Thai Culture
There are lots of little details about life in Bangkok that differ from life back at home. This article should explain some of the reason behind the cultural differences between the U.S. and Thailand.
Many Thai customs are an extension of Buddhism. Buddhists do their best not to offend anybody or anything and this is definitely noticeable in their daily interactions with foreigners, each other, and animals. In Thailand to greet another person you put your hands in prayer position and bow your head to show respect. They do this instead of shaking hands because it is considered inappropriate for a male and female to touch in public. I live in a college town; there are lots of young people and international influences, so this rule is not terribly strict, yet after two weeks I have not seen any public displays of affection between a man and women. The monks are not allowed to touch women at all, whether to show of affection or just a greeting. If you have your hands full or you don’t know someone well enough to greet them with the prayer hands and a bow (pronounced “why”) the next best thing is a big smile. I mentioned in my last article that the people here never stop smiling. It’s still true. With the travelers and with each other, Thai people are always very welcoming and polite. In Thai to address a stranger you would say brother or sister, never “hey you!” There are different forms of “brother” and “sister” depending on if the person is younger or older than you.
There are a lot of stray dogs. In Buddhism instead of going to heaven or hell after you die you are reincarnated into another body based on your merit. If you were a good person you may be reincarnated as a human, or better still as a holy man. If you did not dedicate your life to attaining enlightenment or higher levels of consciousness you might come back as an animal. So the stray dogs could be somebody’s aunt or uncle from a past life. Thus, they are treated with love and respect. There are no pounds that put dogs to sleep or collect them so they aren’t terrorizing the streets. Instead Thais put food out for them and sometimes even put sweatshirts on them during the cool season. It is unthinkable to kill anything. I’ve settled for a compromise with the mosquitoes. I wear bug spray and burn a lot of punk, if one lands on me I blow it away with air. But if a mosquito buzzes around my head for longer than I can tolerate, I thank it for allowing me an opportunity to practice my patience and compassion and then I put it out of it’s miserable reincarnation. I’m helping the mosquito by not allowing it to accrue the negative karma associated with causing distress to another being…right?
In Thailand most people do not go grocery shopping. Very few of the apartments have refrigerators and almost none of them have kitchens. Rather than cook for yourself, in Thailand you have your meals from the cafes and street vendors. This was, and still is hard for me to feel comfortable with because I love to cook and very rarely go out to eat.
Every morning the street vendors drive their motorcycles, with food stands attached like sidecars, to the road in front of campus and set up for the day. By 10 AM the sidewalk is lined with vendors selling fruit, fried eggs, meat on a stick, sticky rice, bowls of noodles, ice cream, lattes, just about anything you could want (except whole wheat tortillas and peanut butter.) In the evening the street vendors tap out and you have a whole new set of options. There are also permanent restaurants but most of them do their cooking outside. Thai cooking uses a lot of spices and can create a lot of smoke, so part of why all the cooking is done outside is because the Thais would never want to offend their neighbors by filling an apartment building with spicy smoke. There is also a safety concern that influences the construction of apartment buildings without kitchens. The traffic and the small, crowded streets make it hard for an ambulance or a fire truck to come to a fire. So to keep the risk of building fires lower, we have no stoves.
I believe there must be some environmental benefit to consolidating the energy use that goes into food preservation and preparation, but that benefit is counteracted by all the food wrappers and plastic cups and bags that end up on the ground. There is a lot of litter here. I usually eat at the restaurants rather than the street vendors because they serve you on a plate, rather than in a wrapper, and I have a little more control over the content of the meal. It’s hard to convey “vegetarian” to a vendor selling meat on a stick. After my first experience with the face melting effects of Thai food I learned to say “no meat and not very spicy, please” in Thai. Every now and then I get served something with meat or lots of spice anyways.
Many of the restaurants have bottles of water on the tables instead of a pitcher because the tap water is not clean. You can bring your own beverage, or fill up your own water bottle at a water station if you don’t want to buy bottles of water. But some people opt not to hydrate because of the humbling experience of a squat toilet.
Thai bathrooms are fun. There is no divider between the shower and the toilet, it’s just one big “water room” as translated literally. In public water rooms there is no toilet paper. Partly because the plumbing can’t handle the paper and partly because to Thais using paper seems dirty and gross. Here we use a hose and then if you are prepared you have your own bandana or towel or you drip dry. The term of endearment for the public water room is squat toilet. It’s just a hole in the floor with platforms on either side to put your feet on. I don’t know how little old ladies manage to use them. Most apartments have an American style toilet, it’s just when your out that you experience the squat toilets.
