Daily Archives: September 20, 2005

Thai Superstitions

(1) Do not take off a ring from someone else’s finger because you will be taking away the people they love.
(2) Do not spit in the toilet because you will have a mole on your lips.
(3) Do not spit towards the sky because it is a sin.
(4) Do not pluck your eyebrows during the evening because bad things will happen to you.
(5) Do not plough on holy days because the rice won’t grow.
(6) Do not say to a baby that they are cute because the ghost will come and take the baby away.
(7) Do not break anything on your wedding day because it is a sign that your marriage won’t last.
(8) Do not drop chopsticks during the Chinese New Year because you won’t make a good living.
(9) Do not let a woman sit on a staricase for a long time because she will have a difficult labour.
(10) Do not sit higher than a monk because it is a sin.
(11) Do not sit on the big water jars because it is a sin.
(12) Do not sit on pillows meant for your head because you will get a painful rash on your behind.
(13) Do not count off the names of people that have died because you will be next.
(14) Do not keep anything belonging to the temple inside your house because a disaster will happen to you.
(15) Do not offer the same food to your dead ancestors and to the monks because you will then rot in hell.

The Road Not Taken

“TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both …..”

Sawasdee Krab!

Robert Frost, my favorite American poet in high school. Also my favorite poem, ‘The Road Not Taken’, the perfect title and beginning of this weeks Thai ‘fanatical’ tale. Yesterday while knocking about and browsing the shops in my neighborhood I unexpectedly stumbled onto my blog for this week.

For days I had thought about, half written in my head, reviewed and discarded several ideas for my latest but nothing seemed to fit! For one reason or another several ideas were good (in my humble opinion) but could not be written yet because of timing. Trust me on this that timing always works best for me. One idea however kept coming back to me and had for several months but up until now I felt it was the one blog I could never write without giving Richard and some readers a heart attack!

Still the more I thought about it the more I saw a challenge to tell my tale without causing cardiac arrest. So what was this great but terrifying blog about? Nothing less than the true story of how Wit first met Thailand.

As an ‘out’ Thai Fanatic I run into the usual questions a lot. Someone sees the book about Thailand I am reading on the train and is curious. Someone at the coffee shop notices the strange language I am writing notes in and asks me what it is. A co worker stops by my desk and notices the Muay Thai background on my computer or the Suriyo Thai poster on my wall. Thus begins a short discussion about Thailand before they ask the usual questions.

Someone: “When (or how long) were you in Thailand?”
Wit: “Uhm, actually I have never been there before.”
Someone again: *Curious pause* “Oh, so why do you like Thailand so much?”
Wit: “Well I like Thailand because (insert what pops in my head that I like about Thailand at the moment) …..”

Sometimes though someone will ask THE QUESTION which is not really why I became so into Thailand but HOW. Ah yes, theres a story for you but usually for time, and to protect the innocent, I brush over the question with a heavily censored Readers Digest version and let the subject drop.

Still I am the type of person that mai chop go hok (don’t like to tell a lie) even when it’s probably the best thing to do in a situation. I’ve wanted to tell the truth about how I found Thailand for awhile but for a long time felt that was a secret to be kept, well secret! Plus I just wasn’t sure how to do it anyway I mean how do you tell a secret? You whisper it of course! So if it helps you dear reader as you embark on the rest of this missive just pretend I am whispering my secret in your ear.

I have a feeling that this blog will undoubtedly be controversial with some folks on here and for that I do apologize in advance. All I ask is just hear me out before you want to run my tail out of Thai Blogs on a rail!

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