Still a Farang

Sure, you’re told it shouldn’t be taken as offensive when Thais call you farang. But walking down the street and hearing them talk about you (because you can understand when they say farang!) is still odd. I can’t imagine a group of Canadians seeing an Asian walking down the street and calling him a foreigner! “Hey! Look at the foreigner!”. So I try to think of nice things they can be saying... Aren’t we lucky farangs visit our country? This farang girl seems nice? One day I have to say hello and ask where she comes from?

Everything here has a farang price and a local price. Sure, I guess I can afford to pay the farang price... But I live here now, and won’t earn a farang salary! One could argue it still is a farang salary. My answer is that I couldn’t live with that amount of money in farang land!!! Period.

There are several reasons why people strive to become fluent in the local language when they go to work in a foreign country. To me, not only is it about respecting my adoptive country, it’s also by fear of being left out of conversations when it’s getting interesting and or not making real friendships because I will always be the tourist, the outsider. And also by finally being able to understand what they are saying about the farang walking down the street!

I like the feeling of locals being impressed by my few Thai words, and laughing at the way I pronounce them. But for now, it’s not enough, not very satisfying. I want to take lessons, but I’m a bit of a coward. Plus I can’t afford it at the moment, which is a great excuse. Then I will start to work and will make lack of time my excuse. But I still practice with my CD and book, and say as much as I can in Thai when I go to the market, the shops, the restaurants…

So I’m still a farang, and always will be. But an important note to self : instead of getting quiet when embarrassed, Thais giggle. This causes them trouble with Westerners, who are always sure they are being made fun of. Mai Pen Rai... Keeping a “cold heart” in Thai custom is definitely helping me! (I will describe Mai Pen Rai in a future post!)

Spirit Houses

For many Thais, spirits are a part of their daily lives. These spirits, Phis, can be both good and bad. Therefore, every building logically needs its spirit house : homes, farms, offices, government buildings, even night clubs. Otherwise, where would the good spirit reside? To avoid trouble, a spirit must live in its own house, and not in the real house. That means the spirit house, which usually sits on top of a pole, must be comfortable and not stand in the shadow of the main structure. In big cities like Bangkok, the spirit house often ends up on the roof! If the main house is enlarged, so is the spirit house. Only fair! They are very pretty and look like a doll house. They are usually covered in food, flowers and different offerings. Even though this is a bit of a funny tradition for the Western eye, I must admit I was happy to see the big spirit house outside my apartment (see photo below)! The spirits ought to be happy!!

The Spirit's House

Our apartment building, the spirit house on the left

Contradictions

Phuket is often talked about as being paradise, but once enchantment has worn off, you begin to wonder about modern Thailand. How have decades of tourism, American GIs and loads of money affected the Thais? Has capitalism corrupted them? Have they lost themselves in greed?

Despite the dreamy postcards, all the grace of Thailand cannot disguise the truth about tourism – a lot more foreign men visit Thailand than women. Sex is one of the main tourist attractions in Thailand. Patong does, indeed, resemble a sexual supermarket : discos, go-go bars, massage parlors... “Thailand is the playground for the world’s frustrated men” (Ian Buruma). Walking down Bangla road, you see a display of drag queens, lady boys, prostitutes, strippers... and amused tourists. This openly direct sexuality is so different from daily life, so absurd, it almost isn’t obscene. It is like a cartoon, almost makes you laugh because it’s so outrageous. It’s a show for the farangs, a fake world set up to make money. It is confusing, because while all this industry takes in the cash, Thais are also deeply concerned about their image, about “not loosing face”. To hide this side of Thai tourism and its bad image, another image is presented to the world : the ancient Thai culture. There appears to be a contradiction between the image of the Land of smiles, its delicate tropical flowers and unique hospitality, and the world of live ping-pong shows. But then again, both coexist. The same girl dancing on the bars on Soi Bangla will donate part of her earnings to a Buddhist monk the next morning, to earn merit. Her culture outside the bar is amulets around her neck, images of Thai Kings and Buddha. “The apparent ease with which Thais appear able to adopt different forms, to swim in and out of seemingly contradictory worlds, is not proof of a lack of cultural identity, nor is the circus of Patong proof of Thai corruption – on the contrary, it reflects the corrupted taste of Westerners, for whom it is specifically designed.” (Ian Buruma). Maybe!

The Western liberalism embraced by the Thai sex industry is very unrepresentative of the majority of Thai attitude to the body. The lack of clothing worn by tourists bothers Thais. Baring your flesh on beaches is very much a Western practice. When Thais go swimming, they often do so fully clothed so they find topless bathing distasteful. No Spanish beaches here!

Thai women dress very conservatively, usually with long sleeved shirts and long pants. In fact, they are very concerned about being protected by the sun. They wear long hats or scarves. They do not want to tan. They often wear whitening creams or very thick sunscreen on their faces.

Nothing is black or white, nothing is so simple. And economically, a young Thai woman can earn a phenomenal amount of money selling her body : more in a couple of years than her parents earn in a lifetime.

Different countries, same argument, same consequences...

Our border run to Penang, Malaysia

Border runs are part of the journey of any traveler who wishes to extend their 30-day tourist visa in Thailand. If you are in southern Thailand like us, you have two choices - go to Ranong, Myanmar (around 1500 baht) and get a 15 day extension or go to Penang, Malaysia and get 60 days (around 4000 baht). If you come by plane, you will automatically get 30 days, so that's another option for those who can afford it! Two weeks ago, we went to Myanmar. I was waiting for my employer to get together all the paper work I needed in order to ask for a Non Immigrant B Visa. When they provided me with it, I was ready to go to Malaysia.We left at 21:30 by mini bus and drove all night. There was only 6 of us in the van which was nice - last time, when we went to Myanmar, the bus was full with 12 passengers. Early morning we woke up to cross the border and eat breakfast. After exiting Thailand and entering Malaysia, we went to the embassy and left our passport there so they could arrange our visas. We arrived at our hotel in Penang, Malaysia, around 10:00 in the morning. We rested until lunch, at 12:00. After that, we had all afternoon and evening to ourselves. We really enjoyed visiting Penang. We visited a few of its beautiful temples.We walked around little India (I was very tempted to by a Sari but restrained myself).

We watched an interesting show outside one of the temples.

We visited a Mosque too.

This is what I had to wear in the Mosque. The material is so thick, it doesn't breathe at all and I became very hot and sweaty in a couple of minutes (the smile didn't last!)

Chris in the Mosque.And then went for dinner. Because this wasn't included in our border run package, we walked around quite a bit before deciding where we wanted to eat. We selected a restaurant which had typical Malaysian food, which felt like the smartest thing to do. When we sat down, we got offered tea and peanuts while we were making our decision. We selected two meals (crispy noodles with shrimp and sweet and sour pork). We asked and they said the rice was included with the pork dish. The noodles were quite disappointing, but the meat was nice. After eating, we received our bill. It was shocking! They charged us for the tea, the peanuts, the rice, added tax and tip! We didn't even have enough money on us to pay the bill! It was frustrating! We ended up leaving all we had and walked out, feeling like we had been ripped off. Without any more money (I'm exaggerating, we could've changed some bahts into Malaysian riggits but we had just spent so much we didn't want to spend anymore!) we simply went back to the hotel room and called it a day!!

The next morning, we had breakfast, checked out, had lunch and we left around 12:30. We went to the embassy first where everyone received their passport with visa stamp. We drove all day until 18:00 when we stopped for dinner. We were dropped off at our apartment around 23:00, very happy to be home and to have our visa permitting us to stay a little longer in the Land of smiles.

Food

Thai food is full of flavors, a blend of the spicy, the subtle, the sweet and sour, and is meant to be equally satisfying to eye, nose and palate. A proper Thai meal should consist of a soup, a curry dish with condiments, a dip with accompanying fish and vegetables. There must be a harmony of tastes and textures within dishes and the entire meal. You should eat with chopsticks and spoon, the food being cut in small enough pieces to forbid the use of knives.

Thai cuisine doesn't have very specific breakfast dishes. Very often, a Thai breakfast can consist of the same dishes which are also eaten for lunch or dinner. Fried rice, noodle soups and steamed rice with something simple such as an omelette, fried pork or chicken, are commonly sold from street stalls as a quick take-out.

The following dishes tend to be eaten only for breakfast:

Chok - a rice porridge very commonly eaten in Thailand for breakfast.

Khao khai chiao - an omelet with white rice, often eaten with a chili sauce and slices of cucumber.
Khao tom - a Thai style rice soup, usually with pork, chicken or shrimp.
Phrik nam pla is served with nearly every meal. It is fish sauce with fresh chillies. Fish sauce is a staple ingredient in Thai cuisine.Here’s an overview of some popular dishes.

Tom yam - hot & sour soup with meat and coconut milk.

Khao phat - One of the most common dishes in Thailand, fried rice, Thai style. Usually with chicken, beef, shrimp, or pork.




Pad Thai - a dish of stir-fried rice noodles with eggs, fish sauce, tamarind juice, red chilli pepper, plus any combination of bean sprouts, shrimp, chicken, or tofu, garnished with crushed peanuts, coriander and lime. Pad Thai is one of Thailand's national dishes.



Curries
The major ingredients of Thai curries are fresh herbs. A simple Thai curry paste consists of dried chilies, shallots and shrimp paste. More complex curries include garlic, galangal, coriander roots, lemon grass, kefir lime peel and peppercorns. Here's three popular ones.

Kaeng matsaman or Massaman curry - an Indian style curry, usually made by Thai-Muslims, of stewed beef and containing roasted dried spices, such as coriander seed. It contains potatoes.

Kaeng khiao wan or Green curry - a coconut curry made with fresh green chillies and flavoured with Thai basil, and chicken or fish meatballs. This dish can be one of the spiciest of Thai curries.
Kaeng phet (lit. 'spicy curry') or Red curry - a coconut curry made with copious amounts of dried red chillies in the curry paste.
Som tam (green papaya salad) - a spicy green papaya salad with dried shrimps, tomatoes, green beans and peanuts. I tried it once and got food poisoning because the vegetables were probably soaked in tap water before hand. I was in bed for 48 hours, so I won’t be eating any of this again!




Desserts

Khao niao mamuang - My favorite : sticky rice cooked in sweetened thick coconut milk, served with slices of ripe mango.



Drinks
Alcoholic beverages from Thailand include Mekhong whiskey and Sang Som (also called whiskey even though it's a rhum).

Several brands of beer are brewed in Thailand, the two biggest brands being Singha and Chang.

Yummy treats

Certain insects are also eaten in Thailand, especially in the North. Many markets in Thailand feature stalls which sell deep-fried grasshoppers, crickets, bee larvae, silkworm, ant eggs. Interesting.

And let's not forget toads, found at any local markets!

Before


After


Bon appétit!!

Thai Massage Mae Ow Ka?

I had two Thai massages so far – surprisingly only two, considering the amount of massage parlors and how cheap they are (cheapest in Patong being 200 baht an hour, approx. 6,50$). Most Thai massages take place with little privacy on a thin hard mattress on the floor, aligned with dozens more, only separated by a thin curtain. The process can be summarized as being “gently” bent, pressed and squeezed by barefoot masseurs. I heard that Thai massage traditions go back twenty centuries, conferring the same beneficence on the giver as the receiver. It is based on the theory that invisible lines of force run through the body. Muscles are worked and released, after a slow loosening. Another technique involves cutting off the circulation entirely in one area for a minute. There’s also some pinching and light hits, harder to describe. Movements and stretches are always gradual so you wind up in crazy positions without much strain. It’s astonishing how much pressure the masseuse can apply! At times, you feel like she weighs as much as a truck. It feels like a very thorough engine tune-up more than a massage!!! After the feet and legs, she works her way up to your back, arms, shoulders, and finally the head and face. It was disarming at first when my masseuse started a lively conversation with the masseuse two feet away. I thought I was supposed to relax? Nonetheless, I left invigorated and a bit groggy, feeling like I had been reborn. It is definitely an experience I will repeat as soon as I get my first paycheque!