Thai Observations

) Thais are transfixed with snakes. Our first night at the
guesthouse bar had a "National Geographic" nature special playing in
the TV background. no one payed attention. Then, the segment turned
to snakes. All the Thais around the bar were instantly intrigued,
looking, pointing, shouting at the screen! As soon as it was over,
and the segment switched to another animal (great white shark), all
the Thais turned away, just as quickly. I'll soon start a 24-hour
snake cable channel in Thailand and make millions.

2) All the food is great in Thailand, except for the stuff cooked for
the "farang" - foreigners. No one believed us when we went to
restaurants and asked for it spicy-Thai style. For the non-touristy
restaurants that we did go to, the food was phenomenal, especially the
roasted eggplant. You could tell the quality of the place by one
slurp of its Tom Yum soup.

3) Thailand used to be overrun by backpacking Israelis straight out of
the army. No more. The country has become too expensive and "safe".

4) Bangkok is a much less seedy city, and is now actually easy to get
around. The vibe's fantastic and the pollution was not so bad.

5) The islands of South Thailand can still be paradise on earth.
True, Koh Phi Phi has lost its soul, though we did find a slice of
paradise on electricity-free Koh Jum. That's going to change by next
year, though, when they build a new electricity cable.

6) I've never managed to pronounce spoken Thai in such a way that
Thais can understand, and that's still the case. They do find it
amusing, though.

7) Thais have loads of personality and are hilarious, especially the
women. Our train attendant / food server helped herself to a bottle
of beer -on our tab - while on the Mekong-Bangkok night train. She
was so funny, though, we gladly paid up. After we took a photo with
her, she grabbed the camera, looked at the digital picture, and said
"sexy, sexy!". I think she was referring to herself. By the way, even
the Tom Yum Soup on the train is better than the average soup you can
find in a US Thai restaurant.

8) We were told that it's better to drink hot liquids and soup when
it's very hot outside as to trick the body to cool down. I think it's
a sadistic joke on the farang. I'll do with an ice-cold Singha beer.

9) Thais in general speak in a much softer, quieter tone than
Westerners do. It took a few days to get used to this and lower our
voices as well. Unfortunately, it's now back to normal.

10) Siamese cats in Thailand are very cute, but the ones in Laos are
even cuter, as you will find out in my next segment.