What You Will Find Strange About Thailand

Somebody was asking me the other day they’ve never been abroad actually and they said to me, “When you first arrived in Thailand, what did you find strange about the country?”

I was racking my brains, thinking back about it. And as I’m going quite often, I can still remember because I see these things all the time now.

So I’ve made a list of 20 things I found really strange about Thailand when I first got there.

But I’ve got 20 here, so I’m just going to read them straight out. Let me jump in to number 1.

Number 1: Squat Toilets

The first thing that I found very, very strange when I arrived in Thailand was those squat toilets. You know, they don’t have toilets like we have in the West. It’s just a hole in the floor. There is a porcelain bowl there, but obviously you squat. I found that quite strange.

This was when I first arrived in Thailand many years ago, the standard now is the normal western toilet, though you will still find squat toilets.

Number 2: Putting Ice in Beer

They put it in wine as well, actually. But I just found that so strange.

I know the idea behind it if you put ice in beer, it keeps it cold. But for me, it just watered down the beer, and it was like drinking a 2% Tesco lager. I just didn’t see the point in that.

Number 3: Mixing Premium Whiskey with Coke

The Thais like to drink Johnnie Walker Black Label. It’s a premium whiskey. As you know, when you drink a premium whiskey, it should be on its own, or maybe just with a little bit of soda or something like that but generally on its own, so you can taste the full taste of the premium whiskey.

But again, they put mixers Coca-Cola, Sprite, that sort of thing. They’ll go to a nightclub, order a bottle of Black Label. It’s quite normal with the Thais. The waitress will pour them a Black Label and top it up with ice and Coca-Cola. I just found that really strange as well.

Number 4: Genuine Respect for the Royal Family

It’s something we used to have in the UK years ago, and I think it’s still quite nice that they have it in Thailand. That’s the genuine respect they have for the royal family. They truly love the royal family.

What I found very strange when I first got there was the national anthem being played in the cinema before a movie.

Number 5: People Stopping in the Street for the National Anthem

people stopping in the street. At 6:00 p.m. throughout the whole Kingdom of Thailand, they’ll play the national anthem through speakers. People just know when it’s 6:00 p.m. (or 8:00 in the morning), and they just stand still out of respect until that national anthem is over. Which is very respectable, and it’s actually quite nice to see.

Number 6: Songkran The Water Festival

It’s a festival called Songkran. It’s a water festival. I won’t go into all the details about it here you can go onto YouTube, there are lots of Songkran festival water festival videos. They’re quite fun.

That festival takes place between the 13th and the 15th of April every year. Just to simplify it for you: if you’ve never been to Thailand before, it’s everybody throwing water over each other. It sounds very childish, I know, but it’s actually a lot of fun if you get into it.

They’ve got these electric water pistols and big barrels of water filled up, and they’re throwing it everywhere. I’ve actually got a short video on my channel about Songkran you can have a look at that and see how much fun everybody’s having.

Number 7: Not Being Able to Drink the Tap Water

I found it quite strange that you can’t drink the tap water. You’ve got to be very, very careful. You have to buy bottled water in Thailand.

I suppose in the UK we’re very, very lucky we’ve got good quality drinking water that comes directly from the tap. I wasn’t used to that one.

Number 8: Eating Bugs

This used to really… it was stomach-churning. It would just turn my stomach. It’s all these bugs that they eat. If you go to any market, you’ll see trays of I don’t even know what kind of bugs they are. I guess they look like kind of locusts, something like that.

All the Thais eat them, and it’s very, very normal. And as I say, it’s stomach-churning if you see these bugs. What else to say about them? For me, it’s horrible. But it’s normal for them to eat all these bugs.

Number 9: Red-Light Areas Out in the Open

The next thing I found very strange about Thailand the red-light areas that are in Bangkok. The reason I found them strange when I first arrived there is because I did a little bit of research before I first went to Bangkok.

The fact that they’ve got so much of it in the open I found that very, very strange. It’s not hidden as such.

Number 10: How Beautiful Thai Women Are

It’s just how beautiful Thai women are. They are all very, very beautiful girls. I suppose Asians in general, but Thai people especially.

It doesn’t make any odds to me whether they’re light-skinned or dark-skinned. The Thais have got this big deal about all these cosmetics that lighten the skin they find light-skinned very attractive. But I think dark skin is just as beautiful on girls in Thailand. That’s just my opinion.

Number 11: Using a Spoon and Fork Instead of Chopsticks

Being an Asian country, I found it very strange that they don’t generally use chopsticks. They use a spoon and fork. They’ll only generally use chopsticks if they’re eating Chinese dishes. But otherwise, it’s a fork and a spoon with everything. And that was quite strange because obviously it’s Southeast Asia, and it’s just not a done thing.

Number 12: How Cheap Transportation Is

I found it incredible how cheap the transportation was. Coming from the airport to my hotel in central Bangkok that was the old Don Mueang Airport (it’s still around, but they’ve got the new airport now I forget the name of it) it was just so incredibly cheap.

You can take a taxi that would cost you £100 in the UK, and it’ll cost you £20 in Thailand. The taxis are just cheap if they go on the meter, that is.

Number 13: How Much Hard Spirits Young Thais Drink

This is back to alcohol. It was just the amount of real hard spirits young Thais drink. I don’t mean children, but you’ll get like in the UK, for instance, if you had a group of teenagers go to watch a live band and they ordered drinks, they’d order a glass of wine or a beer or something like that.

But you’ll see if you go to a Thai nightclub you’ll see girls 18 or 19, and they’ll be knocking back Black Label whisky. Real hard alcohol. They can really drink, these young girls. That was quite a surprise.

Number 14: Ladyboys

I was quite surprised by the ladyboys. We do have transvestites in the UK, but they actually just look like men in women’s clothes, most of them. And often they’ve got that five o’clock shadow.

But in Thailand, a lot of ladyboys are very much accepted by the Thai people. It’s not something to be looked down on. And a lot of them are incredible they’re incredibly beautiful to look at. They do look like real girls. So that was quite a surprise.

Number 15: The Size of Rats and Cockroaches

I was really surprised at the size of the rats and the cockroaches. I mean, you get rats everywhere, but they’re just like small cats in Bangkok. I mean, they’re horrible.

And the cockroaches are the same. Some of the cockroaches actually fly. Horrible. Absolutely horrible.

Number 16: The Number of 7-Elevens

I found it quite strange the number of 7-Elevens that they have, especially around central Bangkok. I think I’ve mentioned in another video, Soi 4 there are so many down there now.

When I first arrived there, it was Family Mart and 7-Eleven. They were kind of on an equal footing as far as the amount of convenience stores they had. But 7-Eleven pretty much dominates the market now.

We don’t have them in the UK we have different convenience shops like Budgens and Co-op and things like that. It used to be Spar, but they don’t seem to be around so much now.

Apparently, Americans tell me that 7-Elevens are just so much better in Thailand than they are in America. I don’t know why I haven’t been to the US, but I didn’t go into a 7-Eleven. But the sheer number of them in Thailand there are a lot.

Number 17: The Huge Amount of Stunning Beaches

Just the absolutely huge amount of stunning beaches. You can go to any coastline I’m not talking about Pattaya, I mean real nice places like Rayong.

Do you remember when you were young if you’re about my age (I’m 60) they had those posters where you see a palm tree outstretched across white sands and a blue, crystal clear sea? There are beaches like that all over Thailand. That was a surprise. Oh, they’re incredible.

Number 18: How Incredibly Friendly the Thai People Are

Number 18 just how incredibly friendly the Thai people are. I know I make a lot of videos that come across as negative that say don’t get into arguments with Thais and they’ll gang up on you if you do, and it’s all true. Everything I said in those videos is true.

But generally, if you behave yourself and you’re respectful and you’re polite I think the word really is respectful. You’ve got to treat people how you’d like to be treated, and that’s with respect.

Generally, if you do that, in nearly 28 years, I’ve never ever had a problem with a Thai person. They’ve always gone out of their way to help me. They’ve always been super friendly.

Okay, you get the odd one who will try it on and try to scam you out of a little bit of money or a drink or something, but that’s everywhere, isn’t it? But generally, the Thai people are really nice people.

I feel safer walking through Bangkok at 3 o’clock in the morning than I do walking through London at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. It’s so safe.

Number 19: Thais Shivering in the “Cold”

If you’ve been to Thailand before, you know it’s a very, very hot, humid country. I think the humidity is about 88% or something like that. They do have a cooler season, but it’s still real hot.

What used to make me laugh is I’d be walking along Pattaya’s seafront wearing just a t-shirt, sweating buckets because it’s so hot there in the coolest season and you’d see the Thais shivering, wearing jackets. They’d be on their motorbikes, scooters heading down the beach road with a jacket on back to front!

You’d go into a bar and the cashier would be sitting there snuggled up in a jacket, and you’d say to her, “What’s up?” and she’d say, “Oh, very cold, very cold.” That was funny.

Number 20: Thai People Can Sleep Anywhere

And I’m on number 20 now the last one. This still surprises me today. It’s just Thai people can sleep anywhere. I mean, you see them they’ll be lying on a motorbike, on the pavement, behind a counter with their head rested on the counter. They can sleep absolutely anywhere for any amount of time short or long.

That was something that was quite funny as well.