Thailand Travel Blog
The Land of Smiles
Introduction to Thailand
It’s very true to say I fell in love with Thailand from the first time I visited. I was a naive 21 year old just escaped Australia to discover the world. I was living in Butterworth Malaysia while serving in the Royal Australian Air Force. I was an armament fitter at the time.
I had only been in Malaysia for a few weeks when some friends invited me to travel with them to Thailand. I thought why not and happily planned the trip with them. We head up to one of the border towns about an hour and a half from the airbase in Malaysia. I was already quite negative about Malaysia in this short time as beautiful place as it is there were aspects that already rubbed me the wrong way and I was looking for something else. The culture and the third class citizen exemption stamped in my passport had immediately rubbed me the wrong way. (Read More here!)
My First Impressions Of Thailand
I was very excited to be making my first to Thailand. The Land of Smiles was not going to disappoint with the pleasant and happy people. A stark contrast to my initial impressions of Malaysia. I really knew nothing of the country to our north I was heading to visit. Thailand was previously known as SIAM and has about a 1200 year history with Chinese moving south to Laos then into Thailand.
Traveling through he early morning forests of rubber trees and green country side, workers were out collecting the valuable white latex collected in small containers on the side of the trees. They would scrape the bark and the tree would leak latex down the track into the container.
We were shaken around in the car by the swerving and horn blowing taxi drivers attempts to get us to our destination. Driving I found in Malaysia to be quite aggressive and regular use of the horn was annoying. It is part of the travel experience.
We arrived at the border post and had our passports stamped out of Malaysia then we jumped into what looked like an old FJ Holden powered by a smoky diesel engine with apparently no brakes! We grabbed our bags and jumped in because 21 year old’s are invincible as we all know they are scared of nothing.
We arrived at the Thailand border post some 500 meters away from the Malaysian post. Something of a no mans land between the two. It was now I noticed there were armed machine gun nests above us on many points back on the Malaysian border and at the Thai border point. I was somewhat taken back because I didn’t know what they were needed for. I was to find out more latter. (Learn more here.)
Our passports stamped successfully so we headed into one of the local hotels and checked in. It was about a 2 1/2 star hotel on current standards but this is where my friends called home when they traveled there. There were bars close by as well as food stands and that’s all a 21 year old needs for a weekend away eh!
Discovering Thai People.
The first thing that struck me when walking around the streets was that everyone actually looked pretty happy. There were smiles on the kids faces which is always a good sign. The Thai adults all looked happy and smiled at these stranger as they walked around their quaint little town. We had some even saying hello in English. The kids were cute and they all thought our names were John. There catch cry was “Hello John”.
The streets of Betong were narrow and a small creek ran through the middle of the town. This led to the shopping area as well as the markets as I remember. The markets had a strong smell of chili paste which was in large red colored mounds of chilli past on platters. There were apparently many varieties as they were different colors and smells. The chili past was often made with a fish sauce called Par Lar in Thai. This the Thai people cant do without!
Its pretty strong smelling and its often made locally so you will see beds of small fish on bamboo beds drying in the sun. I have never been a fish fan so that makes it worse for me personally. But this is one of the smells of Thailand and you just have to accept it.
The Thai Language a Melodic Song
The Thai language sounded so beautiful. I listened to people chatting away around me and it was soft and sweet to listen to. The language intrigued me straight away and I felt I had to make the effort to learn it. It was really like a song with a smile permanently attached to it.
It was to take me some time to learn enough of the language to be mildly chatty. Ordering food and drinks came quickly and starting to chat with people took some more time. I spent every moment during the week nights between other activities writing and reading from the first Thai Language conversation book.
Thai Dialects – A challenge for the Beginner
If your familiar with Chinese at all you would know that Mandarin is the main language and then there is Cantonese and many other dialects. Thailand is the same in many ways. If you purchase a Thai Language Book you will be learning the central Thai language and the basis for the written Language.
In my early travels which were in the Southern region of Thailand because the language book I was trying to learn from had different words from what I was trying to say and listen to. I was ignorant at this time about the dialects but I adapted quickly without thinking about it to much. Probably a good thing.
I progressed reasonably and in a few months I had enough ammunition’s to get into trouble but remained out of the firing line but had a lot of funny moments when I miss pronounced words. Like the movies when an actor tries to speak Chinese and says something totally incomprehensible or totally wrong is the same in Thai.
The language is tonal, which is very different to English where a change in pitch or volume as well as speed lends itself to an emotional touch to the language, Thai’s words change to something totally different with a change in tone. There are five tones. They are a neutral tone, rising tone, falling tone and a high tone. You can see where this gets complicated and embarrassing sometimes when you get it wrong.!
When you get Thai Very Very WRONG!
Let me share you an embarrassing moment I had some years latter in a shop in Saudi Arabia that shows just how easy it is to put your foot in your mouth. Even with the smallest of mispronunciation can have dire consequences and a lot of your embarrassment. I was with my wife in a clothes store which was operated by Thai nationals. We were discussing the weather in Australia. We were talking about snow and telling them that where we lived in Adelaide, we didn’t get snow generally.
I intended to say: “Te bahn low mai me E! Ma! tow arai”–
” At our home we don’t get much SNOW very much!
What I actually said was : “Te Bahn low mai me HE MAR tow arai!” Subtle but Important. What I actually said: At our home we don’t get DOGS VIRGINAS very much!
To my amazement they all started to grinning and tried very hard to be polite to the FALUNG (Westerner) who had just said something absolutely ridiculous! They failed of course and who could blame them. They laughed their hearts out before explaining what I had gotten so wrong!
Yes that was a pretty funny incident and even 20 plus years latter my wife will still brings it up now and again. Bless her little Thai heart. More on the Thai Language Latter I promise!
Thailand Street Food – Don’t Be Afraid!
Thai food is amazing with its amazing watering flavors in every mouthful. Thai food, that is real Thai food is nothing like you get in your local Thai Restaurant in New York, London or Sydney. No! It’s very far from that in the village level but its what we are taught is Thai food. Really that’s ok too. The most common foods we all know and love like Tom Yum Soup most popular with Prawns but Chicken is also popular with us non seafood people. Yes I know its blasphemy but that’s life.
The Thai Market food and street for you can encounter in any Thailand town is amazing and so cheap. A plate is often 40-50 baht or $2.50 Aud for a plate that would cost you many multiples more in your local restaurant. Please don’t be afraid to eat local. If its cooked in front of you I would say your always going to be just amazed with the flavors and the textures of the amazing food. We will look at food more in another post.
Thank you for coming to my blog and If you want to learn more about the places I have lived please return as I grow the blog with more fun and possibly embarrassing stories.
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2 responses to “Thailand The Land of SMILES Serene and Happy People”
[…] The Chinese Malays believe the ghosts of their deceased relatives are allowed out and follow them around looking for food. The effect of this is that the Chinese believe whole heartedly they need to deceive the ghost by indicating one way in their car but then turning the opposite direction. They are concerned the ghosts may travel to their home and stay. This has the deadly affect of causing an exceptional amount of extra road fatalities and crashes during this religious time. You really have to be on your guard when driving at this time. If your not aware of the festival you will certainly be in for some surprises if your in Malaysia at the time. Check festivals in countries you visit. Thailand has many and you can discover the people here. […]
[…] be very hot and sticky so dehydration is a real issue. There are a lot of 7/11 supermarkets around Thailand, so please ensure you should never are short of somewhere to get water and or any quick […]