Dogs and Street Vendors

I realized earlier today that in all my writing I have somehow neglected to mention the crazy amount of stray dogs that roam our neighborhood! To be fair they may not all be strays. The Thais treat their dogs like animals and let them fend for themselves, often making it hard to distinguish between those with homes and those without. Regardless of whether they're technically strays or not, there are a lot of them and they're not friendly! Matt and I have both been chased by them on the motorbike. Neither of us have actually been bitten (thank god!) but I'm not going to lie, they're pretty scary. I watched the Thais and they completely ignore them. If there is one lesson I've learned since moving here it is when in doubt, follow the Thais. I realized then that the only time the dogs come at me is when I'm looking at them. These dogs live on the street so they have to be defensive and aggressive to survive. So thanks to copying the Thais I learned that if you walk right by the dogs without acknowledgement, they ignore you. Phew! This was a key lesson as I have to walk the 5-7 minute walk out of our neighborhood every morning to catch the bus. Not fun to do when you're constantly in fear of being chased by stray dogs! Haha. Ahhh the adventures of living in Thailand...

There is another group that is just as aggressive and persistent as the dogs in our neighborhood, they're the street vendors in Patong.

As you walk down the sidewalk (I use the word "sidewalk" generously) as a farang you are constantly hassled by the shop owners "Madame! Madame! DVDs?", "Come come look!", "Massage?", "Tuk tuk?" etc etc.. It is so bad that they themselves even sell shirts that read "No I don't want a f***in Tuk Tuk, Massage or DVD!" Haha ahh the irony as they try to push you to buy this shirt...

What I realized today is that you utilize the same technique on these vendors that you do with the dogs! Don't make eye contact or linger, stare ahead and walk right by. If you look at something for more than a second, they will attack! Haha. So to speak. If they see any bit of an opening, they'll corner you and present all kinds of souvenirs while offering "good price"...which of course is never a good price because c'mon, you're a farang. You're where they make their money! The best phrase I've learned here so far is "tâo rài kah?" which means "how much?", the SECOND you ask this in Thai, their whole demeanor changes! They're so impressed and they love when you try to speak Thai...coincidentally their price always drops significantly as well. Like I said, best phrase ever.