Thailand Land of Smiles» Thailand guessing game

The #1 Reason to Move to Thailand

Talen — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:28:28 +0000

Can anyone guess what the #1 reason is to move to Thailand?

Over the weekend the East coast of America was hit with a North Eastern blizzard which dumped 30 inches on top of me in Maryland. Now that i’s over and we are all dug out you would think I’m relieved, I was until they forecast another storm today that is predicted to drop a further 10-20 inches of the nasty white stuff.

This is the most compelling arguement of any that can be made for moving to Thailand forthwith! Although with my luck the snow would follow me there too, and there is precedent for Snow in Thailand.

Some More Thai Ingenuity

Talen — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 03:10:48 +0000

When you walk up the stairs of the family home in Nakhon Phanom you’ll see the above object hanging above your head to the left just before the door. It’s made of Bamboo and has a rectangular slot cut into it. in which you will find a small stick with a string tied to it. Most of you should be able to figure this one out.

Well, I told you guys it was a pretty easy one and all of the answers were correct. It is indeed a door bell of sorts but it’s also used to call the kids in for dinner. Malcom from Retired in Thailand and Loving it was first in with a correct answer and he won the grand prize knowing he was the first correct answer. If you haven’t been to Malcolms blog do check it out as he writes some great tales about his life in Thailand and posts some beautiful photos to go along with the great stories.

Thailand Mystery to Me

Talen — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 03:14:26 +0000

The picture above is a bit of a mystery to me that I haven’t been able to work out. On the doors to the storage area under the family house in Nakhon Phanom are three symbols, 2 hearts followed by a circled cross. I’ve seen these symbols together a few times in Nakhon Phanom as well as in Mukdahan. They are always on a house and always on a door or window.

Now the easiest answer would be to ask Pookie but I decided to keep it a mystery and see if I could figure it out myself with a little research and so far I’ve come up with nothing. So, now I’m looking to see if any of you have come across these symbols or other similar symbols in your travels of Thailand.

Those Little Blue Boxes

Talen — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 03:11:17 +0000

If you’ve spent any time in Thailand you’ve noticed these little blue mail boxes next to the regular mail box on a house or a driveway gate. I wondered for a while what they might be for…what possibly could be be so small and need it’s own box? I was determined not to ask and find out on my own, which I did one day while walking through Nakhon Phanom.

Do you know what the little blue box is for?

10 points will be given for a correct answer…100,000 points gets you a stuffed bunny.

Expats recieve negative 10,000 points for a correct answer

Just a quickie today as the back end of the blog needs a serious spring cleaning and seeing that it’s July it’s a just a little past due. I’ll be back tomorrow to relate the Thai families housing tale and how they came to live in 2 provinces at once.

And the winner is Malcolm from Retired in Thailand and Loving it. It is indeed a tiny mailbox for the water bill. Mike knew as well and was dead on when he said the bill usually ends up anywhere else but in the box. If you look close in the first picture below you’ll see another tiny mailbox that is beige…apparently that is for the electricity bill in Nakhon Phanom.

Thai Ingenuity

Talen — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:30:58 +0000

If you’ve been to Thailand for any amount of time you’ve seen countless instances of Thai ingenuity, some barely noticeable and some quite blatant. Most are simple fixes that you wouldn’t have thought of and some clever enough that you wish you would have thought of.

The one thing all cases of Thai ingenuity have in common is money. I mean, why buy a mouse trap when you can build a better one, or at least one that will fit the bill without costing you a satang. For some reason on my last trip I noticed the Thai ingenuity everywhere I went from Bangkok to Nakhon Phanom and decided to document some of it.

The first one I will present to you today I came across while waiting for the riverboat taxi at the central pier in Bangkok. They have a information desk there that is sometimes unmanned for various reasons. Now, in a western country this problem is easily fixed by installing a small bell for the customers to ring when they need service and no one is around. Bells cost money and why buy a bell when you have soda cans and string?

Our next submission also comes in from the central pier riverboat taxi stand. It seems the downspout for the roof had disappeared at one corner or there was a hole in the gutter and the water was coming down directly on customers. Now, you could go buy a length of downspout or PVC to fix the problem but that would incur expense. Why spend money when someone has already bought and discarded a completely useful plastic bottle or two. And if you haven’t already noticed they killed two birds with one stone on this one…they placed a potted plant beneath the makeshift downspout so they wouldn’t have to waste time watering it.

Speaking of rain…If you know it’s going to rain it’s nice to have an umbrella with you so you don’t get wet. Unfortunately on this day there was no sign of rain in sight and I got caught at the exchange booths at CareFour in Pattaya. While waiting out the rain I was wishing I had an umbrella because this downpour lasted a good hour. Now, a normal umbrella wouldn’t have helped that much as the rain was coming down in buckets. If I had just had the Thai ingenuity factor going for me I would have been prepared and very dry. Big rains call for big umbrella’s.

My last submission for the day confused me for a good 10 minutes as I stood and stared at it. It wasn’t until the shop owner next door came out and explained it to me that I truly understood the genius of this one. At first I thought it was yet another downspout fix…admittedly one that would require attention every few minutes. When I was told what it was for I had to laugh. I’m going to leave this one for you guys to figure out and if you don’t (high probability) I might just let you in on the secret. Unfortunately it didn’t save the business it served but I bet it helped out a great deal on rainy days.

And the answer is: The store this funnel was in front of used to be a store that sold aquarium fish and tadpoles for eating. They saved money when it rained by hanging plasic bags under the funnel to fill up with rain water and they would then place the fish or tadpoles in the bags when they were sold. I guess it didn’t rain enough for them to save money as they went out of business.

Thailand Mystery

Talen — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:38:00 +0000

While roaming around the family farm in Mukdahan I ran across these mounds. I studied them for a while to see if I could figure out their purpose. One had a nice low fire under it and another had it’s fire hole buried but you could still see smoke rising from cracks in the mound, yet another had been opened and it’s contents removed.

After some time and plenty of picture taking I was satified that I had the answer so I headed back to the family house and showed Pooki my discovery and asked her if my assumptions were correct…and they weren’t. Now I know the purpose of these mounds and it was not even close to what I imagined. So, I put the question to you…what do you think these mounds are used for? Perhaps the pictures will give you a clue or two that I missed.

Well, Martin, Mike and Catherine were more aware than I was at first. The mounds are indeed for making the charcoal the family cooks with. I originally thought they were for smoking fish as the fire under them was very low and produced mostly smoke. The low fire keeps the wood inside from just burning up and the whole procsess takes about 3-5 days.

Thai Trash Can

Talen — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 01:43:24 +0000

Well, it seems most of you knew that the object in the last post, Another Thailand Guessing Game, was indeed a Thai trash can. They are made of old tires and can be found all over Thailand. As Andy from Changwat, Amphoe, Tambon pointed out, the norm in the cities have become the large western style trash cans. He knows a thing or two because he writes about administrative subdivisions of Thailand on his blog. Interesting read.

Stefan of Nam Noi was the first in with the right answer of a Thai trash can. Stefan runs a German language site dedicated to tips and information on Thailand.

Flisha was the next up with the right answer and she would know too as these trash cans can be found all over South East Asia. Flisha lives in the Philipines and writes about the Philipines and all manner of things on her blog Random Detoxificaton.Lots of cool information here.

Hoo Don of Beyond the Mango Juice also knew the correct answer but he wasn’t giving it away. He is another of the Thailand blogging contingent that writes a lot of interesting things on living in the North East of Thailand as well as Thailand in general. Definitely a good read.

Treasure Nature got it right as well. Treasure writes an eco friendly blog about treasuring nature for our future. A very good read indeed.

Malcolm of Retired in Thailand and Loving it also go it right as did all the other Thai bloggers and people that live in SE Asia! This is my first time checking out Malcolm’s blog and it’s very good. I’ll be adding a link to Andy, Malcolm’s and Stefan’s blogs in the links section .

One thing is for sure, the next trip, which is rapidly approaching, I will be searching out some much harder questions and pictures to pose to everyone…

Another Thailand Guessing Game

Talen — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 01:48:05 +0000

For those of you that have been to Thailand or live there you know exactly what the above object is, but everyone else may have a bit of a problem with this one. This item can be found throughout Thailand from Bangkok to the rural north. Have a clue what it may be? Leave your answer in the comments. Below is another pic of them for sale up in Mukdahan.

The first right answer will get some link love and 500 entrecard credits if you use em. Bonus points if you can tell me what it’s made of.

Ladyboy’s it is

Talen — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:34:46 +0000

More than a few of you realized that the spot the ladyboy post was a trick question and some of you even knew the names ( not gonna ask ). The plain fact is that they are all ladyboy’s. The pictures above are of Kangsadal Wongdusadeekul , winner of the Miss Tiffany Universe Contest 2008. The contest is held annually at the Tiffany Theater in Pattaya, Thailand.

As you can see they sometimes can be very hard to tell from their female counterparts. Some giveaways are long lingers, big feet, and of course an adams apple. I can say I have seen a few that had none of the above and I had no clue until I was told. Fortunately I was able to spot the one to the left fairly easily on my last trip. Besides being well over 6 feet tall ( in heels )she had a rather husky voice.

Mike of My Thai Friend was the first in with the correct answer and even though he lives in Thailand I’m going to declare him the winner anyway and send him the 500 Entrecard credits even though he said to give them to someone outside of Thailand.

Mike is an Englishman living in Thailand and he shares his day to day life and experiences in his blog My Thai Friend. A very good read, and Mike gives some great insight to Thai culture as seen by a foreigner ( falang ). One of the great things about the myriad of Thai blogs is the unique perspective each blogger brings to the table. Stop by My Thai Friend…you’ll be glad you did.

Spot The Ladyboy

Talen — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 03:28:30 +0000

Katoey,kathoey, the third gender…whatever you call them they are abundant in the land of smiles. It’s been said more than once that the most beautiful women in Thailand are men. What do you think?

Well, I’ll tell you what I’ll do…posted below are several pictures of very lovely ladies and all you have to do is pick out the ladyboy. Sound easy? Now, I know those of you living in or traveling to Thailand frequently will know but I’m guessing the rest of my readers wont.

So, guess the right answer and you’ll get some link love and if you’re with Entrecard I’ll throw in 500 credits to the first right answer. Let the games begin!

Click the pictures to enlarge.

This should be easy

And the Thailand Picture Quiz 3 Winner is…

Talen — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:14:12 +0000

Well, everyone got it right to some extent. It’s definitely corn. Bluecrystaldude was the first to give the right answer …and it is indeed some funky corn topiary art that I’ve run across at different gardens in Thailand. The first being Nong Nooch Tropical Gardens and the second being Million Years Stone Park.

You can see in the the first two pics it gets kinda brown looking after a while and of course the animals gnaw on it a little too…and at least one hungry Thai girl that I know. So they pull them from display and re-corn them.

Bluecrystaldude of Hot Shit Form Here Will be sent 500 Entrecard credits for the winning answer and everyone else will get some link love because there are some great blogs to see here.

Carol got the corn part right so you should definitely check out her Genealogy blog called Ipentimento

Monaco guessed corn stacks and they are nothing if not corn stacks and she has a blog called Read my Mind which is a very good read about everything going on in the news and on the net.

Next up is Miah who guessed corns and there are definitely more than one so… Miah has a cool blog MeiYah~Miah Laborte and a beautiful smile Check out her post on Balut…it might make you hungry.

Sunny guessed huge piles of corn and that works for me. His blog Happi like a HiPPo is about a place I love, Thailand. A very good read written by an expat.

My Bug Life didn’t know what it was which makes me sad because she has a beautiful smile too and a blog that will definitely make you hungry…but, since I love her blog, Foodie and Travel Bug, I’m going to have to make an exception.

And God Created Woman thought they were corn silos which is always a good answer and he has a blog dedicated to something I absolutely love…Women…and the Halle Berry pics are very nice.

SG Entrepreneur Was going with the xmas theme a little early but he has a blog about Singapore Entrepreneurs so he was thinking outside the box. A very good post on Singapores Social Entrepreneurs awaits…

Last but not least was Nomadic Matt with a very emphatic Corn!! or was it angry…Angry corn kinda works for me. Matt has a great travel blog, Nomadic Matt’s Travel Site Some great tips can be found here and with out a doubt some great pictures and a nice community feel.

Next time I’ll make it harder than corn!!

Thailand Picture Quiz Part 3

Talen — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 02:55:58 +0000

I came across these interesting tree type things in 2007 and again in 2008 in Thailand. They really catch your eye from a distance as they are rather large. I know what they are do you?

The first four people that can tell me what they are and what they are made of will get some link love. If the first correct answer comes from someone who belongs to Entrecard I’ll also reward you with 500 Entrecard credits…I’ll check on the answers and let you know who won Sunday night. Have a great weekend everyone.

Update: Got caught up in a bunch of different things so will let you know who won on Monday…

Thailand Picture Quiz Part 2

Talen — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:37:44 +0000

Above is a big earthenware pot filled with water that has a small pot floating inside it. This can be found everywhere outside the tourist areas but it is only half the picture…it goes with something else. What is it?

If you’ve been to Thailand or South East Asia for that matter you know exactly what it is so give the ones that haven’t a chance.

First one with the right answer will get a little link love and possibly more.

Petra from Blooms and Blossoms nailed it. It is in fact the flushing mechanism for a squat toilet…and if you notice there isn’t any toilet paper either so you have to use it to clean yourself too. Check out Petr’s blog she takes absolutely beautiful pictures of flowers.

Squat toilet

Thailand Picture Quiz

Talen — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 20:43:23 +0000

The above picture was taken somewhere in Thailand and the subject of the picture can be found all over the place…but what is it? If you’ve been to Thailand you know exactly what it is so give the newbies a chance to try and figure it out.

This is just for fun but if you can guess right I’ll give you a little link love if you have a blog and if you use Entrecard I’ll throw in one hundred credits.

Well. I guess this was a little too easy. Matt of NomadicMatt.com was the first to get it right out of the gate. It is in fact a mini gas station for motorbikes. They use empty whiskey bottles because they are perfect for a fill up on a motorbike.

Just about all of you got the answer right. Next time won’t be an easy one I promise…but, it will be worth a lot more for a right answer.

Thailand Land of Smiles» Thailand guessing game

The #1 Reason to Move to Thailand

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Some More Thai Ingenuity

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Those Little Blue Boxes

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