8 Random Observations about Thailand

Observations after 2 weeks in Central and Northern Thailand

1. Thai people are, for the most part, so friendly and welcoming.  We've had so much patience and kindness come our way as they endeavour to help us enjoy their beautiful country.

2. There is a huge level of respect and love here for the King.  Tributes to the recently deceased King are **everywhere** in the forms of huge black billboards to small displays in businesses, guest houses and tuk tuks.

3. Religion is a huge part of Thai life.  Temples are elaborate, beautiful, and everywhere. Many guesthouses and businesses have a small shrine for Buddha where incense and/or candles are burned and offerings are made, often flowers and, strangely, open but full bottles of red Fanta, always with a straw coming out.

4. Thai people are hardworking and resourceful, little businesses selling food or goods are positioned in every little nook in the cities. Bazaars and markets are common at night where vendors sell their wares and food daily or weekly.  THese are often super crowded and a great place to eat street food. In the countryside crops are planted in terraces and on hillsides that are so steep we would never consider them useable in Canada.  Thai people use scooters and motorbikes a lot to get around, and we have seen scooters with 4-5 people on them, or with a huge load tied on, weaving in and out of traffic to the front of the line at every traffic light.  And pickup trucks bringing a huge load of farm workers back home at the end of the day. They make it work with much less than we do at home!

5. Garbage is a bit perplexing here.  We have gone to night markets or street vendors more often than not to find dinner, and often it is served on a skewer or in a banana leaf and then put in a little plastic bag.  We have now learned to say " no thank you" to the bag when it is not needed, but sometimes they will serve things like noodle soup or pad thai in a plastic bag and then give chopsticks to eat it with.  We then eat the food and search in vain for a garbage can to put the waste in.  Sometimes there will be a pile of garbage accumulated on the corner, or an often overflowing bag of garbage.  Somehow, the piles are cleaned up in the morning, but we have been saddened to see garbage lining the ditches, even of country roads, and also sometimes floating and churning in the waterways.  Hopefully the Thai people will find a way to reduce and effectively collect their waste.

6. Bathrooms are interesting.  Toilet paper seems to be a new-ish idea here, likely only because of the demands of tourists.  Generally, toilets are equipped with a sprayer unit that presumably is used to spray yourself clean. Not only does this system not work very well, but it's also not clear to us how one might dry off at the end of it all.  Many places have posted notes asking for toilet paper to be deposited in the waste basket, not the toilet, because their piping and/or sewer systems aren't designed for it.  So there is a combination of sprayers and toilet paper (if you're lucky), and waste bins with discarded toilet paper.  In a few places we've come across low squat toilets (holes in the ground really) with a bucket of water and a scoop to clean up after yourself.  We now pack toilet paper and hand sanitizer, and if there is a super clean bathroom somewhere we are sure to share the news with one another!  The drainage system for showers, although new to us is standard across the country so far.  Every one of our guest houses so far has been equipped with a hose attached to a shower head on the wall of the bathroom - no shower stalls. The shower sprays all over the bathroom resulting in a wet sink or toilet seat most of the time.  This, along with the mostly cold water, seems pretty normal already and serves to keep our showers much shorter than they we're used to at home.

7.  Ahhhh!!!....the sounds and smells of the cities.  Walking down the street there is the constant roar of scooters, motorbikes, and tuk tuks (open air taxi carriages built onto the frames of motorbikes), as well as vendors shouting, horns honking, and vehicles rolling over broken pavement and metal drains - it is anything but peaceful!  Add to that the smells; in one instant, delicious food being prepared by a street-side vendor, the next (just twenty steps further along the street), the vile smells of the the sewer system below - you can go from feeling ravenous to repulsed in a matter of seconds here!  Just keep walking!!!!  Also, in an attempt to avoid the crazy traffic we try to use the sidewalks, but they are often broken or blocked by scooters or food carts, forcing pedestrians to repeatedly switch between walking the street and the sidewalk.  This is made all the more difficult when pulling a rolling suitcase or carrying a backpack.  Many curbs are really high, a foot or so, which provides the added bonus of a step workout when walking several blocks!  The simple act of crossing the street had us paralyzed with fear at first because vehicles seem to own the road and the lines on the street mean nothing to drivers.  Crosswalks are uncommon and rarely observed it seems.  Traffic drives on the opposite direction here which continues to catch us off-guard. By watching the locals we've learned to wait for a small opening, rush as a group to the centre, then watch and rush again at the sight of another opening. FROGGER FOR HUMANS!!!! Seems that there IS an upside to the kids' time spent on video games.  We're proud to report that all four of us have mastered the game and we're now playing at the advanced level.  It's amazing how quickly the kids have gone from intimidated to confident.  

8. Coffee! - we knew we would miss making it the way we like and having it whenever we want.  The standard guesthouse cup here is made from Nescafé crystals (pulverized and freeze-dried - Instant!!). We've  scoured markets looking for coffee cream but have yet to find any so we are resigned to 'whitening' it the way most others do here - with the 'white death'.  Thailand actually has really good coffee but you need to buy it in the grocery stores or cafès, but more on that later.