Khun Slo-mo

[orang37]

When I first came to this little moo-baan, five years ago, Khun Slo-Mo (as I have nick-named him, I hope with affectionate compassion) was usually in one of two states ... but almost always with no shirt on, and, at times, while walking, his fraying "holey" trousers oscillating somewhere between "on" and "off" ...

State One : Walking in incredibly slow motion. My first estimates were 100 meters per hour. Over the years, and with many observations, I'd still stick with that as a rough estimate. But of course if he sits for two to three hours in one place, as he is likely to do : as usual : statistics fall apart.

State Two : Asleep, often curled into kind of a "fetal" position, by the side of the road, sometimes in direct sun, sometimes in shade. I used to make the mistake of trying to wake him up if he was asleep in direct sunlight, to try and get him to move, but there was no waking him up : this man sleeps deep !

He is somewhere between fifty-five and sixty-five, I'd guess. Toothless. Most likely with senile dementia as a result of alcoholism, but no one in the neighborhood seems to want to tell me his "real" story, and I know better than to seek to probe topics my neighbors do not want to discuss with me.

While I don't think he's actually mute, he really doesn't speak, or make any sounds.

Around two years ago someone, or some family, began to take better care of him; he got a haircut, he was wearing a shirt more often that, at times, even looked like it had been washed.

Exactly where he sleeps most nights (he's not on the road sleeping late at night), who his family is (if any), remains a mystery.

When I speak to him I always call him "Khun Paa" : when spoken to directly, he will look up slowly, kind of make eye contact; sometimes half a grin will start to come.

Khun Slo-Mo's favorite breakfast is a shot of cheap whiskey at the fractal collage of a convenience store ruled over by our neighborhood eighty-year-old-or-so Earth Mother and Matriarch. Where he gets five baht, or if he gets his breakfast slug for free : don't know.

He doesn't beg. I sometimes lay soy-milk on him, or a bottle of water. Sometimes I will pass by him an hour or two after I've laid a 300ml. UHT LactaSoy on him, and find him still holding it, just as I left him with it (the straw inserted, ready to drink). Whether he drinks it or not : unknown.

I see Khun Slo-Mo as moving like a wind, moving in his own unique universe of some highly altered state where a lot of the cognitive apparatus that makes a human being a social animal has just "blown away."

He is a meandering thread in the social fabric of the moo baan, but I've never seen anyone treat him unkindly, yell at him, act disrespectfully to him (except for Khun Volcano, and her story is another story).

How does Khun Slo-Mo escape death when he sleeps by the side of the road while the usual Thai circus of driving homicidally and suicidally swirls around him ?

Is that the "great secret" I could learn if I moved like he does, in slow motion ?

I find it interesting to consider whether or not I am more "alien" to this neighborhood than Khun Slo-Mo : I am pretty sure the answer is : "yes."

Him and his five-baht lao kao breakfast : me and my soy-milk : same, same ?

~o:37;

Edited February 26, 2010 by orang37

[Loaded]

We need pictures

[greasemonkey]

would this character happen to have a tag hanging around his neck? Mentions on it something about being a soldier in the british army. Used to march and parade for me and a mate, about 4 in the morning, outside the jack daniels van by spicy. actualy spoke exellent english with a seriously thick accent. We used to buy him a chang, he'd drink two mouthfuls, and then talk to himself a while before clearing off. By your description it sound similar, just gone down hill a bit. One thing is sure in Chiang Mai, there is no shortage of curious characters.

[rrose070]

Is this in Chiang Kien?

[rrose070]

If so, we call him "the walking man". Little bitty guy, all sinew and bone?

[Curt1591]

Down in Yannawa, in the middle of Stahupradit Road, one will often encounter "Sathu-Man"!