I saw something quite unusual in Bangkok the other day. I was visiting K-Village, the new upscale boutique shopping center located on Sukhumvit Soi 26. Walking across the street, I came across a group of Thai people sitting on a large bamboo mat at the busy street corner - just in from of the pedestrian Carrefour Superstore - eating their dinner. They had just purchased their food from a nearby mobile food vendor.

Actually, sitting down and eating on a bamboo mat is the traditional way of eating a meal in Thai Culture - it is just that I had never seen Thai people in Bangkok doing it outside on the street before. I guess you learn or observe something new every day about the customs and culture of a country when you are a traveler.

Thailand is definitely one of my favorite places - there are so many fascinating places to visit and the people are very friendly. After all they don’t call Thailand “ the Land of Smiles” for nothing. I don’t mean to make any broad sweeping generalizations but one thing that I find kind of disturbing is Thai people’s nonchalant “sometimes negligent” attitude towards public safety.

To give you an idea what I mean, on my recent most recent trip to Thailand, I stayed in Banilah, a small budget boutique hotel in Chiang Mai. There was a very narrow walkway to the rooms, and lying across the walkway was a rubber water hose that they were using to water the plants. This was a very dangerous situation as someone who is walking to their rooms (especially at night) could easily trip over the hose and have an accident. At the very least, you would think that the hotel management would have put up a yellow caution cone – as they do in the USA - to warn their guests.

This reminded me a situation, which I observed in Koh Chang a number of years ago, where a water pipe was laid across the middle of the long driveway to my bungalow hotel. At night, unless you had a flashlight, one could easily trip over the hose and fall down. I brought this up with the management, and they gave me a look of indifference and nothing was done about this hazard (even when I returned one year later). Well, two years later, the damn hose was finally removed – I guess one of their customers had an accident.

A 3rd incident was indeed even more disturbing. This past December as I was walking through Suvarnabhumi, the very sophisticated International airport near Bangkok, I noticed an electrical cord lying across the middle of the floor. There wasn’t any caution or warning sign or anything, but somebody who wasn’t looking straight ahead while walking could easily trip.

I am guessing that the prevailing attitude of nonchalance towards public safety in Thai Culture is rationalized follows - if you see broken glass or a puddle of water on the floor, just step over or walk around it. No big deal!

Now I realize that I maybe reading more into this than I should, as I have spent so much time in Thailand over the last 9 years – it could be that these situations present themselves in other countries in the same frequency as they do in Thailand, but I am just unaware of it.

After flying to Pitsanulok from Bangkok, I boarded a bus about 8:00AM to Uttaradit, a small, rather nondescript but pleasant city of about 75,000 people located in Northern Thailand. The bus ride, which would take approximately 2 hours started out very inauspiciously when the bus driver turned on the sound system full blast. The music was absolutely deafening and immediately this bus ride starting was turning into a real nightmare.

Rather than submitting to this early morning torture, I decided to take action. Since most of the passengers probably didn’t understand English, I pleaded with them (I was the only foreigner on the bus) to tell the bus driver to turn down the volume by using my hands – I made a circling motion with my right index finger in front my ear, then covered both ears with my hands, simultaneously uttering “Mai chorp, Mai chorp” (means I do not like).

I knew the other passengers understood me but all they did was make strange faces at me and smiled as if they were saying “You stupid Farang, you’re in our country now and we are not going take any action because it is not our custom, so you’re going to have to suffer.”

As the Thai passengers were not going to be cooperative, I decided to execute Plan B. Whipping out my cell phone, I called Khun Moongmink, my good friend in Bangkok, and I explained to her in English, my problem with the loud music.

Walking towards the front of the bus, I then handed my cell phone to the bus driver so Khun Moongmink could voice my displeasure to him. After talking with her for about 1 minute, lo and behold, the bus driver turned the music off. I smiled to myself, very content with my ability to be assertive.

About 5 minutes later, I looked behind me to find that some of the Thai passengers who were making faces and laughing at me before were now dozing off.

LESSON LEARNED - In Western Culture (or at least in America) we are very assertive and will protest or complain if something is not right and take action if need be while in Asian culture (at least in Thai culture), people have a tendency to be somewhat passive and considerably less assertive; I guess you could say, they just go with the flow! Viva la Difference!

I met Mah Jong and his colleague, Kah Ching at Phu Lang Ka Resort in rural Northern Thailand. They are somewhat typical of dogs of the rural area – average height with short yellow hair and a somewhat stocky build. To be honest with you, the typical Thai dog is somewhat drab in appearance.

Traveling throughout Thailand, I have seen so many look-alikes among the dogs in the countryside – one wonders if they are all related as Thai people don’t believe in getting their dogs fixed and the females have such large litters. As pets, the stereotypical Thai mutt do not cost more than 1 baht – in other words they are free for the asking.

Mah Jong and Kah Ching are not pets of Kevan, the owner of Phu Lang Ka or any of this employees – these Thai pooches belong to some of Kevan’s neighbors. During the height of the tourist seasons which last from November – February, they can be seen hanging around Phu Lang Ka Lodge for most of the day, going from table to table looking for food, eating the many leftovers from the guest’s meals.

Unlike Jah Thep (Kevan’s dog) who is a very civilized, sweet and obedient dog, these mutts are professional freeloaders or moochers. Mah Jong and his cohort do not provide any valuable service to the owner such as extra security i.e.watch dogs nor do they really mingle with the guests like Jah Thep. You’d think that these dogs would at least bark when a stranger approaches – not these mutts!

And when the season is over and the food supply dries up, these pooches disappear and go elsewhere

To be honest with you, I have never seen a better-fed doggie than Mah Jong. On my first night at there, I saw him down the leftovers from a large grilled fish, Thai soup, rice and greens from one table, then he went to another table to devour some more leftovers.

Depending upon how you look at it, I guess Mah Jong and Kah Ching can be considered professional recyclers or seasonal busboys.

I really enjoyed myself in NAN, a relatively small and obscure city in Northern Thailand that few travelers have heard of. All my touring was taken care of by Fhu Travel, the most experienced tour operator in the city. Because of the scarcity of tourists in the area, I was the only participant on my two all-day excursions. Fhu Travel assigned a dedicated tour guide and driver to handle all the touring arrangements for me. Over the course of the next two days, I spent most of my time with these two gentleman who were born and raised in the area and had an opportunity to learn more about their lives. Nong, the tour guide, was a rather husky young fellow of about 25 years old who had fairly good command of the English language. Before working as a tour guide, he labored in the rice fields. He was married but his wife (and his young daughter) lived in Chiang Mai - about 5 hours away by car - where she worked as a teacher. Chaat, the driver, was a fellow in his late 30’s; like Nong, he was also married but his wife lived with him in Nan. While I was with them, both Nong and Chaat were always smiling and laughing as we often chatted about TIGERS (Thai girls).

When they talked among themselves, they spoke in their native Lanna which is somewhat different than Thai, the predominant language in Thailand. Lanna is considerably more nasal than Thai and some of the words are completely different. During my two days of touring, I sort of developed a friendship with these two gentlemen and I really enjoyed their company during the short time that we were together. When Nong talked to me, he always addressed me as Sir – I guess out of habit and respect - and I always retorted that I didn’t like to be called Sir, and pleaded with him to call me by my first name or any one of the many pet names I go by.

When we talked about TIGERS (Thai girls), both guys would become very animated, especially Chaat. Smiling and laughing, Chaat would say, “THAIgers very dangerous, eat money.” I guess this was a pet expression of his as whenever we passed by a young and attractive Thai girl, he would repeat his mantra with a big silly grin on his face “Thaigers very dangerous, eat money.” We all laughed and chuckled. Agreeing with Chaat, “I added Thaigers are very dangerous, but Farang gals more dangerous (and more expensive) yet.”

At the end of the 2nd day of touring, I told Nong and Chaat, since it was my last night in Nan before moving onto Phu Lang Ka, that I would take them out for a drink at the Dhevaraj, the most prestigious hotel in the town. Chaat was especially excited about meeting Nancy, the young and attractive female singer who was performing at the hotel’s nightclub. Later that night both gentlemen showed up at my guesthouse on their motorbikes and we proceeded to the Dhevaraj. On the way, Nong confided to me that neither himself nor Chaat - both men had been born and raised in Nan - had ever been to the Dhevaraj nightclub before, let alone inside the hotel. When I asked why, Nong replied, “We have never been there before Hanu, because we are not of the higher class.” He was alluding to the primarily Chinese Thai patrons of the Dhevaraj who were from Chiang Mai and Bangkok. “Nonsense I said, you’re the equal to any of these people, don’t put yourself down.” I guess my words, made them feel less self-conscious about themselves as we went inside the lounge, shared two large Changs (Thai beers) as we proceeded to enjoy the Thai cabaret show that featured Nancy and a number of other singers.

From this experience, I guess you could say I learned something about class-consciousness among Thai people. Anyhow next time I go to NAN, I will look up Nong and Chaat again and take them out for another round of drinks at the Dhevaraj. Hopefully, Nancy (and some other ThAIgers) will be there to join us!

By all means, check out my initial report on Nan!

As a little child, I remember going to the historic Wax Museum in San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. I was really stoked how lifelike these wax figures of famous people looked, it seemed like some of them were going to say something or move. I also remember going to the cinema to see the horror classic House of Wax starring Vincent Price. In the movie, the museum had on display some of the most heinous villains in history. These indelible memories of my childhood were triggered when I visited this past November The Hall of Fame, Thailand’s version of the Wax Museum, at the Siam Cultural Park in Ratchaburi Province. Talk about déjà vu!

In this particular Wax Museum, the emphasis was on Thai and Asian heroes from the last 100 years or so. I got the opportunity to “meet” famous people like H.E. Professor Dr. Sanya Dhammask, Thailand’s greatest lawyer, who died in January 2002 at 95 years, in addition to the legendary Ho Chi Minh from Vietnam and China’s Mao Tse Tung, founder of China’s Communist Party. The personage that I was most impressed with was Seb Nakhasathine - one of Thailand’s foremost conservationists - who died tragically by taking his own life in 1990 at the relatively young age of 41 years old. His suicide was a result of his growing disenchantment with man’s negative impact on the environment and the wildlife that he loved so much. Somehow Mother Teresa snuck into the “the mix”, but she was a true heroine in Asia as well – to many poor, disenfranchised people in the world (especially in India), Mother Teresa was considered as an guardian angel. She’s the only non-Asian represented in the exhibit, where she’s portrayed in a praying posture - looks so real!

The Siam Cultural Park was such a pleasant place to visit on lazy Sunday afternoon. Besides the Wax Museum Exhibit, there are some very ornate Buddha sculptures from three different time periods, and representative models of Thai Houses from the four regions of Thailand. There is even an artificial waterfall – very well done, I may add. A nice little walking path encircles the park; along the way there some lovely shaded areas where one can relax and meditate. Highly recommended! I will return there on my next trip to Bangkok.

The park is about a 1 1/2 – 2 hour drive from Bangkok. While you’re at it, you can also stop by and visit nearby Udom’s Plant Nursery as well!