I’ll call her Noi, because that’s the name of every Isaan girl at one time or another, or so it seems. Noi was one of those gai yung ladies at that sprawling wet market in Udonthani but maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, I’ll start closer to the beginning.
North entry Dalat Isaan, at 6 AM this entire street is a traffic jam for hundreds of meters from people trying to get into the market.
As a child Noi was given away, or maybe just sent to live, with a relative or maybe not a relative as everyone is called uncle and auntie. The relative lived across the Mekong in Laos and because it was the 1960s there was no school. Noi can’t read or write and that can be quite a hindrance in this life.
Like most teenage girls Noi fell for a young guy who promptly dumped her after getting what he was after. Her marriage prospects now somewhere south of zero Noi sought out her family in Thailand and that’s how she ended up in Udonthani.
Every morning the people who sold chickens would sell her some legs, which she would barbecue in time for lunch using the smoke from the barbecue as her advertisement. The market is called Dalat Isaan, appropriately enough, and it covers an entire city block being accessed from four sides via the alleys which are actually the entrances.
Inside Dalat Isaan
Those are the bare outlines, I’ve no doubt that Noi went on to have many experiences beyond selling gai yung, but of them I know nothing, only that she was a gai yung lady at that market.
In the beginning of this century the internet facilitated worldwide communication and one of those avenues of communication opened up was online dating, including matches of people looking to get married. Noi laid down some of her hard earned cash for an English language ad complete with photo with just a little bit of photo shopping.
Now I wouldn’t want to give a false impression, by the early 2000s Noi was middle aged, not a young svelte 30s but middle middle age, mid 40s and looking at the not too distant 50s and 60s as a childless granny. A slightly rounded shapeless lady with died black hair and an easy smile despite whatever life had thrown at her.
Her friends called her delusional. The expression goes something along the lines of a dog looking up at the jumbo jet. A soi dog occupies just about the lowest rung of life at the market and for one to look up at the passenger aircraft and imagine itself onboard is both far fetched and sad because it’s just never going to happen.
Well it turns out Noi got some responses. Knowing something of men she’d specified a non drinker. Mike was an ex military with a double retirement from two branches of the government and a late in life divorce. He was looking for a wife for the sunset of his years not a go go girl. After a few thousand baht worth of translated emails they took a look at each other and decided they’d do.
Noi was a little heavier than her photo shopped picture and Mike wasn’t much on flashy shows of money to impress her friends but none the less they got married and moved to the States. Both of them like puttering around the house and after ten years they’re still pretty happy, they found the companionship they were seeking.
Update 6:48 MST Thanks for the rescue. I'm interested in people. Not everyone can be an astronaut or President, sometimes we just have to find a way to accomodate and come to terms with what life throws at us.
Vocab
Noi means little in Lao, a common nickname for girl children in Isaan and Laos.
Isaan is in NE Thailand, people there speak Lao at home.
Gai yang is chicken barbecued. a common street food marinated in ginger, garlic, salt, MSG.
Dalat means market.
Baht is the Thai unit of currence, roughly 30 to the dollar.
Soi is a small street or alley