In Thailand, a bpai tiao is a trip of any length. I’ve written about some of my more significant bpai tiaos to tourist destinations here, to be used as travel ideas and tips.
Earlier this year, I decided that there were a bunch of festivals all over Thailand that I had to go to. The one that I was most excited about going to was the Phi Ta Khon Festival in Loei, which I just got back from. Phi Ta Khon, or the Ghost Festival is so colorful and fun. Check out the video for yourself!
Thailand, like much of Southeast Asia, is a predominately Buddhist country. Buddhism came and strengthened throughout the centuries, competing and merging with both animism and Hinduism. As a result, the Buddhism that is practiced today is a combination of a variety of beliefs and practices.
Thailand reports that about 96% of its population is Buddhist. But what does that mean? How did Buddhism come to Thailand and how have I experienced that history? What shape does Buddhism take in current daily life situations? How many days off a year do I get because of Buddhist holidays? Well, like Julie Andrews sang in “The Sound of Music,” let’s start at the very beginning, it’s a very good place to start.
Sometimes, listening to Thai people speak, it seems like the word jai (ใจ) is everywhere.
เข้าใจไหม (Khao jai mai, Do you understand?)
ใจเย็นๆ (Jai yen yen, Chill out.)
คนใจดี (Kon jai dee, Kind person)
But what does jai mean? Jai translates as “heart” and has all the similar connotations that heart has in English, such as “spirit” or “inner being.” So it makes sense that jai is used to construct phrases that have meanings related to one’s heart, mind and spirit. more “Thai is a Language of the Heart”
It’s a repeated refrain that Peace Corps Volunteers hear throughout their service:
No serious!
Mai dtong seriot!
Don’t take serious, na!
Tammai seriot?
Don’t serious!
Don’t serious about me!
Why so seriot? Mai seriot, na.
In case you couldn’t figure it out, taking anything seriously here is strongly discouraged. Even if it’s a serious topic. Especially if it’s a serious topic. The Thai way of life is infused with the concept of sanuk (สนุก). But what is sanuk? It’s most often translated as fun, but is so much more than that.
Kanoms, or snacks, are a big part of life here in Thailand. You find them all over, packaged in clear, plastic bags sold for a few baht. My host mother in Suphan Buri was an ace kanom maker and her specialty is kanom kai blah. At school, some of the students learned how to make a different kanom, called kanom dok jok. You can learn too, by checking out the video!
Last year, the staff of Peace Corps Thailand invited Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, the former Secretary General of ASEAN and student of Peace Corps volunteers, to come and speak at Group 124’s Mid-Service Conference (MSC). By all accounts, his contributions to their MSC were extremely enriching; the volunteers went on to nominate him for the Harris Wofford Global Citizen Award, which is given to someone who grew up in a country served by Peace Corps, was influenced by PCVs and made a contribution to their country and world, which he won and received this month in Nashville.
Having heard about this from my friend in group 124, I was looking forward to who would be invited to speak at our MSC, which took place at the beginning of April. In my conversations with staff before the event, they wouldn’t tell me who it was, but would say they were very excited for who they had invited. Turns out, we volunteers were as well; Khun Mechai Viravaidya is Thailand’s biggest name in development, starting with family planning, branching out into business development, HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness and now running a school that embodies the practices that he so deeply believes in. His life story is extraordinary.
So the dust around the sudden overthrow of the government in Thailand has settled and some things are starting to take shape and become more clear, so I’m going to take some time to lay out what I understand to have happened here in the last two and a half weeks. For some background, on May 22 at 5 p.m. local time General Payuth declared a coup, just two days after establishing martial law. This came out of the lasting conflict between anti-government protests, led by Suthep (a member of the Democrat Party)* who quit his Senate position late last year and began protesting the Puea Thai Party, lead by Yingluck Shinawatra whose brother Thaksin was ousted in the country’s last coup in 2006.
After dissolving the lower parliamentary house and calling elections in February, that were declared void by the Constitutional Court which has consistently ruled against Yingluck, she was tried, convicted and removed from office (along with 9 cabinet members) for impropriety in transferring the chairman of the National Security Council and was due to be impeached for negligence regarding the rice subsidy scheme. Which brings us to the current situation.
Earlier this year I started using this really neat app called One Second Everyday. Basically, it allows you to pick a second of a video or picture of everyday and then you can export them into a longer video. I thought this was super cool and so I’ve been trying to do this throughout the year, similar to my sentence a day for last year. Here’s a video summary of May!
Sports and the culture around them are a bit different in Thailand, as compared to the US. The only real sport that people coalesce around and have favorite teams for is football (soccer). There are a few other sports that people like to play recreationally, like volleyball, dtagraw, and futsal. But perhaps the sport that Thailand is most famous for is muay thai.