Pancho had been in Phunee for a little over a month now. He was due to travel south with some of his foreign friends in a few weeks which meant that he needed to replenish his dwindling cash reserves. For the occasion of his host father’s birthday PIU, his host sister was coming back from Bangkok. That saturday the three children of the family, Piu, Pinball and Pancho were to travel to Ubon together and enjoy a day out.
As there was only one secluded ATM in Phunee, Pancho, thinking ahead as usual, saw this opportunity to retrieve money from his home country. Having had to wait several hours for Pinball to shower and shave, Thai people were very superficially aware, the three finally set off around noon time. Their first stop led them to one of Ubon’s shopping arcades (This was a particularly measly one). Pancho once again having a hinting apprehension of looming disaster was eager to try out his card on one of the ATM machines. Thus while Pinball parked the car adeptly Pancho got out and approached the ATM in the car park. As he had expected, it decided not to dispense any money. In addition it spewed out a cryptic message, in English, that made no sense whatsoever. Some nonsense about the screen being wrong. Just to make sure, Pancho unhopefully tried again. PIU walked past in that moment and her English being exceptionally good for Thai standards he asked her to translate what the machine said in Thai. Her confused expression eventually told him that the Thai message was just as nonsensical.
The three had a slight issue now. Not having any money Pancho could not really do the shopping he had intended to. He especially wanted to buy a cheap guitar for entertainment on his travels. He found several other ATMs but each single one seemed to have some issue or another. Pancho’s heart simply throbbed with love for technology that did not work the way it was supposed to. But what made Pancho truly jubilate was that it was impossible to find out whether it was the ATMs that did not accept the foreign card or whether it was the card that did not function.
Over a Vietnamese Lunch Pancho let the annoyance briefly overcome him. It would be a lot of work to sort this thing out and the real issue was that Ubon was too far away to simply hop over and try it out again.
Eventually resigning to his fate he made the wise decision to just enjoy the day. They would still be able to browse for guitars without buying after all. But before this enjoyable part PIU had to buy her return plane ticket to Bangkok. This was only possible at the actual airport. Pancho found small airports quite fascinating. They felt more like a trainstation that an airport. While PIU rushed inside to purchase her ride home, Pinball and Pancho waited in the car in front of the terminal. Out of nowhere two ladies walked by in front of the car. There being nothing else to do, or to converse about (limited vocabulary tends to have this effect) Pinball asked Pancho whether he thought them pretty. Only having caught a glimpse of them and wanting to position himself tactically soundly (He was not sure whether to be truthful or always say that Thai women were beautiful) He simply said he had not seen properly. The two men not wanting to sit around any longer decided to inspect more closely. They followed the ladies into the terminal. Inside it was easy to tell that not many flights actually left from this airport. The emptiness was nearly overwhelming. Pancho’s X-ray like gaze finally spied the two women standing in front of a bank. Seeing an ATM close beside them his extraordinarily bright self realized that he had a perfectly legitimate excuse to get closer. Thus he casually strolled over to use the ATM. Just having stuck his card into the machine he realized that these women were not at all of his taste. In fact without trying to be rude, they made a very good impression from behind, but their faces were a dire disappointment. Pancho turned away quickly. Not wanting to blow his cover, especially after his little realization, he thought he may as well actually try the ATM. This proved to be a most extraordinary turn of events that not even good old Pancho had anticipated.
And to his amazement the machine actually paid out the required amount of money to him. Pancho could not quite believe it. Overjoyed at being solvent once again and amazed at his luck (or had he just been incredibly unlucky before?) he returned to Pinball, who had evidently made the same observation about the girls.
Thoroughly relieved that Pancho had been spared further hassles in this matter he managed to enjoy the rest of the afternoon thoroughly, including the purchase of a cheap guitar (It turned out that the guitar quality was even cheaper than the price)
As there was only one secluded ATM in Phunee, Pancho, thinking ahead as usual, saw this opportunity to retrieve money from his home country. Having had to wait several hours for Pinball to shower and shave, Thai people were very superficially aware, the three finally set off around noon time. Their first stop led them to one of Ubon’s shopping arcades (This was a particularly measly one). Pancho once again having a hinting apprehension of looming disaster was eager to try out his card on one of the ATM machines. Thus while Pinball parked the car adeptly Pancho got out and approached the ATM in the car park. As he had expected, it decided not to dispense any money. In addition it spewed out a cryptic message, in English, that made no sense whatsoever. Some nonsense about the screen being wrong. Just to make sure, Pancho unhopefully tried again. PIU walked past in that moment and her English being exceptionally good for Thai standards he asked her to translate what the machine said in Thai. Her confused expression eventually told him that the Thai message was just as nonsensical.
The three had a slight issue now. Not having any money Pancho could not really do the shopping he had intended to. He especially wanted to buy a cheap guitar for entertainment on his travels. He found several other ATMs but each single one seemed to have some issue or another. Pancho’s heart simply throbbed with love for technology that did not work the way it was supposed to. But what made Pancho truly jubilate was that it was impossible to find out whether it was the ATMs that did not accept the foreign card or whether it was the card that did not function.
Over a Vietnamese Lunch Pancho let the annoyance briefly overcome him. It would be a lot of work to sort this thing out and the real issue was that Ubon was too far away to simply hop over and try it out again.
Eventually resigning to his fate he made the wise decision to just enjoy the day. They would still be able to browse for guitars without buying after all. But before this enjoyable part PIU had to buy her return plane ticket to Bangkok. This was only possible at the actual airport. Pancho found small airports quite fascinating. They felt more like a trainstation that an airport. While PIU rushed inside to purchase her ride home, Pinball and Pancho waited in the car in front of the terminal. Out of nowhere two ladies walked by in front of the car. There being nothing else to do, or to converse about (limited vocabulary tends to have this effect) Pinball asked Pancho whether he thought them pretty. Only having caught a glimpse of them and wanting to position himself tactically soundly (He was not sure whether to be truthful or always say that Thai women were beautiful) He simply said he had not seen properly. The two men not wanting to sit around any longer decided to inspect more closely. They followed the ladies into the terminal. Inside it was easy to tell that not many flights actually left from this airport. The emptiness was nearly overwhelming. Pancho’s X-ray like gaze finally spied the two women standing in front of a bank. Seeing an ATM close beside them his extraordinarily bright self realized that he had a perfectly legitimate excuse to get closer. Thus he casually strolled over to use the ATM. Just having stuck his card into the machine he realized that these women were not at all of his taste. In fact without trying to be rude, they made a very good impression from behind, but their faces were a dire disappointment. Pancho turned away quickly. Not wanting to blow his cover, especially after his little realization, he thought he may as well actually try the ATM. This proved to be a most extraordinary turn of events that not even good old Pancho had anticipated.
And to his amazement the machine actually paid out the required amount of money to him. Pancho could not quite believe it. Overjoyed at being solvent once again and amazed at his luck (or had he just been incredibly unlucky before?) he returned to Pinball, who had evidently made the same observation about the girls.
Thoroughly relieved that Pancho had been spared further hassles in this matter he managed to enjoy the rest of the afternoon thoroughly, including the purchase of a cheap guitar (It turned out that the guitar quality was even cheaper than the price)
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