The Free Land - Miscellaneous

I don't know why I feel that I need to write one more posting about Thailand.

So, here are some of my miscellaneous thoughts about Thailand. about the people, habits, and unique and different things that I can't resist, in random order-of course.

1. The King and Royal Family

The picture below is a statue of King Rama V, one of the most successful Thai Kings.

I grew up in a country with such a hatred to the government. Most of my friends from all over the world don't have any sympathy to their countries' governments either.

Take my Canadian friends for example, they didn't even care that Queen Elizabeth II is still the monarch leader in the country.

Or that some of my German friends go for demonstrations all the time to protest their government.

My British friends didn't even care about the royal family or any elections.

So I was asking some stuff about Thai royal family when I asked,

"So, if your King dies..."

and Jo was like, "Oh my God! Alien! that's such a terrible thing to say..."

I was so surprised.

I mean, Thais honor their King so high, it was almost like they think their King, who is now really old, will never die.

This is something very new for me.

Here I am. Mocking my country's leader all the time, and my country never actually gets better.

Maybe if Indonesians learn from Thais, how Thais respect and honor their leader, Indonesia will be as amazing as Thailand.

(Amazing Thailand. that's their tourism tagline)

2. Garuda and Naga

I am pretty sure that both 'Garuda' and 'Naga' words come from Bahasa Indonesia.

what I'm not sure is where are those two words come from? Sanskrit?

I totally got a wow moment when I learned that Indonesia and Thailand have the same exact words for Garuda and Naga.

and another wow moment when I found out that Thailand also use Garuda as their national emblem.

Can we be more similar than that???

3. Star Trek-y Escalator

I had to wait for about four hours in Suvarnabhumi Airport when I got to Bangkok, in order to fly to Chiang Mai.

About half an hour of my four hours was spent on admiring this escalator below.

this is no ordinary escalator.

the going-down escalator consists of a downslide, a flat area, and then another downslide.

the same thing happens with the going-up escalator.

why would they put two slides instead of one slide per one escalator?

Jo and I have no clue. It was just an extra-ordinary escalator that needs to be admired.

as Samuel said, "everything looks very much similar to everything on Star Trek." LOL

4. Jelly Fish

I saw lots of jelly fish on Spongebob Squarepants.

I saw Seven Pounds and how the lead actor (played by Will Smith) dies with a sting of jelly fish.

I had many jelly fish dishes in my life.

but I couldn't recall any moment in my life seeing a real jelly fish.

And I even touched them in Phuket!!!

how cool is that???

of course the one I touched was the totally harmless ones. the eat-able ones.

5. Wawee Coffee

If you're going to Thailand as a huge coffee lovers and you're still drinking Starbucks instead of Wawee Coffee, you're missing on the whole point of having a cup of Thai coffee!

Wawee is a local coffee joint in Thailand, which sell coffee for half the Starbucks' price.

the coffee is also served in a pretty wide range of drinks. hot, cold, icy, flavory, you name it!

they also sell a wide selection of local tea. not forgetting the world-famous' Thai milk tea.

I also got a wow moment when I drank their coffee for the first time.

I had an ice coffee, one of their signature ones, and it was served in a totally great cup.

The plastic in their plastic cup is very thick, it's almost similar to a water bottle.

when I asked the barista about their amazingly thick plastic cup, she was smiling and said,

"don't worry. we recycle. our plastic is better than Starbucks', isn't it?"

Oh yeah!

6. Never-bored Bamboo Dance

Have you ever seen the dance on the picture below?

if you haven't seen it, go to almost every South-East Asian countries and I bet you can find it almost every where. (well, I think. besides Singapore, you can pretty much find it every where else)

I remember learning to play/dance it back when I was still in elementary.

We learned it on boy/girl scouts.

I saw this bamboo dance as a traditional Filipino dance.

and when Thailand has it, Laos and Cambodia should have it.

and when Indonesia has it, I bet Malaysia has it.

and that pretty much cover South East Asia.

(I have to get back to you about Brunei, Myanmar, and Vietnam)

7. The Motionless Guard

It's very interesting to see a Thai guard who can not move at all.

I mean, seeing the Buckingham Palace guard for me was nothing new. Almost all the British guard are caucasians and therefore they look like a bunch of dolls to me.

But Thais are so very similar to Indonesians, therefore they look like a bunch of real people to me.

imagining a real person not moving for such a long time is unbearable.

I wonder if we have similar guards in Indonesia...

I can't remember what the Keraton guards look a like.

8. Lost in Translation: Books

So as many other Bangkok visitors, I spent a whole day in Chatuchak weekend market.

I felt that I tear the market apart.

I went from one end to the other, I walked too much. I was so tired, I felt like loosing my legs.

That was when I found out they also sell books.

mostly secondhand, but if you really look, some of the books are still in really good condition.

I was in the middle of the market, wondering around, and I found books in Bahasa Indonesia.

It was very shocking.

The seller didn't even speak any English and she was selling books in Bahasa Indonesia!

When I asked her how she got all the books. She said some tourist sold or gave them to her.

I wonder if anyone will buy them...

9. Pork or No Pork?

I wrote before how Thais are crazy about pork.

I also wrote about how I don't really eat street/market food in Indonesia.

but in Thailand, their street food always looked so good.

I was so tempted to buy them but I didn't wanna risk it.

Eating pork was not worth it.

10. Boiling Cocoon

I went to many fabric factories.

I know how people made thread, I know how to made silk, I know how they create a piece of expensive hand-woven fabric.

But somehow, I got all fascinated by these cocoon.

how they were so tiny, but they made up a spool of thread.

how they were so rough, but they got really soft after dyeing.

and how they transform uni-color fibre to colorful fabrics.

I took lots of pictures of the cocoon. I don't know why.

So there, some of my miscellaneous thoughts about Thailand: its people, habits, and others.

Now, I can't wait for my next trip!!!