I was talking to a friend the other day and he told me an amusing tale of his trials of owning a tuk tuk.He bought it cheap but the engine needed some work doing on it. He was recommended a mechanic that used to live and work in BKK. He goes to see Somchai but Somchai speaks little English and my friends Thai is lacking in anything other than food.

After much gesturing he finally conveys to Somchai he needs the engine servicing. No problem there.

He then tried to get across to Somchai that when you accelerated the engine blew blue smoke out of the exhaust pipe. He managed to get across the blue bit by pointing to a part of Somchai's T shirt that was blue but the exhaust on the tuk tuk was out of sight under the vehicle. There happened to be a pick up parked near the garage that had one of the big bore exhaust pipes on it. He was pointing at the exhaust of the pick up and making engine noises and pointing to his T shirt. Blank looks on Somchai's face. He tries again after remembering the Thai for fast. Laio laio pointing at the blue and the exhaust. Suddenly a big smile breaks out on Somchais face. Dai dai he says. Success thinks my friend and leaves it all in his hands. He returns 3 days later to pick up the tuk tuk to find--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Yep you guessed it. A nice new shiny, blue big bore exhaust fitted to his tuk tuk and Somchai looking like the cat that got the cream

He had to laugh and as he says it does sound quite nice. It still blows smoke when accelerating though

Don't you just love this place

Here is another one. We had just finished the ten apartment bathrooms and it was time to lay the wall tiles which were a light bluish white broken by a row of blue tiles with seagulls, two rows from the top. So 100 boxes of plain tiles and 10 boxes of seagull tiles. Away for just a day and returned to find one bathroom completely covered in seagulls ! Jesus wept...

Here is another one. We had just finished the ten apartment bathrooms and it was time to lay the wall tiles which were a light bluish white broken by a row of blue tiles with seagulls, two rows from the top. So 100 boxes of plain tiles and 10 boxes of seagull tiles. Away for just a day and returned to find one bathroom completely covered in seagulls ! Jesus wept...

Don't think that is exclusive to Thailand... my old mum in Sydney had a new wooden deck put on the back of her house... the railings had little leaves and berries cut into them (actually Gum Leaves and Gum Nuts)... the carpenters installed all of them upside down, so all of the leaves were hanging upwards and looked like little campfires...

She had to get the carpenters back to turn them all up the right way, but afterwards, my mate used to always ask her "why are all the campfires upside down?"

Here is another one. We had just finished the ten apartment bathrooms and it was time to lay the wall tiles which were a light bluish white broken by a row of blue tiles with seagulls, two rows from the top. So 100 boxes of plain tiles and 10 boxes of seagull tiles. Away for just a day and returned to find one bathroom completely covered in seagulls ! Jesus wept...

Have some pics of the seagull bathroom.

Scary stuff, I presume.

Years ago in Edinburgh, my parents had a new bathroom installed with nice tiles which depicted water running down them.

Yup, the water was running up them...

What does all this have to do with Samui?

What does all this have to do with Samui?

Miscommunication?

What does all this have to do with Samui?

Miscommunication?

May be make a 'bathroom-tiles forum'...   out of this one.

sorry, just kidding

What does all this have to do with Samui?

great ad for language schools?

would be nice to "hear" some more of these "lost in translation"  funny stuff..