Thai time and other culture differences

I'm waiting to go to my teaching placement now. We were told to meet at the other dorm at 7:30am and its now 7:50 am. They call it "thai time". It's sorta like Jew time, so I understand. We'll be lucky to leave before 8:30 i think.

I wanted to take the opportunity to share some of the vastly different ideals/customs etc that I have been experiencing in Thailand!

Before entering any house, some stores, offices etc., you must take off your shoes. I think it has a religious reasoning behind it, but I'm not really sure what that reason is.

Bikes are everywhere. Except mine of course. I can't find mine anywhere. Not good. But people bike everywhere. By the end of this trip I will be so fit.

There are hardly any stores here, but there are five different markets, plus street vendors all over the place. When I say markets, I mean mile long markets, not just a few stalls. You can get everything you want at these markets from a pair of cotton pants(which I got for 60THB, which is less then $2USD) to a remote control, and pots/pans to electronics. Also, as expressed above the prices are really cheap.

We can't drink the water from the tap, we need to buy bottles, yet the ice by law has to be servable. I think the most expensive water I have had is like 10THB (which is like30 cents maybe). They also have water for us at the dorms. I decided to bike around at like noon yesterday for a few hours without water. Big mistake. Within minutes I had a humongous headache.

I know this isn't true of everyone's experience, but to me it seems like every day is a celebration in Thailand. At least in Nongkhai. Yesterday marked the beginning of a two week celebration remembering and honoring those who lost their lives in any wars fought by thailand. While they aren't in many world wide conflicts, there have always been tensions between Thailand and Burma. The border is a disputed area and they have lost many soldiers to the cause. In addition to the two week celebration, it is also the "summer" recess, and the chinese new Year. So either way there are and will be many celebrations throughout my stay.

The toilets. Actually the bathrooms as a whole are a whole new experience. In my dorm we have two bathrooms. The bottom floor has a thai toilet. Basically some porcellin on the floor, with a hole in it. It does however, have a "western" shower, which is a shower head coming out of the wall, not actually in a shower, but just kinda randomlly on the wall. The water pressure is so weak, it takes me like 5 minutes to get the shampoo out of my hair. The floor is dirty, because the entire bathroom is essentially the shower, since there are no walls to contain it. It's great fun. Upstairs, is a thai shower, which is basically two basins. One has standing water and the other is empty. You literally splash yourself with the standing water until you are clean. The toilet however is a "western" toilet. Although, it doesn't flush, so the only thing western about it, is that you can sit on the toilet instead of squat. To "flush" the toilet, you use the same standing water as the shower, and using a bowl you keep putting water down the toilet, until you don't see what you put down there. Oh, and you can't put toilet paper down the toilet, there is a garbage for that. I really hope i don't have to take that garbage out! I've lucked out though and only had to use a thai toilet once, and only to pee. I'm sure you appreciated that graphic depiction.

Monks are everywhere. They wear orange robes and have shaved heads. There are two temples down the street from me. Women cannot touch monks. It is forbidden by Buddhist custom/law. If I had to hand a monk something I would have to put it on a cloth that he wasn't touching. A little crazy, but ok.

It is overall very safe here, aside from a pickpocket or some other petty/non-violent crime. I'm also in a city that is a border town between Thailand and Laos. If it wasn't, there would be hardly anyone in the town I think. I do see some westerners, or farang(but the "r" is pronounced like an "L") but not many, aside from the other volunteers. The only "gangs" I need to worry about, are the gangs of unruly dogs that roam the streets and terrorize the bikers. Think Lady and the Tramp, or Oliver and Company. The dogs just sit outside on the road, and at night get aggressive.

I'm sure there is much more culture differences, but I haven't even been here 48 hours yet!