Cultural Idiosyncracies - love 'em or hate 'em?

[DawnHRD]

I was musing today on 2 aspects of the Thai culture/lifestyle/upbringing that I find fascinating & personally love. I'm sure this doesn't apply to hi-so Thais in Bangkok, but seems to apply to most other Thais I've met.

1 - Make do & mend mentality I love the way that everything seems to be recycled here - very often for a use that I would never have thought of in a million years! I've seen CD's on a string dangling to keep flies off food, dog food sacks made into a cover for a motorbike seat, people walking around in bin bags in the rain. I've seen old signs used to make a shade, old t-shirts warming soi dogs during a cool spell, water bottles, half filled, to weigh down awnings so they don't flap. The innovation of the average Thai totally amazes me & I'm proud to say, a very small portion of it has rubbed off on me, where the dog center is concerned. I've come up with ideas (that actually work!) that cost no, or very little money that I would never have come up with 5 years ago. So, it doesn't always look good - who cares, as long as it works?

2 - The ability to find vegetation to eat anywhere. I'm constantly amazed at the number of Thai women that I can be talking to or walking along with & they'll suddenly stop & start gathering a load of some plant or other to take home for food. How do they know what's good? Or even what's safe? In UK (with the exception of brambles/blackberries) I'd be hard put to identify a single plant growing wild that could be safely eaten!

Unfortunately, as I was thinking about these things & thinking I'd post about them on HHAD, I came across another idiosyncracy that I hate - and I guess I have to include that one too

3 - "Mai mee" Why is it so difficult to get what you want? I went to a cake shop in Market Village today. I'm a regular customer & I've seen they do birthday cakes. It's little boy's birthday on Sunday & he wants to take a birthday cake to school on Monday for his classmates.
I went to the birthday cake counter & read their sign, giving prices, weights & the fact you need to order 3 days before. Fine. I waited 10 mins before anyone would serve me. OK. I pointed to the cake I wanted & said I wanted a 3lb one. "Mai mee" & a gesture at the cabinet. So, in faltering Thai, I explained I didn't want it today, I wanted it on the 22nd. She went to ask & again, I got "Mai mee". So, I went over it in English - I know that my Thai is dreadful - "no, don't have these cakes. Cannot order."

So, looks like littl'un is getting a Black Forest cake from Tesco...

Anyone else come across attitudes or cultural things uniquely Thai that they love (or hate)?

[STEVE G]

Dawn, with respect to your second point, my partner loved it when we were looking around for land to purchase a couple of years ago due to all the free groceries she could scavenge off the plots we inspected; everything from ants to papayas all went into the truck for the evening meal.
Now when I go out to check up on the plot we bought she always manages to get something to eat off it, (or the one next door, but hopefully they won’t mind as they don’t eat ants!)

[PeteC]

Let's address the cake problem first. Swenson(sp) does a real good ice cream cake Dawn, and they'll deliver anywhere with dry ice in the box so it takes ages to melt, unless you remove it from the box. That could be a good alternative and I'm sure you have a Swensons down there? They usually have 4-5 choices. If you do it:

TELL THE TEACHER NOT TO TOUCH THE DRY ICE, OR LET THE KIDS TOUCH IT. THROW IT FAR AWAY, OR FLUSH IT DOWN THE HEAD...and hope it doesn't blow up the pipes! Silly thing to tell a teacher? Perhaps not here.

Anyone else local have any secret birthday cake sources for Dawn? Give your son our best wishes Dawn. JD, you bake from time to time don't you?

I'll revert later on the other issues in this thread. Pete

[GLCQuantum]

Throw the dry ice away!!! Good god no!!!

Have the teacher demonstrate all the really cool ( well not breathtakingly cool but nevertheless kids like it ) experiments you can do with the dry ice after they have finished eating the cake.

Below is just one of many sites containing things you can do with dry ice.

http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000055

[DawnHRD]

Pete, love the idea, thanks. Had thought of it, but Swensen's ice cream cake big enough for 36 kids? Pairng mak!!

Might be worth it to see what they'd do with the dry ice, though With or without GLC's link

[Terry]

Dawn

Ice cream cake from Swensons - great but expensive

Try Dairy Queen - you get a lot more for your Baht

Trust me, my two lads have done the market research

[DawnHRD]

Dawn

Ice cream cake from Swensons - great but expensive

Try Dairy Queen - you get a lot more for your Baht

Trust me, my two lads have done the market research

Oooh, Dairy Queen - hadn't thought of them. And there's one in Market Village! Will go & research. Thanks Terry!

[PeteC]

Pete, love the idea, thanks. Had thought of it, but Swensen's ice cream cake big enough for 36 kids? Pairng mak!!

Might be worth it to see what they'd do with the dry ice, though With or without GLC's link

Yes, they are pretty expensive. Concerning size, they are three layers of ice cream (usually) so I would estimate you could get 12 "little kids" size slices out of one cake.

If you go the ice cream cake route, would suggest a few boxes of Oreo cookies to go with it. They'll be in heaven....LOL. Pete

[Terry]

We're way off topic here - but for completeness

Dawn

The cakes in DQ are smaller but a lot cheaper - by my estimation you can almost get two at DQ for the price of one at SWENSONS - almost

Check it out

BTW Pete - they do one with Oreos

[long-in-thailand]

I also love the ability of the Thai to find anything edible in the surrounding environment. My partner and I bought a large plot of land outside of Hua Hin. It had three lovely large bamboo stands which I had hoped we would keep. These were ripped up by the JCB because the bamboo was not beautiful or edible! Hey ho.