On-the-Road Tales

Attempting to get acclimated to Thai customs. People are very friendly and helpful and since it is a tourist destination – their english is passable. Of course like me when speaking a language, they grasp for the closest word they understand. So, while I figured my chances were bleak since it was a Buddhist country, I asked if there was a church in the area. The receptionist said “oh shirt, yes, you can buy, store” No, “Church” and tried to figure out how to charade the concept of a 2000 yr old western institution, so I put my hands together like “pray”. Well – this might have been fine in another place but in Thailand, they say hello/goodbye/thank you by putting their hands together and bowing slightly. So the receptionist and several other girls who had joined to watch me make an idiot of myself were all bowing now. “No, No” as I was chuckling and they were begging me to explain what I meant. Hmm – how do explain catholicism in one gesture…I had a relic of sorts in my pocket which my good friend Ruben lent me (thx man working so far!). NB- For those of you heathens (haha just kidding) these are little medals or trinkets usually depicting a saint or the virgin mary you carry with you, serving to remind you of your faith and protection and hopefully ward off against some calamity or another. Mine is a protection for travellers and is in the shape of a key with various images of transport such as an aircraft, a ship and as I pulled it out the girls were really perplexed at what I was trying to say! They finally got it with one of the religious images and everyone had a good laugh at the miscommunication. After all that, there was no church of the sort but it was a good effort.

I started thinking how different a perspective it must be that an entire culture has nothing to with christianity. Buddhism is more a way of life than an organized religion but the people are very dedicated. I kept seeing these little model houses on the street in the most inconvienent places. I learned that the people believe there are spirits everywhere and when a new structure is built, it is necessary to build a place for the displaced spirits to go, so they erect these little stands. Since it has to be in the prime location – they often end up in the middle of the sidewalk. They make offerings of food and drink to the spirits as well as light jawsticks. The also believe that the head is the most holy part of the body and feet, closest to the ground, are dirty. It is common to remove shoes before entering establishments and very offensive to raise your sole to anyone, most notably a Buddha image. This gives me great trepidation in shaking sand from my shoes because I am terrified I will accidentally balance and turn a sole towards one of the many images flanking the place! The King and Queen are highly revered here and it is nice to see portraits plastered than the population actually respects. Though this again brings thought – since the king is on the money – you have to remember not to stop a rolling coin with your foot since this would cause offense!

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 22nd, 2007 at 12:45 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.