Books in Bangkok
Those who read my pen fruits on this blog may have noticed a few times that I am a book lover pur sang.
If a woman asks something: NEVER explain! (From: Stimulating stories from Northern Thailand; nr 25)
Two friends walked around the region to sell their trade. Through forests and fields and in the border area near the Mon mountains. (*) They were not the most honest businessmen, to put it nicely… First they scammed their own community, later they roamed the region with their fine practices. But they did get rich and had a lot of money.
Digging up a sweet potato is not without risk (From: Stimulating stories from Northern Thailand; no. 24)
This story is about harvesting sweet potatoes. (*) You have to do quite a lot of digging and rooting to get them out of the ground! Sometimes you dig and dig and you don't see a single piece of potato. People sometimes dig very deep, throw water in, put a rope around the potato and only the next morning can they pull it out. No, you can't just dig up a sweet potato!
Do you remember Uncle Saw? Well, they didn't have them all lined up, remember? You could actually call him a wimp. He was from Lampang. He liked to fish, but he didn't like it. Complained about that too: 'Everyone catches fat carp and I don't catch anything at all?' "What bait do you use?" "Frogs." 'Frogs?? What do you think you can catch with frogs as bait? You must have young catfish, young catfish…
Western writers in Bangkok: Three British (former) spies
Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), John le Carré (°1931) and Ian Fleming (1908-1964) have in common, apart from being authors, that they all worked in one way or another for the British secret service or military security services, for a time in Bangkok and have written about this city and Thailand. I already devoted an article on Thailandblog to Ian Fleming and his creation James Bond a few days ago, so I will ignore that for now.
Bahosod, the wise monk. Pickled fish or gold? (From: Stimulating stories from Northern Thailand; nr 22)
Two friends wanted to get wise; they visited the wise monk Bahosod and offered him money to become smart. They paid him two thousand gold pieces a man and said, "You have money now, give us that wisdom." 'Good! Whatever you do, do it right. If you do half work, you will achieve nothing.' That was the lesson they had bought for all that money. One fine day they decided to go catch fish…
Once upon a time there was a poor Khamu man and he was hungry. Very very hungry. He was penniless. That day he stopped at the house of a wealthy woman. Greeted her endearingly and asked 'Would you please have something to eat for me?'
Mae Ya Nang, Patron Saint of the Thai Traveler
On the website of a Thai newspaper I read a short article about a simple ceremony to mark the imminent commissioning of a number of new electric-powered ferries on a canal in Bangkok.
Book review 'Destination Bangkok' (readers' submission)
Jan draws attention to the book “Destination Bangkok” in which an expat in Thailand is mercilessly punished for his missteps.
Three friends traveled together and traded. But things were not going well anymore, they lost all their money and had no money to travel home. They asked to live in the temple and stayed for three years. Got to eat and if there was something to do, they did that of course. But after three years they wanted to return home, but had no travel money. Yes, what now?
One of the monks bought a horse, a mare. And one day he sewed that animal. The novice we already talked about saw that… And that was a cunning kid! When night fell, he said to the monk, 'Venerable One, I will bring some grass for the horse.' 'Excuse me? No, not you. You must be making a mess. I'd better do it myself.' He cut grass, fed the horse, stood behind it and sewed it again.
Pattaya, Pattaya, Phuuying love you mak mak (video)
If you are planning to travel to Pattaya, you should at least know this song by heart. You can now practice. The text is below. You can hear the melody in the video. Good luck!
Thailand seen through rose-colored glasses
Life in Thailand is as it is stated in all travel brochures: a great society of people with a fine character, always smiling, polite and helpful and the food is healthy and delicious. Yes, right? Well, if you're unlucky, you sometimes see from the corner of your eye that it's not always right, but then put on rose-colored glasses and see Thailand again as it always has been, perfect in every way.
The novice from the previous story had a beautiful sister. Two monks from the temple had a crush on her and the novice knew it. He was a mischievous novice and wanted to play a prank on those monks. Every time he went home he took some to the temple and said that his sister had given it to him. 'My sister gave these cigarettes for you,' he said to one. And to the other 'These rice cakes are from my sister, for you.'
What happend? A monk fell in love with I Uj. And whenever she brought food to the temple, he told the temple helpers and the novices to set her food aside. He only ate the food she offered.
The Thai heart speaks
The Thai word "jai" means "heart". The word is often used in conversations between Thais and it is also a popular word in advertising campaigns. It is usually used as part of a sentence to represent "relationship" or "humanity".