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Blog EntryA Conversation With A TAXI Driver (PART 3)Aug 30, '07 4:27 AM
for everyone

The rain was brutal. The traffic was hell. And I was bored to tears.

Then I noticed that the TAXI driver, a man in his thirties, with curly hair and longish, immaculately shaped nails, was watching me from his rearview mirror.

"Wanna hear a joke?" he asked.

"Yea, sure," I said, "Anything is better than having nothing to do on a rainy day. So beua (boring)~!!"

"OK, here goes," he began, "What kind of rot (Thai word for "car" or "vehicle") is longer than rot fai (literally means "fiery car" = train)?"

(English translation: what kind of a car/vehicle is longer than a train?)

My brain was, of course, in its default "SLEEP" mode, so I was in no condition to do any deep thinking.

"Erm... I dunno, I have no idea," I said.

"It's rot tid (traffic)!!" he said, looking so delighted. "HAHAHAHA~~!!!!"

*******************************************************************

In order to understand the joke completely, here's a quick Thai language lesson:

- the word rot means car or vehicle in Thai

- when you add different words, it becomes a different type of transportation. For example:

* rot fai (fiery car) = train

* rot mae (mother car) = bus

* rot tai din (car underneath the floor) = subway

This particular TAXI driver demonstrated his finesse with Thai pun (play on words), because rot tid (cars close together) IS a form of "rot", except it means "traffic", and as we all know...

Bangkok traffic can stre-e-e-e-tch forever into the horizon, longer than ANY trains on the face of the earth~!!

Top Blogs The BEST joke I’ve heard today~!!

Read PART 1 of the "Conversation With A TAXI Driver" series here~!!

Read PART 2 of the "Conversation With A TAXI Driver" series here~!!

Read PART 4 of the "Conversation With A TAXI Driver" series here~!!

Read PART 5 of the "Conversation With A TAXI Driver" series here~!!

Read PART 6 of the "Conversation With A TAXI Driver" series here~!!

streetsmartsukhumvit@gmail.com

 

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24 CommentsChronological   Reverse   Threaded
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noelkid wrote on Aug 30, '07
hahahaha.....I guess this joke came from Talok Cafe na. ;)
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fellowcynic wrote on Aug 30, '07
Sorry to correct you there, but a bus is not a 'mother car' in Thai. Rather, it is written รถเมล์ (rot me, or rot mel, with a mute "l" at the end) and as far as I know, actually derived from the English word 'mail', thus apparently originally referring to a stagecoach. But that's only the colloquial expression anyway, the official word being 'rot doisan pracham thang' (roughly: passenger vehicle on fixed/designated route).

Also, I'd translate 'rot tit' as 'cars stick (together)' - isn't that both lovely and very accurate? - , and of course it means 'traffic jam'. Simple 'traffic' is (karn) chorachorn (การจราจร) in Thai.
A handy dictionary for those who can read Thai, btw: http://dict.longdo.com/

If you want to call me a smartass now, I can live with that. ;-)
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ynottony wrote on Aug 30, '07
hey cool translation, anyway how to say smartass in thai ya?
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streetsmartsukhumvit wrote on Aug 30, '07, edited on Aug 30, '07
fellowcynic said
If you want to call me a smartass now, I can live with that. ;-)
No, la... you're not a smartass... you're just SMART; while I'm the ASS here heh heh~

Thanks for pointing it out... ALL THIS TIME I've thought "rot mae" is bus coz "mother car" seems to make perfect sense to me... Now that I think about it... I've never even bothered to look at the Thai writing of "rot mae"... Didn't give so much importance to it, I guess... Perhaps coz I never take the bus anyway~ Hahahaha~~~~
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kamenashifan wrote on Aug 30, '07
thats a cute joke, people now mostly don't make those kind of jokes they're so dirty minded, ahhh I can't wait to go overther just hope its not too expensive ^-^ Thanky you for posting. I hope your birthday was good :)
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seawaterwitch wrote on Aug 30, '07
XDD its funny.

WHOAAAA...HAPPY BIRTHDAY Streetsmartsukhumvit........

About Traffic,
Same here at Jakarta, Indonesia.
You should see trafic in front of Cempaka MAS ITC.
It's like hell.
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vanditatiwari wrote on Aug 31, '07
ha ha funny, i can relate to this very well. Whaw....we have long cars in India too..he he
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streetsmartsukhumvit wrote on Aug 31, '07
kamenashifan said
thats a cute joke, people now mostly don't make those kind of jokes they're so dirty minded
HAHAHAHAHA~~~!!!!

Hey, drop me a note before you come~!! I got a sore throat after doing too much karaoke for my B-Day, but it's all well and good now...
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fellowcynic wrote on Aug 31, '07
streetsmartsukhumvit said
crap
Glitter Graphics
You've been in Thailand for twenty years....?!?!
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noelkid wrote on Aug 31, '07
hey, I didn't notice you were wrong about 'rod mae' but I understand why you think like that. Because they are big, right? Buses are mother cars so trucks and lorries should be father cars and cars are their children....hahahahaha......

But why you never take the bus? You can't be a local without a bus experience. :P
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streetsmartsukhumvit wrote on Aug 31, '07
Actually, the airconed buses aren't so bad... in fact they're pretty comfortable. It's just that I don't know WHEN the bus I want will come. I just have to wait and wait... if I'm lucky, it comes in 5 minutes, but there were times when I waited for 30 minutes and the damn bus just never came~!! AAAARRRGGHHH~~~ So yea, if I can help it, I won't take the bus. I'd rather choose between TAXI, BTS, subway. For short distances within the sois I take either motorcycle taxi or siilor.
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streetsmartsukhumvit wrote on Aug 31, '07
fellowcynic said
You've been in Thailand for twenty years....?!?!
Yes, sir... I came here in 1988 during the "BOOM" years, I was here when Suchinda and Chamlong faced off, and also in 1997 when the economy seriously crashed (the baht reached 50 baht to a dollar one day~!!), saw Thaksin got elected (twice!!), survived through the "F4" craze (gaaawd that was tough~!!!)...

So yea... almost 20 years~!! Heh heh...

And all this time I thought "rot mae" was "mother car"~~!!! GAAAAAH~~!!!!!
reply
fellowcynic wrote on Aug 31, '07
Oh - and I imagined you to be, ahem.... young. (Sounds a bit tactless, eh?)

Always thought you were in your 20s. Probably because of your 'youthful writing style'..... ;-)
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streetsmartsukhumvit wrote on Aug 31, '07, edited on Aug 31, '07
EH~ I AM YOUNG~!!!! I am as young as my "youthful" writing style~!! When I arrived here in 1988 I was still in ELEMENTARY school~~~~!!!!!

TAXI drivers STILL call me nhu
http://streetsmartsukhumvit.multiply.com/journal/item/7 here the TAXI driver called me "nhu" coz he was a much older man...
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noelkid wrote on Aug 31, '07
Nick, I can guarantee that she's still YOUNG. ;D
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fellowcynic wrote on Aug 31, '07
1. I take your word for it, noelkid.

2. Well, if you were still in elementary school in 1988, you're actually a tad younger than me. (So my mental picture is back to normal.)

Anyway, no offense! (*snicker*)
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fellowcynic wrote on Aug 31, '07
Sounds like an interesting story, btw - coming here as a kid and staying on.....
Maybe one day you'll tell us more about that in your blog.
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streetsmartsukhumvit wrote on Aug 31, '07
THANK YOU, Noel~!! (Noel saw me IN THE FLESH, by the way... NOT just in pics~!!) Puhahahaha~~~
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streetsmartsukhumvit wrote on Aug 31, '07
fellowcynic said
(So my mental picture is back to normal.)
Hmmm, so now I'm worried about this "mental picture" of yours...
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streetsmartsukhumvit wrote on Aug 31, '07
fellowcynic said
Anyway, no offense! (*snicker*)
no worries
Myspace Glitter Graphics


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fellowcynic wrote on Sep 9, '07
streetsmartsukhumvit said
Hmmm, so now I'm worried about this "mental picture" of yours...
Dontcha worry. :-) What I wanted to say: if you only know each other through written messages, your mind will inevitably create a 'picture' (in the widest sense) of the other person - age, personality, simply how you imagine them to be like. So when you said you have been in Thailand for 20 years, part of that impression was suddenly shattered, as I didn't figure you might have come here at a very young age already.
But now everything has been clarified!

And something else --- what's the "F4" craze you mentioned earlier? Just can't figure it out.....
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streetsmartsukhumvit wrote on Sep 9, '07
Oh, F4 was this Taiwanese pretty boys' singing group (F4 stands for "Flower Four - the 4 members had perfect skin, bouncy hair, sparkling smile... you get the point) that became obscenely popular a few years back... They came out in this TV series called "Meteor Garden" (based on a Japanese manga) and basically took over the Thai media... At that time, you could't escape from F4 coz anywhere you went... there they were... on TV, in mags/books, buttons, BTS stations, t-shirts, posters, even Pepsi cans~!!
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