Thai hospitality starts with two words KIN KOW!
Literally meaning “eat rice”, you hear these words daily all over the Kingdom!
Pee Nai Kin Kow? Where you go, to eat? Chatting with most Thais, these happy phrases quickly tell you that you are with friends.
The foods of Thailand make it the richest culinary nation of all South East Asia.
From apples in the northern provinces to exceptional seafood from the south, eating in any area of Thailand is a guarantee to delicious food, fixed with loving care, designed exquistely and served with humility.
The way a Thai person hands you anyway, with two hands, the left hand under the right wrist, backed by the famed “Thai smile”,inviting you to take your share, their generosity is second to none.
If you’re eating in a Thai house, you’ll see that little basket on the table that holds prix nam pla, chopped peanuts, red chili sauce and soi sauce.
Additional containers of sliced cucumber, meenow[chopped lime]and various chilis with different veggies are only a hint of what is to come.
Having eaten in many Thai friends homes in Old Patong, Patong Patty and I would watch carefully, Patty often taking notes on how certain Thai dishes are really accomplished and helping with things to get the meal out.
Often, leaving our little house by the waterfall in Baan Nam Sai Yen, our neighbor across the street, Khun Dak, the local refrigeration/electronics tech, would yell out “Kin Kow”? a big grin on his face as we waved and buzzed by on the Spirit Of Patong.
Sometimes, we’d not even make it the short 2 kilometers to the beach before some friend would flag us down, invite us in, and we’d be eating foods we’d never seen before, prepared in ways we’d try to find out about and enjoying an afternoon or evening that was far from planned!
Our village was not big and most of the streets were dirt, but the feeling there was unlike any place we’d ever lived, driving by, Mothers would proudly hold up their babies and the children would giggle and clap when they’d see a glimpse of The Spirit Of Patong.
We knew it couldn’t get any better and that greener pastures were for the tourists that would visit 4 cities in 4 days.
In Old Patong, as in most of Thailand, at the time, for us, a Paradise found.
