Moki

This is Moki.

Moki is Khun Salle's dog. Khun Salle was one of the first Thai people I met when I got here. I've never seen Khun Salle not smiling (or her dog for that matter, but not so unusual for a dog). She might be the happiest person on earth. She owns a store in the neighborhood. Khun Salle taught me how to hail a cab. Standing in front of her store, I looked down the street about 7 or 8 blocks at the large group of Thai men dressed in hot pink vests, sitting, lounging, and dozing off on their motorcyles. Khun Salle motioned for me to hold both of my arms up in the air and face the flock of motorbikes and vests. I did. Then she started 'pretend steering' into the air. She motioned for me to join her. I did. I've never been one for air guitar, but air steering is awesome! I held up my arms and started 'driving' like a mad woman, taking turns left and right, wailing around frantically. Sure enough, the gestures worked and the sleeping cycle quad returned my gesture like a wave and within minutes a bright pink vest and the buzz buzz of a moto approached. Khun Salle said, "20 baht you pay". Pinky held out his hand, the universal gesture. I gave him 20 baht and seemingly out of nowhere, a taxi cab appeared to take me to my destination.

Moki, you probably speak better Thai then I do, will you tell the driver where I'm going?