Hello Thailand, my old friend. It’s nice to talk with you again.
My husband Cory and I departed San Francisco on December 18 and finally arrived to Phuket, Thailand via Incheon, South Korea on December 19.
Hello Thailand, my old friend. It’s nice to talk with you again.
My husband Cory and I departed San Francisco on December 18 and finally arrived to Phuket, Thailand via Incheon, South Korea on December 19.
สวัสดี ค่ะ กรุงเทพฯ
It’s been a pleasure knowing you Bangkok. I arrived on July 28 and depart today (August 26). I will be back in December. With any luck, my husband will be in tow.
Things I miss from home: My husband, my cats, cool air (especially at night), Mexican food, good wine, low humidity.
Things I will miss from Bangkok: Smiles, the street food, the low cost of everything, the polite students who where uniforms to university classes.
Coming Back
I’ve been invited to come back to teach at RU in late December/early January. I’ll be teaching in the same program (business, money and banking track), but two new course preparations.
This time around I hope to go exploring outside of Bangkok: Chiang Mai and Angkor Wat are on my short list. So, while this blog is soon to go dormant, I’ll be back when the weather is a little nicer. Honestly, I don’t know how the Thai stay in such a good mood with all of the unbearable humidity, rain, and heat.
Erawan Shrine
A popular Hindu shrine with just about everyone because of its location. It’s surrounded by large shopping malls and hotels. Even though the majority of Thai are Buddhist, they pay respect to most religions, especially Hindu given that Buddha was Hindu. This was built as a spirit house for the nearby Grand Hyatt. Spirit houses abound in Thailand - you have to build a spirit house before the actual building. To do otherwise would be bad luck. Taxi drivers have been known to bow, take their hands off of the steering wheel, or pat their heads when driving by this shrine. Ignoring the spirits is bad luck. When a man tried to vandalize this shrine in 2006, onlookers beat him to death.
It rubbed off on me. I couldn’t stop myself from making an offering of flowers when I came here with my little sister. I imagine that my mother likes the idea that I think of her in global places of worship. A sort of Pascal’s wager. Or, maybe I just miss my mom.
Transit Options
Living in the suburbs means I have to be a bit more creative with getting around. In addition to the typical taxi, I’ve taken trains, boats, and busses to get around.
- Red coin is used for one of the train lines (Airport Link)
- Purple-bordered ticket to the right of that is from the Khlong River Boats (not the tourist boats on the Chao Phraya River, these have basically no tourists). I have to pay the maximum 20 baht fare to get from where I am staying to downtown.
- The blue and yellow card with a Fisher-Price boy is from the SkyTrain (BTS). There are just as many tourists on the train as there are locals during some times of the day. Both the Airport Link and Skytrain are significantly more expensive than the bus.
- The green and blue tickets are from the bus that I take to and from work everyday. I take the non-air-conditioned busses which cost 7-8 baht, depending on how old the bus is. When I say how old, think like comparing Ancient Greece to Ancient Rome — they are all pretty old. The newer busses with A/C are as little as 10 baht and as much as 20+ baht. I generally use the non-A/C busses as they seem to come by more frequently.
One method of commuting that I didn’t use was the subway. I didn’t really have the need based on where I am located in the city.
One of my last lunches at Ramkhamhaeng University. I’m departing on Friday.
Thai Fun Cultural Facts
One of the benefits of paying a little extra to have a personal guide is that you learn some little tidbits that might not otherwise be obvious. Here are a few I’ve picked up:
- Thai people all have a nickname that they go by. Few go by their given name.
The parents of Thai people ask for guidance from elders in the family and/or monks to name the child. It is usually a very long name. The nicknames are usually one syllable. My guides were Well, Oh, Pat and Pookie. My students range from Oi to Junior. - Thai people have a lucky color that corresponds to, the day of the week on which they were born.
For example, I was born on a Saturday, so my lucky color is purple. My husband was born on a Sunday, so his is red. This shows up everywhere, from the royal flags (King Rama’s flag is yellow and Queen Sikirit’s is blue…guess why?), to the dinnerware on display at the Vimanmek mansion where the color of the set indicated which day of the week that a given setting was to be used. - Thai people celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day to correspond to the reigning queen’s birthday and king’s birthday, respectively.
So, Mother’s Day rotates, as does Father’s Day. Well, sort of. Since King Rama IX has reigned for 65+ years and the queen for 61 years, these holidays haven’t moved for several decades. - The Thai people each have their own favorite Buddha who corresponds to the day of the week on which they were born (sound familiar?)
Unlike the Chinese, who seem to gravitate toward the Buddha of Prosperity (he’s the very rotund one), the Thai people a favorite Buddha for each day of the week plus one. They even have one for people who don’t know which day of the week on which they were born. - Thai people eat with the spoon and use the fork only to push food onto the spoon.
Eating with a fork is gauche. Since most everything, like meat, is cut up into pieces, you rarely have occasion to use a fork the way we would to hold a piece of meat while cutting it. They do use chopsticks for Chinese-style food and noodles. When eating the street food, a little skewer-type wooden stick is the norm for everything from pineapple to fish balls. - If you buy a glass bottle of soda or juice at the store, you’ll get it back with a bag of ice and a straw.
The glass can be recycled for a good return, so the norm is to assume that you don’t want to buy the bottle and the drink.
Thai puppets in motion. Askra Theatre, Bangkok, Thailand
Scenes from the mall
On our way to dinner, my sister and I wandered around Siam Paragon and took in some sights along the way. We saw all of this in the span of about 15 minutes. Just another day in downtown Bangkok.
Some strange code written on concrete street dividers outside of the mall.
Robots in one of the plazas.
Moving furniture on the back of a motocycle taxi.
Ronald McDonald says sah what di.
Mister donut, Thai style.
Breeze Restaurant, Bangkok, Thailand
