Language Barriers and an Unexpected Oasis

By Trey Wiggers
LSU Ag Leadership Class XVI

Tonight we are at this hotel, tomorrow-a resort.

These were the words our tour guide used to describe our accommodations in the Thai countryside in his somewhat broken English.

I have had some classes in Spanish and have come to expect a bit of confusion when translating languages. Sometimes the bathroom is called a “happy room” which is likely a translation from a “relief room” of some sort.

“Hotel” and “resort” are somewhat interchangeable when in the context of converting from language to language. I get it. Hotels and resorts have restaurants, rooms, likely a bar or lounge.  I get it.

So when we were told that we were going to a resort, I looked at the map and cross referenced the area where we would be staying. This was no “resort zone” so of course I expected it to be a translation issue.

We toured a rice farm, rice research station, and a beef cattle farm this afternoon and headed to the “resort.” Along the way our bus pulled over to a local grocery store and we were told “there is nothing around the hotel so get what you would like for snacks or drinks here or go without.”

We left the grocery store and drove along a highway lined with rice fields and small roadside shops servicing the local, ever-popular moped or scooter.

Suddenly the bus slows to a crawl and turns into a driveway that looks pretty nice. In the middle of the rice fields is a manicured lawn and palm trees. The driveway snakes toward the parking lot where we unload and gather near the front desk, which is in an open air and covered patio area. 

We are given our room keys and told where our rooms are. One set of rooms, the 100s are in one direction, the 200s in another direction, and the 500s in a third direction. Rooming accommodations are laid out in a complex of disconnected buildings laid out in a 3 pointed star. The lobby area in the center.

Dinner is served in the dining hall just behind the lobby area. There is a sitting area between the lobby and the dining hall. As I sit here on the wood deck listening to the waterfall behind me, I have to remind myself that I’m not in a tropical resort and instead just 100 feet removed from a rice field with a beautiful crop ready to harvest.

After seeing the Thai countryside the last couple days, I would have never expected to see such a relaxing oasis in the middle of nowhere awaiting our group.

This trip has been a great experience for our group. While we still have some touring to do, it is starting to set in that we are on the back end of our trip and it will soon be coming to a close. For the next few hours, between FaceTime calls home to check in with the family and see how my boys are doing at a social studies fair, I’m content just enjoying the conversation of my classmates and listening to the gentle waterfall in the background underneath the palm trees.