Daily Archives: March 18, 2005

Where is the toilet?

Posted on March 18, 2005 by | 7 comments

I think when I first came to Thailand, one of the first Thai phrases I learned was “Where is the toilet?” It is quite a simple phrase. All you have to say is “hong nam, yoo tee nai?” (toilet where?). I will talk about experiences in Thai toilets another time (complete with pictures). In the meantime, I will help you find where to find the correct toilet!

Finding a toilet or the right section isn’t a problem in Thailand if you keep to the main tourist route. The signs are nearly always in Thai and English and there is a picture of a man or woman for the different sections. However, as you travel to more isolated areas you might find it useful to recognise the Thai words.

Here are the first words you should look out for:

These are “hong nam” and “soo kaa” – two ways of saying toilet. You might see either.

Now for the signs that say “men” and “women”. If you are lucky, you will get a picture of each sex, but not always:

WOMEN

The one on the left says “ying” (you sometimes also see “poo-ying”). This is the more common lable for toilets. The one on the right “soo-pap-sa-dtree” is rarer but more proper.

MEN

The one on the left says “chai” (you sometimes also see “poo-chai”). This is the more common lable for toilets. The one on the right “soo-paap boo-root” is rarer but more proper.

You can see our collection of toilet signs in the Learn Thai with Pictures Photo Album. I thought I had seen just about all the signs possible. But, yesterday I was at the Ancinet City and these two toilet signs confused me for a second about which one was which:

As I can read, I could make an intelligent guess that the one on the left says “women” and the one on the right says “men”. The only way I could confirm this was to take a look inside! At the moment, I am presuming this is northern dialect.

Next time you are in Thailand, if you cannot read, enter the toilets slowly. Oh yes, I should add at this stage, the men’s toilets often have a female cleaner! They do that just to confuse you. Don’t take any notice.

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Posted in Learning Thai Experiences

Annual Budget!

Posted on March 18, 2005 by | 4 comments

Thailand is my home town and I have no idea The chancellor with the budgetwhen the budget comes out. hahaha…. that is the fact that every Thai citizen should know. Since, I was born in Thailand, I have never heard of such a thing… Until I went to Australia and studied about Economics and got pretty much interested in that country’s economic policy aims. Believe it or not, England is very much the same as Australia. People here focus a lot on their country’s economics and political issues. I was actually forced to buy today’s paper to study about the budget and this year’s UK fiscal policy. For those who do not know what I’m talking about. The budget is simply the year’s plan on government spending and investing. It shows where the country is heading towards the next fiscal year and a glimse of the next next year’s policies.

I really do think this is an issue where the government should focus on more as it is a very important issue. I often read the Thai paper to catch up on what’s happening in Thailand, I never find it interesting. Most of the stories are very much based on murder, rape, celebrities and sport. There are some political news and international news but they do not really cover the economic point of view. Here, they have 3 kinds of papers; Economic (Financial times), Political based (Times, telegraph, independent) and gossip based (the sun, mirror etc). FT is very interesting because it only focuses on economic issues. Sometimes they have political issues that correlates with economic issues as well. My course at Uni is based on that pricipal, so they try to get me to read FT as much as possible.

On the other hand, my friend who studies business in Thailand probably doesn’t read much of it especially if it’s in English. I hope the Thai government becomes more understanding of this problem and should very much make a forward move.

I know a lot of people who read my blog are English. So, I would like to spend a little time talking about England in the future. As far as I know, England is the most stable G7 country in terms of economics. It has a very strong policy throughout the year. However, last year was quite devastating for England because the spending on Iraq’s war. So, for the first time in years where England has to go into deficit which means it would boost its economy in order to generate profit and payback debt. This process will go on for about 5 years until debt is reduced from 37bn pounds to 20bn pounds. This year, the annual budget mainly goes to Education, health, hospital etc. It is a turnaround for England because the country has suffered a huge problem in catering patients and kids not going to school. The government even recommended to help pay for personal trainers for children with obesity! This would help English children in the long run and would help to reduce patience. Another main strategy to boost the economy is to raise interest rates. Interest rates have been re-set to 4.75% when it was slashed to 3% last year. This encourages money coming in from abroad and would boost national savings. It eventually makes the sterling stronger. So, I would invest in an English bank if I’m a rich man but apparently, I’m not lol…..

I would like to leave it for today. I’m sorry for not being able to provide the same information for the Thai economy as very little information is provided. I got to go now……..

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