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Published: March 27th 2015
500 baht
10 chicken fried rice :)I've seen a couple lists that people have made regarding the things they grew accustomed to, noticed, or learned while in Thailand. Here, I give a couple points on things that I've learned, noticed, and grown accustomed to as well. I'm sure I could think of more if I really tried, but for right now, this is all I got.
1. Food stalls/market foot is way better than any restaurant.
Most street stalls will have super cheap, quick little snack foods like meat on a stick, kabobs, dumplings, or fruit. But some food stalls will serve sit-down meals like noodle bowls, phad thai, and other Thai dishes that you will never find in a restaurant. Also, they’re much cheaper and each stall is different since each person makes their food a little different than the others.
2. Understanding the Baht.
First and foremost, understanding the baht means comparing the price of something to how much food that could buy. For example, say something costs 500 baht, I would think that’s really expensive because for 500 baht I could buy ten chicken fried rice from Main Dish. But then again, becoming accustomed to the price of the baht
Image of the king
At the intersection coming into Salaya means understanding that 500 for a pair of converse is actually a really good price. It also means not comparing the price of the baht to the price of the dollar. Since 500 baht is about $15, you might think, “that’s a super good price for a pair of converse!” But if you keep buying things just because they’re cheaper than they would be back home, you’re going to go through your money really quick. Because looking at a pair of converse for 1200 baht, about $35, is still pretty damn cheap, but that’s a lot of baht, and a lot of chicken fried rice, and you could probably find another pair of converse for cheaper elsewhere. Spending over or near 1000 baht in one shopping day is a stressful, even though that’s not even $30.
3. Taxi drivers are not cold hearted.
In Thai, having a cold heart is actually a good thing, the relative English saying would be having a cool head. It means not getting worked up over the little things, which taxi drivers are prone to doing, especially if there’s traffic! Any little pause in their 100km/hr cruise makes them bust an artery. They
Shrine to the King
At the President's Office building on campus don’t make as much money in a stand-still as they do when moving and their reaction to getting caught in traffic is like telling them to wait on hold for another two hours. There’s a lot of heavy sighing, some mumbling, maybe even cursing in Thai, head shaking, arm flailing, honking, swerving, and all sorts of behavior that one would not describe as being cold hearted/cool headed.
4. Thai drivers are nuts.
Everyone pulls out in front of someone else, backs out of a parking spot in front of another car, runs stop signs or red lights, or changes lanes pushing another car into the shoulder, and yet the only time I hear a taxi driver honking is when another car is going too slow, or breaks suddenly. I'm going to be such a more lenient driver towards ass-holes on the roads when I get back. At least for a while.
5. Hearing Thai.
When I first got here, hearing Thai spoken everywhere was kind of isolating. I never knew what was going on around me, if someone was talking to me or about me. I didn’t know what they wanted, and trying to ask for
something in English was stressful because a lot of the time they didn’t speak English. Now, I’m so used to it I don’t even notice anymore. When someone says something to me in Thai, I politely inform them that I do not speak Thai, and that’s okay. It doesn’t bother me or embarrass me like it used to. It’s just how it is here, and we try to figure it out how to communicate by other means, or if it wasn’t important, just let it go.
6. The Kings Image.
Pictures of the king are everywhere. Every major intersection, billboards, sides of buildings, shrines, calendars, and they're all the same three or four images. There are about three pictures of the king that circulate, and those are the only three you'll see. All of the photos are from the 80s or 90s though when the King was at his peak, he's now very ill and in and out of the hospital.
7. Mystery meat is abound!
Whether its fish balls, pork balls, hot dogs, or chicken breasts, whatever they call it, it all tastes like sausage and has the texture of rubber.
8. Constantly dealing
with foggy glasses.
One unfortunate moment was when I had to ask a taxi driver to stop for me at the 7/11 because I only had a 1000 baht on me and he didn’t have the change to break it. So he stopped at the end of the street and when I got out of the car my glasses immediately fogged up, and I had no idea where I was going. I passed the 7/11 before my glasses got back to normal, and had to go back. The arctic temperatures of classrooms and taxis make it impossible to see when stepping out into the sauna of Thailand, in glasses.
9. Spicy schmicy.
My tolerance to spice has increased ten fold since I’ve been here. The green curry used to take me an hour and thirty minutes and an entire box of tissues to get through. Now I can eat that shit in 20 and use maybe three tissues 😊
10. Speaking of tissues…
Everything is a tissue. Toilet paper is called tissue, tissues are tissues, paper towels are tissues, and napkins are not just called tissues, they are tissues. They’re just about worthless and you
have to go through nine of them every meal, when one regular napkin would have sufficed.
11. Being a sardine.
Thai’s have perfected the art of being a sardine. This might be the case in any big city, but the trains and subways get so full, you end up squished in a corner with your elbow out as your only protection from being lost and becoming permanently a part of the wall. On the shuttle to and from class, no isle between seats in untouched. We can fit ten more people in this bitch, pile in!
12. Rickety Bridges.
I have mastered walking across rickety bridges. Whether you’re crossing the bridge to a boat, a dock, or simply across the street, rotting boards that bend when you step on them or 2-4s that wobble and creak, are just another part of Thai life. And so far, they haven’t broken. (except for that one time.... but that was a legit hole in the bridge, it was there before i stepped in it)
13. Green curry.
It’s a wonderful laxative. We’ll just leave that there….
14. Cutting in line.
Unless you’re at the grocery
Fresh fruit is the shit!
The pineapple here is sweeter than I've ever tasted store, lines do not exist. When so many people are trying to get to the same place, either you cut in line, or you get cut. And no one seems to care.
15. Straws come with every water bottle.
If you buy a water bottle at 7/11 you get a straw, even if it’s the huge 1.5L bottles. On that topic, I used to carry around the little water bottles with me everywhere thinking that the big bottles were too much to carry. Nope. I don’t know when the transition happened, but now I carry the 1.5L water bottles around with me every day and drink about 3-4 of them daily.
16. Seeing people in facemasks.
And I’m not talking about the green medical masks, I mean like scarves and pillowcases with eyeholes cut out of them. Usually construction workers or workers in high traffic areas where the pollution is high wear these.
17. Squating toilets and bum squirters.
A raised hole in the ground with placements for your feet. Took me a good while to figure out that you need to face the wall in order for pee not to splatter everywhere. TMI?
How bout this. Use a water sprayer on your bum when there's no toilet paper so your still wet, but at least not wet with pee. Ah, to be Thai.
18. Dogs rule the streets
Just the other day a car slammed on its breaks, tires skidded and I thought I was about to watch a dog get killed, but it stopped millimeters in front of it. That dog just meandered out of the way and looked back at it like it affronted him. Dogs.
29. Umbrellas aren't just for the rain
Sun protection is a big deal in the country where everyone wants stark white, see-through skin. Rain or shine, the umbrellas come out.
20. Large isn't a large. Most the time.
Just because it says large and back home I wear a small or medium, doesn't mean it will fit.
21. Band-Aids are called plasters - Just learned this one today 😊
Oh Thailand. I'm so used to everything here now. Things that used to shock me, make me realize I was in a foreign country, make me uncomfortable or confused or embarrassed, all that is gone now.
Traffic Jam
We were stopped right at the front of this accident and our driver (after much heavy sighing and cursing) got out of the car to see why we couldn't go through Everything here is Thailand and I love it! I'm so glad I'm not going home yet. I have just gotten used to the way things work around here, I don't even notice the little things anymore, and I know how to get around, I know the important words and phrases, and I have traveled around Bangkok all by myself. I know where things are located in the local shopping center, I know where to go when I need something. I'm so happy that I get another three weeks to flex my skills and travel around, knowing what to do and knowing that I can do it. It's so strange knowing that in a few weeks I'm going to be leaving this place, and at least for many years, never coming back. Thailand is my home now, and I'm about to leave it behind...
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