Thai Smiles, Part 16: One Afternoon in Isaan

It's Friday and I don't have anything of much substance to offer today, so I'm going to fall back on another entry in the Thai Smiles series - the topic that gets the most positive feedback here on the site (with my sincere thanks to all who make time to comment).

On my last afternoon in Isaan one trip I had a very productive walk, meeting many interesting locals, all to a person gracious and pleasant to this somewhat damp farang with a camera. I'd met the young man raised in Greece who, although he looked Thai hardly spoke a word of his "native" tongue, had a cordial visit with a group of guys who were setting up an outdoor BBQ place for that evening's business, got a couple of nice "family" pictures and took the photos of the kid getting his haircut. It was a lucky day, picture-wise, and a gorgeous afternoon's walk.

I wasn't able to communicate much beyond "hello" with the couple and their baby (up at the top today) because my Thai is terrible and I suspected their English was, too. Nevertheless, they were quite the proud parents - even as child-like as they looked to be themselves.

The guy in the blue shirt above was attempting to do a macho pose while brandishing a faux weapon, but the silliness of the moment got the best of him and he couldn't keep a straight face. His co-workers in the lot full of unused vehicles came over to see what the hell he was doing and ended up posing with him for a couple of pictures themselves - the can of Chang beer in the guy's hand making it apparent that work that late in the day had more or less drawn to a close.

The last photo today is an image I used for a post in June (The Roadside Barber) but I just love how tickled the boy looked about having his picture taken by this Big Pink Guy so I cropped it a bit and am including it again today, since it was from the same walk. I'll get to the BBQ Boys pictures soon, I promise.