A Moment of Joy

It's common knowledge that in Asian countries people take their shoes off before entering their homes. There are many good reasons for this, and I'm surprised that it's not more common in the US.

Guidebooks will tell you that you should take your shoes off out of courtesy/ respect for tradition, and that even if a host tells you not to bother and to keep your shoes on, you should kindly refuse and take your shoes off anyway. You should also bring some essence of bird's nest as a friendly gift.

Taking your shoes off also makes sense as far as keeping mud and dirt outside (not to mention the smell of sweaty, tropical feet), while keeping your home clean inside. In Thailand, roads and sidewalks are rarely cleaned, and in the rainy season, if you leave your home, you're bound to end up trekking through ankle-deep puddles or mud.

After eight years in Thailand, taking off my shoes before going inside has become a habit, and now, walking through a house with my shoes on feels almost like littering - almost immoral.

Nuch's mother has another reason for keeping shoes outside the house. She says a pile of shoes by the door makes it look like the house is full of people, which is a deterrent to opportunistic thieves. This may be true, but if a thief can scale the 8 foot wall (with 2 foot barbs) surrounding her house and get through the wrought-iron security bars on the doors and windows, I don't suspect that a few pairs of flip-flops are going to deter him.

Nuch keeps a pair of shoes outside my door in Korat. They've been there for over a year now.

She rarely wears them, so they're not there to keep my house clean, and I don't believe she's worried about thieves. Letting the neighbors know that there's a woman in the house may be a more likely reason.

Whatever the reason, Nuch's shoes are pretty much out of sight, out of mind until I get home in the evening. I'm not sure why, but each time I walk up to my apartment and pause to take out my keys, it's always a bit of a shock to see her shoes at my doorstep - as if I should expect to find her inside (and shoeless).

Before I can remind myself that she's in Bangkok or she's in Europe (or that the same shoes have been there every day for a year) and she's not in Korat, before I can process this, there's a brief moment of joy, caught between hope and reason, where for a split second it's quite possible and downright logical that because her shoes are in front of my house Nuch must have somehow transported herself to Korat, intent on surprising me and is sitting inside, watching Thai soap operas, waiting for me to come home - but just for a moment.