Nam&Johan

#letschat

I met Johan a day or two after my arrival in Kanchanaburi. I had left home in search of a good coffee with the intention of getting as far as the downtown stalls to find more choice and maybe a new recipe to try for breakfast. Seeing me bewildered by the various options in front of me and probably undecided on where to try my luck, he got up from the chair where he was chatting with some people, walked over to me and asked me what I was looking for.

To my spontaneously desperate reply - 'coffee' - he first recommended some stands in the street around the corner, then asked me a few questions and we started talking, introducing ourselves better. After a few minutes of conversation he let me continue my search not without first inviting me to stop by the table where he was sitting with his friends to continue our chat - if I had the time and inclination of course, in any case I would find him sitting at that table more or less every morning at that same time.

Having finished my coffee and eaten something, I went back to his table and sat down with him and his Thai friends. From then on, we got to know each other better and better and we saw each other often, I met Nam, his wife, went to the temple with her, stayed at their house and spent good times with their friends, at the river or sipping Thai tea by the roadside. Thanks to them, I was able to understand many things about Thailand, starting with the more practical ones such as some useful language expressions or different types of food, to the more general and comprehensive ones, insights that I would only fully grasp later in the trip.

Heading in the same direction on his way home that morning, I asked him if he would like to have a chat with the camera on in which he would tell his story; without much thought he said yes, that he would be happy to do so. The result of that filming is inside this video.

---