Have You Eaten, Or Not Yet?

Or in America, "have you eaten?"  

Americans are often considerate and polite.  If people visited my house unannounced I would bring them a glass of water without mentioning it, maybe asking them if they’d like some ice in that.  Or maybe offering them a beer, depending on the situation.  But even if it was around the lunch hour I might not mention food.  I’d probably assume that they had that under control.  If I was in the middle of making something for myself, I’d offer them some.  Otherwise maybe, maybe not.  All cultures are different.

People in Thailand talk about food at every opportunity, and other people’s wellbeing is important to them.  So in almost every situation, Thais will ask, “have you eaten, or not yet?”  That’s the formula for such questions in Thai.  “Geen laow ruh yang?”  Or even, “dang an laow ruh yang.” (Are you married or not yet?) 

City people are urban in any culture, and in big cities you can’t worry too much about everybody else, while in smaller settings you can worry about nearly everybody.  In the Thai countryside, it was common for strangers to greet me and ask me to sit for a while and have some cool water if it was hot out.  (And it’s always hot out.)  In small town settings, if someone asked me if I’d eaten yet, and I said, no, they’d offer me some food or a snack of some kind.  It’s that kind of place. 

Those are all gentle things without too much drama in them.  Just folks being neighborly.  Sometimes the interaction becomes more urgent.

I recall when I was younger discovering that black Americans would sometimes ask upon greeting each other, “are you eatin’ regular?”  Maybe the formulation came from an earlier time, an evil time out in the countryside, the Jim Crow times.  Along with that question came, “where are you staying?”  Possible answer: “I’m outdoors right now.”  Maybe I heard these things in older, non-urban songs.  Those kinds of questions carry a poignancy that is almost unbearable. 

I don’t know where to draw the moral from all of this.  Maybe we should just take an opportunity to reflect and agree that we should all just be much nicer to one another.  We’re all we’ve got, after all.  If “we” won’t help “us,” who will?  

My Wedding Speech

I went to a nice wedding last week, as something slightly more than an invited guest.  The groom is from Singapore, and he speaks no Thai.  There were a lot of traditional, ceremonial things before the wedding, and I was stationed at his elbow to explain what people were asking him and feed him lines in Thai, sometimes just be the lawyer and speak for him.  It was a lot of fun.  None of it was rocket science, so I could handle it okay.  I know something about Thai people, and I've learned to keep things light and just have fun. 

I was told on the way that I was to give a little speech at some point, ten minutes or so, please make it a little bit funny.  Okay, I can do that.  I made some notes and ran through it a few times, but in the event the opportunity never came up.  Here's the gist of what I was going to say:

"(Greetings and thanks, etc.)  I've been asked to say a few words, and I guess I do know a little bit about marriage.  From the husband's point of view, of course.

My standard advice to young husbands is to practice in the mirror, look in the mirror and make a nice, relaxed smile and say, "yes, dear," over and over again until it becomes second nature, "yes, dear."  I say this because the husband's most important job is making his wife happy.  If the wife is happy, the husband is happy.

I think this works in both directions, and it's really a selfish act.  You make your spouse happy as a good way to make yourself happy.

Love is a simple thing, but it's never easy.  The hard part is learning enough about your spouse to find out how to make them happy.  Men are not famous for understanding women, and I'm not sure that women are any better at understanding men.  But it's important to try.  Find out what your spouse likes, find out what they need.  And then do your best to do those things, to make sure that your spouse gets the things that they like and need.

I said it's hard, maybe it's very hard.  I saw a book one time, "Everything That Men Know About Women."   When you opened the book, all of the pages were blank.  So you both have your work cut out for you, and I wish you the best of luck and success."

The bride is a fellow prof at the law faculty of my university, and I've known her for years.  She's a very nice young woman, she has a great temperament and she is a lovely woman in every way.  It was quite a relief to meet the groom.  These Thai weddings are a lot of work for the bride and groom, and he took the whole experience very good naturedly and with great patience.  I like them both, and actually I think they have a good shot.  I think they'll be fine.  Good luck! 

Misunderstood Thailand

Americans are not famous for their clear understanding of foreign countries.  Their knowledge of other places is generally restricted to travel poster images and anecdotal information.  France becomes the Eiffel Tower and snooty waiters.  Germany becomes castles and Oktoberfest.  Italy becomes ruins and pickpockets.  Some enlightened Americans recall that there are famous museums in these places, but most do not care.  Asian countries are even less well understood. 

I wish that I could claim to be much better informed, but that would not be true.  I have wider interests than most people, and I am more experienced of books, newspapers and films than the average person, but I have never had what could be called an compelling academic interest in anything at all. 

Before coming to Thailand with the Peace Corps, at the age of fifty-five, my knowledge of Thailand was very thin.  I knew that there had been a financial disruption in 1997, but I didn’t know the details.  Was Thailand one of the “Asian Tigers” back then?  One of the decade’s new economic successes?  I’d have to look that up.  Mostly, I knew that Thai food was delicious, and from meeting the owners and the wait staff of many Thai restaurants I had the impression that Thai people were very friendly. 

The travel poster/anecdote version of Thailand is one of beautiful beaches and prostitutes.  These things exist, but they are a very small, insignificant and misleading part of the real picture. 

In reality, Thai women are, overwhelmingly, a very modest bunch, and usually quite religious.  There are some very nice beaches, but finding one that is not overrun with rude foreigners is becoming difficult. 

The Real Thailand

Thailand is a big place, fully as large and as populous as France.  The real charm of Thailand is found far off the beaten tourist path. 

The food is uniformly excellent, everywhere in Thailand.  You might guess that.  What comes as a surprise to many visitors is that you can confidently eat the food without worrying about ruining your stomach and your vacation.  Thai people are very proud, they don’t want you to get sick on food that they sold to you.  They’re careful about what they cook.  (Just don’t eat fish on the beach when the vendor has been walking around with the tray for two hours already.  I mean, use your head.) 

And Thai people more than live up to their reputation for charm and hospitality.  No surprise there either.  There are many other wonderful things about Thailand and Thai people that are less well known. 

Education in Thailand

My university is the Ramkhamhaeng University, and it’s a big one.  We have 850,000 students, attending classes at the main campus in Bangkok, a subsidiary campus nearby, and forty-four remote campuses out in the provinces.  The students get a very good education, and they have to work very hard for it, but getting in, and paying for it, are easy.  Ramkhamhaeng is the biggest “open” university, there are no particular entrance requirements and no entrance test.  Tuition is so low that it’s almost invisible without instruments.  These are wonderful things that we no longer have in America.

High school students in Thailand have choices that are not available to most American students.  High school here is from grade seven through twelve, and it is divided into two parts.  Grades seven, eight and nine are mandatory, and free, it’s all free up to that point.  Students can then choose to attend grades ten, eleven and twelve for a nominal fee, or go to a technical college for four years in lieu of the rest of high school, also at a nominal fee.  The technical colleges provide high quality vocational training in many fields. 

Adult literacy is somewhere around 98%.  The Thai education system is not perfect, but it is accessible, universal and affordable.

Public Welfare

 I was born in the 1940’s, and many of my Thai friends who were also born at that time lived in homes with no electricity and perhaps no hook up to a municipal water supply.  That has all changed. 

By a concerted national effort, virtually every home in Thailand now has both conveniences.  I have visited with families that live way outside of town in the rice fields, in homes that have no windows or doors, but those homes have a hook up to clean water, and they all have electricity.  The rates are heavily subsidized for families of limited means.  

More recently the government has instituted a couple of programs to improve the dental health of students from families too poor to provide it themselves.   Ten years ago I began teaching at a small school in a very small, poor town.  Many of the children in the fourth, fifth and sixth grade had terrible teeth, mostly missing, some black.  It was around then that a program was launched to arrange for dentists to visit all children in this situation at school on a regular basis.  Another program delivered milk for all of the students as school was letting out.  Within six years virtually all of the sixth grade students at this school displayed very good teeth. 

Health care is not universal, but there is a program to make it much more affordable. 

Thailand makes a considerable effort to take care of its own, within its budgetary and economic constraints. 

The Economy

Thailand literally means, “the land of the free.”  There is near total economic freedom, vastly more than we experience in the United States.  For example, some of my teacher friends up north made extra money by cooking after school.  They would prepare a big pot of something popular, decant it into plastic bags closed with rubber bands, and simply display the bags on a table outside the house.  Usually a teenage child would man the table.  People would stop on motorcycles on their way home after work and buy the food.  No licenses, no official interference and no taxes.  This is what total freedom looks like.  (It is possible . . . but that’s another story.) 

Similarly, anywhere you go in Thailand there are ways to get around.  Usually there is an organized system of vans, tuk-tuks, pickup trucks, or motorcycle taxis, but not always.  In some places it may just be guys with cars who serve as taxis for flat rates.  Almost anyone that you may ask, “how can I get there?” will be able to help you, even if he has to call a friend. 

The unemployment rate in Thailand is something like 0.9%.  Thais work too hard, and for too little money, but they’re all working. 

Thai Politics

Thai politics can seem mysterious to outsiders, and it can often seem chaotic.  But there is a mystery and a majesty to it, a certain political genius that I believe arises from what I call the “Spirit of the Rice Field.” 

Thai culture is based on concepts like group wellbeing and group happiness.  This can be very useful when it comes to avoiding problems, or minimizing them, or massaging them away without too much trouble.  Witness the success of Thai kings like Rama IV, and the great Rama V, King Chulalongkorn, who is justifiably revered as the Father of Modern Thailand.  Those men kept Thailand free and independent while every other country in South East Asia was colonized by Europeans.

Consider the Thai experience of World War II.  There was no alternative but to cooperate with the Japanese, but the Thai government had no enthusiasm for a war against America and England.  They were coerced into declaring war against the Allies, but they immediately contacted American intelligence sources and offered to help.  Many of the bombing raids launched by America against Japan were assisted by targeting information provided by Thai consular officials in Tokyo and elsewhere. 

Proof of this can be found in the fact that after the war, America insisted that there be no penalties imposed on Thailand for having declared war on the Allies.  That was a smooth move right there.

So now, if Thai politics goes in directions that I do not fully understand, I tend to trust them to be working some of this old Thai magic.  Like the recent coup.  Like previous coups, and there have been many, the Thai army will almost certainly protect the economy like a loving mother hen and take steps to bring the country closer to being a working democracy, and as soon as possible too. 

Thailand is not a perfect place, but almost nowhere is.  Maybe absolutely nowhere is perfect, but I’m not the expert.  Maybe Denmark.  Someone else could write 1,500 different words about what a terrible place Thailand is.  I have obviously chosen the positive side of that debate. 

Thailand is, on balance, a wonderful country, full of beautiful scenery and wildlife, with the best food in the world, and friendly, talented people who tolerate foreigners very well.  It all works out okay for me, because it now appears that, with their continued indulgence, I’ll be here for the duration.  

The Current Situation In Thailand

First let me make clear that I will not complain about anything that is occurring now in Thailand, nor criticize anyone’s actions, nor offer suggestions.   It is not my place.

I’ve been here for ten years now, but that doesn’t give me any rights to have an opinion.  I stay resolutely out of Thai politics.  Let’s face it, foreigners should just shut up.  Talking to other Americans, I may complain bitterly about America.  But let a Frenchman complain about America and I bristle with anger.  Taking my own advice, I let Thai people talk about Thailand. 

Regarding the recent events in Thai politics, I would only offer two points of clarification for American (or foreign) readers.  One is general, and the other is specific. 

The general point is that democracy has never appeared in any country fully formed in its inception, perfect from the get-go.  Consider America’s experience.  Our founding constitution was a wonderful document, and it has stood the test of time.  Note, however, that it allowed only men to vote, and only men with property at that.  And of course there was the matter of slavery.  It was almost one hundred years before institutionalized slavery was washed out of our constitution, and it was well over one hundred years before women were allowed to vote.  My point is that the achievement of democracy is an ongoing enterprise for any country that seeks to go there.  Proceeding in fits and starts is normal, and the important thing is the desire to get there at all. 

My second point is specific to Thailand.  Thailand’s experience of itself is vastly different from America’s.  In America, I think that we tend to conflate culture and politics, because they arose at approximately the same time, and only a couple of hundred years ago.

Thailand, on the other hand, has been the home of the Thai people and Thai culture for over 3,000 years.  Thai politics has seen many changes over that time, while the progress of Thai culture has remained constant. 

 

That Thais value personal freedom and the rights of others cannot be questioned.  Democracy here is only a recent manifestation of this cultural priority.  The very name of the country, chosen when they were formalizing their desire to have a representative democracy, is “Thailand,” or “Brataet Thai,” which literally means, “the Land of the Free.” 

So I trust Thai people to take this as an opportunity to get closer to their goals as a nation.  It’s up to them, and they don’t need me or John Kerry telling them what is right or wrong.  It’s up to them, they themselves.  I could say that Thailand is blessed with many people who are well educated and well informed, but that could be turned into a political football.  Let me say instead that my experience of Thai people ranges from the upper limits of achievement to those who live and work way out in the rice fields, or up in the mountains, without two coins to rub together.  I find that Thai people across all demographics are friendly, cooperative, intelligent and very, very sensible. 

I trust them all to do the right thing. 

Culture And Tradition

Someone asked me the other day:  what is the difference between culture and tradition?  This was one of those thought provoking questions commonly posed by English learners.   A native speaker tends to understand both things without thinking too much about the connection. 

Without reference to a dictionary I surmised that the elements of a culture were the traditions of a society. That the traditions were the individual things and all together they made up the culture.  Maybe the answer to “what is Thai culture?” could be answered by a list of Thai traditions.  This list would include holidays; activities like sports and Thai massage; historical persons and events; attitudes; laws; foods; languages; religions and the arts.  Anything that we think of as Thai. 

The dictionary supported my intuition.  For “culture,” the number two definition was, “the customs, ideas, and social behavior of a particular people or group.”  For “tradition,” the number one definition was, “the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation.” 

This all begs the question:  what is American culture? 

America is an amazingly diverse place.  In wave after wave of immigration, for three hundred years, all of the world’s peoples have moved in great numbers to America.  They retain elements of their home cultures while adapting to a waiting American culture.  But what is that waiting culture?  Today, different individuals will offer different explanations.  For some, America is a white, protestant culture.  Some complain that America is a mongrel culture.  American culture has long been described as a “melting pot.”  Like I said, families retain traditions from their home cultures through many generations.  My own family celebrated thirteen holidays at my grandmother’s house, including St. Patrick’s Day.  No one there would have objected to being categorized as “Irish Americans,” but we all knew that our natural place in the world was the United States. 

Thai Culture

The culture question may seem much more straightforward as regards Thai culture, because it is easy to mistake Thailand for a homogeneous society like Japan or Denmark.  Thailand, however, is anything but homogeneous. 

Physically, the Thais are a very diverse population.  It is a crossroads nation, with influences running north to China (vocabulary, sound system, diet), south through the archipelago nations (vocabulary), and west to India (alphabet, vocabulary, religions).  So the shape of the eye in Thailand varies from heavy double-lidded to very wide open; skin tone ranges from bone-white to deep bronze; and hair texture also varies. 

There is also great variety to the languages regularly spoken in Thailand.   The official language is Thai, called either “central Thai” or “Bangkok Thai.”  There are many regional dialects, most of which are mutually incomprehensible.  At least half of Thai people speak one language at home and another one, central Thai, at school or business.  In the far corners of the Kingdom these local languages really predominate.

 

There are many things that hold the Thai people together, notably the monarchy and Thai Buddhism.  My own feeling is that the greatest glue is the ancient Thai tradition of getting along, or not giving offense.  Maybe, as a Korean friend suggested to me, this getting along is due to the huge area of the rice fields, where people worked, played, lived and ate together and getting along was important.  Maybe it’s just because Thailand is too great a place to screw up with contention. 

In spite of all of the diversity there is a recognizable Thai culture at work.  Its origins differ most from American culture in its age.  While Americans have shared the American character for only three hundred years (it formed before the revolution), Thais have been essentially Thai for 3,000 years. 

American Culture

So what, then, is American culture?  This has been turned into a political question in our time.  Clearly, America is not a homogeneous society racially or ethnically.  All of the world’s peoples are represented.  It is not, nor has it ever been, religiously or linguistically homogeneous.  This comes as a surprise to most people.  In the colonial period there were some fifteen different sects of Christianity, and there was great hostility between them.  There were large populations of French, Dutch and German speakers in the colonies, with their own newspapers if population density allowed it.  As we can see from the Thai example though, this diversity does not prohibit the formation of a common culture. 

America is a much bigger country, and that may once have generated regional differences.  In our own time, the distances have been shrunk to insignificance by advances in transportation and communications. 

What can we point to as elements of the uniquely American character? 

1. We have always been a commercial people, trade has always been the backbone of America.  We also like the idea of being our own bosses and striking our own deals with one another;

2.  We think big, we are accustomed to broad vistas to be explored and exploited, and we are accustomed to a full range of opportunities;

3.  We are a mobile people, we are willing to move around and we have plenty of room to move around in;

4.  We value individual freedom, both economic freedom and the freedom from political interference;

5.  We are plain speaking and hardworking, and we believe in fair dealing as a way of doing business; and

6.  We value the freedom to be a little different from each other and not be penalized for it.  Consider that many groups that are now considered mainstream, like Presbyterians, Methodists, Catholics, and even Episcopalians, were once persecuted minorities. 

These are the characteristics that separated us from our former countrymen in Europe.  At some point we were no longer “English” or “German,” we were American.  This was the genesis of our desire to find our own destiny as a new country. 

The waves of immigrants who have joined us over the years have universally embraced these attitudes and preferred them to the situation in their countries of emigration.  Few people return to their former homes, and if they do it is usually due to economic or family pressures. 

Conclusion

So yes, I believe that there is an American culture such as I have described, and that it has maintained its typical American character throughout our history. 

Further, I believe that our diversity is our greatest strength.  The United States is the only country in the world where a newcomer of any description can make a new home and become as American as anybody, and quickly too.  I think that it is horribly wrong to consider, as many do today, that this diversity is a dilution of true American culture.  Note that many groups that faced oppression in the past, such as the Italians or the Irish, have proven themselves many times over to be good Americans and are, today, accepted as such.  I could say that the Chinese too have proven themselves as much as anybody to be great Americans, but the acceptance part lags behind, doesn’t it?  Could it be . . . racism?  Well yes it could.  Racism is the reason for that “dilution of American culture” argument.  One can only hope that there will be progress.  Even “two steps forward, one step back” will get you someplace eventually. 

I’m still proud to be an American, although I do complain bitterly about many of the actions of our government these days.  Perhaps complaining is part of the American character too!  But whatever our government does to embarrass us around the world, individual Americans are still recognized as tolerant, friendly, co-operative and fair minded people (and welcomed in all of the world’s taxis as good tippers too). 

 

That’s our culture!  I only wish that our government would stay closer to our shared values.  

Ubiquitous!

Note the rollers on this "raft."  This is a screen shot from a TV show, the kids had to pole the thing across the floor, handing a roller from the back to the front as they went, like moving those giant heads on Easter Island.  They made it look like fun, but then again Thai people can make anything look like fun. 

The rollers are pieces of what I call "the ubiquitous blue PVC pipe."  You see this stuff all over Thailand, in all guages and used for such various purposes that it is almost unbelieveable.  For instance, I have seen it used in the creation of everything from a TV antenna to a golf club.  It is very common to see a section of this pipe used as a mailbox.  And, of course, it's the plumbing in most homes. 

‘Sorcerer’ who believed his tattoos made him invincible arrested in Thailand | The Raw Story

‘Sorcerer’ who believed his tattoos made him invincible arrested in Thailand | The Raw Story


These guys failed to understand the instructions that come with the tat's.  These supernatural protections come with a book of rules.  Break the rules and you blow the deal.

I'm not an expert, but one rule I know for bullet-proof amulets is that if you ever defecate and urinate simultaneously the amulet is rendered useless.   It must show a lack of respect for the gods or something.  I don't own any special amulets, but I'm careful not to perform these actions together in any case.  If some supernatural entity finds it offensive, well, it's just not a good idea to take chances with the supernatural. 

So who knows?  Maybe these things would have worked fine if people had only followed the rules. 

Thai Language Is A Cute, Vicious Little Puzzle

Thai language is not an easy row to hoe.  It starts off with many features that are hard to get a hold of, like the tones, and the sixty-five odd letters to the alphabet, and the continuous spelling (no spaces between words).  As I progress, slowly, more levels of weirdness are uncovered.

One thing that makes it tough is that Thai people love to give things pet names, and these pet names vary from region to region.  The snack in the above picture, for instance.  What they are is young silk worms, fried up with some garlic and chilli.  They're very tasty, actually, and inoffensive to eat unless you want to think about it too much.  To find them on a menu though, you need to know the slang term for them.  Up north they call them "Express Trains" ("roht doowan"), because of the long, segmented appearance.  There's a different pet name in the Bangkok area.

So maybe you're not that interested in the bug end of the food spectrum.  But everybody loves fried chicken, and there's a great version of fried chicken available here.  Small dose, one meaty bone of a chicken wing, deep fried, it's prefect, not enough to feel guilty about.  Where I found them they are called "Broken Brakes" ("braek daek"), because when you start eating them, you can't stop.  To find them on a menu you need to be able to read "braek daek" and know what they are.


Further, Weirder Complications

I've been practicing my reading these days, and I've encountered a few complications.  I need the dictionary, you know, to buff up the old vocabulary, and looking things up is always tough.  Thai is monosyllabic,  so most words are either one syllable all together or made up of several one syllable words.  These compound words are tough to identify in a sentence with no spaces, and sometimes the two or three component words are hard to relate to the meaning assigned to the compound word.

Even tougher, it turns out that there is a difference between written Thai and spoken Thai, so a word that I know pretty well in spoken Thai may be a completely different word in print.  Even tougher than that, there's adult Thai and children's Thai.  There are different words for if a child is doing something or if the doer is an adult.

They say that language learning late in life is a good way to keep the brain active, fend off the old Alzheimer's.  So maybe I'll be holding out for cancer after all.  Cancer finally gets all of us. 

Bangkok Taxi Drivers, Etiquette And Freedom

I have driven cabs myself. It was back in old New York City, in the early Seventies. I drove the night line for two years, four nights per week. I didn’t mind it at first, but in the course of the second year it grew a combination of tiresome and worrisome. Getting home from work at two a.m. was a big part of it. It was a great education though, I learned a lot about people in general and New York in particular.

In New York there were taxi police, “taxi inspectors,” whose job it was to wander around the city all day taking cabs and waiting for a driver to ask them for money over the meter, or maybe a driver who refuses to “go to Brooklyn.” So we kind of had to go anywhere, although it was terrible to be left deep in the wilds of Brooklyn or the Bronx after a fare. (Queens wasn’t much better, but it was my home so at least I knew my way around. In two years I never once was asked to drive to Staten Island.) Trapped in the “outer boroughs” it could take you forty minutes to make your next dollar. No wonder guys didn’t want to go in the first place.

As so often happens, it’s very different in Thailand. For one thing, there are no taxi police. I ride in cabs all the time that have a driver who doesn’t match the displayed license. Sometimes there is no displayed license. Things are all loosey-goosey over here.

If you get hold of a Thai-English dictionary, look up “thai.” Two meanings will be listed: 1) free; freedom; 2) Thailand; the Thai people. “Thailand” literally means “the land of the free.” They call it Brataet Thai.

Besides the loosey-goosey thing, Thailand is also a very polite place. The language is polite, and everyone is very careful not to be pushy, not to show displeasure or anger, very careful to be respectful.

Driving cabs has given me some insight into the driver’s situation. It has made me a good tipper, very good, even the grumps get good tips. You’d think that having driven cabs myself, and having been forced by circumstances to drive to places that I’d rather not have gone, I’d be sympathetic to the drivers on that count too, but you’d be wrong. No, I’m not in the least sympathetic, especially at nine o’clock at night standing around in the rain somewhere and trying to get home, with taxis the only option and not a free taxi in sight for long periods of time.

But now that I’ve been here for a while, I think that I’ve achieved some insight into the whole thing. I’ve noticed that Thais tend to always tell the guy where they’re going before they get into the cab, and I know that frequently the driver will decline the ride. Thais don’t seem to mind. If the weather is good, and there are lots of cabs around, and I have some extra time, I don’t mind myself. (That’s the situation almost all of the time, I almost never go anywhere in the evening.) I finally figured out the dynamic.

It’s a confluence of the etiquette thing and the freedom thing. People don’t want to just tell the driver where to go, they want to ask him, and if he doesn’t want to go, they don’t want to make him. The drivers are gentle about their refusals too, they usually decline with a smile, saying, “I’m almost out of gas and I’m bringing the car back in soon very close to here,” or, “I must have the car back to the owner in ten minutes.” It would be a rare Thai who’d just say, “shut up and drive,” and a rare driver who’d just say, “I don’t go to Brooklyn.”

The drivers want to keep the freedom to say “no,” and I’m generally fine with that. Now, if there’s any doubt in my mind, I even ask them before I get in the cab if it’s okay, if they’ll go there. But if that rainy night far from home comes again, and the only options are take a cab or walk around trying to find a hotel in my own home city, I’ll do the same thing I did the last time, which was to get into the cab and refuse to get out, telling the driver to drive the fucking car or call the fucking police. Etiquette and freedom are, after all, flexible, situational constructs.

Chinese Deities

"Chinese Deities" is the usual point of reference, but these guys should probably be referred to as "folk heroes," or maybe "saints." 

There are a bunch of them, a real Chinese temple will have alters to about twenty or so.  They all have stories that illustrate an aspect of human nature, and they are all fit for a certain kind of invocation, in the manner of a saint ("patron saint of travelers;" "patron of hopeless cases.") 

These paintings were on the underside of the roof of a pavilion in a park in Nakorn Sawan.  That's a river city, always a center of commerce and accessible by river from China.  So there are lots of Thai-Chinese families there.  

Thailand's Got Talent S.2 14/14 ปอนด์ ดวงใจ 17 Jun 2012

Give her a minute to get rolling, it's a minute/thirty before her shirt comes off.

This has turned into quite the little scandal over here.  The woman judge walked out, because it's all so shocking when this stuff happens in public.  Many people were/are highly indignant about the whole thing.  Plus, the word is that the show paid the painter woman 10,000 Baht to appear and do this act ($300).  So even other contestants are a little bit gripped about that.  Seems like a bargain though, for the show, and good P.R. for the woman, this thing has been all over the media, and every media, for a couple of weeks now. 

"In public . . ."  That's the key.  Just don't let on that these things happen, don't let the word get out.  If it all stays on the down low, then pretty much anything is okay, and happens.

Disclaimer:  It is true that most Thai women by far, the overwhelming portion, are very, very modest and would never consider doing anything like this in their craziest imaginings.  Wouldn't consider doing any of the other wild things that go on either.   Wouldn't even consider wearing a bathing suit that didn't have a high collar, long sleeves, and covering down to the knee as well.  A bunch of proper ladies they are, by and large, and you'd better hurry up and knew that if you ever find yourself here.