I miss

[cdnmatt]

In all seriousness, I miss the sense of community. Although my first house in Khon Kaen was by far the worst (only 4500 baht/month for 2 storey, 4 bdrm, 2 bath), it's the one I miss the most. For any of you who have been up in Issan, I'm sure you'll know those subdivisions that are somewhat like Western version of townhouses, except every house is designed and architected differently. Nonetheless, you share walls with your neighbors.

That's what I miss. I miss heading out to the local night market to grab myself and the dogs some grub, but as per-usual I pop over to a few of the neighbors and ask if they need anything. Many times my one neighbor or two of them will say they want some "nam dtaap" for their dogs as well, so I'm happy to pick it up for them.

Upon returning from the market, I notice the neighbor on the other side of me hanging out on the street in the box of his pickup having a beer with other neighbors. Sure enough, they invite me to join them. So I hand over the food my neighbors requested, get my dogs some drub in them, and head over for a beer.

Just simple shit like that, which simply does not exist in Canada anymore. Everything here has to be scheduled. There is no the neighbor is hanging out infront of his house having a beer, so let's go for a chat. Instead here it's, "ok, Thursday at 4pm let's get together for a beer, sounds good". That's jsut sad in my eyes.

Or other things like I remember how Kim's mom would live with us on and off. One time she ended up setting up a "gwaii-tiao" stall / restaurant on the corner. For those who don't know, "gwaai-tiao" is basically pork noodle soup, and if you've been to Thailand a good amount, I'm sure you've had it.

Anyway, there was a gravel lot at the corner of our street, so she figured out who the owner is and rented it off them on a monthly basis. I can't even remember, but I would imagine I invested into her little restaurant, but nonetheless she was all setup with tables, chairs, one of those cooking stalls on wheels to make the soup, dishes and utensils, and everything else. Every monring she would wake up, pack all the tables and chairs over to the street corner along with the kichen on wheels thing, and setup shop.


I'd be hanging out in my home office upstairs working, and Kim would show up in my room saying it's time for lunch, grab me and we'd head over to our little "gwaai-tiao" restaurant on the corner. All depending on the week, sometimes Kim's little brother would be staying with us as well, milling around doing his thing.

That type of thing is just so nice for me, and so humane, and so normal. Here in Canada you can't just drop a quick $500 and setup a restaurant on the corner of your subdivision in a day. It just doesn't work like that.

And tons of things like that, but yeah, sense of community is what I miss the most.