So in the spirit of the lychee season, my middle school teacher friend, Paula, and I went out after dinner the other night to gather lychees. We found a tree just outside of school with some deep red fruits that looked absolutely delicious. I climbed up to the appropriate branch and began shaking but with no luck. Lychees are too firmly attached to their branches to shake them, you actually have to pick them off. Dangling from the branch now, I slowly began hand-over-handing my way to the end of the branch in an attempt to bend it low enough for Paula to grab the fruits. SNAP! I come tumbling down with an entire branch of the lychee tree. Now I'm not talking about a little branch, I'm talking about a full on bough. Aghh, I felt so bad. I had completely demolished a whole section of the tree. Turns out the lychees weren't even that good, and to add insult to injury (I wasn't actually injured), right behind that tree there was a lychee whose branches bowed all the way to the ground, you actually had to bend over to pick them.
Crud.
Just another day in Thailand.
Paula and I have a little thing going called "the quest for the normal day". It's actually more of my quest being observed by her. It just seems like everywhere I go something strange happens. The next day we decided to go into town to go to this organic restaurant that has the most amazing homegrown food. After about 20 attempts at the kick start, it was pretty clear Paula's moto was not going to start. Hearing our commotion, some 80 year old gardener wanders over and gets on the bike and starts trying with his rather feeble kicks. Seeing the old man on the bike brought over another gardener. Long story short, after taking apart pieces of the bike, they fixed the dang thang and we had an amazing day.
On the way back up the mountain we bought 2 kilo's of lychees, 20 something bananas, a giant papaya, and 5 avocados all for 3 US dollars. Love it.
Still looking for that normal day.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Psh
Now that it's the season, I can walk out of my apartment, jump up and pick some lychees off the tree outside and I've got myself a delicious little snack. Holy moly they're good.
Not missing the USA.
Not missing the USA.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Jing rue?
You know you live in Thailand when you:
-Take off your shoes before entering your apartment.
-Eat with a spoon and fork even when eating in your own home.
-Start ending questions with "chai mai" or "mai".
-Start agreeing by saying "ok krap" or "chai lao".
-Answer yes or no questions with just "krap".
-Start speaking English with tones.
-Put dried chili, chili paste, or chili sauce on everything.
-Smile and bow to everyone you see.
-Get hungry at 11:40pm and eat noodles with chilis.
-Even have noodles and chilis in your fridge in the first place.
-Say "oui!" when you're surprised.
-You're idea of a taxi is the back of a pickup truck (songtaew).
-Stand up before movies to honor the King.
-Consider food the ultimate gift.
-Speak broken English even to other English speakers.
-Show up 15 minutes late and you're still considered early.
-See at least 10 men dressed as women per day in town and don't even think twice about it.
-Consider 2 dollars for a meal insanely expensive.
-Seeing a family of four and their dog all piled on a motorbike doesn’t surprise you.
-Eat rice with every meal.
-Everyone you know owns at least one yellow shirt.
-3 dollars/night is a reasonable price for a 2 bed 1 bath room.
And the list goes on...
-Take off your shoes before entering your apartment.
-Eat with a spoon and fork even when eating in your own home.
-Start ending questions with "chai mai" or "mai".
-Start agreeing by saying "ok krap" or "chai lao".
-Answer yes or no questions with just "krap".
-Start speaking English with tones.
-Put dried chili, chili paste, or chili sauce on everything.
-Smile and bow to everyone you see.
-Get hungry at 11:40pm and eat noodles with chilis.
-Even have noodles and chilis in your fridge in the first place.
-Say "oui!" when you're surprised.
-You're idea of a taxi is the back of a pickup truck (songtaew).
-Stand up before movies to honor the King.
-Consider food the ultimate gift.
-Speak broken English even to other English speakers.
-Show up 15 minutes late and you're still considered early.
-See at least 10 men dressed as women per day in town and don't even think twice about it.
-Consider 2 dollars for a meal insanely expensive.
-Seeing a family of four and their dog all piled on a motorbike doesn’t surprise you.
-Eat rice with every meal.
-Everyone you know owns at least one yellow shirt.
-3 dollars/night is a reasonable price for a 2 bed 1 bath room.
And the list goes on...
Friday, March 21, 2008
Poot dai nit noy krap!
More.
Have you ever wondered why Asians say "hello" as herro and a word like "courage" comes out as coulage? I always thought that it was because Asians didn't have an "L" or an "R" in their language, but as far as what I've learned about Khmai, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Japanese, this is not the case.
In Thai, for example, there are tons of words with R sounds and L sounds, the problem is that they're considered interchangeable when speaking Thai. They are not interchangeable when speaking English. So if I want to say 120 in Thai I can say roy yee sip or I can say loy yee sip and the listener would understand me just the same. Conversely, in English, a Land Rover is much different than a Rand Lover. It also happens that when r's occur in the middle of the words they are often dropped. A great example is when kids call to me and I hear: khu khap! I know what they are really saying is kroo krap, which is the way you address a teacher.
So next time you hear an Asian mix up his L's and R's, don't make fun, because in their native language it's perfectly acceptable to interchange.
Have you ever wondered why Asians say "hello" as herro and a word like "courage" comes out as coulage? I always thought that it was because Asians didn't have an "L" or an "R" in their language, but as far as what I've learned about Khmai, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Japanese, this is not the case.
In Thai, for example, there are tons of words with R sounds and L sounds, the problem is that they're considered interchangeable when speaking Thai. They are not interchangeable when speaking English. So if I want to say 120 in Thai I can say roy yee sip or I can say loy yee sip and the listener would understand me just the same. Conversely, in English, a Land Rover is much different than a Rand Lover. It also happens that when r's occur in the middle of the words they are often dropped. A great example is when kids call to me and I hear: khu khap! I know what they are really saying is kroo krap, which is the way you address a teacher.
So next time you hear an Asian mix up his L's and R's, don't make fun, because in their native language it's perfectly acceptable to interchange.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Poot pasaat Tai dai mai?
Let's talk about Thailand. The little things are the best part...
In English if we want to say something is really easy we say "that's a piece of cake!". Well here in Thailand, we don't eat cake, but there is an equivalent phrase. In Thai, you say "kruey kruey!" which is literally "banana banana", but means that something is really easy. "Kruey" is pronounced with a falling tone and it's really fun to say. Kruey kruey! I like to say it at the most random moments.
A recent English phenomenon is "lol" which obviously stands for laugh out loud. Well since Thai has a totally different alphabet there isn't a direct translation, but once again there is an equivalent term. Here in Thailand, kids write 555. In Thai, the number five is pronounced "haah" with a falling tone. So 555 is "haah haah haah", it's laughing! Took me a long time to figure that one out no doubt. I thought people were writing the area code for someone's phone.
One more.
Let me introduce you to my new favorite animal:
In English if we want to say something is really easy we say "that's a piece of cake!". Well here in Thailand, we don't eat cake, but there is an equivalent phrase. In Thai, you say "kruey kruey!" which is literally "banana banana", but means that something is really easy. "Kruey" is pronounced with a falling tone and it's really fun to say. Kruey kruey! I like to say it at the most random moments.
A recent English phenomenon is "lol" which obviously stands for laugh out loud. Well since Thai has a totally different alphabet there isn't a direct translation, but once again there is an equivalent term. Here in Thailand, kids write 555. In Thai, the number five is pronounced "haah" with a falling tone. So 555 is "haah haah haah", it's laughing! Took me a long time to figure that one out no doubt. I thought people were writing the area code for someone's phone.
One more.
Let me introduce you to my new favorite animal:
Behold, the Tokay Gecko. In Cambodia, they call them "took-ow" geckos. In Thailand it's called a "took-keh" gecko. It has this name for a very specific reason. Like all geckos, the Tokay gecko has a voice, but man what a voice he's got. I remember the first time I heard one was in Cambodia in our room early in the morning. All of a sudden I was awoken by what I thought was my dad shouting "UH-OH!". It was a pretty deep voice and it was loud, like he was using a raised voice right next to me. Turns out it was a "took-ow" gecko. Yesterday I was in my room when I heard a huge, booming "TOOK-KEH!". To me it's really funny, and I've never actually seen one in person but, man, I can hear them just fine.
Turns out Thai people are terrified of this lizard. First, they can bite, and they can bite pretty hard. They're very aggressive too and nearly a foot long. Second, there is a snake here in the jungle that can make the same noise. The snake uses the noise to attract the female Tokay's and then eat them. But there's another side to these beasts...
In America, if you want some good, sound advice you ask a daisy as you pluck it's flowers: "She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me...". In Thailand you ask the took-keh. "She loves me" "TOOK-KEH!" "She loves me not" "TOOK-KEH"... Once the took-keh stops, you're left with the last option you said, just like the daisy leaves you with its last petal. People also use took-keh's to pick lottery numbers. If the took-keh responds to your number, you choose it, if he doesn't you pick a new one.
More as it comes. Till then, follow this link to hear a took-keh in action. Dadadadada TOOK-KEH!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokay_gecko
Thursday, March 6, 2008
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