Remembering Things Thai (9-8)

Remembering things Thai: an incomplete list in no particular order

Beautiful Thai silk and cotton

Foods: 

som tom/papaya salad—normal, sweet and with balah, 

pad Thai, 

grilled chicken, gang keow wan/green curry, sticky rice, salted fish, noodle soup, 

mok naw mai/bamboo steamed in banana leaf, 

foods wrapped in banana leaves, 

blah toom, 













duck noodle soup

bamboo soup

Eating leaves and herbs; cooking with leaves

The funny way papayas grow on the trees.

Spirit houses at houses and special, old trees

Beautiful rice fields

Wearing white clothes to the wat

People chanting/praying at the wat every day for 2.5 hours during the three-month rainy season

Sleeping at the wat on Buddha days during the rainy season

Inflated plastic bags for everything. Thais are great at spinning them around so they are inflated.

Special way rubber bands are used to seal plastic bags

Taking your own towel when visiting friends

Eating with a spoon, with a fork to assist 

Fresh coconut juice in the coconut

No top sheets. Using a blanket instead.

Condensed milk—in cold tea, in shakes, as a dip for fried dough

Flattening the back of shoes so they slip off and on easily

National anthem at 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM. All stand.

Phone calls before 6:00 AM

Colorful shirts often with cute characters

Memorizing speeches for the impromptu speech contest

Bucket showers

Sinks that drain onto the floor

The Thai years. It is now 2557.

Old calendars hanging on walls because they have the king’s picture

Clocks that have stopped but no one changes the batteries

Dogs lying in the middle of the road and barely moving away when cars come

Cars double parked

Feet: don’t point towards the Buddha, monks, other people