Today marks one week of my education in Thailand. I’ve been learning a broad spectrum, from Thai history and culture to, gulp, language. The directors of the program have pulled out all the stops when it comes to us. We’ve got what must be some of the best professors at Chulalongkorn University and other schools in the Bangkok area.
Thai history is very interesting, marked by only a few dynasties and many years of relative peace. We plan on traveling to an historical site tomorrow called Ayutthaya, one of the first capitals of Thailand. The Ayutthaya period in Thai history seems to be the Golden Age. The motto of the time period being “A fish in every water, rice in every field.” The first king of the period, ruling only a small kingdom, constructed a bell outside his palace. When citizens had any qualm or concern, they could ring the bell and summon the king directly to speak. Visiting the ancient city should be interesting, though, as it was sacked by the Burmese and never rebuilt. After the sacking, the capital of what would become Thailand moved down river, closer to what is now Bangkok, or Kreung Thep.
The culture in Thailand seems to be centered on politeness and respect. Many of the cultural taboos are taboo because they are disrespectful. Touching another’s (especially and elder’s) head, pointing the bottom of your foot at someone, etc. A cultural construct that may prove difficult to navigate is the “wai,” a sort of bow that, again, shows respect. It is used to express thanks and as a greeting, but it’s central nature is a show of respect. The younger will always wai the older, who may or may not wai back. One always wais a monk, but monks will never wai back – the most you’ll get is a nod.
Arts and literature have been heavily influenced by both Chinese and Indian culture, as Thailand formed a melting pot in the middle of the two large nations. The Jim Thompson House, an art museum of sorts in the house of the late Jim Thompson, demonstrates this, housing fine blue and white china as well as statues to Hindu gods like Ganesh. All of this exists alongside pieces of art that are distinctively Thai, like large stone and wooden statues of Buddha. (Jim Thompson was an architect from Princeton who moved to Bangkok and started collecting art in his rather large Thai-style house made by joining six normal Thai houses together. He disappeared one day when he went out for a walk and, to this day, nobody knows what happened. There is now a silk company named after him, as he helped to revive the silk trade in Thailand.)
Interestingly, unlike the West whose history is marked by ideological and religious wars, Thailand is also a melting pot of religions. Currently, Theravadan Buddhism, the most prevalent religion in Thailand, coexists alongside Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Chinese ancestral and animistic religions. In fact, it seems that more often than not several of these religions are mixed. For example, on a visit to Wat Pho, a famous Buddhist Temple in Bangkok, I saw Buddhist monks chanting at the end of the day, the world’s largest reclining Buddha statue, altars to Ganesh (an elephant god of Hinduism that, if I remember correctly, is a god of luck and fortune), spirit houses (which house ancestral spirits), and clumps of trees wrapped with cloths of multiple colors. These trees are said to possess spirits and, among other things, can be approached if one wishes to find a few lucky lottery numbers.
The language is proving to be a challenge. Thai is a tonal language, so the same word spoken with a variety of tones can mean several different and sometimes mutually exclusive things. It’s not unlike how we, in English, change our tone to stress certain words in certain ways to create slightly different meanings. But, the five tones in Thai – low, mid, high, rising, and falling – are not easily distinguishable, much less easy to pronounce. So far this week, we’ve gone through some basic greetings, language we might use at the market, numbers, colors, words for articles of clothing, and a little bit of reading and writing (which I’m not setting high hopes for, what with its 40 some consonants and 20 some vowels!).
The food I’ve had, for the most part, is great. I had a couple bad experiences at JJ market with chicken – at a hawker stand I got some pieces of chicken into which the guy had apparently managed to concentrate all of the fat that comes on a chicken, and at what seemed to be a more legitimate street restaurant where Chike and I had chicken full of tiny bones. I also had one weird experience at a larger mall type place when I ordered some barbeque pork with noodles. First of all, I paid 40 baht for the meal and it was very small, but also, the lady put tons of maple syrup all over the dish as a sauce. I just plain couldn’t eat it. Today, however, has proven to be my worst day for food. Something I ate today, whether it was some mango off the street or some bean-type things I had at lunch, has made me terribly sick. I’ve been nauseas ever since lunch and have had diarrhea like never before. It’s started to calm down after introducing both ends to the toilet multiple times, but I know that I’m dehydrated and weak from throwing up most of the food I’ve eaten today. I had to skip dinner with everyone – they were going to some sort of touristy restaurant and jazz club. The sad thing is I might have to skip out on Ayuttaya tomorrow – major bummer.
This is the famous reclining Buddha. He's huge - not sure of actual dimensions, but he takes up a huge building by himself.
The reclining Buddha's feet with some intricate artwork.
Swirly toes.
When King Rama I constructed the temple, he had all the statues he could find brought here, so I've got a few of them for you here. I really like all of the different styles...
A lotus flower...
I thought this Chinese-looking guy borrowed a little fashion from Honest Abe...
This is an example of animism and spirit worship. People approach the trees for worship. I've heard that they petition the trees for lucky numbers...
The tall things are called Chedi...not sure what they symbolize yet...
So, most Thai food is spicy to a point, but this is the spiciest thing I have had. Now I know how to order food with no or little spice - "mai ped!"
They have all kinds of wierd fruit here - this is dragon fruit.
We visited this museum of sorts built in a guy's house...I think I wrote about it in one of the posts. I don't have any real pictures of the art or statues because they didn't allow photography.
There are many big flower pots in Thailand with lotus plants. I think they're cool.
A few pictures of my room. I've got a double room all to myself!
Room comes complete with TV, computer desk, etc.
And a full size toilet...no squatting yet!
My average breakfast. Milk tastes really good here, and the Frosted Flakes are exactly the same.
I got some barbeque chicken off of this guy. The chicken had more fat on it than I thought a chicken had in it's whole body...
A random picture in the JJ Market. Quite a few white people here...
Strike two at the market: Chicken and rice, but the chicken comes complete with tiny bones...
The view from my 8th story window. That's part of the Bangkok skyline and the street below me. 
