To Know the Wai of Thailand

Well, I'm coming up on the two-week mark here in Thailand.  Boy, has it been great.  I thought I'd include a few details on cultural dimensions of an expatriate in the Land of Smiles.

The Wai:
Pronounced "why", the wai is the form of greeting in Thailand.  It looks like this:

Whenever greeting a Thai person, you would say "Sa-waa-dee-krap" (if you're male) and "Sa-waa-dee-kaa" if you're female.  When saying this, you wai them.  The more important people are or if they are an elder, the higher you go with your hands.  If you are a teacher or an elder and a child wais you, you could wai back or just nod your head and say sa-waa-dee-krap. 

This took some getting used to.  And am I finding more and more rules to this.  For example, the feet are considered the most unholy part of the body, while the head is considered the holiest.  To point your feet at someone, pet a dog with your feet or even use your feet to move a chair is considered rude.  This extends to the shoes as well.  So when I wai'd my Thai teammates on the soccer field last week with my cleats in hand, it didn't go over so well.  A resounding "ooooaahh" clearly indicated I'd done something wrong.  I felt like a dork, but that's all part of the fun in being in a completely new culture :)  Oh, and it didn't help when I did it again when leaving -- OOPS!

Even the dogs wai!!!

This is Ang Pow, one of Kayne and May's three dogs.  She is some kind of terrier mix I think.  And would you believe she's 15 years old!!!!!

Trash cans:

A decent trash can is hard to come by in Thailand.  They are truly few and far between.  And the funny thing is they use plastic bags for EVERYTHING.  They put their sauces in plastic bags, their slurpees in plastic bags.  You get bananas at the market, they give it to you in a plastic bag.  But where do you put all these damn plastic bags when you're done?!

Female cleaners in the men's bathroom:

Just thought this was kind of funny.  You'll be taking a leak in the bathroom at a mall and all of sudden an old Thai woman will come in with a mop and start cleaning.  I kind of flinched when I first saw it, double-taking a little.  But when I noticed the Thai men going about their business I figured it was normal.  And it is.

Protein and fiber:

Both very much lacking in the Thai diet.  And in much of the Asian diets for that matter.  Every dish will have some form of meat, whether beef, pork (lots of pork here), chicken or duck.  And with this meat will be -- at least to me -- a disproportionate amount of white rice or noodles.  There will usually be a small side of vegetables.  

When you go to a 7-11, any other convenience store or even a grocery store they have ZERO protein bars.  Everything is practically based around the unholy white carbohydrate.  Lots of sweets, chips, fried snacks, etc.  I'm figuring out a few tricks to work around this. 

And protein powder -- yikes!  I went to a GNC last week.  It was 3,600 Baht for a container of protein powder!  That computes to over $110 USD.  The same thing in The States would be $25.  

The food is unique and good, but man, I just wish they'd put a little more emphasis on fiber and protein.  They are two things I just gotta have. 

Parking at the mall:

Parking at malls is very unique.  All cars park backwards into their spot (which makes sense) but then other cars will park perpendicular to those cars -- parking right in front of them.  Looks like this: 

The perpendicular cars don't put their parking brake on and keep their transmissions in neutral.  Then, if your car is blocked, you just push the cars out of the way and drive out.  It's kind of fun when you think about it. 

I have many more details on cultural dimensions.  I don't want to keep these posts too long so I'll let you go for now.  Definitely more in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, here are some more videos and pictures I think you'll enjoy. 

Sumo and Ang Pow:

This is Amanda, a foreign teacher from Sweden teaching at the Learning Home: 

Zoro, a foreign teacher's pet flying squirrel: 

A cute video of me and one of my Thai students after class: