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Time & Temperature

Column no. 140 - 131

You will see columns in the past; what I noticed about/in Thailand, about differences between Thailand and Japan and so on.
I'm wondering how long I can continue writing a column... :D


190-181 180-171 170-161 160-151 150-141 140-131 130-121 120-111 110-101
100-91 90-81 80-71 70-61 60-51 50-41 40-31 30-21 20-11 10-1


no.140 - If you ever fool around with anybody.... -

8/Dec/2007
 Suddenly, my wife burst into laughter. I guess she is reading messages on a Thai community board. Then she turned back and told me,

 "That's right. All Thai wives think like that.
 You know, trains sometimes stop because of bodily injury, right ? A Thai wife heard of that kind of an accident and told her husband like this;

 - Honey, If you have troubles and have a hard time, don't keep it to yourself. Let me know that, okay ? Don't make a worst decision by yourself and leave me alone. -
(How lovely she is !)

 See? All Thai wives are the same.

 - But ! you know, if you ever have a love affair, I'll punch you to the hell at the moment ! -

 See ? All Thai wives are the same. Got it ? "
 (A big smile to me.)

 Thailand, The Land of Smile.
 Fortunately, I've never faced that kind of crisis. Really ! :D

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no.139 - Hiccup -

30/Nov/2007
 Hiccup, ... Hiccup,... Hiccups will visit you when you already forgotten them. I've not had them recently (for some years? ) but when they occur, you'll have a little difficult time, right?
 My wife from Bangkok, Thailand, has them once in a great while.

 When they occur to her, what she does is,

  1. 1) Rushes to the kitchen first.
  2. 2) Then, pours water into a glass.
    (While I'm wondering what she is going to do,)
  3. 3) She has the glass in her hand and puts her chin down.
  4. 4) Then drinks the water not in a usual way but drinks it putting her mouth on the opposite side of the glass.

 This is very funny to see that but she is very serious. When I saw this for the first time, the sight gave me a flight, but it actually stops hiccups.
(Her sister told her the way to stop hiccups. I don't know if it's general way in Bangkok, though.)

 I know other ways to stop hiccups such as drinking water a lot and making the person surprised, but if you do it and/but hiccups won't run away, it might be worth of trying the way she does. :D

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no.138 - Loy Krathong Festival -

24/Nov/2007
 While I didn't notice that, the season of "LoyKrathong Festival" has already come !

 Loy Krathong Festival is one of the most popular and wonderful festivals in Thailand. It's a Thai traditional event and taken place on the night of full moon in the middle of November (12th month of Thai lunar calendar) every year, and it's going to be held on 21 to 24 this month this year.

 On the full moon night, when the river is high over the country, people launch their Krathongs on rivers, canals or small ponds to thank to the Goddess of water (Khongkha or Ganga) and put away sins and bad luck. Some people put money (coins) on their Krathongs also.

 Kids know that and some are waiting in the river or some jump in the river to get it and break the Krathongs in the end. Good boys (?) pay attention not to break them, but other boys !, be careful not to stop sending Krathongs to the Goddess. Got it ? :D

 During this period, people believe that they can get good luck if they bathe themselves in water under the moonlight. Some temples hold a ceremony of it.

(Leave the water outside under the moonlight for a while to get the power of the moonlight. Then, at midnight, people bathe themselves with it or drink it.)
(This is called "Aarb NaamPhen". "Aarb" means "Bathing", NaamPhen" is "water with the power of the moonlight.) .

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no.137 - Want to stay in the restroom longer ?? -

18/Nov/2007
 This is when we visited Kho Phi Phi in Thailand of which I uploaded pictures this week.

 As you know, it's very warm in Thailand, and it's the same in Kho Phi Phi. After reaching Phi Phi island, the first thing we had to do was to get lunch anyway.(We were hungry !)
 While walking and enjoying the scenery of the island, we dropped by an open-air restaurant. We got lunch and relaxed for a while. Whew !

 After a while, my wife's dad came back from the restroom and said, "I wanted to stay in the restroom longer ...."
 "... What ?" He meant that it was cool inside the restroom and it made him feel like that. Well, okay, let's go and check it. I went there and understood how he felt. It was cool inside. (I didn't feel I wanted to stay there longer, though. :D)

What I noticed more was a message on the wall. It says,"Don't take a shower. Fine 500B". Because the restaurant is near the beach and I guess some people take a shower to get rid of sand.

 Putting the restroom story away, the beach was very wonderful. I wish I could visit there again someday. :)

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no.136 - A Japanese song -

10/Nov/2007
 When you go around in Thailand, you might notice that some Japanese program such as Doraemon or Ikkyu-san (Japanese cartoon) can be watched on TV or some Japanese songs are going on in a city.
 If it's in Bangkok, I'll think, yeah, you can watch or hear them here and there, but this is when my wife, her family and I went to Ayuttaya, north of Bangkok.

 We went for a drive around Ayuttaya and visited Suphanburi province next. We were very hungry and dropped by a restaurant, called "Bird Restaurant" along the street. Now, everyone was relaxing for a while.

 Then, a familiar song suddenly came to me. The singer was singing in Thai language but it sounded like an old and famous Japanese pop.
"What ....?" I listened carefully and realized the song was "Toki no Sugiyuku mamani" by Kenji Sawada. I was really surprised that I had a chance to listen to it in Thailand not in Japan.

 I don't know how old the song is but the beautiful and melancholy melody maybe match the music scene in Thailand... ? :)

Toki no Sugiyuku mamani by Kenji Sawada (YouTube)

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no.135 - Fingers bent backward -

4/Nov/2007
 I put some new wallpapers of Thai dance this week. Thai dance is very attractive and I love it.
 Thai dance has various styles and they are different between the north and south areas. The clothes, the atmosphere, elegant motions and finger actions, they are really fascinating.

 By the way, not only dancers, it looks like people in Thailand have soft joints of fingers. It's very surprising, my wife or her dad, her sister can bend their fingers back almost on to top of hand. Of course, they can not do it without using other hand. Even so, my fingers can be bent back up to 90 degrees even if I try hard (like my fingers are almost broken. Ooooo).

 I heard that, in the case of women in Thailand, they learn Thai dance in their childhood and they practice bending fingers back. While watching Thai dance, you maybe notice that the motions of the fingers play very important role in the dance.

 Not all people but I understood why joints of fingers of Thai women are soft. However, Thai men can also do it. Why ??? :D

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no.134 - Go back with a toilet ? -

13/Oct/2007
 While I was talking with my wife about what we should do if we move to Thailand, she suddenly suggested she carry back a toilet of our house.

 Whaaaaaaat ? At the moment, I imagined in my mind that she was walking around carrying a toilet on her back in the airport. I asked her what she meant and she explained like, different in Thailand, a toilet in Japan has a tank with a faucet on for washing hands and it is very convenient.

 If you have lived in Japan, not in a hotel but a ordinary house, you'll see that kind of toilet. I was born and grew up in Japan and it was very natural to me but no toilet is like this in Thailand. (If my memory is correct, I've never seen that in Thailand.)
 She also told me, when her family in Thailand visited Japan, her dad was impressed by the faucet of the toilet very much.

 I don't know about other countries but it looks like Japan makes an effective use of water resource. :D

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no.133 - Homestay in Thailand -

6/Oct/2007
Speaking of homestay in Thailand, I think of Ban Prasat in Korat, Mae Hong Son, or Doi Pui because when I visited these places, some people told me "you can homestay there" or "you can home stay at the house over there".

I talked to my wife that it would be wonderful if I homestayed in Thailand with great nature and everyday culture shocks, then she said, "You have already homestayed in Bangkok !". Well,... What ?
She meant that when we go back to Bangkok, we stay in the condo of my wife's sister and that can be said homestay in Thailand. Hmmm, you are right.

The first a few years when I visited Thailand, even though my wife's home was in Bangkok, I hesitated to stay there but stayed in a hotel nearby. However, after my wife's sister bought a condo, I got to stay there (or she says I must stay).

From this, my experience of homestay in Bangkok can says that people in Thailand keep rabbits, kids are sometimes in a camp setting up a tent even inside a house, people play video games so often.... ? :D

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no.132 - international airline and domestic line -

29/Sept/2007
It was when I came back to Bangkok from Phuket, the southern island of Thailand.

When I came back to Bangkok by Thai airways (domestic flight), it was already a half past nine at night. "Whew ! A little tired...", while thinking like that, I walked directly to the entrance gate with my wife.
Even thought we were a little tired, I enjoyed taking pictures while walking, but I felt something funny. (The way to the gate looked the same when I came to Thailand from Japan.)
Anyway, we kept walking to the gate, then,...
"What ? Our flight was a domestic line. Why have we reached here ?"
The passport control welcomed us.

Obviously,we don't need to pass the passport control because we already entered Thailand once and we used a domestic flight this time from Phuket back to Bangkok. While we were at a loss what to do, about 20 people got to gather there who, I guessed, were on the same flight from Phuket. They also didn't know what they should do.
It seems like our flight was a connect flight to other country from Phuket via Bangkok and the airplane got to an international gate. Passengers who got off in Bangkok also followed a route for international flights to the passport control.
(I couldn't believe this could be happened...)

We explained what happened to us to the information counter near the gate and waited while wondering what we should do. My wife was so worried and I relaxed enjoying taking pictures. After a long time passed, airport stuff led us to the path for domestic and we finally came back into Bangkok. Wow, wow.
When we went back home in Bangkok, it was already around midnight.

Hmmm, exhausted.

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no.131 - multiplication table -

22/Sept/2007
In Japan, people learn multiplication table, 9 x 9, at elementary school. On the other hand, in Thailand, they learn 12 x 12, or more depending on an area.

Multiplication table is called "Suut Khuun" in Thai language, and students learn it while reciting it in a loud voice with friends or all students in the class after school hours.
My wife says, "I learned it in the same way even after coming back home with my sister and brother under my mom. What's more or what's worse, we had to learn English at the same time..." Looks like it is not a happy memory for her. :D

Suut Khuun can be learned simply by saying the order of the numbers quickly, like if 2x2=4 and 2x3=6, "Song (2) song (2) see (4), song (2) saam (3) hohk (6) ...."

I heard that in India, they learn 19 x 19, but I guess it's almost impossible to remember if you are not young enough.

< Suut Khuun สูตร คูณ>
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
2 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
3 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36
4 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48
5 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
6 6 12 18 24 30 36 42 48 54 60 66 72
7 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 63 70 77 84
8 8 16 24 32 40 48 56 64 72 80 88 96
9 9 18 27 36 45 54 63 72 81 90 99 108
10 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
11 11 22 33 44 55 66 77 88 99 110 121 132
12 12 24 36 48 60 72 84 96 108 120 132 144
  • Suut: formula
  • Khuun: table

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190-181 180-171 170-161 160-151 150-141 140-131 130-121 120-111 110-101
100-91 90-81 80-71 70-61 60-51 50-41 40-31 30-21 20-11 10-1