sagesex

We just met an incredibly inspiring old lady on the Surat Thani night market. She (we were not entirely sure if she was a woman or a man but decided that she ended her sentences with “Ka”, which in thai means she is a woman) was just about to start performing on her guitar, so we stayed for a while.

Chui and Stefan, Surat Thani

We exchanged a few words, and not only was she extremely friendly and excited to meet us (which is getting common now that we’re out of tourist mainstays again – puh!), but her English was actually pretty good. Yet the first thing you would notice about her is that she has almost no teeth left.

Then she started to play, and I’ve never ever seen such audacity: Not only was her guitar fucked up and totally out of tune, not only did she not sing at all. No, she could play an estimated dirty two chords, and did not even try to keep any rhythm or pretend to play a song. She just hacked along merrily and thoroughly enjoyed herself. Of course we gave her some money, because she truly impressed me: If you have no teeth and cannot play guitar or sing, don’t notice that your guitar is out of tune and couldn’t probably tune it either, would you dare putting your hat in a crowded street and play for the people? And look more than happy doing it? If you ever thought you were too pathetic to step up and perform, think again! This lady was more punk than anyone I ever met. And now we’re taking our guitar to the streets of Surat Thani!.

Correction

I was wrong. I’m sorry. You can’t judge a book by looking at its cover. You can’t judge a guitarist by hearing her warming up on an out-of-tune guitar.

When we met Chui (I hope that’s a good approximation to her name she told us later) again that evening, we played with her and she used our guitar. Which is by no means a great instrument, but at least it’s tuned. And she put us to shame. What I said is right. Chui is more punk than anyone I ever heard. But she is also up there with the great rock’n roll performers of our time. Once she had reached playing temperature (with maybe a little help of “Thai whisky”), she rocked like hell, be it Thai songs or English. She played gracefully in her own stirring rhythm, sung with a  unique voice, acted out every song to perfection with audience involvement and all. A true star. I’m proud to have shared a stage with her.

Chui in performance. Check out her boots!

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We just met an incredibly inspiring old lady on the Surat Thani night market. She (we were not entirely sure if she was a woman or a man but decided...