Notes From Thailand

Glen Brunke, February 20, 2024

Before a recent trip to Thailand, we researched our trip online using Google, YouTube, and other tools to discover things to do and plan the itinerary. In fact, the travel blogging space is such a red ocean bloodbath of content that I think you could almost not be surprised by anything when arriving in a country over 9000 miles away from your own home.

I am not going to even try and add yet another travel guide to the fray, but instead, I thought I would share some of the little things I noticed while I was there: the little surprises and delights. It's those little, everyday things that are so easy to forget but add to the richness of a trip and your personal experience.

The Condiments

There is so much good food in Thailand, it would be easy to gloss over the condiments, but I found them to be a metaphor for life in Thailand. With most meals in restaurants (not including most street food, more on that later), you will see four seasoning options on your table. One will be fish sauce, which provides a salty taste, one will be sugar for sweetness, one will be chili peppers in vinegar for sourness, and the last will be dried chili flakes for spiciness.

These flavors are meant for balance; no food should be too far in any one direction. This idea of balance is in contrast to how many in the United States would think, where extremes tend to get the most attention. And thus, with each meal, you get a little side of philosophy and a reminder to stay grounded.

The Street Food

Thais don't cook at home that often. Of course, there are exceptions, but many Thai people eat most of their meals on the go. What this means for the visiting tourist is that you can find good street food nearly everywhere and with high quality (mostly). You can find street food in all of the large and small markets, and anywhere Thai people live. The offerings range from small grilled bites like chicken satay, Thai sausage, and seafood to fresh fruits, desserts, and of course, every tourist's favorite: pad thai gai (chicken with noodles).

You don't have to worry about cutting up your food in Thailand; it's expected to be delivered in bite-sized pieces. Most Thais eat primarily with a spoon, and they use a fork to push food like rice onto their spoon. Chopsticks are available but usually only offered with noodle dishes.

If you get a cold drink, you might be offered a bag to go with it. The drink bags have handles and are used to hang the drinks from the handlebars of motorbikes.

Paper Products

There are items that are more rare in Thailand versus the United States. One of these being paper products. Things like tissues, napkins, and especially paper towels are often not available as widely as you might expect, with some bathrooms lacking any toilet paper at all. You either have to bring your own, or many toilets have a water source close by that can be used to "wash" where you might have "wiped" in the past.

Instead of napkins, it's more common just to wash your hands in a nearby sink. Using paper generates trash, and finding a place to throw away your used napkin is often even harder than finding the napkin in the first place. Very few public waste bins exist in Thailand; most businesses have a means for getting rid of refuse, but often you need to ask to have them throw it away for you.

7-Eleven

Everyone shops at 7-Eleven in Thailand, and I mean everyone. Tourists. Locals. Kids. Adults. They have everything you might expect from a convenience store: drinks, snacks, basic sundry items, but often a lot more. They have just enough in the way of general merchandise assortment to allow one to live without much deprivation. Laundry soap, paper products, meal options, health and beauty products, you get the idea.

As a tourist, I was excited to see the wide selection available in snacks. Flavors like hot chili squid, Hong Kong noodles, seaweed, truffles, and fried crab graced the front of packages. A wide variety of noodle cups were always available, and every hotel had a hot water kettle either in the room or available for use.

The drink selection was also full of variety; in addition to beer, soda, and cold coffee, you could find things like Tiger Tea, cannabis water, the original Red Bull (in a bottle), and probiotic dairy drinks. Of course, you could also find many western favorites like Coke, Pepsi, bottled water, Snickers, and plain chips.

One Last Word On Tours

One thing that stood out in every location we visited was the huge number of tourists. We, of course, were part of the crowd. This is the reality of modern Thailand. It's a beautiful country with a rich history, and this attracts many from every corner of the globe.

One interesting thing about the tourists, though...they all would go to great lengths to remove all of the tourists from their photos. On multiple occasions, I witnessed young women becoming visibly upset because someone happened to walk through their carefully staged scene where Thailand looked like a desolate, remote paradise instead of the tourist freeway it actually is. Many tours were specifically designed around these photo sessions, giving you 20-30 minutes of time to "explore" and get your pictures before moving on to the next stop.

We were not an exception either. I offer the monkey photo below as evidence: just a cute little monkey having a snack on a serene beach, right? No one would guess that 20 other people were right beside us trying to get the same photo. (FYI, we did NOT feed this monkey)



Perhaps a more accurate reflection of tourist sites in Thailand might be the image of the famous reclining Buddha at Wat Pho below.

The tours we took in Thailand were both some of the best and worst experiences of the trip. We were able to access sites we couldn't get to on our own, and our experience was broadened with the interactions of our guides. We also stood in endless lines and were subjected to experiences that felt less authentic than if we were at Disney World.

I guess that's the surprise and delight of travel; we find balance in the good and bad experiences, and they blend to form a more balanced impression of a place. And maybe that's one reason we travel, to remind ourselves of the wonders of the world, the good and the bad within it, and how it's up to us what we take away and incorporate into our own stories.