thai culture – Life, the Universe, and Lani

🇹🇭 What no one ever tells you about eating out in Thailand

Eating out in Thailand requires a bit of patience, and knowledge regarding how things work (or don’t).

There’s nothing wrong with asking for help (and why concepts like greng jai need to die)

There’s a Thai word “greng jai” that has always annoyed me. It’s basically used to describe a person who doesn’t want to be an inconvenience to anyone. They don’t want to be a bother, and it’s supposed to be a positive trait. We have this same idea, too, in American culture, but I feel it…

19/1127/04

Asian American American holidays

American holidays overseas don’t take on any extraordinary meaning, if anything they seem to diminish in specialness. And that’s okay. I think what really helps me is I’m a first-generation American, and what that means is, holidays as a child were perfunctory and often awkward occasions.

31/1027/02

A lifetime of eating impatiently (how we eat)

How do you eat? Fast or slow? Mouth open or closed? Or do you store food in your cheeks like me?

26/0523/12

🇹🇭 What they never told you about bra shopping in Thailand

Ah, the joys of womanhood, eh? Every one of us ladies can remember our first visit from Uncle Payne and Auntie Flo. Or that time, you didn’t know you were going to have it and how you decided to wear light pink pants that day. Or that time in Bangkok, the city of grit and…

04/1127/02

Nong Khai’s Sala Keoku

Normally, I prefer to be sober. But for my latest trip outside the country, I wished I had better and heavier drugs than cough drops and cold medicine. Perhaps it would have made my visa run more enjoyable, then again, probably not. I stayed over in Nong Khai on my way back from Vientiane, and…

23/1023/12

🇹🇭 Don’t call Thais short.

In the US, if you call someone fat, it is considered insulting, even if it is true. It’s more polite to say “heavy” or “big”. But in Thailand, the word “fat” does not have the same weight because it’s the height that means the most.

27/0923/12

🍛 What’s your comfort food?

The problem is my mom is an amazing cook so I have fond and savory memories of her cooking. I can think of many comforting Thai dishes she made that taste like home: Stuffed Bitter Melon Soup, Pork Knuckles in Sweet Dark Soy Sauce and a very simple Chicken Rice Soup that she made whenever…

21/0905/11

12 things I’ve learned about Chiang Rai (List #2)

Updated Nov 2018 Have you missed list #1? Go here. Otherwise, read on…

19/0805/11

12 things I’ve learned about Chiang Rai…

Strangely enough, I have found other bloggers (that I like!) with the same name as me. I know, it seems horribly vain to start a blog post like this, but as you know, anyone with a blog is like, OMG, REALLY into themselves.

28/0523/12

🇹🇭 At The Finish Line: Asian American In Thailand, Part 16

Originally posted on A Holistic Journey:
1) How do you define yourself racially or ethnically and why is it important to you? Please tell us about the racial makeup of your family if you were adopted or come from a colorful family. I consider myself Asian American, or as I like to say, American Asian.…

27/0423/12

🇹🇭 How to make your life more Thai!*

*Other Asians might apply: based on observations and real life experiences. 1. Keep the plastic on your furniture. My mom kept the plastic cover on our lampshades until I think we revolted or something. But maybe I’m remembering incorrectly, they could still be on…

30/0327/02

Useful Tips for a Happy Holiday in Thailand (by TAT)

While shopping at a handicraft store (popular with the Japanese tourists), I saw this leaflet. As soon as I saw that it was in Chinese, I was amused. Given the recent reputation of the Chinese in Thailand, specifically Chiang Mai I took it, thinking it was in Chinese, English and Thai. Plus I was curious…

30/0127/02

Happy Chinese New Year (Year of the Horse)

I’ve lived here too long, I fear. The firecrackers no longer agitate me. (Although, it hasn’t really gotten started yet.) But I’m good on lion dances. I’m good for the rest of this lifetime actually. And even though the calendars say the 31st is the official day of the Chinese New Year, today, the 30th,…

17/0111/04

Bo Sang Umbrella Festival

Every year the village of Bo Sang have their umbrella festival in January. This year it starts on the 17th and runs to the 19th.

12/0102/02

8 Ways Chiang Mai is like the American South

Now, I know, you’z wonderin how a Hawaii girl like me, gonna tell you somethin ‘bout th South. But after livin there, datin’ a Southerner for 6 cotton pickin’ years, and a-vistin multiple times, I can assure you I know what I’m talkin about. So, let’s begin, shall we? 1. Using K instead of C.

16/1105/02

My first sky lantern

Watching the sky lanterns float in the daytime sky, from my apartment window, reminds me of the first time I experienced a khom loy or khom fai. In 2007, I returned to Thailand after being away for 18 years. It was a pretty big deal made even grander by the fact that my mom said…

14/1102/02

What’s happening to Chiang Mai? (or why CM is starting to suck)

As a fresh profusion of tourists arrive to Thailand I feel both sorry and sympathetic. When travellers visited Oahu Hawaii, where I grew up, I often heard, “We thought it would be less, you know – developed.” Yeah, everyone expects more island. Here, I would imagine visitors would expect more Thailand.

02/1102/02

Tips for enjoying Chiang Mai’s Loy Krathong Festival

Magic or mayhem depending on your cup of Thai iced tea, Chiang Mai’s Loy Krathong or Yee Ping Festival is quite possibly one of the most visually stunning events in Thailand, attracting many visitors and tourists every year.

19/0927/02

#CTC13 | “Capture the Color” 2013

There’s probably some psychological reason behind the photos we choose to take. Or maybe it just has to do with personality, in which case, there’s some psychology lurking between them pixels – somewhere.

11/0923/12

🇹🇭 Teaching in Thailand Etiquette

No, I’m not teaching etiquette. I don’t work at an all-girls finishing school. I’m talking about what you need to know as a foreign teacher in the Land of Smiles.

10/0723/12

🇹🇭 Gin Salat (Thailand’s day of the dead)

Gin Salat reminds me of Japan’s Bon Festival or Mexico’s Día de los Muertos. In Thailand, we honor the deceased by creating “salats” adorned with household goods. The idea being that whatever things the dead used while living, like toothbrushes and toothpaste, are needed again in the afterlife too.

22/0522/10

Finally got on YouTube

Jeez. It’s like they are letting anybody do it.

11/0402/02

Where to Songkran in Chiang Mai

I was getting ready to post an article I had written for this weekend, when I got caught up in the latest news about 2556 Songkran. For example, Bangkok Post on Chiang Mai being a top place for Songkran revelers, and how the Chinese are making up about 55% of the tourists. OMG! The post…

06/0427/02

11 Ways to Meet the Police During Songkran

Public Service Announcement: New rules from the National Police for the ever growing, ever popular Songkran Festival. 1. Don’t throw water from pickup trucks. Dangerous for pedestrians, motorists as well as the people throwing the water. 2. You cannot sit or stand in the back of a pickup truck. Yeah, it’s not a light tank…

30/0327/02

What You Need to Know About Songkran สงกรานต์

Official 2015 dates: 12-15th April. The important thing to remember is Songkran is a MAJOR Thai holiday. It’s the Thai New Year and for better or worst it has evolved into a country-wide water fight. Now you might be thinking, what is NOT to like about a huge water fight? Well, despite the nation’s best…

04/0323/12

🇹🇭 5 Things You Should Know About Thai Culture

In order to cope with the intense and glorious situation that is traffic, tourists and construction in my little world, I’ve been using the analogy of a “fish in water”. I keep telling myself that I am a fish in water, a fish swimming and gliding, and it helps me because otherwise I think I…

14/0223/10

You’re embarrassing

I went to see a fortune teller with Mia, and he told me I have more bad luck than good luck in the area of romantic love, so I had to go tam boon, or make merit, you know, to help balance out the luck. Why not? Tamai la!

07/0227/02

The day I stopped wanting to be Thai

The day I stopped wanting to be Thai happened in the winter of 2012. I just wanted to go to Sukhothai. I just wanted to go to Sukhothai. I just wanted to go to Sukhothai.

06/02

Perfectly acceptable

Sometimes we forget what was considered unacceptable back in our passport country, is perfectly acceptable here. We see it often but we walk around the motorbikes (or car) parked on the sidewalk, drive against traffic, jump the cue, or heaven forbid, pick our noses in public. We see the lack of cleanliness and we wonder, “Is cleanliness…

03/0127/02

7 types of male expats you might find in Thailand

(Alternative title: Let’s Meet the Rock Stars) To kick off the New Year, the Year of the Snake, 2556, 2013, etc, etc, and to celebrate 3 years in Chiang Mai, I started New Year’s Day, writing. This is meant in jest, as I feel I must explain, because I do adore and love men. And…

20/1223/10

Thailand teaches me body language

On the last day of class for my weekend term, I decided to have the students do a Christmas word find, which for whatever reason, Thai students love. (I like them too especially when travelling. Much more than crosswords, crosswords are not fun for me. Crosswords suck!)

07/1202/02

5 Things to Hate about Chiang Mai

One of my colleagues, let’s call him Ben, asked me the other day if I would ever write about things I didn’t like about Chiang Mai/Thailand. I said, “No, I don’t think so.” I mean, I have written one post in particular about it already. Then he shared his top 5 things he hates about…

06/1216/08

Moo-gata Sunday

Last Sunday was a day well-spent in Lamphun with my family. My cousins had the genius idea of having moo gata or “pork in a pan” at our house, so we started off, as we always do, stopping by my aunt’s store to pick up my aunt and her daughter and then off to go shopping…