As a Thai man who was born and raised in Thailand, it is quite odd to find myself writting the blog about what, and how to pack, and get ready to go to Thailand. But, for the last 10 years of my life, I have been living in the foreign lands, many of which I couldn't even understand what their people said, and it was really frustrated for me to go find things. Then, the question came to my mind "why anybody want to touture themselves going to the place where they don't even really try to talk to you?" Life was lonely, then. But, after 9 years of drifting around from one place to the others, I finally realised how successful packing can make your trip feel a lot better, and can give you a fresh start when you first land on any country you visit.
This is also applied to Thailand as well. You see when I went to New Zealand at first, I went there as a tourist. There are many things I think I should have brought with me. It may sound silly, but back then, it is not common for ones to have a cell phone. Without a cell phone, that meant I have no way to set an alarm. Yes, that is right! As silly as it may sound, I set my first goal in New Zealand, "finding an alarm clock". This is very essential for me as I always went to bed late, and got up late as well. It was incredible how much time I lost just to try to find an alarm clock on the street of New Zealand! I lost at least a good 3-4 hours on finding one. I wish I could have used those time on sightseeing instead. Now, how about preping things to Thailand. It may sound rediculous at first. Wait until you got here and experience it yourself. You see, almost throughout Thailand now, we have chain minimart like Seven Eleven situated in almost every corner of the town much like Starbuck in the US. But, what wrong with it, after all it should make your life a lot more convinient it catagorizes itself as "a convinient store". Let me give you a little example. I came back to Thailand with my American wife back in 2005. As I've been away for so long, I gave my wife no advise on what to expect from Thailand what so ever. In fact, my wife still thought that Thailand is the same country as Taiwan. Her first surprise came when we stopped to get gas at the gas station, and of course, my wife was having to have an upset stomach. What happened next stunned her as she strom to the bathroom, and finish doing her business, and found out that there was no sign of toilet paper to be found anywhere inside the bathroom cell she was in. You see, Thais use water to clean when they go to the bathroom. This applies to all houses in Thailand even to a business places. The proof is that in almost every toilet in a regular Thai house will have a hose with a spray head installed right next to it, and trust me, they prefer to use the jet spray more than tissue like other westerners would prefer. Another example is when one of my clients from Australia was trying to look for a mosquito spray. It should be as simple as bringing one from Australia, but why not! After all Thailand is full of mosquito, it should, then, be easy for hime to find one, right! Unfortunately, it was a "no" for him. Where ever he went to, the shops kept on telling him "Mai Mee," which meant that they don't have what he is looking for. He ended up at one of the shop, which also told him that they did not carry such item, but in fact, they did. If only he did not see it on one of the shelves by accident, he wouldn't probably have had a chance to find it elsewhere. Does that mean Thais, in general, don't like the foreigners? I would say "yes", and "no". But for the most part if they can't speak your language, they ,most likely, just want to quickly solve the problem by saying "Mai Mee", or "no" or any other negative reponses they could find to get you walk away from their shops. This does not apply to all Thais, of course. Many are offering themselve for help even though many ended with misunderstanding. After all, the language barrier are large here. Although we, Thais, learn English since we are at the young age, it doen't help us to communicate with foreigners by any means. It is rare for Thais to walk toward a foreigner and offer helps unless that person is familiar to the western like myself or people who live around torist spots. Perhaps, that is why our government like to put foreigners in the place like Koa San road, Patpong, and so on. You see Thailand have so much more to offer to you folks out there who are seeking for adventurous experiences. Many retirees would understand what I am talking about. Thailand is not just Bangkok, Chaing Mai, Phuket, or any other tourist spots our government tried to advertise to you as the tropical paradise. You see, we, Thai, felt like minority when walking on Kao San road whereas the foreigners would feel completely out of places when they walk on Charansnitwong road even though both roads are situated in Bangkok. Perhaps, it is a norm for all places around the world, but again perhaps we forget one fundamental thing like "how to be prepare". With the modern technology , it is very much possible for anyone to find wide ranges of information online and use those to prepare your trip to Thailand. TravelTranslator will always dedicated to provide foreigners a good source of information so that they can be well prepared prior to their arrival regardless to any reasons they may come here for. In the next post, I will talk more on what are "must bring" lists when you plan your trip to Thailand.
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