Living In Thailand Blog
Saturday 17th February 2007
"If we have a bicycle, we can travel faster than walking and with a little car we can go faster than on a bicycle. Whether we are satisfied or not depends on ourselves. If we compare ourselves with those who have more, we will feel inferior, but with those who have less, we will appear wealthy. So if we do not know how to be satisfied, nothing will be enough."
-- Mae Fah Luang
Mae Fah Luang (Royal Mother from the Sky) is the name given to HRH The Princess Mother by Thailand's northern hill tribe people who she devoted so much of her life helping.
In these few simple sentences is essentially the answer to inner contentment and happiness. The path to happiness is not to continually acquire more, it is to understand how to be happy with what we have. For many people, nothing is ever enough so they are never satisfied and never truly happy.
Thailand's monarchy has been delivering pearls of wisdom full of Buddhist doctrine for hundreds of years and it is a great source of strength for the Thai people. Finally, Thailand has a government that believes in the King's philosophies, and these have been encapsulated in a package known as Sufficiency Economy, or Sufficiency Theory, which advocates moderation and self-immunity.
Thailand has now set up an international economic co-ordination committee responsible for promoting the Sufficiency Theory to the international community. Unfortunately, countries not having the benefit of Thai wisdom just don't understand so it has to be explained to them.
In what could turn out to be a political masterstroke, the government has appointed Somkid Jatusripitak, who was Thaksin's number 2 with Thai Rak Thai, as the chairman of this committee.
This is more good news for Thailand. What would be even better is if other countries started to adopt some of the same policies.
And some more good news. Finally, something has been agreed between world leaders to tackle climate change. For years we have understood the problems and it doesn't take a genius to figure out the consequences.
You don't even need to be a hardcore tree-hugging environmentalist to realise what's going on. Our environment is our life support system. It gives us air, water and food. Without these things we won't be able to exist so it doesn't make much sense to destroy the very thing that keeps us alive.
The Kyoto Protocol was a step in the right direction but with the United States refusing to ratify it and China and India (as developing countries) being exempt, it had no teeth. It would appear that the recent IPCC report has woken up a lot of people to the seriousness of the issue.
Friday 16th February 2007
So it's cheap, the weather is good (apart from being a little too hot at times), the food is great, and the country is full of beautiful women. But are there any good things about living in Thailand? The answer is yes.
For starters, it's a remarkably polite and civilised society; certainly compared to where I come from. For me, this is something that makes Thailand such a joy. I like to give examples when I make statements like this and I'll begin with a trivial one regarding a TV soap opera. Soap operas are not real life but they do reflect certain cultural values.
I don't have a TV but last week I was in a small restaurant eating dinner and the TV in the corner was tuned to one of the popular soap operas. One sub-plot featured a girl working at a restaurant who was being hassled by three slimy guys while going about her duties and they waited for her outside after she had finished her shift.
All the characters conformed to Thai stereotypes. She was very pretty with lily white skin and the most obnoxious guy was ugly with disgusting teeth. As they were intimidating her, a knight in shining armour came to her rescue and of course he was a handsome, young Thai man with film star looks and skin just like hers.
What was interesting though was how the 'rescue' took place. The young hero was dealing with three quite horrible characters but he never raised his voice or spoke badly. On the contrary, he spoke to them extremely politely and even wai'ed.
I was trying to imagine how a similar scene might have played out on EastEnders. It would have been completely different. There would have been lots of menacing facial expressions, some very tough language and bags full of aggression. The Mitchell brothers would probably have turned up armed with crowbars. This is not how it works in Thailand - thankfully.
The UK, in particular, has a culture of confrontation - a bully mentality - whereas Thailand has a culture of non-confrontation. The two cultures have very different ways of dealing with people and situations that may represent a potential threat.
Thai children are taught from a very young age to wai strangers and to act respectfully and politely to others. This behaviour serves them well with regard to keeping out of trouble. By contrast, the British way is to try to look as hard as possible in an effort to be intimidating, thus keeping potential threats at bay.
As soon as Thai children are old enough to put their hands together they are taught to wai while in the UK a small, but sick, element of society think it is good to goad very young children into fighting as soon as they are old enough to stand on their feet.
This shouldn't really come as a surprise in a nation which regards chasing defenseless animals to the point of exhaustion and then letting a pack of hounds rip them apart merely as sport.
Some years ago I went to Boracay island in the Philippines for some scuba diving. My divemaster was a young English girl and most of our dives were just the two of us so I got to know her quite well (but not that well). While I was there, some friends of hers from the UK turned up and were staying at the same place as me.
She told me that I should introduce myself to them but she didn't tell them about me. I did what she suggested and went along to their bungalow to say hello. I couldn't believe the reception I got from the male members of the group who, upon seeing a strange male, acted with incredible hostility towards me.
It made me feel very uncomfortable. A few days ago I was walking around the local park and the reaction from Thai men upon seeing a strange male was slightly different. They smiled and raised the glasses of beer they were drinking in a gesture for me to join them.
I've had to adapt my own behaviour in Thailand. I am not confrontational or aggressive by nature but at times when I think people are being unreasonable my natural response is to demonstrate some anger. In Thailand I have been told not to do this by my Thai friends and I have observed how they deal with difficult situations.
Something else that is interesting is that I have never been taught any bad language or insults by my Thai friends. Normally, this bad stuff gets learnt early on when delving into another language but that hasn't been my experience here.
Language is powerful in Thailand and to really inflame a situation there is no more effective way than to start insulting Thais in their own language. Apart from my friends thinking it just isn't appropriate, I think also they have deliberately not taught me any bad language to keep me out of trouble.
In Thailand, politeness is maintained throughout, for no other reason, than if you get aggressive or angry the other person will just switch off and not deal with you. The Thais are a gentle race but can be prone to sudden violence if provoked with potentially disastrous results. It is therefore best not to provoke people.
The net effect is a peaceful, harmonious society, in general, in which people try to avoid conflict. People do not feel a need to adopt aggressive appearances and act aggressively as a method of self defence.
This behaviour extends to the work place; my current work place being a very pleasant environment in which to work. I cannot say the same of the UK where I witnessed violent verbal confrontations fairly regularly and even physical acts of aggression. And I'm not talking about working on a building site but at the world's foremost IT company.
I just find Thailand so much more civilised. People everywhere have basically the same problems in life but different cultures have developed different strategies to deal with them. Unfortunately, some cultures haven't changed much since the days of living in caves with a 'fight or flight' strategy but the Thais decided to take the path of behaving like civilised human beings.
It's easy to think that the gentle, polite behaviour is a result of people being very happy and contented with life but that isn't always the case. In a work place environment there will often be differences of opinion between individuals and little factions operating between departments but unless you are aware of these things you will never know because confrontation is avoided.
Reader's Digest magazine published a survey last year about the things that annoy Asian people. The various irritations included items such as bad driving, poor manners, smoking in public places, queue-jumping, etc.
I was very surprised at some of the findings. The things that irritate Thais are almost exactly the same things that irritate me in Thailand. They are irritated by drunken, noisy teenagers, stalls that clutter footpaths, pollution from buses, and couples who flirt in public.
However, when you observe these things you never see angry, aggressive Thais shouting and complaining. They might get upset but they don't let it show externally.
The most surprising result of all from the survey was that Thais are the most 'peeved' people in Asia and Singaporeans the least. I live in Thailand but have spent a fair amount of time in Singapore and I find that truly amazing. It is a great indicator of the power of Thai culture; that actually people can be quite upset about things but they continue to act in a very civilised manner.
On one trip to Singapore a couple of years ago I witnessed a fight on the MRT between two Chinese: a fairly old man and a woman who had accused him of leering at her daughter. They had to be separated by other passengers, the emergency alarm was activated and security guards boarded at the next station. I have never witnessed anything like this in Thailand among Thai people.
The famous Thai smile is used for a multitude of reasons, one of which is to disarm people who may pose a threat. People from other cultures may decide that the best way to ward off a potential threat is to stare very aggressively and look menacing; perhaps a skinhead haircut and some tattoos might enhance the effect?
After living in Thailand for a while the lack of aggression in society becomes quite noticeable and this is yet something else that makes it very difficult for me to go back to where I come from. Even now in Thailand I get unwelcome reminders when I visit tourist areas or when I read about what goes on in areas of Thailand where there are high concentrations of foreign expats.
Boorish, aggressive, impolite behaviour isn't unique to Westerners. Some Chinese visiting Thailand can be quite rude and I sometimes find it quite shocking how they speak to one another and to the Thais.
It's interesting that in Chinese-dominated Singapore the government has to run campaigns to promote common courtesy and the same thing is happening in China now in the lead up to the Olympic games under the slogan: "It's civilised to queue, it's glorious to be polite."
In Thailand, being polite is a core part of Thai culture and the Thais don't need reminders or lessons. For further reading I have no hesitation in recommending Niels Mulder's book 'Inside Thai Society', which I regard as being the definitive analysis of Thai cultural behaviour. Here is a short extract:
Thai society values smooth interaction and the avoidance of overt conflict; when everybody knows his place and behaves accordingly, these ideals can be achieved. In everyday life this is induced by appropriate polite behaviour that is expressed in befitting presentation. Smiles and polite speech facilitate the interaction in which individuals somehow flow past each other without hindrance or obstacle. This smoothness is often accompanied by genuine kindness and an interest in the well-being of the other. Such interaction both demands a show of kindness and encourages it. If the other party is contented, he will be harmless and kind in return, and all can feel at ease and mutually ingratiated.
This article appeared on Yahoo today - Britain could become 'decivilised' - I'm just a little confused about the use of the word 'could'. How many fatal shootings in South London will it take to make people realise there is a serious problem in the country now.
Thursday 15th February 2007
I've received some wonderful e-mails since I began this site a few years ago and I have also been fortunate enough to meet some of the people that have written. In today's media it seems that only bad news is newsworthy and that's all we seem to get these days - a constant stream of bad news. It can be quite depressing.
It's such a shame because there are so many good people around. Many of the e-mails I receive come from highly intelligent, honest and sensitive people and reading them can really lift my mood.
The situation in the Middle East right now is nothing short of a disaster. Every time a bomb explodes and kills more people in Iraq it is front page news and there seems to be no end in sight to the problems.
However, some time ago I received an e-mail from an Arab gentleman (and he really is a gentleman) who lives in the United States but is working with American troops in the Middle East to help them become more culturally aware. He wrote to me because he shares the same fondness for Thailand that I have and promised to meet up on his next visit. I hope he does.
Understanding the culture and being culturally sensitive is SO important when living or working in a country where the culture is very different that it seems such an obvious exercise but where in the news do we hear about this type of positive behaviour?
Whether we believe the war was right or wrong (and we all think differently so there is no point arguing), at least something is being done to try to improve a less than ideal situation.
The saddest correspondence I entered into was with a young Englishman who (like myself) had become disillusioned with the UK's "dog-eat-dog" society.
He moved to Thailand and got a teaching job. He was actually living very close to where I live but we didn't know each other at that time. He started to go through the different stages of living in Thailand that I have described elsewhere.
At first it is quite euphoric but after a while there is a dark side to living in Thailand that starts to reveal itself. For me, when I hit that stage and found out some quite nasty truths it was difficult but then good things happened and I started to see the country in a positive light again.
He had got to that unpleasant stage but he was a particularly sensitive person. He didn't like certain aspects of Thailand, he had learnt some Thai and didn't like the way some Thais spoke about farangs, and he didn't like the way certain types of farang male tourist treated and talked about Thai girls. In one e-mail he specifically mentioned the acronym LBFM which he found particularly repugnant.
He wrote to me about these issues and I tried to relate how I had dealt with them but he decided to go back to England. He then wrote to me again telling me he had decided to go to Korea to teach, hoping he would find it an improvement over Thailand.
I never heard from him again but many months later I received an e-mail from his father telling me his son had committed suicide in Korea. He had obtained his son's e-mail account password and was contacting people he had written to, trying to find out why he might have taken his own life.
That e-mail really got to me. I wondered if I could have done any more when I replied to him originally but I don't think I could have done.
Another correspondent is in Bangkok at the moment working really hard on a relationship that has been ticking along for three years. He's had a number of ups and downs but his persistence seems to be paying off now. He flew down just to see me which was a great gesture and we had a pleasant day out; the two of us and three Thai girls.
We e-mail each other fairly regularly and one subject that has come up recently is tax (a sore subject among Brits). The situation in Thailand regarding tax is very different to that in the UK. Even though I have been living in Thailand for over three years I still pay more tax to the UK government each year than I do in Thailand because part of my income comes from the UK.
In Thailand I pay 5% tax on my salary. It's not much to pay and I get a benefit card that entitles me to medical treatment at a public hospital. I have private medical insurance anyway but it's always good to know that I have some back up. On one occasion for some special eye tests, I needed to visit the public hospital because the facilities there were more extensive than those offered at the private hospital.
Sales tax is 7% but there is a large sector of the economy that appears to be exempt. A separate charge for tax only seems to appear when using big department stores, restaurant chains or hotels. At the local markets and small restaurants, tax either isn't paid or it is included in the price and not charged for separately.
Perhaps the most unfair tax of all in the UK is council tax. For non-UK readers, this is a tax for individuals based on the value of the property they live in - not on their income or their ability to pay. The following, from the BBC, is what it covers:
Local services such as education, housing, planning, transport, highways, police, fire, social services, libraries, leisure and recreation, rubbish collection and disposal, environmental health and trading standards. It does not pay for health services.
Personally, I saw very little benefit for what I paid when I was living in England. Council tax has increased dramatically since its introduction and is regarded by many as a stealth tax. If I was living back in the UK now I would have to pay £1568 a year (Bt102,916) council tax. Just this one tax alone is more than my entire accommodation bill in Thailand.
My rented accommodation in Thailand, including renting a fridge, broadband Internet connection, water and electricity, is just Bt7,600 a month (the electricity bill fluctuates slightly from month to month depending mainly on A/C usage) - or Bt91,200 a year. And that's all I have to pay - it covers my accommodation costs completely with nothing else to pay.
UK council tax, of course, is on top of what it costs to rent a property or pay mortgage instalments and utility bills. When I talk about how much it costs me to live in Thailand, that is actually misleading; I should talk about how much I save living in Thailand.
For Valentine's Day I gave Iss some money to buy clothes. She bought a satin top for Bt300 and some shoes for Bt350. We went out for a huge meal at a branch of the Fuji chain of Japanese restaurants. This chain is superb - the restaurants are immaculately clean, the service excellent and the food delicious. That huge meal cost Bt750.
As I've said many times before, it's possible to get through an enormous amount of money in Thailand - and that can be done quite easily - but with a little moderation it's possible to live very comfortably on what would be classed as a small amount of money in many other countries.
Tuesday 13th February 2007
If you want to do a degree in Thai studies there is probably no better place than the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. Listed among its staff is Dr David Smyth whose name will be familiar to anyone with a genuine interest in Thailand and the Thai language.
I was looking at details of the BA Thai programme on the SOAS web site recently. There was an interesting comment regarding one of the second year reading courses - Thai 210: Readings in contemporary Thai society and culture:
A common complaint of intermediate learners when faced with authentic Thai texts is, 'I know what all the words mean, but I don't understand the sentence.'
I can relate to this. I have spoken about some of the difficulties I've faced learning to read Thai and this is yet another. Here's a very simple example. The Thai expression 'mai mee' means to 'not have' and 'krai' is the question word 'who?'
Your Thai girlfriend will always want to know who you are with (gup krai?) or who you went somewhere with (bpai gup krai?). So what does 'mai mee krai' mean? A direct translation would probably be 'don't have who' but that doesn't make any sense. It means nobody (or no one), as in 'mai mee krai kao jai pom' (no one understands me).
There are lots of examples like this where you might know all the words but, just as it says on the SOAS web site, you can't understand the sentence.
I've heard from Thais occasionally about farang English teachers with violent tempers who explode if their students can't understand something. A couple of years ago I was eating in a restaurant when a Thai man approached me and introduced himself.
He owned a small language school and was desperate to find a teacher. He had previously hired a South African but the guy kept losing his cool in the classroom and the school owner had no option but to sack him even though he knew it would cause a big problem finding a replacement.
Thai students are scared of farangs at the best of times with their big bodies, stary blue eyes and funny hair and skin colouring. It takes a long time to overcome their fears and going apeshit in the classroom isn't exactly the best way to win them over. Culturally, being 'jai rawn' (having a hot heart) is very bad form in Thailand in any situation and, not least, it is also self-defeating as far as teaching goes.
Whenever I've heard such stories and have asked whether the teacher spoke Thai the answer is invariably no. I have always been a fairly patient teacher, if for no other reason than the fact I was never a very quick learner myself so always appreciated patient teachers.
To really understand what difficulties students face it is necessary to empathise with them and there is no better way to do this than by performing a complete role reversal. It can be a very humbling experience.
In my lesson yesterday evening I had forgotten some stuff from last week. Both Palm (my student-turned-teacher) and I knew I had forgotten but she didn't get angry or start shouting at me. If she had, it wouldn't have done either of us any good. Instead, she just smiled and told me again. Perhaps now I will remember or maybe I won't. I'm sure that if I don't though she will just smile patiently and tell me for a third - or fourth - time.
With two such different languages it is incredibly hard for a native speaker of one language to learn the other and when teaching this is something that is best not forgotten.
Unfortunately, I am about to lose Palm as a teacher fairly soon. She hasn't heard from Mahidol officially yet but they interviewed 21 students for 20 places in the Master's degree programme she wants to do and I doubt very much she will be the one that doesn't get picked. She is an exceptionally clever young lady.
Monday 12th February 2007
A poem by Ajarn Pratuang Emjaroen:
"Keep your mind as purified as
A glass of drinking water,
And you shall be a true hero, no matter
How dreadful your physical appearance may be.
While in social events, keep your mind
As joyful as possible
And look at others with caring and loving eyes.
If someone intends to infuriate you, keep calm
And remind yourself of moral sense.
From dawn till dusk, find as much time
As possible to smile
And keep yourself clear from all spiritual waste."-- Ajarn Pratuang Emjaroen
I wonder if the young Australian student I met a couple of years ago is still around? He was studying Islam in Thailand but - living in a southern Thai city - lamented the fact there were, "500 Karaoke bars in town and not one art gallery." I understood perfectly what he meant even though he had exaggerated; there being only 485 Karaoke bars.
I visited a temporary exhibition yesterday featuring the work of poet and artist Ajarn Pratuang Emjaroen. It was a very enjoyable experience. The building the exhibition is being held in is a beautiful example of Thai architecture and is very peaceful.
The ground floor has been given over to Ajarn Pratuang's work while upstairs are photographs of the royal family along with prints of some of the King's paintings.
I would never have known about the exhibition had it not been for a friend telling me about it. She is a local councillor and attended the opening ceremony which was presided over by the local mayor (who also happens to be her uncle) and Chuan Leekpai, an ex-Prime Minister who I have met and chatted to in the past.
I spent a good hour there and for most of that time was the only person in the building. A few Thais turned up but didn't stay very long. Outside of the middle-class Bangkok environment there seems to be little interest for this type of thing in Thailand.
When I visited the large national museum in Nakorn Sri Thammarat I was the only visitor in the entire building. The lights had been switched off and were switched on in individual rooms as I walked around. It was almost the same at the Ramkhamhaeng National Museum in Sukothai except the lights were still on. There were no other visitors apart from groups of school kids who were only visiting as part of their studies.
Ajarn Pratuang's art work consists of crayon on paper drawings and oil on canvas paintings. I am certainly no art critic but I guess that most of his work would be described as abstract. The oil paintings have strikingly vivid colours and almost a 3D effect.
My favourite Thai artist continues to be Ajarn Chalermchai Kositpipat whose work is quite stunning. Upon my eventual return to England, one of the first things I will do is visit the Buddhist temple in Wimbledon where he spent five years painting the murals.
Friday 9th February 2007
Thailand is a Buddhist country but much of the belief system is based on Hinduism and animism. It's an interesting amalgam; contradictory at times but similar in certain aspects. Karma is an intrinsic part of Buddhism with good deeds being rewarded in the next rebirth but waiting for the next rebirth is longer than most Thais want to wait.
On the other hand, doing good deeds for the many spirits that live around us will bring instant rewards in this life, for example if the spirit provides winning lottery numbers. Spirits can be good or malevolent. They need to be treated well so should be rewarded with a place to live and given food, flowers and incense.
Problematic spirits may need to be dealt with by a spirit doctor. Some spirits live in trees which is why you will often see multi-coloured pieces of material draped around trees.
And what if you want to drive a woman crazy with sexual desire? The answer is a drop of oil from the chin of a corpse rubbed on her skin or put in her food. Be careful though because this oil has the power to kill. Supposedly, it is also added to the ink used for creating supernatural tattoos to make the tattoos even more potent.
New vehicles are blessed by monks using holy water to prevent accidents. It is not unusual in new cars in Thailand to see strange marks on the dashboard which were made by the monk when the car was blessed.
For day-to-day insurance, amulets are recommended and this has resulted in a huge amulet trade in Thailand. In every town you will find amulets being sold by the roadside and in local markets. There is also a very active amulet magazine industry and amulet collecting has turned into a major hobby.
Made of clay or gold, the amulets are of famous monks, Buddha images or Thai kings. Older amulets have more power, as do ones given supernatural power by famous monks and ones with a proven track record of protecting their owners.
Spirits are external entities but inside us we have a soul which also needs some looking after. In fact, the Thais have two souls. The winyaan is similar to the Western concept of a soul. At death it departs the mortal body and goes off on its journey to the next rebirth.
The khwan soul is a little different. It can be scared away at times of stress or it may just decide to go off on a little jaunt. At death it disappears. It is not good for the khwan to leave the body - as it does at those difficult times in our lives - and so, when this happens, various ceremonies are performed to encourage it to return.
The pieces of cotton you may see tied around the wrists of Thai people are there to keep the khwan inside the body. 'Topknots' or one piece of long, uncut hair is a way to keep the khwan from leaving the body of a young child because the soul leaves through the head but it is quite rare to see these nowadays. I have only seen a couple of young boys with their hair this way.
An elaborate Brahmin tonsure ceremony where the hair is cut used to be an important rite of passage for Thai royalty. The date of the tonsure ceremony would be chosen by an astrologer and this is still the case for many Thais when selecting dates for auspicious occasions such as weddings.
Fortune tellers in Thailand are known as mor doo which, I guess, translates as 'seeing doctors'. I don't see that many but I know where to find some. They never seem short of customers and the Thais who use them place a lot of faith in their ability to look into the future.
The Thai fear of ghosts is well known. In the past some men were so scared of a female ghost who they believed would attack them at night, they went to bed wearing nail varnish and women's nightwear in an effort to trick the ghost who only attacked men.
The ghosts of people who suffered violent deaths are particularly feared and are believed to seek victims for revenge, killing the victims in the same manner as they were killed. This helps to explain the way many Thais felt after the tsunami.
I have barely scratched the surface. Magic, superstition, spiritualism and the supernatural are taken quite seriously in Thailand. Even certain Prime Ministers were alleged to have consulted Cambodian witch doctors and refused to speak to reporters on days that were deemed inauspicious by their astrologers.
And then there are the imported beliefs of immigrant ethnic groups such as Chinese ancestor worship where you will see shops selling all manner of replica material goods, but made from paper. There are cars, shirts, shoes, mobile telephones, televisions, etc. and the idea is that when the items are burnt they will find their way to deceased ancestors.
It's all quite fascinating stuff.
Thursday 8th February 2007
My Thai reading lessons continue to progress at a snail's pace. Making out the sounds of the words is getting to be less of a problem but vocabulary is a major stumbling block. Different levels of Thai (in terms of politeness) use different words and some words are only used in the written form. The written language tends to use very polite forms.
I thought I knew the Thai word for 'dog' (maa) but I only knew one of them. When I encountered the other word recently (soonuk) I didn't know what it was. I thought I knew the Thai words to express ability (dai, bpen) but there is another I hadn't heard of - saamaat.
How many foreigners living in Thailand can read any Thai? My guess is not that many. Some basic knowledge is actually quite easy to obtain and it comes in useful. Recently I went to a place I hadn't been to before and was waiting for a bus. I'd asked a few locals to help me but they weren't being all that helpful; I think it was because they weren't exactly sure themselves.
A bus appeared going to Nakorn Sri Thammarat which I knew would pass where I wanted to go so I got on. I only knew it went to Nakhon because I could read the destination. I also like to eat in the kind of restaurants that don't have English menus.
About six years ago while on holiday in Thailand I met a French woman who had been living near Pattaya for 18 years. She wrote my name in Thai letters and I was impressed. It was really nothing to be impressed about though. That level of ability is something that anyone should be able to reach in just a few months with a little application.
The first step learning to read some Thai is having confidence. This is what I didn't have when I first started learning how to speak and the reason why I turned down my Thai teacher's offer to learn the written language at the same time.
Written Thai is actually a lot more logical than written English. Also, it consists of no more than vowels and consonants - the same as English. There are more consonants than English but many are seldom used. Some letters are reserved only for Pali and Sanskrit words which normally only occur in matters relating to royalty or religion.
There are a lot of vowels and vowel combinations but at least they are consistent whereas written English is not consistent. Imagine teaching someone the English word 'but' by teaching them the sound of the individual letters.
They grasp that but then see the word 'put' and pronounce it incorrectly because the vowel sound for the same vowel changes for different words. In Thai the vowel sounds remain the same.
The commonly used letters are only a fairly small subset of the entire alphabet and shouldn't take anyone that long to memorise. There are a few strange rules of course but this applies to every language.
Mastering the tone rules is on another level of learning but it isn't strictly necessary when starting out learning a few basics.
If you can find the confidence, that is the first step. The second step is setting some reasonable expectations. It is unrealistic to expect to be able to read newspapers and magazines within a year but menus, place names and most street signs should be achievable in that timeframe.
If you live in Thailand there is, as would be expected, a wealth of material. I make an attempt to read just about everything I see when I travel around.
There is another huge benefit of being able to read some Thai and that is being able to bypass the disastrous systems of transliteration that exist. Both vowels and consonants get transliterated into the wrong English letters and some systems do not take into account the fact that Thai consonants change sound depending on whether they begin or end a syllable.
Many's the time I have attempted to speak to a Thai using a transliterated word and not been understood, only to see the word written in Thai and realise the transliteration was awful. For example, according to many systems, the Thai syllable that actually sounds like 'gun' gets transliterated to 'kan'.
One book I have transliterates the Thai word for 'police' into 'tamruaj' but I can guarantee you will never be understood saying 'tamruaj'. On the other hand, if you say 'dtum-roowut' you might stand a slightly better chance of being understood.
It's almost as if the books are written to ensure that you won't be understood and that even applies to some very popular publications.
I may add a few basics to the blog later but there are already some very good resources on the web and one of the best is thai-language.com.
I tend to get so focused on events in Thailand that sometimes I miss (or even ignore) what's going on in the rest of the world. This isn't good because it doesn't provide a balanced view and I consider balance to be very important in life.
It can be misleading to highlight problems in one country and not others because it almost sounds as if problems don't exist in other countries when they do - very much so. Five Americans have just been charged with using Iraq construction money for personal gain.
They used the money (at least 8 million US dollars) to buy luxury items, having stolen it from the very people they were supposed to be helping. The BBC article describes what went on as a 'scam' - which sounds rather tame - but it is just corruption.
The UK government has recently been embroiled in allegations of corrupt practices with the 'cash for honours' saga and a defence deal with Saudi Arabia.
All countries are basically the same, consisting of good people and bad people. If anything, Thailand is better than most. I would say that the ratio of good people to bad in Thailand is higher than most.
I want to try to be more positive with this blog from now on. There are a number of reasons for this. The first is that I don't really want to court controversy or upset people; that is not my intention. Secondly, it is unbalanced to only highlight problems with one country. Thirdly, all the things that concern me now are actually old news and the Thais are already fully aware of the issues.
They know who the good and bad people in the country are, they understand that there is an ever-growing wealth gap, and they understand the impacts of globalisation on the Thai way of life and the natural environment.
The book I am currently reading is another about HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej titled "Thailand's Guiding Light." In a world that I increasingly dislike, HM the King's words and wisdom give me a lot of comfort. The book was published in 1996 by the Bangkok Post. Here are a few extracts:
(p97) It is common wisdom that Thailand's "economic miracle" which has seen an average growth rate of over seven per cent since 1960, has been possible because of over exploitation of natural resources. While the national income has increased many times during that period, most of the prosperity has gone to only a handful of people in urban areas, Bangkok in particular.
(p58) To improve the quality of life of poor country people, his (HM's) approach requires not only a balance between nature and human beings but - probably more important - the people's own inner balance. He believes that a peaceful life lies in one's contentment in moderation - a simple yet dignified life of self-reliance - while uncontained human greed is destructive to both oneself and the natural surroundings that are one's life-support system.
"It doesn't matter if Thailand is criticised as a backward country if we are still able to maintain our peace and our self-sufficiency," he added. Countries which are racing solely for ideological, economic and industrial power without paying attention to the poor and the environment have all become deep in conflict and social violence, he warned.
It's an excellent book, full of touching photos and examples of the King's wisdom. I would urge anyone not familiar with HM's theories and philosophies on life to try to find out more; whether you have an interest in Thailand or not.
As for this blog, I know there will be times when I really need to bite my tongue but the plan from now on is to try to promote the positive aspects of Thailand (of which there are many) and to include information which may be useful to those visiting Thailand.
The problem with that idea is that I may end up producing an over-sanitised and unrealistic version of Thailand which won't really help anyone understand the country. It's a bit of a dilemma and one that I need to give some more thought to. The third option is not to say anything and just to enjoy my life in Thailand. That may actually be the preferred option.
Sunday 4th February 2007
I was having a chat with my good friend, Aor, who is back temporarily from her job in Phuket where she works as a massage therapist for a very upmarket spa. She had a few interesting things to tell me.
From what she was saying, there seems to be no shortage at all of very wealthy farangs coming to Thailand. People who think nothing of spending Bt10,000 a night or more on accommodation or having massage and other spa treatments which start at Bt4,000 a time. Bear in mind, I spend about Bt6,500 a month on accommodation and the cheap-and-cheerful massage places I go to charge Bt100 an hour.
One guy stayed in the most expensive accommodation available at the resort for two weeks at a cost of Bt100,000 a night.
It's no wonder really, with so much money around, that the Thais are concentrating their efforts on attracting wealthy tourists and are keen for Thailand to lose its reputation as a 'cheap' destination for scruffy 'Cheap Charlie' backpackers. For humble mortals like myself, if you have plans to visit Thailand do so quickly while you can still afford it.
She mentioned that she sees a lot of wealthy Russians. One guy purportedly purchased three Bt100 million villas. I know it's wrong but whenever I hear of 'unusually rich' Russians it always makes me suspicious about how they got to be so wealthy.
I know a lot of people in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Singapore and elsewhere who have been successful in honest business but I don't think that any of them could afford to spend £4.5 million buying villas in Phuket.
It was a Russian guy who she described as being the rudest person she has had to deal with. He wanted some 'extras' during his massage which he offered her 400 US dollars to provide. This made her angry and she said no very sternly. She really isn't that kind of girl.
She is as pure as the driven snow and just wouldn't entertain anything like that - not for all the money in Thailand. Besides, if any of the girls are found to be performing 'extras' they are sacked immediately.
It's a great job. She gets a good salary, good tips and she has the opportunity to work almost anywhere in the world in some of the most exotic locations on earth. She wouldn't jeopardise her job by providing 'extras' even if she was that way inclined.
She told me that the same request has been made to some of her colleagues and the guests got the same negative response. However, with the girl unwilling to oblige they then performed a little DIY while the girl carried on with the massage. This, apparently, is allowed but I would hardly imagine it is a fraction as pleasurable.
The moral, gents, is that if you want a massage with a happy ending don't go to one of the very upmarket places. If you're in a fancy hotel in Phuket you might just want to head down to Patong if you feel the sap rising and need a little light relief.
Talking of Patong, Aor doesn't like nightlife but some of her friends venture into Patong occasionally. Once there, they almost always get asked, "How much?" by farang tourists which really upsets them. It's really quite insulting.
If you have only ever dealt with a certain class of Thai girl you might be forgiven for thinking that all Thai women have their price but they don't. If you can't distinguish between different types of Thai girl then you haven't been in Thailand long enough or you just haven't bothered to learn anything while you've been here.
And some more on His Majesty the King's theory of Sufficiency Economy. It is highly recommended reading. I have spent 10 years or more trying to analyse my own life as a result of becoming unhappy and dissatisfied with how my life was before.
What frustrates me now is that most world leaders and policy makers are advocating policies to encourage lifestyles like the one that made me unhappy and dissatisfied. It's crazy and, at the same time as making people unhappy, we are also destroying our environment.
The King of Thailand is the only prominent figure in this world who I ever hear speak any common sense. He is a remarkable and inspiring man and, of course, a remarkable Buddhist.
"True happiness may be attained when a person is fully satisfied with what he or she has and is at peace with the self. To strive to consume more leads to unhappiness if (or when) consumption is not satisfied or falls short of expectations.
A sufficiency economy in this context would be an economy fundamentally conditioned by basic need, not greed, and restrained by a conscious effort to cut consumption."
Contrary to the famous line spoken by Michael Douglas's character Gordon Gekko in the movie 'Wall Street', greed isn't good.
I am getting desperately bored with the ongoing political situation in Thailand and need to try to ignore it. This should have been easy after the coup but Thaksin just won't give up. He continues to give interviews to foreign media, trying to plead his case while at the same time stirring up trouble for Thailand.
To put the foreign media straight, The Nation ran a piece titled 'Foreign media need a history lesson before praising Thaksin'.
Elsewhere in The Nation:
Meanwhile, Information and Communications Technology Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom conceded that in his ministry, there was corruption at policy level that cost the state "billions of baht" in damage, but officials "could not bring corrupt ministers to justice because permanent officials who followed the orders of ministers would also be held responsible".
One of the problems with the corruption investigations, apparently, is that people are still scared of the old regime or that they will implicate themselves or their friends if they provide evidence.
The four month-old airport which was ridden with corruption during its construction needs to have repairs carried out already and airlines have been given the option of using Don Muang for domestic flights. And who will pay for all the corruption?
You and I by the sound of it. I also spotted something on The Nation web site that the airport departure tax is set to be increased by 40% (which means it will go up to Bt700). I haven't seen an official announcement about this yet but I won't be very happy if it is true. I wasn't happy about paying Bt500 just for the privilege of leaving the country, let alone Bt700.
Controversial former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed has weighed in on the side of Thailand in the spat with Singapore. There is no love lost between Malaysia and Singapore and Mahathir just seems to be using this as a way to attack his old enemy rather really supporting Thailand. He is another politician I don't like (the list is actually quite long).
Football fever has gripped Thailand this evening and, remarkably, it isn't Man United vs Liverpool. The Thais are actually getting behind their national team for once instead of an English Premiership team that plays in red.
It's the ASEAN Championship Final and, just for some added spice, Thailand's opponents this evening are .... Singapore.
Talking football, after losing yet again yesterday the odds are now heavily stacked in favour of my team heading back down to the old second division next season. It's desperately sad after a couple of outstanding seasons and almost being FA Cup winners last year but for an outstanding performance from Steven Gerrard.
Will it ever be any different being a West Ham supporter?
Saturday 3rd February 2007
This is where I work. It's wonderful. I know that many of the farangs who come to Thailand will only consider working in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Pattaya or some other tourist area. That's fine but I wouldn't swap what I have for any of those places.
I've been to Siam Square and watched the farang teachers with weary expressions on their faces as they appear from their language institutes for a smoke break while at the same time breathing in some of Bangkok's wonderful fresh air. They must have such healthy lungs. It's all down to personal preference, of course, but I know where I would rather be.
On the three days that I work my routine is fairly set. The morning is free and I leave for work around midday. Sometimes I get a motorbike taxi and sometimes I walk.
I eat lunch at the student canteen which has very good food at cheap prices while admiring the mobile scenery. Normally I pay around Bt25 but if I'm feeling extravagant I might pay Bt30.
Next I get a bag of fresh fruit and eat it in the peaceful area shown in this photo. It's delicious fruit (also very cheap) and is prepared almost to order so nothing sits around for very long. The building in the background used to be a hospital apparently.
I only know this because when I had lunch with one of the secretaries one day last year she wouldn't sit there. Knowing the history of the building, she is convinced that the area is inhabited by ghosts. She's Thai, of course. It is now a girls' dormitory.
I get a cup of iced coffee, teach for a couple of hours and then walk home. After three days of doing this I get four days off. It's a tough job but someone has to do it.
A job fair for 4th year Bachelor's degree students has been taking place this week. There have also been a lot of entrance exams taking place this week for next year's student intake.
It's been a busy week at the university and some of the students applying for courses looked quite stressed. Some programs are a lot tougher to get into than others.
For example, the dental faculty only takes 60 students each year. There are eight universities in Thailand with dental faculties and they accept a total of 500 students. That's 500 for the entire country and considering how many students apply for university places that's not very many.
I missed this article when it first appeared last month but it contains some information about Sufficiency Economy. Ignoring politics for a while, isn't it just common sense that we, "focus on living a moderate, self-dependent life without greed or overexploitation of, for example, natural resources."
I've written recently how I believe greed is behind almost all of the world's problems. Human greed is leading the planet along a path to disaster. Scientists are almost certain now that we as a race have been responsible for recent climate change and unless the effects are reversed the results are going to be disastrous.
Many of us living now may not be around to suffer the consequences but future generations will certainly suffer; or perhaps we just don't care about future generations, so long as we can have what we want now?
Friday 2nd February 2007
I have always loved cats. My parents had a cat before they had me so there was always a cat in the house as I was growing up.
My mum says the cat used to tell her when I was crying (by miaowing, I assume - she wasn't a talking cat) so she was more like a nanny than a pet. When she went, others followed - all with their own and very unique personalities.
Thailand has lots of great cats and I get as much pleasure meeting a pleasant cat as I do a pleasant person. I actually prefer the company of cats to many people I have met. Just before I met the magnificent chap in the photo I met a gorgeous little chocolate point Siamese.
I saw her sitting in a shop as I walked past so stopped, knelt down and called her. She came running over, rolled on her back and let me make a fuss of her. She lay there purring contentedly. A few minutes later her owner appeared and looked quite surprised.
She said the cat was normally mean and bit people. However, I just believe cats have extra senses and can read people. I can usually make friends with cats I meet apart from the ones that won't have anything at all to do with humans.
Iss also has a soft spot for animals and a few months ago she found an abandoned kitten outside where she works. She took it to the vets to get it vaccinated, bought it a basket and some food and it stayed in our room one night before she took it back to her home where it turned into a great house cat.
For the last couple of weeks she has been spending time with her family and the cat was doing fine. Every time I spoke to her I'd ask about the cat.
She called last night to see the cat was dead - it had been hit by a car. I felt myself welling up, not just for the loss of the cat but also for the immense sadness in her voice.
The number of cats I have met and got to know in Thailand only to have their lives cut short at a very young age must almost be in double figures. One ate rat poison, another was killed by a dog but most have been killed after being hit by vehicles.
The stray dogs might look like stupid creatures but they actually have pretty good road sense. They wait for breaks in the traffic and dodge cars. The cats just run with no apparent awareness of vehicles.
I have only seen a few dead dogs in Thailand but dead cats by the side of the road are quite common. In Thailand I have been confronted with more death in three years than the entire earlier part of my life in England. Whether it's people or animals, hardly a week goes by without hearing about the death of somebody or something.
When will people realise that being obsessed with money will not bring happiness? Quite the opposite, in fact. A couple of stories popped up on Yahoo at the same time. The first was about Britons getting more stressed; the major cause of stress being money.
The second story was about debt and how 20% of Britons have so much debt now they are considering insolvency. Apparently Christmas puts even more pressure on those who lack the will-power not to spend what they don't have and there are always insolvency problems at the start of each year.
And what is the UK government doing to help people with obsessive personalities who can't control their spending, yet are able to easily obtain money on credit? The government has just given the go-ahead to open a Las Vegas-style 'Super Casino' in Manchester and others will probably follow.
I just don't what is happening to this world. One-sixth of the world's population still does not have access to fresh water; something that is essential to life and something that is a basic human right for everyone. However, the developed world apparently has nothing better to do with its money than gamble and get drunk at casinos.
For a long time, Las Vegas was the fastest growing city in the US and Singapore has already gone down the casino path. Casinos are not new to the UK but huge ones such as the one proposed for Manchester are.
I actually think this "I'm alright, Jack - sod the rest," attitude of rich countries and individuals is quite sick. It will all backfire eventually though as the wealth gap continues to widen and it is no coincidence that the most violent countries on earth are those where wealth gaps are largest. Also, as more and more people get into debt some will turn to criminal activities thus creating further social problems.
Aren't out politicians wonderful? The late Kenny Everett had the perfect solution what to do with the lot of them. "Round 'em up, put 'em in a field, and BOMB THE BASTARDS!"
I apologise for this rant but there is a reason behind it. Yesterday I visited the shanty area that I have been writing about recently. I only really went to look at the infrastructure to see how electricity and water is connected but of course I wasn't able to avoid people.
In this kind of an area, a lone farang walking around sticks out like a huge, red, pulsating, sore thumb so I attracted a fair amount of attention. The first woman to home in on me had the usual questions that Thais ask but then she started telling me about a 67 year-old man she was looking after who had just suffered some kind of medical condition and now couldn't walk.
He'd had a stroke by the look of it and as a result was paralysed completely on his left side. She insisted that I meet him so I was led into his corrugated shack. The living conditions were appalling. He was sitting on a dirty bed eating rice. A bucket by the side of his bed served as his toilet. He was a nice old gent and wai'ed me with one hand, not being able to move his other arm. He was unable to do anything himself and was totally reliant on the woman.
There was another bed where she said her two sons slept. They were at school. It was depressing and - despite being in the same country - was about as far removed from Siam Paragon or Central Festival as it is possible to get. This shack was just corrugated iron and wood. Some other shacks used a few breeze blocks but wood and rusty corrugated iron panels were the main building materials.
Running around, I saw dogs, cats, chickens, ducks and some of the biggest rats I have ever seen. Another woman told me that the area is overrun with rats and commented on their enormous size. Poverty has a certain stench to it. I don't smell it often in Thailand but I did yesterday.
The area reminded me of a trip I made to Bintan island, a small Indonesian island near to Singapore. On one side of the island are fancy beach resorts where Singaporeans go for the weekend but in the main town on the other side of the island there is abject poverty ... and that same smell.
I took along my camera and although I took a couple of quick snaps my heart wasn't really into photography. It just seemed intrusive and not the right thing to seize on other people's misery.
In other countries, walking around such an area would probably be dangerous but not Thailand and that says an awful lot about Thai culture. You can push Thais to the extreme and still not suffer a societal breakdown.
A couple of people (young males) didn't seem to approve of my presence judging by the stern look on their faces but most people were fine and any doubts they had were cast aside when they realised I could understand what they said and talk back. Several invited me to sit down and chat and offered me water to drink.
I came away a bit depressed. I am fully aware that not all people are born equal and to try to believe we are is to deny reality. A socialist utopia is just not possible with human nature. However, I do believe that those of us with more than we actually need to lead a good life can do a little more for those who have almost nothing and who live in conditions that no human being should have to endure.
Thailand, of course, is one of the more fortunate countries in this respect. One thing you never see in Thailand - however bad the living conditions are - is people starving. No matter how poor someone is there will always be enough rice to fill their stomach.
The problem is that as individuals we can do very little to change anything. We have to rely on the policy makers we elect to serve us to do the right things. That is why we need politicians with good moral and ethical values; not ones who falsely believe that running a country is the same as running a company and that the only important value is GDP.
Thursday 1st February 2007
I wrote recently about one of my students who lives next door to a large shanty town by the railway tracks. His house is supplied with water and electricity by the local municipality due to the fact he has an address but the shanty dwellers get no such services because they don't have official addresses.
He has set up a sideline supplying water and electricity to his less fortunate neighbours using pipes and cables running from his house that he has installed. He pays the utility companies and charges his customers more in order to make a profit.
When I first heard about this little venture I imagined he looked after half-a-dozen or so dwellings. I was wrong. He reappeared yesterday after taking some time off as a result of falling from a lamppost while stringing up electricity cables. I was keen to find out more about his little side business so asked a few questions.
He supplies electricity to 355 dwellings (I can't really describe them as houses). I was amazed when I heard this figure. This is no sideline; for all intents and purposes his house is an electricity sub-station. His electricity bill is Bt200,000 a month. To put this in perspective, at those times of the year when I don't use my air conditioner my electricity bill is about Bt100 a month.
I don't know what profit he makes but I am told it is a very lucrative business.
He is not the only one of my students (who are all in full-time employment) to have a sideline - most of them do. These range from making and selling toasted fried rice snacks to owning crocodile and shrimp farms. Other activities include renting out apartments, selling phone cards, making scent, and selling lottery tickets. A few have rubber plantations.
Others do the same type of work as their main job but part-time at another establishments. Of the ones with businesses, their spouses normally take care of the business while they do their day job. My electricity sub-station friends employs two people to help run his. Some of these businesses are highly profitable and must be pulling in a lot of money.
I have noticed that the Thais are very good at pleading poverty but they aren't all as poor as they would have you believe. You only need to look at some of the cars being driven around if you need any evidence.
Directly as I look out from my rather modest rented room, there is a huge residence being built which has more in common with a palace than a house. It's not unique. Around where I live there are several such buildings, similar in style to those you would expect to see in the richest residential areas of the Western world.
On an individual basis, many girls are very, very good at tugging on heartstrings with stories of how poor they are but even at a national level the country is pretty good if there are any international handouts to be had. For example, multi-billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra didn't waste any time signing up for the '100 dollar laptop' project; Thailand being the first country to officially do so.
This project is aimed at poor Third World countries which doesn't really apply to Thailand when you compare it to genuine poor Third World countries but when it suits the Thais they can be as poor as you want them to be.
Don't get me wrong. There are a lot of poor people in Thailand but it is definitely not a poor country. Thailand is rich in natural resources with a massive agricultural economy which exports a lot of the produce; there is a growing industrial and service sector, and a huge and profitable tourist industry.
There is a vast amount of money in the country but the problem is that it is divided very unevenly.
In Thailand though, according to popular theory, all farangs are rich and all Thais are poor. This is the justification for the dual pricing policy and the reason why I get so upset about it. Speaking of which, I was chatting to a Thai businessman from Bangkok last weekend who has lots of customers and contacts of all nationalities in several countries.
He's also a 'poor' Thai, by the way, but manages to get by with a four-bedroom private condo in Bangkok and two new BMWs which he paid cash for. Anyway, he knows several farangs up in Chiang Mai and told me that many have refused to go to the zoo (not sure if he meant the Night Safari) because of dual pricing.
So the Thais aren't actually doing themselves any favours. Some foreigners (like me) avoid visiting certain places, refusing to pay the raa-kaa farang, and those that do cough up come away with a bad feeling about Thailand. No one likes to be ripped off and this racially discriminatory dual-pricing policy is a huge rip off.