Be sure you have your ticket(s), passport and a photo I.D. (driver’s license) in an accessible place on your person. A fanny pack or wallet that attaches to your belt works well. In Thailand you will also need your passport to register in some hotels and to cash checks in a bank. It’s a good idea to have a copy of your passport somewhere else on your person.
Thailand is on a latitude with Central America, which makes it a tropical country except in the mountainous north. The clothing you bring should be mostly summer-weight sport clothes. In the city, slacks (chinos) are preferable to shorts, and leave the loud Hawaiian-style shirts at home! Thais are mostly conservative neatness freaks who manage to look fresh-pressed even at the end of a long, hot day, and you will gain points in their eyes if you can look the same. Of course, shorts are fine for hiking in the country or on extremely hot days, but they are not appreciated
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when visiting a temple. Women can wear slacks and generally blouses with short sleeves. A pair of comfortable walking shoes, a pair of sneakers and sandals, which can be quickly removed when visiting a temple, will be enough. Bring toilet paper (more on this below). A folding umbrella is good, too.
A small supply of common remedies (aspirin, Pepto-Bismol or Lomotil, antiseptic ointment like Neosporin, a few Band-Aids) should suffice; these are all available in Thailand as well. Don’t forget sunscreen!
Don’t bring too many clothes – laundry service is cheap, quick and available everywhere, and you might want to buy clothes over there.
Try to get everything into a medium-size suitcase and a bag like a gym bag which you can carry on the plane. I combine this with a small toiletries bag, but remove all scissors and other potential weapons! And don’t forget your camera!!
Thai money is the baht, worth about 2-l/2 cents. It comes in coins of 1, 5 and 10-baht denominations, and in paper 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000-baht. Conversion to and from dollars is easy; I do it this way: since everything in Thailand is priced in baht, I read 500 b. as $5.00, then double that and add l/2 of the original amount. So 500 b. = $5 + $5 + $2.50, or $12.50. Practice that a bit, and you’ll catch on. For dollars you must multiply by 40, since there are about 40 baht in a dollar. So $30 x 40 = 1200 baht.
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While we’re on the subject, you will need 500 baht when we leave Bangkok to pay the airport departure tax. Incidentally, you’ll be relieved to find that tipping is not expected for most services, but a restaurant may add a 10% service charge. ATMs are available in the cities, but check with your bank to be sure your card is good internationally. Travelers’ checks are probably best cashed in a bank, and you will most likely have to present your passport as well. Most big stores will accept the major credit cards, but many merchants will charge an extra 4% or so if you charge a purchase! If you bring cash, make it in new bills – “tired” money is suspect, and often refused.
With a small merchant at a stall, you can bargain for a lower price; offer about half of what he wants, and move upward until you both are happy. This is expected, and you will still be happy with the price, even though it’s probably slightly higher than a Thai would pay. There is a two-tier price structure for Thais and farangs (foreigners); they figure if you have more money you should pay more! At large stores and chains there is no bargaining.
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Most educated Thais speak at least a little English, although both the grammar and the comprehension sometimes get a bit muddled. Don’t shout in English – he’s not stupid – just try to say it in a different way! Thai is an ancient and complicated language, very beautiful to look at, but incomprehensible to Westerners. A few words will get you a long way: “Hello” and “Goodbye” are both “Sawadee Khrup” for male speakers, and “Sawadee Kah” for women speakers. “Khrup” and “Kah” are the equivalent of saying “Period”. “Thank you” is “Kop khun khrup” (or kah). Most people use a short nickname for a first name, preceded by “Khun”, so Poj is “Khun Poj,” for example. It’s surprising how far you can get with just these few words! |
Thais greet each other with a “wai” – hands together at chest height, and a slight bow of the head. As an honored guest, you are not expected to return the wai, but if you do, make it slight, as you are assumed to be a person of higher status. The head, as the seat of wisdom, is considered sacred, the feet are filthy, and everything in between is neutral!
So one never pats another on the head, even children, and shoes are removed upon entering a temple or a home. Avoid pointing the soles of your feet at anyone, especially the statue of the Buddha! Thailand is a constitutional monarchy, and the royal family is highly regarded. Never say anything derogatory about the king! Even at the movies, a short tribute is shown before the movie begins, and everyone stands for that.
Thai food is tasty, plentiful, healthful, and often spicy! But there’s a lot of variety, and you can always find something good in your temperature range. Excellent seafood abounds, and the meats are chicken, duck, pork and beef. There is a
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wide variety of fruits and vegetables, all worth trying. Have you ever eaten morning glory vine? Flavorful Thai rice accompanies everything, and most dishes are served “family style” – the food is all placed on the table, and everyone helps himself. Generally you are given a fork and a table spoon – you use the fork to load the spoon, and eat from the spoon! Bottled drinking water is safe, as is ice in any reputable establishment. A good restaurant doesn’t want sick patrons! Only “street food” is sometimes doubtful, but even that is mostly fine. The bottled green tea is excellent, as is green tea ice cream! The beers (Singha, Chang and Kloster) are better than ours. The local whisky is Mekong, which is slightly sweet and usually drunk with soda and lime. Wine is not a big item with Thais.
First of all, the Thais are not at all bashful about bodily functions; if you ask about the bathroom in a restaurant, they will probably giggle and wonder why you would want to take a bath just then! Ask for the toilet instead. There are three “levels” of toilet facilities. You are not likely to encounter the most primitive, which is the Asian-style toilet flush with the floor, which you flush with a dipper of water from the big jar which is always there. How you use those things without wetting your clothes or losing your wallet is still a mystery to me! Anyway, they are mostly found out in the country, but you might encounter one at a gas station “pit stop”. The next level up is a standard flush toilet, but without toilet tissue. Instead, there is a spray hose just like the one at your kitchen sink which, with a little practice, you learn to spray yourself clean without hitting the ceiling. Again, I don’t know how they dry themselves afterward, so plan to carry some toilet paper or pocket tissues. And the top rung is again a standard flush toilet, but before you enter the stall, you buy a little packet of tissues from the dispenser near the door (usually 2 baht), and hope you have enough to finish the job! Then you usually deposit the tissue in the little step-on can instead of flushing it down, which is a very hard habit to learn! (Too much tissue apparently clogs up the municipal sewage system). And don’t be concerned about the nice old lady who cleans the floor around you while you are busily engaged – she’s seen it all by now!
Thai bathrooms are literally called the “wet room,” because the shower is a hand-held spray in one corner, and the room is expected to get wet. You will quickly learn how to avoid spraying the mirror and the toilet seat!
Small bars abound, and most of them have a “show” or two in the course of the evening. This is usually a series of absolutely amazing drag “singers” performing to recorded music, or at a “boy bar,” maybe 30 young guys of all types dancing on stage in their tightie whities, each with a number on the waistband. Between “acts” they will circulate among the patrons, and you can just be friendly and talk and smile, or buy them a drink, or go the whole way and “buy them out” for the evening by paying the manager, usually about $7 to $10. What happens after that is up to you. But be careful – thievery is all too easy when you are the rich foreigner and they are living from hand to mouth!
Thailand is the Land of Massage – it is everywhere, in all varieties. The Buddhist monks even teach massage in the temple schools. Still, it’s a great way to spend an hour or so, and you will discover body parts and motions you didn’t
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know existed! For both sexes there are also spas and saunas, many quite luxurious, and all affordable. The largest and finest usually include steam rooms and dry saunas, Jacuzzis, gyms, pool, restaurant, hotel rooms and even nightly discos and theme parties. You could spend your life there, and save money doing it!
These are the high spots; you are sure to have questions of your own, and you are welcome to contact me at any time. Above all, remember that we all want to have a good time, and everyone in Thailand is going to make sure that we do! Sawadee khrup!
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