Crossing cultural borders in a single blurb!

I was chatting online with a Thai friend recently and reminded very quickly of why I started this blog in the first place... I had intended my blog to be a Westerner's view of living in the Far East (read that as Orient).

Some of you may remember a posting I wrote way way back about "Your chest is in your pants"?

Well, did I ever tell you about having dinner and coffee and beachside bistro?

My girlfriend and I had taken a four day weekend vacation and flown down to the cozy and cool (cool as in neat, not cool as in not hot (and that's hot and in sweating like a pig, not hot as in awesome. (and that's awesome... oh you get the idea))) Island of Koh Samui. About a 1 hour flight south of Bangkok.

We'd been out wandering the island and doing things that couples do... (get your mind out of the gutter! I meant like taking pictures of each other next to various landmarks)... rented a motorbike and toodled around the roads seeing the sights. Evening came and we found this nice little cozy open air Italian place. Well, it said it was Italian, and was decorated with the red and white checked table clothes, and had the ubiquitous wicker-n-wine bottle candle holder on the table, but that's about where the stereotypical resemblance ended. Regardless, the food was yummy, and the service very good.

After dinner we ordered some coffee. When it came I realized there was no cream or sugar. So, feeling proud of my newly building skill with Thai language, I called the waitress over and asked her very clearly, and with a smile and good accent, "Nong. Khun mee nom mai khrub?"

She looked me straight in the eye, and without hesitation pointed to herself and responded, "Mee ka." with a smile and nod in the affirmative. ...? ...? umm...? She stayed where she was standing. She wasn't leaving to get the cream. What the...?

Then I heard my girlfriend giggle. I glanced at her. Glanced back at the waitress whose smile was getting broader by the second. Then the lightbulb clicked on in that dark dusty place in my head reserved for epiphanies, "duh" moments, and self-inflicted slaps to the forehead.

VERY quickly I looked to the waitress and said "nom sud! nom sud! I meant 'nom sud!' " and with a laugh and a bounce in her step she moved off and retrieved the cream service. Returning to our table, depositing the cream service with a flourish, and a jubilantly spoken "Nom sud ka!" and moved off to other less embarrassed customers.

What was all that about you ask? Well, the tricky part in Thai language (I mean, YET ANOTHER, tricky part!) is that the word for milk "nom sud" is the same as that for BOOBS "nom"!!! So what I actually asked was if she had boobs. That's what she was pointing at when she said "mee ka," which means "Have."

Maybe I should have asked her for them and seen what her response would be then! :-)
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Thai Music Video - 4-Mod

Song Title: hai jai pen tur
Group Name: 4-Mod

This is what I would call "Cute Pop". It was one of the most popular songs in Thailand back in 2004. There was no escape from the very catchy chorus of this song "Hai jai kao kuh hur tur. Hai jai auk kuh hur tur. Pen arai maak mai loy bap nee?..." It was everyone's ring tone. It was on all the cutesy commercials on TV. It was all over the radio. It was everywhere, and it was incredibly catchy!!

Personally, I don't think the girls have much real singing talent. What they have is incredible cuteness, and really good producers and writers.

I'll be posting more music from Thailand from other groups as I find them. Come back again if you want to listen. :-)

It's a HARD election to judge

Viagra Pumps Up Thai Political Race

Bangkok, Thailand - Vote-buying is an old practice in Thai politics, but one candidate for December's Thai election has reportedly come up with a new tactic _ handing out Viagra instead of cash.

The allegation, made Thursday by a campaign worker against a rival party, comes as rules about handing out favors to voters have become stricter than ever, barring even the distribution of free T-shirts and soft drinks.

Sayan Nopcha, a campaigner for the People's Power Party in Pathum Thai province just north of Bangkok, said the drug used to treat sexual dysfunction in men was being distributed to elderly male voters at social functions.

Viagra is supposed to be used only on a doctor's advice, but is generally available over the counter in Thailand.

"The politician is giving out Viagra to gain popularity and votes," said Sayan, a local government official whose older brother is the PPP candidate. "I think this is a very bad way of vote-buying."

He would not identify the candidate who allegedly handed out the pills.

Under a tough new law, both the supplier and recipient of vote-buying can face criminal charges. Candidates can be disqualified and their party disbanded, as was the case with the old law, while voters who accept money of gifts can now face from one to 10 years in prison.

More than 4,200 candidates from 41 parties are competing for 480 seats in the lower house of parliament in the Dec. 23 polls _ the first to be held after a bloodless military coup ousted elected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in September last year.

(c) 2007 The Associated Press

No doubt in my mind why the capital of this fine country is named Bangkok!

Trust me, I lived there for more than 6 years, the guy from the PPP is actually saying "Dammit! Why didn't we think of that?!!!" And just out of curiosity, when this GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL said "I think this is a very BAD way of vote buying" - does that mean he believes there is a GOOD way to BUY votes? Well, knowing the PPP's past history (since they were previously known as TRT and were the party of the deposed crook... uh... I mean Prime Minister) they probably do believe there's a GOOD way to do it.