What makes Thailand so special for you?

[Guest Jovianmoon]

I rarely hear of shark attacks in the US. Much more frequently in Australia. When I lived in Hong Kong, there were a few and all major beaches had shark nets. I read somewhere that most shark attacks take place in less than 2 meters of water.

 

Yes, and the reason for that is because shallow water is where most bathers are found. Counter-intuitive to that fact, while not at all contradicting it, are the statistics that show the deeper you venture into the water, the greater the odds of an attack. This has been determined by factoring in the average number of attacks for a given depth, while estimating the average number of bathers likely to be swimming at that depth at any given time.

 

Also relevant are the species of sharks which are known to have attacked humans, which generally prefer deeper water. But sharks will readily move into very shallow water if their senses detect something interesting. The effects of splashing and flailing limbs can seem quite interesting to an animal which is normally attracted to prey that seems to be in distress, such as a wounded fish, seal or other organism.

 

Okay, I'll stop there before I get carried away again with this, one of my very favourite subjects of discussion. I realise it's not relevant to the topic, and that I started it all and to a large degree have perpetuated it. Sorry...

 

To get the thread back on topic before it gets locked, I'll only repeat that my experience diving and snorkelling with sharks off Koh Phi Phi has been one of the things that has made Thailand special to me. There have been others, like watching beach fire shows at that same location, but the shark experience tops my list in terms of events, rather than ongoing aspects of Thailand that I find pleasing or interesting, of which there are also quite a few.

 

I would be interested to hear more from others about specific events that happened to them in Thailand that have made it more special to them... 

 

Cheers.

[Guest timmberty]

im all for shark attacks .. if man can kill shark for its fin. i think its great when the shark gets one back ..

same as bull fighting .. if the pratadore was to get spiked thru the bollax more often it get far higher ratings.

[Guest Jovianmoon]

pratadore...

 

Hahaha 

 

I'm going to call them pratadores from now on 

[Guest thaiworthy]

im all for shark attacks .. if man can kill shark for its fin. i think its great when the shark gets one back ..

same as bull fighting .. if the pratadore was to get spiked thru the bollax more often it get far higher ratings.

 

What's a pratadore? Is that a matador who takes a prat fall? Must be a new word. Quick! Somebody call Urban Dictionary.

[Guest Jovianmoon]

I take timmberty's meaning as implying that so called matadors are people with so little sense that they deliberately enter an enclosed area with a bull and then intentionally provoke it into an attack. So they are not admirable brave chaps, they are just prats. Hence, 'pratadores' (or rather, pratadors, I suppose).

 

I quite like it. 

[Guest thaiworthy]

Urban dictionary had the meaning of prat, but not pratador, which he apparently conjured up himself.

 

Your explanation makes more sense. But it's an English term, primarily used in the United Kingdom. No wonder I didn't get it.

 

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=prat

[Rogie]

Yes, that's the beauty of slang or vernacular words and speech, great if you know what it means but perplexing or downright infuriating if you don't. TW is right it is a British expression 'prat' so I understood the meaning of pratador straightaway (but obviously the context within which a word is used often provides a clue). I am guilty of using some words others occasionally may not understand, but I don't do it intentionally (and I'm not saying Timmberty did either), I just enjoy using the English language, whether they be mildly archaic or old-fashioned words or those only found in an 'urban' dictionary.

[Guest timmberty]

forgetting offical definitions, if there is someone you dont like you might refer to he/her/them as a prat..

i dont like people who kill defenceless animals for so called sport. hence just changing what rhymes .. mat to prat is a simple thing to do ..

so for me a pratador/matador is someone who kills for fun, and even if he starts to get beaten he gets out of it with a little help from his friends

[kokopelli]

Oh, a pratador! I thought you were referring to a picador, someone who goads the bull by stabbing with a lance.

[Guest timmberty]

Oh, a pratador! I thought you were referring to a picador, someone who goads the bull by stabbing with a lance.

no that would be a prickador ......... for those who dont know english so good .. a prick can be used same as prat .. even tho they are completly different things

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9x3c9Q77fo

4 against 1 ... and they still dont let the bull finish his fun.

[Guest thaiworthy]

Yes, I have to agree timmerty about animal cruelty. That not only includes bullfights, but cock fights, dog fights. The worst example of this is a story I heard once about a man who drugged two male cats and hung them on a rope by their tails. When they woke up, they went crazy clawing each other to death, hanging upsidedown. Then of course there are the sick people who do terrible things to black cats especially around Halloween. I had cats as pets for most of my life, and I like dogs and all animals. I don't know what is going on in the minds of people. They must be sociopaths, who start as children pulling wings off files and setting fire to small animals. This is a really sick world.

 

I couldn't watch that video. I stopped after about half.

[Guest Jovianmoon]

Then of course there are the sick people who do terrible things to black cats especially around Halloween...

 

That behaviour is a throwback to the French burning and torture of cats up to the beginning of the 19th Century. Cats in baskets, cats in sacks; they were burned and skewered among other things. Thousands of them, all in the name of dispatching them as a form of entertainment for the masses, who believed they were the spawn of the devil. That was only just over 200 years ago, not exactly the dark ages.

[Guest Jovianmoon]

...no that would be a prickador...

 

Hahaha ! Keep 'em coming timmberty ! 

[Guest fountainhall]

This afternoon I was reminded of one reason why Thailand is so special. I popped into Starbucks in the newly renovated Silom Complex. It was pretty busy and all the staff were young men. When I made my order, I got a lovely smile. When the coffee was handed to me, again a big smile. When the one responsible for cleaning tables after everyone left came to collect my tray, another beaming smile. I spent some time watching the counter. Every customer was treated to the same wonderfully smiling faces.

 

Nothing could have been more different that the last two times I was in Starbucks in the west. In a branch in a bookstore in England, every single table was dirty. On West 57th Street in New York across from my hotel, not one smile was proffered to any of the dozen or so customers waiting in line.

 

Smiling to customers is not unique to Thailand. But I always feel there is something in the smile that makes it more meaningful than those of staff in coffee shops in most other Asian countries.

[Guest Jovianmoon]

This afternoon I was reminded of one reason why Thailand is so special. I popped into Starbucks in the newly renovated Silom Complex. It was pretty busy and all the staff were young men. When I made my order, I got a lovely smile. When the coffee was handed to me, again a big smile. When the one responsible for cleaning tables after everyone left came to collect my tray, another beaming smile. I spent some time watching the counter. Every customer was treated to the same wonderfully smiling faces.

 

Nothing could have been more different that the last two times I was in Starbucks in the west. In a branch in a bookstore in England, every single table was dirty. On West 57th Street in New York across from my hotel, not one smile was proffered to any of the dozen or so customers waiting in line.

 

Smiling to customers is not unique to Thailand. But I always feel there is something in the smile that makes it more meaningful than those of staff in coffee shops in most other Asian countries.

[emphasis added]

 

I can't account for most Asian countries because I haven't visited as many as would have liked, but your post has such a personal ring of truth to it that I had to add my two-satang's worth, or I should say my two yen's worth 

 

I took a trip back to Perth with my Japanese (now ex-)boyfriend sometime while I was in Japan (2000-2003; can't remember the date of the trip back to Perth). While the smiles and language of Japanese service attendants was often somewhat contrived - almost like robots with synthetic smiles sometimes - shortly after we arrived in Perth I was actually embarrassed when ordering food for my boyfriend from Burger King (called "Hungry Jack's" locally). Instead of a smiling and well-enunciated "Kochira de ikagadesuka" -  "Would you care to dine here?" - which I was used to in Japan after some time, whether it was fake or not; I got the usual equivalent Australian fast-food-joint lingo which I had happily forgotten - snarled and slurred: "Eedinataggaweigh?" (direct translation: "Eat in or take away?", or less direct translation: "I hate my job and I want my customers to know it"). At least the Japanese put up some kind of façade of pleasing service. Australian service staff, in my experience, usually can't even be bothered faking it...

 

Someone may suggest I'm being too hard on my own countrymen (and admittedly there are a few exceptions), but I don't think so.

[Guest abang1961]

Sawadee-krap.

The wai and the smile and the warmth and the list goes on and on (just like Celine's song)

Things I like in Thailand are aplenty.

 

Well I would say that 90% of the Thai service staff (that I have encountered) are excellent.

That odd 10% are depressed workers.. just like the ugly receptionist at Apex Hotel in Pattaya.

In fact (for me), Pattaya seems to be the place with the worst service...

[Guest Chithai]

While the men of Thailand are certainly handsome, it is the country’s culture that has the biggest draw for me. No where else in the world do you find such pleasant people in such an exotic setting. I have only been visiting the Kingdom for five years now, but already it feels like a second home.

[Guest thaiworthy]

That's a beautiful first post, Chithai. Welcome aboard. Hope you continue to enjoy your travels here.

[Guest fountainhall]

I agree 100% with Chithai. Welcome! 

[Guest Chithai]

Thank you Fountainhall. Your comment about the grand smiles experienced at Starbucks hit home with me as I’ve experienced the same many times. Your welcome makes me feel as though I was there now. (Though I have never had this underlining problm in Thailand!)

[KhorTose]

While the men of Thailand are certainly handsome, it is the country’s culture that has the biggest draw for me. No where else in the world do you find such pleasant people in such an exotic setting. I have only been visiting the Kingdom for five years now, but already it feels like a second home.

They are very pleasant until they get behind the wheel of a car.I  

I am glad to see a new member, do keep posting.

[TotallyOz]

I talked to my beloved today for over 2 hours. I also talked to his son, his mother and his father. Their voices were all sweet and loving and I have to say that Thailand is so special to me because of him. I just adore him.