Giant lizards crawling through Bangkok’s most famous park, no alcohol sales in the afternoon and a tangle of cables wherever you look: There are many curiosities in Thailand. The numbers 2565 and 555 also play a role.
Bangkok – One minute to eight at Lumphini Park. In Bangkok’s green lung there is already a hustle and bustle. Hundreds of Thais jog along the paths lined with fragrant frangipani trees, older women practice tai chi, and a group practices zumba.
Then the clock strikes the hour – and the world stands still, as if someone has pressed the pause button. The national anthem echoes through the park and people pause, joggers slow down, old men get up from the benches. This is the rule in ancient Siam: When the anthem “Phleng Chat Thai” is played twice a day, at 8:00 a.m. and at 6:00 p.m., in public places, the people should stand at attention.
lizards on the sidewalks
But what is that? One doesn’t follow the rules and scurries across the asphalt – apparently untroubled by the music and the standing Thais. He also unabashedly sticks out his tongue again and again. Don’t worry, this little fiend can do that because he’s a water monitor. And like hundreds of its kind, the reptile is at home in the lakes and gardens of Lumphini Park. The fact that huge, primeval-looking lizards keep crawling over the sidewalks hasn’t seemed to impress anyone here for a long time.
The two scenarios aren’t the only curiosities in Thailand that often leave western visitors with question marks on their faces. A selection:
Thailand is 543 years ahead
At New Year Bangkok’s skyscrapers shimmered: Happy 2565! What seems like a scene from “Back to the Future” has a simple explanation: Thailand follows the Buddhist calendar, like Myanmar or Sri Lanka. It is calculated from year 1 after the year of Gautama Buddha’s death, which in Southeast Asia is often given as 544 BC. The year 1 after Buddha is therefore the year 543 according to our calendar, which follows the Gregorian calendar. Instead of 2022 it is 2565 in Thailand.
Another number: 555 in chats
The number 555 often appears in chats and social networks in Thailand. This is less cryptic than it first appears: the number 5 is pronounced “Ha” in Thai. So 555 stands for “Hahaha” – and is the Thai version of “LOL” (laugh out loud), which is often used in text messages and posts around the world.
Red Fanta bottles in front of trees
Belief in gods and spirits is part of the country’s culture, as is kickboxing and go-go bars. Buddhism and animism, i.e. the belief that things in nature have a soul, go hand in hand. Making offerings to appease supernatural beings is part of the lifestyle. The most popular is Strawberry Fanta, as the gods seem to have a thing for sugar-sweet soda. Especially in front of shrines and particularly rooted trees, which many Thais believe are also inhabited, bottles with bright red soda collect – with a straw that is placed in the direction of the spirits. “The mightiest ficus trees are wrapped in colorful sashes and equipped with incense and sweets between the roots,” the newspaper “Bangkok Post” explained the custom. Apparently, the gods particularly like red soft drinks.
Cable clutter everywhere you look
While some can’t see the forest for the trees, Thais can’t see the sky for the cables. The reason: Power and telephone lines as well as fiber optic cables are not laid underground, but are stretched from mast to mast in massive black bundles. Old cables are usually not thrown away, but new ones are simply added. “The cables in the urban areas of Thailand, which are haphazardly bundled and looped around poles, look like an electrician’s nightmare,” the portal “The Thaiger” recently put it in a nutshell. A blatant contradiction to the mirrored skyscrapers and the ultra-modern shopping malls in the mega-metropolis Bangkok.
For years, the authorities have been promising to finally put the cables underground. Since Hollywood star Russell Crowe immortalized the confusion in a picture while filming in Thailand, things have started to move. The “Gladiator” posted the photo on Twitter last year and received so many comments that the government finally spoke up. Some roads have reportedly already been cleared of cable clutter. But that’s just a drop in the ocean – the authorities face a mammoth task.
Bangkok dreaming… pic.twitter.com/t3kjFMV4W4
— Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) October 13, 2021
Feet away from the Buddha
At Wat Arun, Bangkok’s Temple of Dawn, monks sit on the floor in front of a statue of Buddha and recite mantras. What is striking: They have bent their legs so that their feet point backwards. “In Thailand, the head is the highest part of the human body in every sense, the feet are the lowest – and for Thais the dirtiest,” explains German author Tom Vater, who has lived in the country for 20 years. Therefore, in Thailand one should never point the soles of one’s feet in the direction of another human being and especially not in the direction of a Buddhist monk or even a representation of the Buddha. This is considered extremely rude.
No alcohol in the afternoon
A British tourist stares in amazement at the checkout clerk at the 7-Eleven store in Phuket as she takes three bottles of Chang beer from his shopping basket and puts it back on the shelf. She directs the man to a sign at the entrance. The sale of alcohol is prohibited between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. This is the rule in all shops in Thailand, whether in mega-markets like Tesco Lotus or in the corner shop. The aisles in which the alcohol is located are often even blocked during this time and shelves are covered.
The background to the law is the protection of minors: Since children usually finish school in the early afternoon and are in shops, no alcohol should be sold at this time. Even on Buddhist holidays and election days, people should stay sober and rum, gin, beer, wine & co are taboo in the shops. However, different laws apply to bars and restaurants. Holidaymakers can usually sip cocktails all day long at the hotel pool.
The Thais, on the other hand, find it strange that many tourists drink alcohol in the morning and often sit drunk for hours in the bars on the backpacker mile Khaosan Road in Bangkok or Bangla Road on Phuket. Especially when the foreign guests appear in harem pants with an elephant pattern and do not wear a mask despite the pandemic and the legal situation in Thailand. dpa
