postscript on thailand

A friend sent me a link to an interesting article from the New York Times: "In Thai Cultural Battle, Name-Calling Is Encouraged". And I thought only Filipinos had really weird and inappropriate nicknames...but apparently not.

The Thai Ministry of Culture surveyed 3,000 children in Khon Khaen and they found that the most popular English nicknames were:

1) Ball
2) Oil
3) Bank

You read it right. Ball. Oil. Bank. I'm not sure which is worse, being called Ball in your old age in Thailand or Honeyboy in the Philppines...

happy mother's day

Last Sunday was Mother's Day in Thailand so we all got yesterday off (whoopee!). Here they don't follow the American dates for Mother's Day and Father's Day. Instead, Mother's Day is celebrated on the Queen's birthday (August 12) and Father's Day on the King's Birthday (December 5). After all, the King and Queen are viewed by many as the father and mother of the nation.

The difference in dates though creates some difficulties for unfilial non-Thai daughters like myself who rely on storefront messages and newspaper ads to remember both dates. Since the third Sunday in June was NOT Father's Day in Thailand, there were no reminders anywhere. I completely forgot about it; I didn't greet my dad and got into a little trouble...

what you give to a fertility goddess...

You’ve been to Bangkok a few times. You don’t want to go see the Palace Museum again. You’re sick of JJ market. What to do?

Head out to the Swissotel Nai Lert Park Hotel. Go there for a fabulous Sunday brunch spread with live music and free flow mojitos. After a sumptuous meal, walk around the beautifully landscaped gardens. Then venture out to a hidden corner within the grounds, somewhere between the service area and the parking lot. There you will find a shrine dedicated to Chao Mae Tuptim, a spirit residing in the ten foot tall Ficus tree behind the spirit house.

Chao Mae Tuptim is said to be a female fertility spirit, which explains the preponderance of phalluses around the shrine. This spirit house is not for shy prudes. There are hundreds of phalluses in all different shapes, sizes and colors. Some are meant to look realistic and some are stylized. Some have feet and others have (cannon) balls.



Women from all over Bangkok visit the shrine when they are trying to conceive. If they get pregnant, they return to the shrine and add a phallus to the phalanx in thanks. Many also come to offer Jasmine flowers, incense sticks and pink and white lotus buds. Apparently, she has a pretty good success rate!

So if you’re looking for something to do on a lazy Sunday before catching your flight out, think about making this part of your itinerary.

the art of wai

In Thailand, don’t be surprised if when you extend your hand out for a handshake, you get a limp, damp hand in return from men and women alike. That’s what you get for being culturally inept.
I picked up a handshake habit in the U.S. so when I first came to Bangkok, I would extend my hand out to every new person I met. I quickly learned though that Thais don’t do handshakes. It’s all about the “wai” --- two palms touching in a prayer-like position. Even Ronald McDonald does it. There are actually different types of wais based on the relative status of the two people wai-ing each other. Unfortunately, I have not yet had the chance to delve deep into this practice. So for now, I stick to the standard “stranger’s” wai. Palms together at chest level and fingertips just below the chin kah!

in jim's footsteps

I finally visited Jim Thompson's House over the weekend. The guy had style. He brought six traditional Thai-style teak houses from Ayutthaya to Bangkok and put together a magical home decorated with beautiful pieces from Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Italy, etc. While the house still stands in all its glory, Jim Thompson is nowhere to be found. He disappeared in 1967 while vacationing with his friends in Cameroon Highlands in Malaysia.

All tourists are required to dispose of their footwear at the entrance. According to our guide, Thais remove their shoes when they enter a home because they used to prepare and eat food on the floor. Definitely worth a look if you are in Bangkok.

thai chef me

I used to love Thai food. I say “used to” because I’m currently going through an I’ve-had-too-much-Thai-food-give-me anything-but phase. I know I’ll be missing good Thai food when I return to New York so I prepared myself for this by taking some cooking lessons.

It was a half-day affair with teacher Nusi and three other girls. Nusi picked J and I up at the BTS station and off we went to the local market. We stopped at a few different stalls to buy vegetables, seafood, chicken, grated coconut and water chestnuts. Some things I learned at the market:

You use dried red chillies for red curry but fresh green chillies for green curry. Thai cooking entails the use of three different types of ginger --- Siamese ginger a.k.a. galangal, fresh turmeric and ‘regular’ ginger. There are also three different types of basil --- sweet basil, holy basil and lime basil. And again at least three types of eggplant --- long eggplant, apple aubergine and pea aubergine.


Back at Nusi’s quaintly decorated place (he very much likes cat-themed pieces), we cleaned and prepared the ingredients, chopped everything up on our own little chopping stations and proceeded to cook. We learned how to make coconut milk (grated coconut and water through a sieve) and tamarind paste (fresh tamarind and water). And of course the main events --- tom yum goong, pad thai, green curry, laab gai (salad) and tub tim grob (dessert).


We cooked one dish at a time. The program was cook, eat, cook, eat, cook eat…By the time we got to dessert, I was completely stuffed. One thing I learned about Thai cooking is that it is actually very, very simple. No need to baste, to marinate, to poach etc. etc. You basically just throw everything together in a wok. Buying fresh ingredients is really what’s key. Also, Thai cooking hardly uses salt…it’s all about the nam pla (fish sauce).

Nusi (former documentary filmmaker turned Thai cooking teacher) sent us off with a recipe compilation of the dishes we had made, a guide to buying vegetables in the market (with pictures and all) and money for transportation (apparently part of the fee we had paid). If you’re in Bangkok for a few days, it’s a great alternative to sightseeing --- half a day, good food, hilarious teacher and a sense of accomplishment...

yellow mondays

It’s just another yellow Monday in Krung Thep.

In Thailand, different colors are associated with different days of the week. It is said that if you wear the “correct” color for the day, fortune will smile upon you. Yellow is for Monday. Yellow also happens to be the day the current beloved King of Thailand, Rama IX, was born. Thus yellow is the King’s color.

Last year, the King marked his 60th anniversary on the throne, making him the longest-serving monarch in the world. As a sign of respect for the King (and also to attract Lady Luck), people started wearing the same yellow collared shirt emblazoned with the King’s coat of arms on Mondays.

One year on, the trend continues. On Mondays, the entire capital is in uniform.

For those who seek to stand out in the yellow sea, the same shirts are available with special patches like the sax and the beach scene in the photos...