Thais and Respect

One of the first things you notice upon entering Thailand is that everyone is smiling at you. The country is not called "The Land of Smiles" for nothing and Thais will do everything they can to communicate with you even if you don't know any Thai. I am working (slowly) on mine and know very basic phrases and I can get around pretty easily. For the most part, Thais are for the most part extremely generous and respectful people. As a sign of respect, Thais will often wai to you (bringing two hands up to around their chin as a sign of respect) and you should acknowledge and return the wei if possible. This is always interesting when you are trying to carry groceries and they fall out when you try to wai back.
Some of the other signs of respect are not as immediately evident. I take a motorbike taxi everyday to school and I heard that if you are late on the bill, you can hand the bill and cash to a motorbike taxi and they will take it to the office, which is miles outside of the congested city. I scoffed at the idea, thinking that there was no way I would trust a stranger with my cash. One day soon after we moved to Bangkok, Aubrey and I discovered we were very late on our electric bill and we had no idea where the payment office was. We decided to go for the motorcycle taxi courier option and handed some random Thai taxidriver close to the equivalent of $100 in Thai baht and expected to never see the man again. Much to our surprise, the taxi driver returned with the payment receipt and he charged us a mere 100 baht (about $3). Amazing...
Also, young people show a lot more respect here than in the States. Elders are always treated with respect, no matter what. When the Birmingham Uptown Theater was built not long ago, it was amazing and state of the art. About a year later, there was graffiti all over the bathrooms and the seats in the movie theater had been slashed and broken. The theaters here are unreal; they are 100% nicer than any I have seen in the U.S. and kept spotlessly clean. I have never seen any vandalism and the tickets are about $3 for a new film and $1 each for popcorn and drinks. Also, everyone stands before the movie when a short tribute film to the King of Thailand is shown, no matter what their political belief. Bangkok is a pretty amazing dichotomy of old and young, rich and poor, tradition and technology. Respect is the constant throughout.

My Daily Work Commute

Wow, sorry for the lapse in blogging…I’ve been traveling a lot and I have been busy with school-no excuse though I need to blog more. I have had some questions asking how I get to work everyday. It is about a 45 minute commute from my place in Satorn district of Bangkok (Business/Financial district) to my school, which is located on Sukhumvit Road, Soi 47. I wake up at about 630 and shower/get dressed, grab some breakfast, and head out to the street to get a motorbike taxi, or “Bangkok helicopter”, as they are called here. The motorbike taxi drivers have orange or purple vests on and usually spend their time in-between fares playing checkers on homemade boards with beer bottle caps as the checker pieces. I wave to the guys now (they know me because I take them everyday) and they pick me up. I tell them “Sawasdee krap” (hello) and say “Chong Nonsi BTS, kop khun krap” and we are off. We speed through the dense traffic jam and weave in and out of the cars. All of the motorbikes drive this way; it is the only way to get through Bangkok traffic. If I took a normal taxi, it would take me an hour to get where I need to be and on the bike it takes about 10 minutes. When I get to the BTS station (the elevated metro system), I pay the motorbike driver 40 baht and get on the train. I take the train for about 20 minutes and have to switch lines once, then I get off and walk down Sukhumvit-the famous road in Bangkok-for about 8 blocks until I reach kindergarten.