When I was in university over ten years ago, a friend introduced me to a chat program called mIRC. Whenever we had free time at the university we would go to the top floor of the Library building, where they would let students use internet for free for research and assignment purposes, but funnily enough most students didn’t use for that, instead they used it for online chatting.

mIRC – remembering the old days.

Back then IRC (or Internet Relay Chat) was very popular, and so the area around then university had a lot of internet cafés. At night these would be very crowded, and I was one of those who was IRC addicted. Luckily I had a friend who owned an internet café near the university, and I was regular customer so got discounts. As I was new to the whole thing initially, the first greeting confused me, which was “ASL”… what the hell is ASL?!? I later found out this meant “Age, Sex, Location”. Some of my friends met with foreign guys via IRC although I never did met a guy via IRC myself, even though I spent a lot of time on there as it was free at that time.

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I have many foreigner friends, most of them from Europe, and I have been hanging out with them for a long time. I’ve discovered that many things that seem perfectly normal for us Thais, seem very strange for foreigners, and I’d like to share some of these with you guys.

1. Lets talk about food, I know that Thais, especially Isaan people (from the north-east) do love papaya salad so much, but most farangs can’t handle this,so they’d rather order a farang-style salad instead, But be careful, because Thais also call this type of food a salad as well, which can have two meanings:

a) You end up with just a lettuce for your lunch.

b) You actually get a proper western farang salad.

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Hi everyone I am finally back. Wow, I was away for a month travelling with my boyfriend and took a lot of photos and videos. We have been to quite a few new places this time, and they were all very interesting even though it rained a bit, as you will see in some of the photos. We still enjoyed ourselves anyway, and it gave us a chance to try out my new Fujifilm s1600 camera in different situations. Overall I think the pictures turned out great.

The first thing I thought about the next day was… taking him to pay our respects at the Udon Thani shrine near the central park as we usually do, so that the trip will go nice and smoothly, and we also prayed for our future and our family’s futures. Next to the Udon Thani shrine in the centre is a Chinese shrine with a Chinese zodiac all around it. We both take a great interest in our own Chinese zodiac signs (I was born in the year of the Monkey, Terry was born in the year of the Pig), and like to read our horoscopes regularly. We also took a few photos of this too.

As I mentioned in one of my previous blog entries, my boyfriend bought me some sexy outfits this time, oh yeah. I thought you might like to see them, so I’ve decided to add some glamour photos, feel free to give me comments hehe. Right, we were a bit bored, so we tried to find something INTERESTING and EXCITING to do… so do not ask what has happened after that!

It’s a long journey from the UK to the land of smiles, Thailand, and he was knackered when he arrived. I was giving him a massage to help him feel better the first night, but it was a very short one, it wasn’t a complete massage you know… so I had to take him to a proper Thai massage shop near my home later on to get a proper original Thai massage. he loved it, it was nice and clean, and this shop is by the river.

My dad surprised me during the second week of Terry’s stay, he had called me around 7am one morning, and said that he was on his way to Udon Thani and would arrive at our hotel in around an hours time… Woah! He became our guide and took us to four provinces (Khon Kaen, Chaiyaphum, Loei and Nongkai) in one day… unbelievable!

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The highlight of that day was visiting the Dinosaur Land in Tambon Nai Muang, Wiang Kao district, Khon Kaen province in the north-eastern region of Thailand. It was the first time there for me and my boyfriend, and we went to Phu Waing Dinosaur Museum (พิพิทธพันธ์ไดโนเสาร์ ภูเวียง). I was also surprised again, because we had actually set aside some money for the tickets, but we found out later that entry is free! You don’t have to pay for anything, all they ask is that you sign your name in the guest book as a visitor and give them some of your details, like where you are from and your gender; male or female, and that’s all.

In the air-conditioned exhibition centre itself is a geological museum that mainly exhibits fossils that tell the story of the history of dinosaurs. It is under the administration of the Department of Mineral Resources, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and it has been open to public since 2001.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took loads of photos and videos and it was very impressive. I felt my body was very small compared to the Dinosaurs… so you people can’t say I am big any more hehe. Right, we spent around an hour in the museum and then decided to leave as our stomach’s were making funny noises… uh huh time to have lunch! But we didn’t forget to first visit the souvenir shops across the road and also had some fresh hot coffee while we were there too

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next my dad took us to Chulabhorn Dam, which isn’t far from the Phu Waing Dinosaur Museum. It was a bit cloudy there and windy, nice weather in my opinion. The restaurant we went to is by the river, and you can see a really nice view from there from amongst the beautiful garden. The food was brilliant and very reasonably priced, and we enjoyed it a lot! I’d say it’s the most delicious food in a restaurant I’ve ever been to!

 

 

On the way back to Udon Thani we dropped by Erawan Cave (วัดถ้ำเอราวัณ) or Tham Erawan as it is known. This is on the border between Loei and Nongbualamphu province but we didn’t manage to get into the cave itself, as it was already dark when we arrived, so we just spent a short time in the temple there instead. I’ve been inside the cave before, like ten years ago, and it was such a beautiful cave then. I had spent around three hours on my journey to the cave at the time looking around.

Ok, that’s all for now about our long journey. For my next blog I plan to write about life here; the weather, food & drink, and the people that we’ve met. I look forward to hearing your comments on this or any other post I’ve written, and hope to have a new blog up for you guys again soon, take care for now!

Kit

Hello… and greetings to foreigners. When trying to get into the bars & restaurants of Thailand, please be aware that the pretty ladies in sexy outfits will always be willing to give you good service… welcome to Thailand, land of smiles. The funny thing is, when you pronounce “Welcome” in Thai it means “Karma”, and my dad likes to make fun of this.

They say beauty is on the eye of beholder, and of course when I ask my boyfriend “Hey babe, who is the most beautiful girl in the universe?” He immediately replies to me “You Kitiya!”. Haha, it’s funny, and I know he really means it, however, I always reply to him “Tell me something I don’t know, I already know that I am beautifullll….”. Of course I am his girlfriend, and he’d rather answer that way than have to sleep under the bed all night.

The truth is, I know that I am attractive enough, and I also know that he loves me head over heels, but please don’t take that the wrong way. I am naturally just a confident type of person, and cant really help myself. The truth is I have been single for all of my life until I met my British boyfriend at the age of 29, and we are still together. I’ve never had a Thai boyfriend, so this guy is the first man in my life… and he is also a farang.

I wonder if any of you think my situation is a bit strange? I was born and grew up in Thailand, and I have never lived abroad, but I have also never been in relationship with a man from my country. Most Thai women who are in a relationship or even married to a farang have been with a Thai man before, I’d say more than 70% of them, and of course there’s nothing wrong with that. I know that some people I know find my story bit weird, and I also know that my boyfriend has never been in a serious relationship with British lady either. Is it destiny? We were thousands miles apart before we met.

Actually, I had planned to write about this a long time ago as I find it a very interesting subject, and it is often talked about in Thailand. As an experiment I typed the words “Thai girl” into a search engine… the results for dating sites turned up pretty quickly, but actually this is pretty boring for someone who just wants to read an article about Thai girls…

You will often find that north-eastern Thai girls have tan skin. I know that in western countries they think tan or honey skin is very sexy, and I have heard it said by westerners that in the west, if you can afford to keep a tan, then you are considered a fairly wealthy person because you can afford to travel abroad, to Phuket or Bali for instance, to get a suntan.

In Thailand it’s not quite like that. I’ve seen Thai people make fun of north-eastern girls with their tan skin. It’s like “Oh hey are you from somewhere in the countryside?”, or “You’re from a farming family?”, or “Do you have a buffalo as a pet or what?”. The personal insults are a pain in the ass really, although I don’t think it makes any sense. Why does it happen? Is it just because that person has tan skin, or is it something else?

Most north-eastern Thai women seem to be proud of their tan skin now, especially those who have a farang lover. I’d say most of farangs I know find tan skinned women very attractive, some even to the point of obsession! It reminds me of very first time my boyfriend visited me for real, he was surprised that my skin was quite as tanned as it was, I guess it must have looked quite pale on the web-cam. He couldn’t stop looking at me and rubbing my skin… for days. Actually my real skin is quite fair, however the sun in Thailand is very strong, plus most of my clothes are tiny, so it’s quite easy to gain a tan very quickly.

There was a girl I knew once when I was a student. We studied in the same class, but other students liked to make fun of her looks. Yes, she was from countryside, from a farming family, and she was kind of poor. This one time she had to present a report in front of the entire classroom, and I noticed people giggling a lot, and she was getting a lot weird looks from the “sassy” girls. In the end, as it turns out, she eventually married a rich farang man, who spent a lot of money on surgery for her, as well as an intensive beauty course for her skin, and she looks a lot prettier. She is very happy now and is living abroad with her farang husband, but I’ve got no idea how those “sassy” girls are doing now. Have they heard about the country girl whom they used to make fun of? I wonder what they would have to say about her now?

It’s interesting how the attitude shown by the girls in the story I just related are reflected in modern buying attitudes in Thailand. Whitening lotion seems to be very popular here, as many Thai women/men, or indeed the “3rd sex”, seem to like their skin to be white. Some already have fair skin but want their skin to be even whiter, as they believe that having very fair skin will make them look more attractive, as many Thais adore it so much.

Most women from the north (not north-east) of Thailand have a very fair skin, and with their north accent it makes them sound very sweet. I think northern women are sweet and look adorable, southern women tend to be a bit more Indian looking, with honey skin. The average Thai women is between 154-158cm in height, and weighs around 43-52 kg… tiny huh?They usually have black or hazel eyes too. My dad said I have a very Thai face. A round face, full lips, pretty eyes, and a decent size but not too small nose. However, compared to an average Thai woman I am big, and they would call me fat/chubby. I doubt if they even know the word “curvy”, as my westerner friends think my figure is. They seem to know about “fatty” and “skinny” only!

Talking about “skinny”, it reminds me of my close friend. She’s an average Thai lady with a tiny body, around 156cm tall and 44kg in weight. She’s a lovely small lady who likes a big man. Her boyfriend or her ex’s are all big. She liked to give big men the eyes and then say to me “Hey Kit! He’s real cute isn’t he?” I was like “What? You obsessed!!.

Something that you guys have to know about Thai women is that most of us don’t speak fluent English, unlike Filipina women, so please bear with us. I know an Aussie man who goes for Thai women, and he’s only interested in Thai women. I used to ask him why they must be Thai? Apart from looks what else was there? Then he explained to me that he liked the fact that they mostly don’t speak fluent English, and that when they try to speak English he finds it very charming! Well that’s good to hear! With this in mind I’ve always said to my Thai students (when I’m teaching English) “Hey, don’t worry about it. Just speak out loud and confidently when speaking English and don’t be afraid that those farangs would laugh, it isn’t your mother language”. It’s also true that some English native speakers I know speak in pretty broken English anyway… people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones I guess!

The funny thing was, two days ago I was looking at a British website shopping online for dresses. I found my a great dress that was on sale… discounted from £45 to £9 in size 16 UK (my size), and there was only one left in stock. I was screaming out loud at the monitor, and sent a text message to my boyfriend telling him about the dress. Guess what? He was at work, and when he came back two hours later the dress had gone “out of stock”, ouch! He said “Darling, I’ve told you before that size 16 is a pretty average size in the UK”. Average Thai girls tend to be around 8-10 UK size… *sigh*, it’s hard to find my size in Thailand!

When I was younger I was taught that in order to be a good wife, it was necessary to learn how to cook, as the old wisdom says that it will help bind your husband to you. You guys love good food don’t you? Also, cleaning the house, and ironing and washing the clothes for your husband is taught as being a good thing. I did these things when my boyfriend was here, I washed his clothes as he was lying down on the bed watching me, but he tells me it actually made him feel a bit guilty.

You see, being pretty isn’t enough, but sadly the new generation of young Thai girls don’t seem to be interested in learning how to cook any more. There are convenience stores out there open 24 hours a day, the routine has changed, and life is one big rush, so no time for cooking. Fast food seems to be the choice now.

In my previous blog “How did you meet your Thai sweetheart” I talked about relationships between Thai women and foreign men. This is particularly relevant to me due to where I come from, as in Thailand, Udon Thani is known as the no.1 province for local women getting married to foreign men.

Now I bet you guys have got some questions about that, such as “What’s wrong with Thai men?” The answer that I got, from those women I know who have been in relationships with Thai men previously, is that they don’t like how Thai men treat them. They generally find that a farang treats them a lot better and with more respect. They also find that farangs tend to have better finances, and can look after the woman and her children much more easily. I am happy to hear about it when things go well, but its not always like that. For other couples the Thai lady just treats her farang like what I will call an “ATM machine”. I don’t mean to say that all of Thai girls are like that, and I am not going to go into the boring details here, as it’s a subject that has been discussed endlessly on many Thai/expat forums all over the internet. But it does happen.

I grew up in the conservative family, and my mother, nan and aunties were always telling me about how a decent girl should act.

So, what’s a decent Thai girl supposed to be like?

1. Speak softly  being a girl you aren’t suppose to yell or speak very loud especially in the public.

2. Dress decently  by this I mean not very showy, and of course cleavage must be hidden. Shorts or a skirt above your knees is considered TOO SHORT! C’mon at 35c!. Aunty please?

3. Following on from the previous entry  wearing shorts or a short skirt when you go to visit the temple is considered inappropriate (or you will get some weird looks from others)

4. No piercings (although ears are fine) and no tattoos.

5. Make-up is supposed to be light so don’t let the make-up get too thick (because they wont understand its fashion lol) or they might take it the wrong way, like “Hey did someone just punch you in the eye?” C’mon auntie, its called smokey eyes!

6.Decent Thai girls aren’t supposed to express their love to a man by kissing or hugging in public (this is hard for me when I see my boyfriend at the airport)

I think that’s all for now, though I doubt many Thai girls could follow these rules nowadays LOL.

Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed this weeks musings, until next time, take care of yourselves.

Kit