(Not) nice

Tourists, and there are many good ones, and they are an important source of income for Thailand. And a lot of tourists are really interested in Thailand.

Tourists, who are absolutely not interested in the culture and the habits of the country, and who behave very offensive. A few examples:

• in your bathing suite in the bus
• going to a temple in shorts
• smelling, because they do not take a shower at least twice a day
• don't want to eat Thai food

And those men in Pattaya, Patpong and so on, who see Thailand as a cheap brothel, we just don't want to mention them.

Prostitution seems to be a integral past of Thai society. What you see in tourist areas like Pattaya and Patpong is only a fraction of what's really happening in Thailand.
Karaoke bars, restaurants, massage parlors, minor wives, ..., prostitution is everywhere. Prostitution is illegal in Thailand, but when prime minister Thaksin urges his fellow ministers not to have a minor wive, you may wonder what illegel means in Thailand.

The weather, nice temperature, and sometimes a lot of refreshing rain. You can be outside all day long.

It's very hot, specially in april and may. Just don't use a towel after taking a shower, it makes you sweat again.

Thai food is delicious, and varied. A lot of different tastes, from very hot to very sweet. \Most of the times, food is prepaired just before it is served.

Thai people are very hospitable, they take very good care of their guests. So they offer you lots of food, all of which you have to taste, wheather you like it or not, or weather you're hungry or not.

Restaurants, food again, usualy have good service (personel is cheap, so there is a lot of personel). Most of the time you can eat outside, very often live music. All the food is fresh, ingredients are bought daily, and nothing is kept until the next day.

Restaurants often have very bad covers, if you want to pick up something with your fork, it just bends. And you glass is filled everytime you take a draught, and they give you a new bottle, unasked, when the old one is empty.
Sometimes they are very clumsy. You order a bottle of bear, and someone puts the chit in your bin, another one brings the bottle, and then another one comes to open the bottle, and at last someone to pour the beer into your glass.
At bus-terminals and touristic spots, tourist sometime pay a lot more for the same food. Thai pay the normal price, white people pay more, Japanese people pay even more.
There are to much fast-food restaurants (McDonalds, KFC, ....), but Thai seem to love them.

The people are friendly, hospitable, curious, eager to learn and often beautifull, elegant. It may look as if Thailand is westernized, but that's just the outside.

People are dishonest, superficial, trying to get as much money from tourist as they can. But isn't this the same almost everywhere?

Public transport is good, you can get almost everywhere. Service in trains and air-conditioned busses is very good, a meal and refreshment are often included in the price. Fares are low, and specially busses are frequent.

Tickets in local busses are sometimes a disaster. You don't know how much you should pay, so you pay to much (a few cents maybe). It also happens that a bus just stops, the driver does not want to go one. Just see how you get on on another bus. Many busses have TV or video, and the drivers love to watch it while driving.

Mosquitos and other animals with six legs. They bite, or walk over you while you sleep. It itches. They can make you sick, malaria, dengue, allergy,..... You can and must protect yourselve!

Traffic, specially in Bangkok, is amazing, if you just observe it. Wonderfully chaotic, awfully busy. Spectacular.

Traffic jam, smoke, drunken drivers, chaos. Life threatening if you have to get in it. People use very good arguments to make the traffic not safer: if I put a helmet on, it will ruine my hair, or if I put on a safety belt, my shirt will crumple.
Traffic rules are very simple, the biggest car, and after that the most expensive one, has most rights.

Thai don't like to walk. Whereever they go, they use a motorcyle or a car. Some night-markets are to be visited only by car.

Smell and dirt. Plastic bags are everywhere, on the streets, in the water, in the woods. A lot of stores, Lotus by example, give you plastic bags, weather you like it or not.
Ready-made food is sold in a plastic bag with an elastic, and then in another plastic bag to carry it.
And even the kratongs used at the Loi Kratong festival have a plastic bottom.
Plastic is just thrown away. In the old days, banana-leaves were used, no problem if you throw that away.

Sidewalks, specially in Bangkok, have many possibilities to use. You can eat there, or cook food, or sell groceries, or fix your car. Sometimes you can even walk on them.
But how crowded they are, people just walk, they never bump to each other.

Walking on a sidewalk is like a Cooper test. You have to find your way between kitchens, people eating their meal, hawkers, spreading there goods on the ground. And if there is a traffic jam, motorcycles are threatening you.
And if you can walk on a sidewalk, beware of the potholes and bumps, leaking airconditioners, sharp steel poles, ....

Thai children are learning English at primary school. Only the teachers don't speak English very well, so neither do the children. And unfortunatle most Thai people are to shy to try to speak English, afraid they might make a mistake. So they will never learn....

Officials (not all of them) are very slow, very bureaucratic. Getting angry makes it even worse, it is a nuisance. Not to mention corruption, although you can understand it a little bit if you know how much officials are getting paid. But nevertheless.......

TV in Thailand is amusing. Soaps, cartoons and games all day long. If you zap from one soap to another, you get a very interesting story.

TV is always on, and everywhere, in every shop and restaurants. Very superficial, a lot of soaps and stupid games.
News, specially foreign news, is nothing.

The Royal family is very popular in Thailand, and with good reason. All members work very hard for the benefit of the people and the country, very often with good results.

In places with a lot of tourists, you will find a growing number of tailors. Often they are very skiled. But they try very hard to get you into their shops, sometimes they even pull you in.

At some Buddhist temples is a habit to release birds or small fish, it's a good deed, which will give you merit in your next life. Its a pitty, that people, who sell birds and fish forget to release these animals themselves.