When neighbours behave badly

This post has really nothing to do with learning Thai, or Thai people, or Thai customs. However I am living in an apartment...in a hotel...in Thailand!

A couple of weeks ago new neighbours moved in next door. One morning at around 2 AM I found myself awake, listening to the sound of ridiculously loud talking and banging about. I leant my ear up against the wall to see if I could understand what they were saying, but they weren’t speaking English or pigeon Thai, so I was none the wiser. Japanese or Korean I thought. I waited a long while before tapping three times on the wall, hoping they would realise they'd woken me up and feel bad...they tapped back three times and continued to make an incredible din.

Most nights they start their ruckus around 11.00 PM, usually later and then continue into the wee hours of the morning, slamming room and cupboard doors, ranting, throwing (and I mean THROWING) beer bottles into the hallway rubbish bins while they call to each other up and down the stair well...they have a friend or friends, on the floor above it seems. As they wait for the elevator outside our door (which is slower than walking down the few flights of stairs) at ungodly hours of the morning, they rave at the top of their voices and make animated golfing motions...yes, I’m peering through the spy hole.

I'm not begrudging anyone having a few drinks and or a good time. But there is a limit! This is a pretty quiet hotel and even mediocre noises echo in the corridors, so the slamming of a door is like a sonic boom! And they're in and out of their room, like blue arsed flies.

Just before Stray left for Australia, he mentioned the situation to the hotel owner, but said he’d wait to see how it all pans out and wouldn't make a formal complaint, yet!...and then flew off into the blue yonder...leaving me here. Our new neighbours are two young Korean guys. OK, the Korean part is probably neither here nor there, but they are Korean and they’re long stayers and they’re driving me up the wall.

I’m here alone, so I don’t think it's wise to confront a few drunk guys, who can’t understand me, in the middle of the night. Waiting for the inevitable every evening has become an obsession. I’ve even started a diary which is starting to read like ground hog day.

11th January - arrived 11.45 pm. thumping doors, talking loudly/yelling in the corridor and room until...

I have contingency plans: Earplugs, which I don’t like to use (I have a gammy ear) and/or a very thin mattress I can sort of sleep on, in the other room. But I’m thinking...WHY SHOULD I?

...12.48 am. friend arrives and yells from the hall way, all leave together, slammed door, talking very loudly in hall way, threw glass bottles into rubbish bin...etc. etc.

So pathetic has my fixation become that last night I tried unsuccessfully to record their shenanigans by pressing my mobile phone, then video camera, to the wall.

12th January - 11.35 pm. banging doors shut, yelling to each other via the stairwell, throwing bottles into the rubbish bin....left hotel around 12.00 am....

Tonight I thought maybe my laptop and microphone might do a better job of collecting evidence? Evidence that’ll never be used for anything, but for some reason, gathering it seems to be therapeutical. Am I weird or what?

...12.37 am. They return, more of the same, slamming doors, yelling to each, throwing bottles into the rubbish bin. Continue to talk loudly in their room and bang cupboard doors...

During every lull (lull = they've gone out to restock the beer) I lie in wait...plotting! Should I learn to write 'shut the F up please' in Korean and slip a note under their door, during the day? What if they're home at the time?...it could make a bad situation even worse.

...1.15 am. One of them leaves carrying a laundry basket, yelling and hurling the door closed as he goes. Who does their laundry at this hour?...oh, no..wait...it's full of booze bottles.

Do I crank up Linkin Park's 'One step closer to the edge' at 5 AM in the morning? But, why make the rest of the residents suffer and they probably wouldn't wake up from their drunken stupor anyway.

....1.45 am I move to the other room and lie down on the wafer thin spare mattress on the floor...

Do I make a formal complaint to management? Do I become the whinging farang?

Today sleep deprivation kicked in and after a particularly hard Thai language class and spilling coffee all over myself at lunch, I decided to talk to the hotel manageress. I gave her the run down of how long and what had been going on, apologising profusely as I went, for complaining.

...2.05 am...they're back. Moving to the other room doesn't solve the problem of the racket in the hallway, only the hullabaloo emanating from inside their room.

She nods knowingly? or perhaps sympathetically? as I explained the situation and says "I will speak to my staff, I think the apartment above you is vacant...do you want to move?"

NO I DON'T FREAKIN' WANT TO MOVE, WE'RE NOT THE ONES AT FAULT HERE, WHY SHOULD WE BE INCONVENIENCED?????... AND THEIR IDIOT FRIEND IS ON THE FLOOR ABOVE.

"Oh...no thank you" I replied, "perhaps you could just speak to them? Ask them to be quiet at night?"

AND IF THAT DOESN'T BLOODY WORK YOU CAN GET THEM TO BLOODY MOVE TO THE TOP FLOOR.

"Yes" she says, "I will do that." and smiles.

"Thank you so much and please don't tell them it was me that complained BECAUSE THEY WILL MAKE MY LIFE HELL...and again, I am so sorry for complaining."

So that's that! ...Right?


Cheers!
สเมป

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