Saturday 7th November 2015
I wasn't expecting to have my second BIR Indian curry so soon after the first one, but my wife is very busy at the moment. As a result, I've been stuck indoors looking after the children and with so little food in the house, a curry in the freezer was very convenient. Today, I had the chicken tikka masala and it was very tasty - aroi maak maak , as the locals would say. The sauce was creamy and tangy, how I like it, and it wasn't as fiery as the madras. It was enjoyably spicy without being uncomfortably hot.
An Indian chicken tikka masala
The portion size of these British Indian Restaurant curries is excellent. I often find with frozen meals that the portion sizes simply aren't big enough. Either I have to buy two or I am left feeling hungry if I eat one. The portions have plenty of chicken and plenty of sauce. I usually eat rice and naan bread with Indian food and this requires a fair amount of sauce to prevent the rice and bread becoming dry. The curries don't come with rice, but every home in Thailand has a rice steamer and nothing is easier to get in Thailand than rice.
I have yet to try the BIR butter chicken, but I will do so within the next week. I will also be returning to TOPS to buy some more now that I have completed my initial tasting. The lack of Indian food in the deep south of Thailand had started to become a major problem for me. During the time that TOPS sold Patak's sauces I had a way of making my own curries, but that finished when TOPS decided to stop stocking Patak's sauces.
The arrival of these British Indian Restaurant products has been a godsend and the curries are far more authentic and far tastier than the curries I was making myself with the Patak's sauces. I would like to thank the person or people behind this venture and may their business thrive because I don't want to see these sauces disappear. However, I have a few concerns.
As I mentioned before, whenever I talk to Thais about Indian food I always get a very negative response. Their reaction is normally to contort their face and state that Indian food smells. Whenever I have eaten at an Indian restaurant in Thailand I have only ever seen foreigners eating there, never Thais. The main customers for pre-packaged Indian food in Thailand will be expats.
The BIR website states that the product locations in Thailand are Chiang Mai, Bangkok and Pattaya, but these are all places that have large expat populations. I don't know why a branch of TOPS in Hat Yai started stocking Indian curries because there aren't that many expats in Hat Yai, but it may just have been an experiment and if the curries don't sell reasonably well TOPS may stop stocking them. This is my main concern.
Regarding suggestions for the company, firstly don't reduce the portion sizes. Secondly, an increased range would be great. I'd love to see a lamb rogan josh, but I understand that lamb may be difficult to source at a reasonable cost in northern Thailand. It's easier to obtain in southern Thailand where there are more Muslims, but there still isn't a great deal and it is rare to see lamb offered in a Thai restaurant. When it is offered it is usually imported and very expensive.
Thirdly, I can now buy Indian curries, but I still can't find any decent mango chutney and the frozen naan bread I can buy isn't that good. Makro sell popadoms that come from Indian, but the side dishes that go with Indian curries are difficult to obtain. It would be really useful if BIR could manufacture or become a distributor for these items.
I will now explain why my wife has been so busy.
I very rarely buy clothes or shoes. The only reason I was trying to buy shoes this week is because my old shoes fell apart. I normally wait for clothes or shoes to fall apart before I buy new ones.
My wife, on the other hand, isn't like me. She just likes buying clothes whether she needs them or not, and since our children arrived she has done the same with children's clothes. We have quite a large house, but it is full of things she has bought and every wardrobe and chest of drawers is full of clothes. For example, she owns about 20 pairs of jeans.
I don't know what brought it on, but yesterday she decided to sort out the clothes that are no longer worn and sell them. She laid them out in one of the unused bedrooms and there were enough clothes to stock a small shop. What happened next was very clever and it was a great example of using the technology we have available today in a useful way. I'm not anti-Facebook and Smartphones just for the sake of it, I am generally anti because of the way in which so many people misuse the technology.
With only her iPhone, which isn't very big, she photographed everything and then uploaded the images to Facebook in order to sell the items. I still use the dinosaur approach of copying images from my camera to my computer and then messing around with Photoshop for ages before uploading them. She doesn't need to do any of this and the process works seamlessly.
There are lots of Facebook users in Thailand and many of them are mothers with young children. Just as quickly as she was uploading items for sale they were being bought. She spent over 12 hours yesterday putting the clothes up for sale and sold almost everything. Today, she has been busy packaging everything up and will go to the Post Office on Monday.
Just a small selection of the clothes my wife is selling
Most of the clothes were ones that had belonged to her or our kids, but she also bought some second-hand clothes specifically to sell. The problem with doing this as a business is that there is very little profit - maybe Bt20 per item. Still, it has kept her busy and she really enjoys buying and selling.
Her previous business idea of selling to foreigners on the Internet was a complete failure, as I thought it would be. She didn't do any research about which products foreigners want to buy, but just assumed they would want to buy the things that she selected. She also made the (wrong) assumption - as many Thais do - that all foreigners are extremely rich and will pay very high prices for things from Thailand.
As I predicted, some of the items she bought are now being turned into Christmas gifts and some, I guess, will be used to decorate our own home. She bought some nice stuff, but I think the market is small and it is difficult finding the right customers on-line.
She would be much better off selling children's clothes in Thailand using Facebook and Kaidee because she understands the products and the market, however, as I said above, the profit margins are quite small.
There are certain things that are very easy to buy or get done in Thailand whereas if I was still in the UK they would be quite difficult. For example, photocopying. There are small photocopy shops everywhere in Thailand. Thailand has a lot of bureaucracy and whenever you want a visa or something, there is always lots of photocopying to be done, thus, there are a lot of shops.
Some of the photocopying shops are so cheap that I don't know how they make a profit. Some offer 100 copies for Bt40 and I can't even 100 sheets of paper for my printer for Bt40. They have the initial capital expenditure of buying a photocopier, they have to buy supplies such as toner and paper, pay for electricity and pay for servicing and repairs. How can they make a profit?
Inside a photo frame shop in Thailand
There are also lots of shops making photo frames. As part of her failed business venture, my wife bought some hand-carved cow-hide artwork. The items she bought are really nice and they take a long time to make. One features a male, female and baby elephant and the other features the Indian elephant god, Ganesh.
These will become Christmas gifts and I just had them framed. They are large frames very expertly made and they weren't that expensive. When I lived in the UK and wanted a photo frame I bought ready-made frames. I wouldn't have known where to go if I wanted a custom-made frame. In Thailand these shops are everywhere and very easy to find.
Not only is the healthcare system in Thailand excellent, but it is also very accessible. I was reminded of this recently because both children have colds.
In the UK I could only go to a hospital if it was an accident or emergency of my doctor had referred me. For everything else I had to make an appointment to see my General Practitioner (GP). Sometimes there were no appointments available and it wasn't always convenient going to the surgery.
In Thailand I can go to any of the four private hospitals or two public hospitals in town for any ailment, and in the private hospitals I will see a doctor quite quickly. There are also a lot of private clinics nearby and likewise I can visit any of these at any time they are open. Some clinics specialise in certain diseases, while others offer a general service.
In addition, there are pharmacies everywhere. Downtown there are lots and even where I live outside of town there are at least six pharmacies within just a few minutes' drive away. The pharmacists all have six year degrees, the same as medical doctors, and they are good. Unlike pharmacies in the UK, pharmacists in Thailand can sell medicine that would only be available with a prescription from a doctor in the UK.
The same thing applies with dentists. In the UK I generally had to wait quite a long time for a dentist appointment, the fees were high, and the work wasn't always great. In Thailand, waiting times are very short, fees are cheap, and the work is excellent.
Earlier this year or last year, my car starter motor started playing up. When I turned the ignition key the engine would start sometimes, but at other times there was nothing. If I kept trying I could get the engine to start, but I was worried that before long it would give up completely and leave me stranded somewhere inconvenient.
The Ford main dealer diagnosed the problem and told me that the starter motor needed replacing at a cost of around Bt12,000. I had already spent quite a lot on the car and didn't want another big bill, so told them I would think about it.
My wife's four brothers all have small businesses doing car repairs of one kind or another and I went to speak to one of them. He suggested going to a small 'dynamo' shop where they carry out car electrical repairs. Thais use the English word dynamo, but write it in Thai.
Electric motors aren't that complicated and only certain parts wear out. They are quite repairable, but the policy with Ford main dealers in Thailand is just to replace components, not repair them. This is also how it is in most of the Western world.
Anyway, the small shop removed the starter motor and dismantled it. They replaced all the worn parts, put it back into the car, and it has been perfect ever since. After the repair was carried out the car has started first time, every time with not a problem. The charge was just Bt1,800, which was a significant saving over having the motor replaced.
A little while ago one of the car's power windows stopped working and the service center cleaned the window mechanism. It worked for a while, but then stopped again. I took the car back and they told me it needed replacing at a cost of Bt6,100. This, too, was quite a shock and I thought about the small shop I had visited previously.
At first they weren't sure if they could fix it because normally they only deal with Japanese cars and trucks, not European or American cars. Anyway, they took a look and found they could repair it. Again, they replaced the worn out parts and charged me just Bt500. Another big saving.
Many Thais need to save money and therefore there are a lot of repair shops. I think it's fantastic because not only does it save people money, but recycling, repaiting and re-using has to be better for the environment than simply replacing all the time.
The next time my car develops any kind of electrical problem I will just go straight to this shop and not even bother with the main dealer.
Some stats about Thailand:
Second in the world (after Libya) for road deaths.
Third worst in Asia (after Mongolia and Cambodia) for English proficiency.
As I've made clear today, there are many positive aspects about living in Thailand. However, there are other aspects that desperately need improving if Thailand wants to develop and compete with other countries.
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Scams In Thailand
Friday 6th November 2015
When I first arrived in Thailand I thought that the local markets were the best and cheapest places to buy goods. However, I bought a few items from local markets and found that the quality was very poor. I only had the large holdall that I arrived with and needed a small bag for quick trips around the country. I bought one at a local market and took it on a trip to Nakhon Sri Thammarat.
After one day's use the zip broke. When I returned home I took it back to the shop where I bought it. The woman was completely uninterested and very soon it became only too obvious that she would not exchange it or refund my money. I was furious, but couldn't do anything. I threw the bag on the floor and stormed out of the shop.
As a result of that incident I vowed not to buy from markets any more. I started shopping at department stores. Not only was the quality of the goods a lot better, but the items came with a proper guarantee and the items weren't that expensive. Most of the time, things were around the same price and if the department store had a promotion goods were often cheaper than the markets.
Over time my Thai language skills improved and a combination of speaking Thai and avoiding dodgy market vendors meant that for many years I never had any problems with sneaky Thais trying to scam or cheat me.
Also, over time, I have learned which things are OK to buy at the local markets and which things aren't. If you are careful you can find bargains, and certain items are only available at markets. This is the case with the shoes that I like to wear for everyday use, which aren't sold in department stores. They are cool in the heat, support my feet well, and they are very comfortable to walk in. Also, they don't look too geeky.
Shoes from a small shop at the local market
Yesterday, I went back to the same shop where I had previously bought shoes to buy some more. It was not a good experience. First, they asked what size I wanted. I wasn't sure so took off a shoe to see what size it was. Forty-three.
The guy came back with a pair of shoes and I tried them on, but they were too big. I guessed that they needed adjusting, but even after adjusting them they were still too big. When I looked inside they were size 44. The sales assistant feigned surprise and then went away again to find a pair in size 43. He was gone a long time.
When he returned he was carrying two shoes, but only gave me one. I looked inside and saw that it was a size 43. I tried it on and it felt fine. Next, I asked to try on both shoes. The other shoe felt a bit tight. When I looked inside it was a size 42 and when I mentioned this point he once again feigned great surprise, but obviously he knew what he was trying to do.
He knew that he didn't have what I wanted, but first tried to sell me shoes that were too big and then tried to sell me a pair of shoes that weren't the same size.
I haven't encountered this type of sneakiness for many years and I was quite surprised. Local Thai markets and the many little shops inside are fun to wander around in and you can find some great stuff if you look carefully, but you always need to be wary about being cheated or scammed.
I managed to satisfy my craving for Indian food last night. TOPS supermarket stopped selling Patak's curry sauces a while ago, which means I can no longer make curries at home. I've looked at recipes on-line, but my cooking skills are poor and I know that I would have great difficulty getting many of the ingredients required for Indian food in provincial Thailand.
Hat Yai has four branches of TOPS and they all sell slightly different products. The branch I went to yesterday is one that I seldom visit, however, I was delighted to see that they now stock some ready-made microwaveable Indian curries made by the British Indian Restaurant based in Chiang Mai.
Indian food made and sold in Thailand
The website is unfinished and has very little information, but I would imagine that the company was started by British expats in Thailand and that the intended market is other British expats living in Thailand. Indian food is a staple in Britain and most Brits can't live without their curry fixes. Thais, generally, do not like Indian food at all. They complain that it smells.
I bought some chicken madras, butter chicken and chicken tikka masala. I was hoping that there would be a lamb rogan josh, my favourite, but either they don't make this dish or TOPS doesn't stock it. Last night I tucked into the chicken madras. It was quite a generous portion and they didn't skimp on the chicken.
Obviously, it wasn't as good as a freshly cooked meal in a good Indian restaurant in Bangkok, but I wasn't expecting it to be. The chicken was a little tough and the sauce a little dry and powdery. I prefer it creamier and tangier. The sauce was also quite fiery, despite being labelled on the box as medium spicy. Nonetheless, it hit the spot and considering how few options I have for Indian food it's great that I can now buy Indian food at TOPS.
The chicken madras cost Bt169, and the butter chicken and chicken tikka masala cost Bt179.
One of the better Indian restaurants in Bangkok
There is one Indian restaurant in Hat Yai. This surprises me a little because the vast majority of tourists in town come from Malaysia and not only does Malaysia have a significant Indian population, but Malaysians of other ethnicities also eat Indian food.
The restaurant is owned by an Indian family, but a Thai woman does all the cooking. The menu is very limited, the food isn't great, and the naan bread is just the same as the Muslim roti that is popular in southern Thailand.
I would have loved a big fluffy naan with my curry last night, but the branch of TOPS where I bought the curries didn't have any. However, another branch of TOPS does have frozen naan bread, therefore I will be stocking my freezer up soon.
When I moved to Thailand initially I had no idea how big an issue food would become later on. At first I just ate Thai food (with the exception of breakfast) and I enjoyed it. I'm now sick of it and crave a lot of food from home that I can't find in the deep south of Thailand. This is one of the advantages of living in Bangkok or an area where there are lots of expats, such as Phuket or Pattaya.
My biggest fear now is that the range of British Indian Restaurant curries in TOPS will eventually go the same way as the Patak's Indian sauces. If I am the only customer and they don't sell enough for it to be worth their while, they will stop stocking them.
I really can't understand why Thais object to Indian food so much. Granted, the smell is quite strong, but there are Thai foods that smell far worse to my nose. It may simply be that I am biased as a result of living in the UK and eating lots of Indian food, but in my humble opinion the taste of Indian food is just so much better than Thai food.
Activist raps deadly road safety record
After a WHO survey reported that Thailand has the second most deadly roads in the world after war-torn Libya, it now turns out that the statistics were inaccurate and the number of fatalities was actually under under-reported.
Prommin Kantiya, director of the Accident Prevention Network (APN) was quoted as saying:
"I think Thailand should be number one. "
Some other points he made, which are highly accurate.
"Mr Prommin said that while the road-safety campaign aimed to educate people, law enforcement was the only solution to reducing the death rate."
(Yes, you can educate people as much as you like, but there will always be a sector of Thai society that will continue to race around the roads and the only thing that will stop them is being arrested, fined or imprisoned, and taken off the roads.)
"He also blamed bad motorists, citing a figure that about 73% of road accidents result from driver misconduct, not weather or road conditions."
(Exactly. There are no excuses and most of the time what are described as accidents aren't at all accidental. There is always a cause and most of the time the cause is excessive speed and dangerous driving. I witness it every day.)
Very few road fatalities get reported by the English language press in Thailand. My wife always watches the Thai language news and there are horrendous road crashes every single day, but these don't appear to be of any interest to The Nation or The Bangkok Post .
I moan about niggly things in Thailand, but most of the things I moan about are on about the same irritation level as mosquito bites. There's only one issue that seriously concerns me about living in Thailand and that is the lunacy on Thai roads. I worry every time my wife goes out in her little car, and I worry even more if she has the children with her.
How Thailand simply allows this to happen without taking any action, I don't know. In his address to the nation last week, it was very reassuring to hear Prayut mention that he has started to look at the problem, but it has yet to be seen what measures will be taken and how long those measures will take to have any effect.
We can only wait and hope.
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Social Media Addiction
Thursday 5th November 2015
I heard a new term recently. To 'phub' is to snub someone in favour of a mobile phone. Not a day goes by when I don't see groups of people sitting together phubbing each other. Instead of talking with each other as normal people would do to interact socially, they all stare intently at their mobile phones.
Enjoying a romantic first date
I don't really care how today's younger generation behave, but I find it quite irritating when I return home with my wife and as soon as she is within Wi-Fi range she immediately reaches for Facebook. She never used to play Facebook (I will use the same verb that Thais use to describe this activity because it is quite appropriate), but that all changed after I bought her an iPhone to replace her broken LG phone. It is now a big part of her life.
It's not all bad. My parents are missing out on seeing their grandchildren grow up and I am very bad at keeping in touch and sending photos. When we go out, my wife takes a lot of photos with her phone and uploads them to Facebook when we get home. It's quick and convenient to do so and my Mum appreciates it.
She also keeps in touch with people are good to keep in touch with via Facebook. Again, this is a good thing. I have lost touch with many old friends since I moved to Thailand and now it will be difficult to resume contact.
One of the problems is that it is very addictive and it can be an enormous time waster. It isn't unusual for me to leave the house on an errand and when I return my wife is playing Facebook, while the piles of unironed clothes and dirty dishes are still there. But there are also other problems that are far more serious.
She's been fine for a while now, but in the past she has gone through periods in which she has been intensely dissatisfied with life. She should be very satisfied with her life now compared to her old life. I'm sure this has a lot to do with spending hours on Facebook looking at the 'perfect' lives of other people, which is just a carefully orchestrated image, and feeling dissatisfied with the reality of her own life.
Facebook users don't post photos of themselves illustrating their lives of drudgery. I never see photos of them doing housework or attending to screaming children. It's only ever a carefully edited version of their lives, and they only ever include the parts that they want other people to see.
Occasionally, all I hear from my wife is that she wants to go somewhere. No doubt, there is an element of being fed up at home taking care of the children, but also I think there's a lot of wanting to go someone so that she can make a new Facebook post.
I was interested to read this week about a young Australian girl on the other side of the fence. She was one of those 'social media' personalities who was seen as being 'perfect' and having a 'perfect' life, thus she was followed and envied by many other people.
However, the 'perfect life' that people thought she had was making her very unhappy. She devoted her life trying to keep up the pretense - making herself up, taking lots of photos, spending lots of time editing photos, etc - but as a result she felt empty inside and became addicted to receiving 'Likes' from other people for her posts.
This confirmed the views on social media that I have had for a long time. For a lot of people, especially those with low self-confidence and low self-esteem, I believe it can be quite dangerous psychologically.
Australia Instagram star Essena O'Neill quits 'unhealthy' social media
I see the problem with a lot of young Thais. My wife's niece studies at a school nearby and she often comes to our house after she finishes. As soon as she reaches the house she slumps on the sofa and starts playing with her mobile phone. All of her friends do the same thing.
She stayed at the house one night and I had to go into her bedroom to get something for my daughter. At 10pm she was still playing Facebook. My response was just to kill the Wi-Fi signal.
A friend who works at the local university told me that at least one faculty has had to block Facebook because students were playing Facebook all the time and not studying. Of course, it isn't just a problem in Thailand, but a lot of young Thai females have low self-esteem and I believe that too much Facebook will be dangerous for them. Also, a very high percentage of young Thais play Facebook. I don't know what the figure is, but sometimes it seems as if every Thai above the age of seven has a Facebook account.
My daughter hasn't reached the Facebook stage yet, but it will happen in the not-too-distant future. That will give me another issue that will need to be addressed.
Another problem that tends to afflict Thais possibly more than it affects people from other countries is that the concept of image is very important in Thailand and Thais have a tendency to always present the best image they can. Many, not all, like to show off and they like to try to outdo one another. Social media provides a perfect medium for which to do this.
A friend of one of my Thai friends has lived in London for a long time. She started off as a student, found work, settled down, and now she is a British citizen. Our mutual friend put us in touch and I exchange the occasional e-mail with her.
After my trip to Chiang Rai in 2006 I found that Chalermchai Kositpipat, who founded the beautiful Rong Khun temple in Chiang Rai, worked in London for a while painting the murals in the Thai temple in Wimbledon - Wat Buddhapadipa. I never visited this temple when I lived in the UK and I asked her if she had ever been.
She had visited once, but didn't enjoy it. The reason she gave was that lots of Thai women married to Englishmen who now live in England go to the temple to show off. They wear their finest clothes and jewellery and want other Thai women to know that their British husband is richer than the other women's husbands.
As with all things in life, Buddhism, which advocates the Middle Path, can provide the answer. Unlike me, it isn't necessary to complete abstain from using social media, but if it gets to the point where it is addictive and starts to have an adverse effect on your life, then it is a problem.
Sometimes, little pieces of information in the news interest me. For example, this one:
Motorcycle taxi rates approved
"The cabinet also approved a ministerial order draft on motorcycle taxi rates, at not more than 25 baht for the first two kilometres, 5 baht for each of the next 3-5 kilometres and 10 baht for each of the next 5-15 km. The fares for rides longer than 15km are negotiable or riders and passengers can use the 10 baht/km rate."
In 12 years of living in Thailand, not once has a motorbike taxi driver followed these guidelines. They ask where you want to go and then think of a fare. Foreigners are quoted more, especially if they don't speak Thai. If you don't agree to the inflated fare they aren't interested in taking you for the regular fare and drive off.
The following sign, which states the official rates, appeared downtown some years ago for about a day but was then removed. I took a photo quickly before it disappeared. When I first arrived in Hat Yai at the end of 2003 the standard fare within the downtown area was Bt10. That soon rose to Bt20, then Bt30, and now the starting fare is Bt40 - even if you only want to travel a few hundred yards.
Motorbike taxi fares
At one stage fuel prices were high and they used this fact to justify raising fares. Fuel prices then came down, but fares didn't. No matter how low the tank gets on my wife's bike it is now impossible to spend more than Bt100 to fill it up.
A lot of the drivers are also lazy. They all have a set place where they hang out and whenever I collect my daughter from school I always see the same guys sitting in the same places doing nothing.
Motorbike taxi drivers working hard
Every time I go to Bangkok, without fail, I have horrendous problems with taxi drivers refusing to take me where I want to go. They aren't allowed to do this by law, but they want to pick and choose their fares to get the most money for the least work.
I do have sympathy with a lot of them. With such abysmal driving standards, there can't be any worse job in Thailand than being a professional driver ... well, maybe an English teacher. Fares are low and they need to get a lot of fares just to cover their costs.
However, by refusing to follow regulations and by turning down so many fares they really don't help themselves.
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Do You Think Too Much?
Tuesday 3rd November 2015
The corporate motto of the company I worked at for 19 years consisted of just one word: 'Think'.
Western culture encourages us all to think long and hard about everything. If you are a Westerner reading this you will probably see nothing wrong with this approach. After all, it isn't possible to think too much, is it?
After I came to live in Thailand I found that the local culture was very different. There were times, when I was obviously sitting with a furrowed brow deep in thought about something, that Thais would tell me not to think too much - "Yaa kit maak. " What's going on?
Many of the cultural differences that you read about in guide books are superficial and irrelevant, but once you start digging deeper into cultural behaviour between East and West the differences are huge and very significant. There is a completely different way of thinking in Eastern and Western cultures and this can be a real challenge when the cultures clash, whether it is in a marriage or in a business arrangement.
Most Thais, with exceptions of course, are appalling Buddhists. There is a lot of selfish merit-making and performing of standardised rituals at temples, but very little adherence to the teachings of the Buddha. For example, I have never seen so much craving, grasping, clinging and desire for money and material objects as I have seen in Thailand.
Craving and desire make a man desperate forevermore
Nonetheless, a lot of cultural behaviour can be traced back to Buddhist thinking even if the original meaning has been lost or misinterpreted. Here are a couple of quotes about thinking from books I have about Buddhism. What does Buddhism say about thinking?
Firstly, from Danai Chanchaochai's 'Dhamma Moments'.
"It (attentiveness and mindfulness) also keeps us focused on the present. And if we are focused on this moment, we won't be dwelling on the past. We won't be in the land of guilt, regret and revenge. Nor will we be thinking pointlessly about the future - a land of uncertainty. The present moment, with all its potential for beauty and opportunity, is a much better place to dwell, and the only place we can ever really BE."
I can certainly see this way of thinking with many Thais, but not only do I see Thais not thinking pointlessly about the future, I don't see many of them thinking about the future at all.
When Thais drive fast and recklessly, do they think about what the possible consequences of their actions? No. When my wife's friend placed a red-hot frying pan on our kitchen counter and scorched it, was she thinking about what might happen? No. When poor Thais buy expensive items on credit, do they think about paying future installments? No. When a monk throws water at a foreigner holding a camera taking photographs, does he think that he might damage the camera? No.
I think that the basic message in the quote is excellent, but it doesn't tell people simply to stop thinking. Dwelling on the past or thinking pointlessly about the future is of no use, but we still need to think about the consequences of our actions.
One of the great things about living in Thailand is being able to go for cheap massages and in recent weeks I have been for a couple of Bt200 foot massages at times when I needed to chill out and relax. The massages were great, but while the girl was working on my feet I found myself sitting there thinking about all sorts of things in my life and almost forgetting what was going on at the time. I had the same problem when I went to a local meditation centre to meditate. My mind wouldn't stop.
We only ever experience life in the present and if we spend our time dwelling about the past or thinking pointlessly about the future we can miss out on the present.
The second point is about analysis and over-analysing. This is something that I think many Westerners are guilty of, myself included, and it's not always a good thing. It's an example of thinking too much, which is a major sin in Thailand.
In 1982 I didn't have a worry in the world and set off with my best mate for a few days in Amsterdam. I had just finished four years of tertiary education and had a job lined up in the oilfield services sector which I hoped would provide me with lots of money and travel. The economy was great, the world in general had no problems with the Muslim world, and life seemed full of opportunity. They were carefree days.
We found a small bar in the centre of Amsterdam and played pool while getting drunk on Dutch beer and listening to the Rolling Stones at high volume. I really enjoyed the music and didn't think about it at all.
Recently, I was wandering around a local market and saw some CDs. I wanted some music for the car and one of the CDs I chose was a compilation of Rolling Stones tracks. However, while listening to the CD I found myself not so much enjoying the music as I used to but analysing each track.
How did Charlie Watts' drum fills compare to Ringo Starr's? Was Watts really such a great drummer? How much creativity was lost after Brian Jones's death and his innovative instrument playing? We all know Keith Richards the character, but what about Keith Richards the guitarist?
This habit seems to get worse as we get older. Instead of simply enjoying things, we analyse the hell out of everything and in the process can actually stop enjoying things. What does Buddhism say about this? Here's something from a book called 'What did the Buddha teach?, which is a summary of some of the discourses delivered by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, probably the most famous ever Thai monk.
"When seeing a visual object, just see it; when smelling an odour with the nose, just smell it; when experiencing a tactile sensation by way of the general skin and body sense, just experience that sensation; and when a mental object such as some defiling thought arises in the mind, just know it, know the defiling mental object."
These things should not be ignored or denied, but neither should they be analysed and added to. Has the following ever happened to you?
Someone you know, possibly a work colleague, appears to ignore you. Instead of just noting this behaviour and getting on with life, you worry and analyse in an effort to try to figure out what it was that you did wrong to offend the person. You worry and analyse so much that you can't concentrate on anything else because you have exhausted your mental energy.
Later on, you see the same person again. There is nothing wrong and it transpires that the person simply didn't see you earlier. A whole day has been wasted over nothing.
This has to do with the Buddhist notion of not letting the 'self' idea to arise. In the grand scheme of things we are all completely insignificant, therefore spending mental energy on how external factors affect us personally isn't important and it will lead to suffering.
It's quite a complicated subject and some people devote their entire lives to learning about Buddhism. I have simply taken a few of the teachings and have tried to use them in my own life. I would never be so arrogant as to believe that my way of thinking was superior to anyone else's, but by accepting other ideas I think we can often improve our own lives.
One of the main problems I have had with Buddhism is the cryptic way in which books about Buddhism are written. A lot of the information is vague and open to interpretation. The two books I have referred to are quite good in this respect.
'Dhamma Moments' is about learning to incorporate Buddhist thing in everyday life and is written in an easy style. 'What Did The Buddha Teach?' is a guide to help devotees of Buddhism to answer questions that non-devotees might ask.
As I mentioned recently, I have avoided travelling in minivans in Thailand for many years. There are many lunatic drivers on Thai roads and minivan drivers are probably the biggest culprits. Even while driving myself I am very wary of vans and give them a wide berth. In addition to driving at high speed, most of the drivers are very aggressive towards other road users. Fatal accidents involving vans aren't uncommon. Here's the latest:
4 dead 7 hurt in public minivan wreck
On some routes, unfortunately, a minivan is the only option if you don't have your own vehicle. On other routes there are alternative options, such as big buses. Big buses aren't always driven safely in Thailand either, but generally I have always felt safer on big buses compared to being a passenger in a van.
Drivers on some routes also overload the vans to increase profits. This happens a lot on vans going between Hat Yai and Songkhla. Vans normally have 14 seats and many years ago I was travelling from Hat Yai to Songkhla on a van that was already full. The driver kept stopping to pick up more passengers and kept telling the passengers on board to squeeze together to make more room.
When he stopped to pick up the 19th passenger I had words with him. He didn't know how to react because Thai passengers never say anything and the drivers are never usually criticised for their behaviour.
The red mist descended and he became furious. First he wanted to fight me, then he ordered me off the van, and then he drove like a maniac to teach me a lesson. His driving became so erratic that even the Thai passengers started to complain.
Overloading vans with passengers puts a strain on the brakes, suspension and other components. Vans in Thailand are normally converted to run on LPG in order to save money. Additional LPG tanks are installed to increase the driving range and this puts an additional strain on the vehicles.
I have even seen minivans belonging to schools with young students on board being driven in the same way. If the Thai government is serious about improving safety on Thailand's roads, the first thing they could do is to organise a strict review of minivan safety in the country.
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Blog entries 11th to 26th November 2015
