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..Thailand..

– The King is worshiped. Everyday at 8am and 6pm the King’s song is played. You must stand up, be still and pay respect to the King. You can get in trouble if you are moving around during his song, we learned this day 1 at the bus station. The King does not have official power over the government but more so is a person of influence in decision making. He is the longest ruling King. You’ll most likely find at least 1 picture of him hanging up everywhere you go.
 
– Thailand is 95% Buddhist, 4% Muslim, and 1% Christian

– The Thai language is very tricky. There can be 1 word that can mean 3 totally different things. Soye means beautiful but soy means bad. I learned this after thinking I was telling kids they were beautiful but for them to only walk away.

-Do not walk thru people, instead walk around even if that means going out of the way to get around them. If you must walk thru people then you bend down, smile & put your hands together in a ‘Y’

– Outside every Buddhist house or place of business is a Spirit House. The more money you make the bigger your Spirit House is. When moving to a new house instead of taking your Spirit House with you or throwing it away you must put it in a ‘burial garden’. Buddhists believe that if you throw it away that you will have bad luck and something will happen to your new house.

– Feet are seen as dirty. You must take off your shoes when entering a house & some public places. Feet position when you are sitting is very important. It is very offensive to sit with your feet pointing at anyone else, so we sat ‘indian style’ majority of time, which gets very very uncomfortable.  My feet are numb alll the time.  Never walk over anything of importance (another person, Bible, food, books, pillows). Mouths are seen as the second dirtiest part of the body.

– The left hand is also seen as unclean (poop hand) so never hand anything with your left hand, especially money.

– The head is the most sacred part of the body. Never touch anyones head or hair (this made Duck Duck Goose difficult at the schools)

– It is rare to find a ‘western toilet’ anywhere in public. Instead they use ‘squaty potties’, which is basically a toilet bowl on the floor with two places for your feet to stand on. They also do not have flushers so you take a bowl of water & throw it down the toilet, sometimes multiple times. Thai people don’t use toilet paper, so always bring your own, but if you forget there is usually a ‘sprayer’ that can do the job…

– The white lines in the road are sometimes suggestive but decorative for the most part. Want to drive down the wrong side of the road? No problem. Want to leave your car in the middle of the road while you run into the store? No problem. Leave your car in the middle of the road on the opposite side even better.

– There’s always room for one more on a moped. Helmets not required unless you’re white.

– Rice is served with every meal of the day. In fact, they say ‘eat rice’ instead of ‘eat lunch’. Think that chicken wings, french fries & rice can’t be served for breakfast? Wrong. Eggs are also eaten for lunch and dinner. Want an egg for breakfast? Now that’s silly.

– Tan skin is unattractive in Thailand. People bleach their skin. In fact it’s hard to find face lotion without whiting extracts and good luck finding tan makeup. My pale winter skin has been called beautiful more times than I can remember. I tried to sit in the sun during a soccer game and right away I was told by an older woman, who was covered head to toe to avoid the sun, how concerned she was with where I had chosen to sit.

 

I plan on writing a blog about the culture/random facts in each country that I’m in. I meant to get this one out earlier but with such a busy month I didnt have time to copy it out of my journal until now. Hope you’ve enjoyed it!