Super Farangs

There were about 6 other Westerners in our rugged little town, each from different corners of the western world. Terra, from Pennsylvania, was the only other female. She and I became friends immediately, and it was not long after that that I realized she was absolutely insane, but so was I so we got along quite well... David, from Holland, became a close friend too – I am forever indebted to him because he introduced me to the Avett Brothers. Then there were a couple of loud assholes from England, an amazing Irish bloke named Colm, who I looked to for guidance throughout the year, and then a few rambunctious Aussies too. All of the men had Thai girlfriends or wives, and we all hung out at an outdoor bar called Sun & Moon at night, playing cards and listening to live acoustic music. It was at Sun & Moon that David, Terra and I got the idea to join up and start to play music together. We called ourselves the Super Farangs. (Farang means "foreigner" in Thai).

We met on Wednesday nights on Terra’s porch which was surrounded by the sweet, dripping heat of Thai evenings, vibrantly colored flowers, buzzing insects, and never-ending green vines. The three of us sat at a table made of blue and white tiles, covered in bowls of fruit, dried wax from candles, and cigarette ash. The neighbors’ cats would sleepily wander over and sit at our feet as we drank Beer Singha and studied the lyrics that Terra had printed out. The first song I learned was Backwards With Time, and that became our staple song. David played guitar, Terra used whatever she had around her to keep the beat, sometimes she’d bust out a cymbals for fun or a didgeridoo, and somehow they had the confidence in me to sing. We’d get better as the nights wore on, as the beer rolled down my throat my volume raised and my shyness diminished. Under the flickering Christmas lights, we made some pretty great music together at that table. We played Avett pretty much exclusively, sometimes throwing a Beatles medley in randomly when I requested it – sometimes you just need to belt out Rocky Raccoon in it’s entirety, what can I say?

After about a month of this fooling around, we got serious and set up a date to play at the Sun & Moon. I remember how nervous I was, and then how easy it was once I was up there. The majority of the people there were Thai and didn’t understand a word we sang, but all of our Farang friends were there, smiling and raising their glasses to us as we played.