Unwelcome Guest

Hospitality is, of course, an Asian/Thai tradition. The old "mi casa es tu casa" mentality pervades all aspects of Thai culture. "Make yourself at home" is, literally, the rule here, and that is exactly what guests do.

Thus, when Pui's friends show up, and wind up eating more of my food than I would like, or lounging around on my couch in front of my television later than I would like, or playing music louder than I would like, I take it all in stride. It's only a one-night-a-month kind of thing, and they do go away eventually.

Except for Mohn.

Mohn comes and stays for days and weeks. She stays here and looks for work, and ultimately gets an offer from some distant place like Hua Hin or Bangkok or even Singapore or Hong Kong. Then she leaves, goes to wherever it is she found a job, finds out that the job sucks, and within a few weeks is back on my couch, in front of my TV, with a mouthful of my food.

I suppose that wouldn't be a terribly bad thing if she was eye candy, but instead she is an annoying older woman with a piercing shrill voice who gets drunk and tries to molest me. What's worse, is that she preys on Pui for money, which Pui invariably gives her. Last time, I found out that Pui pawned her mobile phone to give Mohn money, which of course I had to pay for. Pui simply doesn't have the will power to say no to anyone.

The last time Mohn left, I told Pui under no circumstances was Mohn to come back into my house.

Mohn came back, Pui let her right in. "Only for one night," Pui promised. I relented. I reminded Pui the next day to tell Mohn to leave. On the eve of that second night (that would be last night), Mohn was still here. I told Pui then that Mohn would be leaving the next day (that would be today).

This morning, I called Pui into my office and told her again that Mohn was to be gone before we went out for dinner tonight. Pui got a look in her face like "Oh... I was hoping you had forgotten about that."

Pui really has no ability to be impolite, or bear bad news. (It took me weeks of urging and badgering Pui to convince her to shake me awake in the morning because she didn't like "upsetting me.") So, this time for good measure, instead of just telling Pui to tell Mohn to leave, I added "Phom mai yak pen mai suphap." ("I don't want to be impolite.") She got the message: If she didn't get rid of Mohn, I would, and I wouldn't be as convivial about it as Pui would.

So now, as far as I know, Mohn will be leaving today. Maid Go tells me that Pui has already told Mohn, and as soon as Mohn finishes some laundry, she will be on her way to Bangkok.

We'll see.

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UPDATE

Well, Pui may find it difficult to give Mohn bad news, but she knows far better than to ignore me when I tell her to do something. Mohn was off to the bus station, right on schedule.

And yes... I'm 100% positive that Pui will give Mohn some money for the bus.