Thread: Thailand: rookie mistakes

Originally Posted by DrB0b

wai-ing embarrasses some farangs, usually those who want to show off how au-fait they are with thailand (though why they do that by showing contempt for local norms is something I've never understood), that it also embarrasses everybody else.

Say what?

Is that you smeg?

:P

^ I was just messin with you as that edited quote read like a smeg post. Take a chill pill Doc.

Originally Posted by DrB0b

You're making up rules of politeness

Yes that's what I do.
If I'm carrying a heavy box then you don't need a wai

^In that case wai by pointing your foot at the person you wish to wai. It's also the method double arm amputees use.

Never expect to get your hand tools - wrenches, sockets etc all back after lending them to the Crew. Not so much as it's a Kemoy-factor, they just don't have any respect for tools...

When you're at a party with 15 Thais and the bill comes to you, don't worry, they'll all chip in to help pay it. None of them would ever consider ducking into the toilets, out back for a cigarette, or faking a aneurysm. They'll all carry their load.

Originally Posted by 9999

Wai-ing service staff.

Waiing anyone...

Joining Teakdoor

I searched the entire internet for a falang wai-ing to add to this thread but couldn't find one pic.

doesn't the wai mean
look, i come in peace
i have no weapons.
love me, .

and then down the road, you get robbed by a mosqitto.

^^ Nice. Green sent. I searched 'falang wai' and got nothing.

Fuck it, if we're playing "Thread Drift", I'll join in.

That is the graceful greeting gesture of the Thais, appropriate also to express one's thanks. The wai is implemented by leading the folded hands slowly upward before the chest or - if one wants to express special reverence - before the face, while bending slightly forward. The Wai is given in principle first by people having a lower-standing status, to people having a higher-standing status, or by the staff of a restaurant or a hotel to the guests. The foreigner will usually experience this beautiful custom for the first time, if he enters a plane of Thai Airways or a good hotel and - being a polite person - will then often make the principal error to return the Wai.

The carrying out of this greeting, or its return, is determined and applied by rules in the Thai society, which a Farang most of the time will not understand. So the height, up to which one raises the fingertips will show, which social status one grants to the other one. The Wai with fingertips raised up to the forehead is entitled to be given only to the king and to monks. It is always expected by a younger person to give the Wai first. Who practices the gesture wrongly, always runs the risk to make him look ridiculous. In order not to compromise him, the Farang should consider the following rules:

One gives the Wai first only to people with a higher status, e.g. the boss, a venerable older person (e.g. parents-in-law), or to monks, which - independently of their age - for the time they carry the yellow robe, are entitled to the highest social status in the Thai society. Even the king will offer the Wai first to a monk, who will not return it in principle. To children and service personnel, one does not return the Wai, but answers only with an easy nodding of the head. In no case should one thank for a given service, e.g. from the hotel personnel, with a Wai, since they will not only feel pulled on their leg, but it also could bring misfortune to them. The Wai is practiced in Thailand much less than Farang usually assume. If one comes however into contact with a monk, then the Wai is always appropriate.

To the Farang, who want to be courteous, and tries to welcome Thais he meets privately or in business with a polite Wai, it will happen again and again, that the other one tries to welcome him according to western custom, by shaking his hand, from which then usually results a rather amusing situation. As an always correct rule one can say, that a Farang – with the exception of venerable persons - should never greet first with a Wai. If the other one makes the Wai first, then one can answer him in the same manner, either with a somewhat weaker Wai, or nodding friendly with the head. Both is correct and is understood as polite gesture. In no case should one return the Wai to waiters or waitresses, children or if a Thai thanked you for something with a Wai.

It must be advised also against trying to execute a Wai with an opened bottle of beer in the hand, a situation into which one can easily come, being at a party or in a bar. Depending upon the inclination of the bottle, and the height up to which one raises the folded hands with the bottle, the content will flow either into the own shirt, or over the trousers, and/or the skirt of the so friendly welcomed person.

The Wai is used not only to greet persons, but also to express respect to all venerable objects, above all for Buddha images. Sitting in a bus, one will see again and again, that all the Thais in the bus make a Wai through the window when passing at a temple or a Buddha image. Sometimes this beautiful custom can also become hair-rising for the tourist, e.g. at the busiest crossing in Bangkok, before the Erawan shrine, where the red-light phase of the traffic light takes sometimes more than 10 minutes. There it may happen that the taxi driver, before the traffic light changes to red, while hurrying with squealing, tires on two wheels around the bend, will take both hands from the wheel, in order to show his veneration with a Wai to the image of the God Brahma standing at this corner.

It may also seem somewhat strange to the Farang, if in a striptease bar on Patpong Road, the girls, before they go on to the stage, are presenting first a Wai to Buddha image in the corner. Whether they want to ask forgiveness from Lord Buddha for what they are going to do now, or if the asking him, that he may give a good guest to them to spend the evening with, is not to know, probably they want both.

In a desperate attempt to prevent further thread drift my parents also crop up in another example. They went on a trip without me to Krabi one year, and got caught up with the Railay Beach touts. But they saw lots of other flangs getting on boats and being taken off to what they were assured was one of the most beautiful beaches, so they decided to go themselves. The long-tail boat captain was polite and smiley, and told them the return price in advance. They spent a nice few hours on the beach, then realised that many of the other flangs were packing up their gear and getting back in the boats. Mum and dad found their guy and said they were ready to go back. He just said not yet, never mind. My parents waited for another half an hour, by which time nearly everyone else had gone, and asked him again. Go soon. Don't worry. Not long later, they were the only ones left on the beach, and their captain was the only boat there. He demanded double the money they'd agreed to take them back. They didn't have a choice, and paid up. Rookie mistake.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Fuck it, if we're playing "Thread Drift", I'll join in.

is thread drifting done via a modified sewing machine ?


rookies will get into taxis that have been parked on the kerb waiting for the suckers

Real rookies will take several blokes "home" before they catch on...

I ain't Thai. Sometimes I wai, sometimes I don't It depends on the situation and the mood. If me giving a wai in return to restaurant staff is embarrassing then why does my wife return them the wai? And who cares. I may or may not and do not care if it is right, wrong or embarrassing. I do n t care what the Thais think of me. I am a farang and the benefit to being a farang is that I have the confidence and wisdom to be me without dwelling on the dos and don'ts - not some spineless fool bound by some archaic tradition or some feudal caste system.

Sometimes I wai mom and dad, little kids, restaurant staff, my office staff, the gym trainers, and the business people I deal with. Sometimes I just don't. I would bet, the Thais really do not notice and I know I don't notice at all.

The only person I wai is my wife's granny.
I have no idea why. Probably because I respect her.

She's 86. She's not Thai and hasn't the slightest desire to become Thai.

She's a refugee from Vietnam. Escaped through Laos to NE Thailand. Never received Thai citizenship despite living here for 40 years. I can understand that. Millions of Mexicans live in the US without similar benefits. They're usually illegal. Granny isn't. She gets basic treatment. But she's a refugee from war (French, before you trigger-happy kunts lay in.)

Yes, please consider there are millions of people who have lived in Thailand decades longer than you, who get treated like garbage, and are happy for it.

Originally Posted by 9999

^ I see most just give a slight nod of the head, which I have now emulated as standard response to a submissive wai.

Exactly.

Originally Posted by chitown

Sometimes I wai mom and dad, little kids, restaurant staff, my office staff, the gym trainers, and the business people I deal with.

Chi wai-ing the locals

First rookie mistake: Taking a girl out for five days before I had a good idea of what other lovlies were EVERYWHERE. But, I guess I can be partially forgiven as I was only 19, and had been waist deep in rice paddies for the preceeding seven or eight months. I ending up dumping her after one night, and trading up, but it cost me. Certainly not the last time I wasted money in LOS.

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

I was only 19

Or the newer, far better, hip-hopp version....



Drift that Mofos