Soi Chicken

The street (Soi) I live on in Thailand has no name just our house number. However following my abrupt awakening this morning I reckon it should be named Soi Chicken. Now in Thai this would be Soi followed by a word that sounds like guy.

So why my sudden urge to give the street a name. Well I'll tell you a story since I am now wide awake and feeling the urge to write albeit 6.30am in the morning.

You may remember that I have mentioned in the past that one of my neighbour raises fighting cockerels? Well being typically Thai he has branched out a bit and when the cockerels aren't brawling he has got them doing what comes naturally. As a result the soi now has a health head of chicken that clearly outnumber the soi dogs. Now I fully expected the dogs to control the chicken population since they are always looking for fresh meat, well any meat actually and of course accounted for our pet rabbit some time ago.

However this is not the case, the chickens rule the roost, boldly entering gardens while human visitors wait on the street calling the occupant for fear of being mauled by the canine guardians of the house.

Now the soi chickens have taken to venturing into my garden, perhaps its because there is a healthy supply of green vegetation which is far more interesting than pecking leftover food from the plastic bags that litter the street. Now this is OK by me, since chickens are great snake deterrents. But when they started mining operations in MTF's flower border things came to a head and a well directed hose pipe solved the problem, repelling the invaders, it works quite well for soi dogs too, but thats another story.

Anyway back to this morning, the phone rang and woke me at 6.30. Since our gate is locked it must mean we had a visitor, since no one else is likely to ring at that time. Sure enough, we had. So when I staggered outside meagerly clad in my bath towel sarong I was a little shell shocked to find half the soi looking and pointing up at my roof.

A host of things flashed through my mind, including the fact that I was half naked! Fortunately MTF arrived and took charge whilst I retired and dressed a little more appropriately. Emerging a few moments later I discovered MTF had gone. However people continued to look up at the roof. I heard the Thai word for chicken mentioned a few times.

So since I was now decent I headed out on to the soi to join my neighbours. It was at this point that I saw what was attracting their attention. There high on the gable end was a chicken. Perched like the mythical Phoenix wings extended as it surveyed the human population of the soi.

Now I know a bit about chickens, well I was brought up in the country, so I figured that due to the lack of grey matter possessed by these birds, it was unlikely to know how to get back to terra firma. Picking up a handy rock, I was about to give the bird a helping hand, when MTF and the chicken owner arrived back at the group.

Shocked at my intended actions MTF explained that it was bad luck to have a chicken on the roof of your house and that we should let it come down naturally lest we upset the spirits! I now know better than to argue with any dire predictions my Thai partner utters so I retired the scene in search of a cup of tea, leaving my Thai neighbours and MTF to figure it out for themselves.

However being a bit of a joker I couldn't help myself and a little later emerged from the back of our home clutching an egg which I proudly presented to the chicken owner! Everyone laughed, including me when she politely pointed out that the offending bird was actually a young cockerel!

Now as I pen this post the cockerel is happily crowing and pecking its way round the field behind our home, the neighbours have gone to work, the kids are off to school and Soi Chicken is quiet again.


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