I was riding motorbike and saw roadworks ahead. A guy was redirecting traffic into, basically, not prepared woods, where everyone was negotiating their way between coconut trees. Thinking how unlikely you see something like that in Europe, I was smiling at the thought and when I was passing him, suddenly realized that he was smiling at me, almost giggling. Caught unaware, I imagined he had read my thoughts, and we parted half- laughing. It took me a couple of minutes to stop smiling, he stopped smiling much sooner, I think. But what I know for sure is that amount of times an average Thai smiles or laughs is at least ten times bigger than us, farangs (Thai word for westerners). Not only they are looking for a funny or pleasant situation - they also create them out of nothing.
And I don't remember a single occasion when in Europe a stressed out worker on a roadside smiled at me anyway... :)
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