6-7 minutes When the plane finally landed, we exited into the steamy, humid air. My droopy eyes could tell this experience would be something totally new. My sister and I had travelled from our small hometown in Colorado, where the air is too thick to breathe and the mountains rise high around each crack of the town. After thirty hours in airports and planes, we…
Steamed Cattle’s Fetus With Galangal Chilli Paste Aborted cattle’s fetus in local market (picture credited to จาปาตี) This menu is not advisable for everyone to eat! Be sure that the meat is well cooked. In Northern Thailand there is one menu that some would say “is to die for”. This is aborted cattle fetus as a main ingredient, this delicious food’s name in Thai is…
If you have lived in Chiang Rai long enough, you probably already know lots about the province, but here are some random facts about Chiang Rai that you might not have known. Ok, not all items are facts. I add some of the most famous phrases local people say about something in Chiang Rai, mostly in a funny way. As for the “saying” items, some…
I’ve recently come across TAT’s (Tourism Authority of Thailand) activity ‘DiscoverThainess’ which is a contest that invites non-Thai people to engage in five different categories of activities related to ‘Thainess’. These categories are ‘Thai Boxing’, ‘Thai Cooking’, ‘Thai Dancing’, ‘Making Thai Style Garlands’ and ‘Speaking Thai’. In fact, competitors are asked to do things that are considered to be typical Thai, i.e. characteristic of Thai culture. Hence,…
I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value (Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha) The story of Buddhism begins with a man who became enlightened, thus gaining abiding insight into the nature of the world and its reality. Hence, the word ‘Buddha’ means the ‘Enlightened’…
In my view, one of the most impressive and majestic animal is the elephant, in particular the white elephant. Hence, in Thai culture the white elephant is called ‘chang samkhan’ which means ‘auspicious elephant’. Whiteness is regarded as an sign of purity in this context. The white elephant has an important meaning in both Hinduism and Buddhism. In Hindu thought, the white elephant is related…
Kanom Jeen Nam Ngiew (ขนมจีนน้ำเงี้ยว) might be Chiang Rai’s most famous dish. There are a countless number of delicious local menus that are little known to tourists or even local people today. While some dishes can be widely available in restaurants, some are available seasonally only, and some can be extremely hard to find due to the shortage of ingredients and people with the right…
The Signs on the Road. In today’s article, I will tackle the specific differences between Western culture and Thai culture. Believe me, there are A LOT of differences in the two cultures and not just in wording and spelling! It goes waaay deeper than that, in so many areas, and the differences could actually surprise you. This is only natural because as human beings, we…
At the Ganesha Park You may certainly have noticed that Hindu gods are very prominent in Thai culture and are a part of Thai religion. Thus, there are often images of these gods in Thai temples and shrines. In fact, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are the three most important Hindu gods representing the recurring and continual cycles of birth, life, death and rebirth. This trinity,…
Every Thai Buddhist holiday, my grandmother lit incense sticks and invited the denizens of a miniature house under the rose apple tree to a feast. As a child, I stood by guarding the spread of boiled chicken, rice, oranges, rum, and tea from our dogs, but my real watch was for any sign of spirits that were supposedly enjoying the offering. The small wooden house…