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Jun. 18th, 2007 05:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranThe hotel in Bangkok was guarded by a shapeshifter. The hotel was made up of two separate wings quite some way apart. There was a multistorey carpark between them and a long winding corridor so guests could walk from one wing to the other. In my case, since my meetings were in the same wing as my room, the most important function of the corridor was to take me from my room to Breakfast, then back again, then to Lunch, with various side trips to the internet cafe to check on email in between.
Because the corridor also had access to the carpark, there was a security desk halfway down it with a guard on permanent duty. Most of the time, the guard was a thin woman with long dark hair tied behind her head, but at least several times a day she was a heavy set man with short cropped hair and an ample stomach. Sometimes, he/she would change within five minutes, so I'd walk along the corridor one way (say, off to Lunch) and then realise I'd forgotten something and turn back to find the guard already in his/her other form. He/she would nod at me each time I passed and we'd exchange a greeting in either English or Thai ("Swawasdee kha", she would say in her female form, "Sawasdee kup" when in the male, although of course the final "p" in Thai is always clipped so it's easy to confuse them - the tone is the real giveaway - high-falling in the female form, high-rising in the male.) He/she had obviously had a lot of practice speaking in both forms since he or she never once got it wrong.
Because the corridor also had access to the carpark, there was a security desk halfway down it with a guard on permanent duty. Most of the time, the guard was a thin woman with long dark hair tied behind her head, but at least several times a day she was a heavy set man with short cropped hair and an ample stomach. Sometimes, he/she would change within five minutes, so I'd walk along the corridor one way (say, off to Lunch) and then realise I'd forgotten something and turn back to find the guard already in his/her other form. He/she would nod at me each time I passed and we'd exchange a greeting in either English or Thai ("Swawasdee kha", she would say in her female form, "Sawasdee kup" when in the male, although of course the final "p" in Thai is always clipped so it's easy to confuse them - the tone is the real giveaway - high-falling in the female form, high-rising in the male.) He/she had obviously had a lot of practice speaking in both forms since he or she never once got it wrong.
