutes ago, Kadilo said:

I wonder how the OP manages to get dressed in the morning.

I don’t think Thailand is for you.

I shall be getting a pizza next time though.

The manager gave my friend her telephone number and told her to call her next time I want a pizza and they will stay open especially for me

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