Day 48: Bangkok, Thailand – heading back to Seattle
As we finish up our adventure, we have been keeping a list of things that have intrigued us about Thailand. Some of those – “oh, I didn’t know that..”. Here are some of our musings.
- Thailand has never been colonized by a western power: lots of positive implications there, mainly for their culture and economy
- Outdoor Urinals – now getting used to it – mainly on the back of buildings, which might open up to the park.
- While we are on the subject – bring your own toilet paper, put it in the trash – don’t flush, and get used to their version of a bidet – usually just a kitchen sprayer
- Anything and anyone can be put onto a scooter – I think the most we saw was five people on one scooter, and then everything for market – there are also accessories – side cars, trailers, and wind protection
- 36,000 + temples! – lot of taking your shoes off
- You can sweep anything – and people do – temples, leaves off grass, dirt floors, mud – and it is definitely part of the culture since in the monks daily routine is to sweep the temple grounds
- Buddhist era time – it is actually the year 2567 in Thailand. Their calendar starts when the Buddha passed away in 543 BCE.
- Buddhism – lots here – it is a philosophy, the de-facto national religion, very ceremonial here with grand temples and gold Buddhas. Lots of interesting conversations, even a Netflix series, “The Believers” takes on these multi-layered issues.
- 50,000 7-11’s – it was one of our markers, if there was a 7-11, we were in a city and not a village.
- Singha beer also makes soda water
- Be careful when you order just one beer – it may be full size for two people.
- Getting used to bowing and folding your hands in respect – the Wai – to everyone you met, even on bikes. No handshakes needed.
- Tourism can be a force for good – we could see many places advertised – No Riding! No Chains! – to allow elephants just to be elephants
- Tourism can be a force for bad – still too many practices which are only for tourists – from the benign ‘water market’, to the extremely harmful – the ‘long-neck’ hill tribe that places golden neck rings on their daughters crushing their collar bones. – because tourists want that perfect picture.
- Diversity in a large country – having traversed from North to South, we have seen ethnic and religious minorities enclaves, food diversity from Vietnamese to Chinese, to American breakfast. As expected, there isn’t one Thai culture.
- Rubber trees are really interesting – that we can produce tires and other stuff from sap is amazing – and they are still doing it here. Oh, it also really, really stinks. We could tell if they had just tapped the trees when we biked by or we passed a processing place. Siri at first thought it was fish sauce gone bad.
- Sun – we have not had to use our rain coat or puffy jacket the whole time. As our daughter Samara reminds us, “soak up the sunshine while you can cuz its rainy, windy and cold” (back in Seattle)
- Thailand has a 900 year history of being a country and thousands more years of civilization. So much more to learn.
- You can fit at least 8 or 10 people in the back of a pickup to be taxi. Even nicer if you add seats.
These are just some of the small interesting things that we have found in our short time. There is so much more to be discovered if one was to live or work here.
Now we start to pack our bags and soon head to the airport. Not like we have been gone too long, but I can see there might be a bit of our own ‘reverse culture shock’ upon our return. Life and people have moved on without us, and we will need to give ourselves, and others, some time and grace to get back to a new normal.
Siri and David Adventures 