Interesting Thailand Tidbits

We are home from our 2-week Thailand trip and I have one final list of interesting items to share.

• Stray dogs were everywhere. Good thing Alice wasn't with us. She would be wanting to pet every dog and some of them looked diseased with bad skin.

• Masks. Quite a few people were wearing masks to cover their noses and mouths. Not sure if they were avoiding germs or not wanting to spread them. The two girls giving Lexi and me our spa treatments at the fancy hotel were wearing them. Sort of makes you feel dirty.

Water Taxi ticket taker wearing mask

• Spray Nozzle in bathroom. Like a bidet in a toilet I guess. Even the nice bathrooms had these. Sometimes there was no toilet paper in a public restroom, I guess you were supposed to make do with the spray nozzle. I learned to always carry a packet of tissues with me. In fact, the welcome bag our tour agency gave us contained a pack of tissues, now I know why. 

• Squatty Potty. This almost deserves a blog post on its own. Most of the bathrooms we visited had the western style toilet we are used to. But occasionally, we were faced with the Asian Squatty Potty. Here is a picture of one that I found on someone else's blog:

Asian Squatty Potty

Place your feet on the ridged sides, squat down, and hope you have good aim. Take a bucket of water and pour in to flush. Don't put any tissue in it. There, now don't you feel very cosmopolitan having learned this?

• Royal Family is loved by Thai people. Pictures of the King are everywhere. He is 85 and has been in the hospital for 3 years, no one knows why.

King of Thailand

• Poinsettias grow wild.

• Fork and Spoon are used to eat, not chopsticks. Rarely was there a knife provided.

• Scooters are very popular. We saw families of 4 all riding on one together. Kids were being taken to school on them. Moms carry babies while driving them. We saw a dog riding on the handlebars of one. Small kids ride them. Our guide said he started learning to drive one when he was 8 years old. 

Family on Scooter

• Thai people are friendly and happy. They are all anxious to give a greeting with a slight bow and hands together. Whatever you ask them, they generally say "Yes", because they don't want to disappoint you.

• National Anthem Drill on January 1st. We were warned the night before that there would be a drill at 8 am. There was no explanation given but you have to assume it has to do with testing the emergency warning system after what happened with the 2004 tsunami. It just seemed like a strange time to have the national anthem blaring out of speakers at the resort so early in the morning after ringing in the New Year.