Wanderlust: Expat Life & Style in Thailand Feb / March 2015 - The Relationships Issue | Page 32

Travel & Lifestyle
The right of way
rule is superseded if
the other vehicle is
larger than yours.

KNIFE AND FORK
VERSUS FORK
AND SPOON
In the Western world, we grow up learning that at the meal table we cut with
the knife and eat with the fork. Our parents take great efforts in teaching
us how to eat correctly. Then when
we come to Thailand we are presented
with a spoon and fork. What we have
learned to be correct and polite all these
years is now incorrect in Thailand.
If you want to fit in, learn to adapt. Sure,
at first it feels strange, almost child-like
and uncouth, to go back to eating
with a spoon but accept that things
are different. The fork no longer feeds
the mouth but simply pushes the food
on to the spoon. The fork may however
be used for appetisers and salads.

FINGER LICKING
GOOD IS FINGER
LICKING BAD
In the West, it is perfectly acceptable
to eat chicken on the bone with
our hands, even in restaurants, right?
Not so in Thailand. Typically utensils — not our fingers and hands —
should be used to eat food. Next
time you visit your local KFC, take
a look around you. Watch and observe. The Thais slowly and strategically cut the chicken from the bone
with cutlery. Not only is using
one’s hands considered impolite,
licking one’s fingers is an even bigger
faux pas. At most, having bought
some ‘gai tort’ (deep fried chicken)
from a stall and there may be no cut32 WANDERLUST

lery to hand, a Thai will delicately
pull the meat from the bone using
their thumb and forefinger before
placing it in the mouth. The mouth
never goes directly to the meat
on the bone. Likewise, watch a Thai
eat crisps, nuts or similar finger food.
It’s a delicate operation. Fingers
are only sometimes acceptable
but finger licking is not.

FOOD PHOBIAS
Thailand is any foodie’s paradise.
Yet there are some very different slants
and combinations on foods that us farangs sometimes just can’t get our heads
around.
Ice cream sandwich. We love bread
in the West. We love ice cream.
Yet we find ice-cream sandwiches odd.
Ketchup on pizza. How strange that
we might turn our noses up at ketchup
on pizza when one of the base ingredients of a pizza is tomato sauce.
Durian. It’s fabulously fascinating that
this fruit is loved for its taste, yet banned
in public places for its smell.
Sweet corn and broad beans
as an ice cream topping. Why?
Why not, I guess.
Deep fried insects. Westerners will
reach for the bag of nuts while Thais
will nibble from a bag of cockroaches.
No matter how hard we could try, these
insects would have to be the hardest
shell to get our heads around.

OUR PRIVACY
IS THEIR CURIOSITY
Westerners are mostly private people,
which must be strange in itself to a Thai

when we are so quick to get semi-naked on a beach or to kiss in public.
Thais are generally curious (yaak
roo yaak hen) and after a friendship
or relationship has been established,
perhaps even after just a few minutes,
you may be asked questions which
we wouldn’t dream of asking. I am sure
we have all been asked by a Thai
how much we paid for something,
how much we earn, or even, God forbid,
how old we are or how much we weigh.
Foreigners are quick to like
and accept the exceptional Thai
friendliness. It’s what draws visitors back
and indeed keeps many of us expats
here. So let’s not misjudge their
inquisitive nature as rudeness. What
may be our secret is their simple
curiosity or knowledge to be shared.

“We need to
think of the Thai
wai as a kind of
handshake. It is
similar in the
sense that we
should return the
wai as we would
a handshake, but
different in that
we need to stop
for a moment and
think about whom
should offer the
wai first.”
The next time you are out and about,
consider your Western behaviour
and actions. Thais are very forgiving
about social mistakes. In some tourist
areas, Thai personnel are even trained
on our Western ways that they would
normally consider taboo. Understanding
our hosts and adapting to their ways
shows our respect for Thais and their
country.
THAILAND.WANDERLUSTMAG.COM