March 31, 2026
That Thing All Thais Do? Yeah, No They Don’t
Greg and Ed explore common Thai stereotypes and symbols that are heavily associated with Thailand internationally, yet play a surprisingly small role in the daily lives of average Thai citizens. They note that due to Thailand's massive tourism success and unique geography, the country has successfully capitalized on and promoted these cultural icons, even if locals do not actively participate in them.
The hosts begin by discussing Pad Thai, noting that while foreigners view it as the ultimate Thai staple, locals rarely eat it compared to everyday dishes like Pad Krapow, and some even view it as tourist street food. Next, they tackle meditation. While Thailand is a deeply Buddhist nation, the hosts reveal that active meditation is remarkably niche among locals and might actually be more statistically popular in the United States, aside from the basic practices required in Thai public schools.
Greg and Ed then bring up Thailand's famous beaches. They observe that while tourists flock to frolic in the sand and water, Thai people generally avoid the sun, preferring to sit under shaded canopies to eat seafood after sunset. The conversation then shifts to tuk-tuks, which the hosts describe as an iconic but highly impractical mode of transport. Greg notes his own fast-paced experiences tracking a tuk-tuk ride on an app, emphasizing that locals largely avoid them due to traffic, heat, and safety concerns, leaving them mostly for foreigners.
Finally, the hosts discuss Muay Thai and Full Moon parties. They highlight that Muay Thai is primarily a working-class sport rather than a mainstream middle-class obsession, and Full Moon parties are overwhelmingly attended by foreigners, with Thais typically only going if introduced by Western friends.
Greg Jorgensen 00:00:05 On this episode, we take a look at a few things that most foreigners assume that all Thais do, but are actually not that common.
Ed 00:00:13 So if you've ever wondered why you're surrounded by other foreigners while doing something Thai, you'll love this episode of the Bangkok Podcast.
Greg Jorgensen 00:00:36 So this is the Bangkok Podcast. My name is Greg Jorgensen, a Canadian who came to Thailand in 2001 because I was scared of moose, giant land mammals that roam around the forests trying to satiate their bottomless appetites and can kill you with a single strike. Luckily, there's nothing like that here.
Ed 00:00:54 Nope. Nothing. Nothing like that at all. Dude, have you seen those Elephant attack videos are pretty scary.
Greg Jorgensen 00:01:03 Like elephants chasing after jeeps and stuff like that. Yeah.
Ed 00:01:05 That's right. Like, you.
Greg Jorgensen 00:01:06 Know, you want to be there.
Ed 00:01:06 Man. You know, in Kauai and stuff. There's some I guess they're I guess they're young males. It's always young male of any species. They're always.
Greg Jorgensen 00:01:14 Just. They're always the assholes.
Ed 00:01:16 Yeah, they're always the assholes. No. Elephants can be scary. They're lovable, but scary.
Greg Jorgensen 00:01:21 Anything they can pick you up and throw you over the horizon without a second thought is something to be wary of.
Ed 00:01:26 That's right. And I made canoe with an American and came to Thailand on a one year teaching contract over 25 years ago. I fell in love with being asked, have you eaten yet? At literally any hour of the day. So I never left.
Greg Jorgensen 00:01:40 Wake up at night. Your wife next to you. Have you eaten.
Ed 00:01:43 Yet? Well, you know how I thought about this on the on the bonus show, I mentioned a buddy of mine who's back in town, from a long time ago, and he's a bit of a partier. He he, I stayed out semi late with him, and he wanted to go out laters. But so I think it was about 1:30 a.m. and I bumped into a girl I knew. So it was like 130 in the morning on a Saturday night.
Ed 00:02:05 And she said, have you eaten yet? I was just.
Greg Jorgensen 00:02:09 Like, yo.
Ed 00:02:10 It's just the general, you know, you can say it at any time. At any time. Yeah, yeah. All right. We want to give the big thanks to all of our patrons who support the show. Patrons get every episode a day early, behind the scenes photos of our interviews, heads up to send questions to upcoming guests and access to our discord server to chat with me, Greg, and other listeners around the world. But best of all, patrons also get an unscripted, uncensored bonus episode every week where we riff on current events and Bangkok topics. On this week's bonus show, we got to do a bit of a behind the scenes discussion about making the podcast and how it competes. Or maybe it does not compete with the immense amount of video content coming out of Thailand. Greg's embarrassing mistake while going to see Project Hail Mary with his family. Thoughts on the annual trip home for Greg and his son to see grandma, and a quick discussion on what's happening with the war in Iran and how it's affecting things here in Thailand.
Ed 00:03:10 To learn how to become a patron and get all this good stuff, plus full access to over 800 bonus and regular back episodes, click the support button at the top of our website.
Greg Jorgensen 00:03:21 That's right. And don't forget, if you are out and about in Bangkok and see a Bangkok Podcast sticker, take a picture, send us three pictures of three different stickers and we'll send you a gift. I might also slap a few up around Vancouver as well, so we might get some people from Vancouver letting us know.
Ed 00:03:36 Excellent.
Greg Jorgensen 00:03:37 All right. On this episode, we wanted to talk a bit about Thai stereotypes, symbols and icons, things that a lot of people strongly associate with Thailand or assume that all Thais do. But guess what? Many of them have simply been adopted and promoted by Thailand as being an integral part of daily life here, but actually play a smaller role in the life of an average Thai person that you may think. Now, we've talked many times about how ties are very pragmatic and are able to sense which direction the current is moving and move with it.
Greg Jorgensen 00:04:05 So we thought it would be interesting to shine a light on some of these things, and discussed just how tie they actually are. Well, this is interesting because there's a couple of different angles to to to go here. And you and I were discussing before the show about whether we wanted to talk about what Thailand promotes as being Thai or whether they adopted foreign things and then use like, localize them. But. Right. I think we would kind of want to stick with what a lot of people come to Thailand to have the classic Thai experience for, but look around and realize that they're only surrounded by foreigners. That's right. There's not a lot of Thai people.
Ed 00:04:44 That's right. I like this topic. I got to give a shout out to our friend Pailin of How Thai Kitchen. She. She partially inspired the show. I don't want to give away one of our things, but, on a on a recent episode of her podcast called Sabai Talk, which I'm the video editor for, by the way.
Ed 00:05:02 she. She was mentioning things that, basically certain things that foreigners always. Think Thai people are really into, but actually they're not that into it. And so that kind of. Inspired this list. so just to be clear, listeners, each of the things we talk about. They definitely are these are Thai things. No doubt about it. maybe some of them were adopted from other countries, but that's kind of a side issue. So these are definitely Thai things. And certainly some Thai people are very into these things. But the truth is they're more niche. It's more of like a niche thing if you live here. Not that many Thai people actually doing or into these things.
Greg Jorgensen 00:05:46 The thing I'm interested in with these kind of things, this this topic in a broader sense, is, as I've said a long time ago, I think Thailand sort of sort of accidentally fell into success. Like what do they say? Fell bass backwards, fell backwards into success because it's just by dint of their geography or, or climates and you know, they have the beaches and they have the mountains and they have the, you know, they for whatever economic reasons, they have the strongest economy in the region.
Greg Jorgensen 00:06:14 And, and, you know, they've sort of been able to capitalize on a lot of things that may not be necessarily purely from Thailand, but, you know, more power to them. They're more than happy to promote and adopt and take and make their own.
Ed 00:06:32 Yeah, it's kind of interesting. I don't know I don't know how these things became kind of symbols of the country. I think you're right. To some extent, Thais are intentionally promoting things as symbols when actually right, when actually they are not that into them. But I'm not sure. Like I'm not sure how much of this was kind of by accident. So let's just jump right in the classic one. I'll just go with number one. The classic one is, of course, pad Thai. So the dish pad Thai. Some Thai people eat it. I would not say it's like extremely unpopular. I would not say that, but it is the classic dish that around the world people think of first. And I think people do assume that Thai people eat Pad Thai the way Americans eat hamburgers.
Ed 00:07:21 and that is not true. Like Thai people do not eat Pad Thai the way Americans eat hamburger.
Greg Jorgensen 00:07:26 No, no. It's funny, though, because my wife came home tonight and she was telling me that she had for dinner, she went to a pad Thai restaurant, but but it's. Yeah, I, I would say it's quite far down the list of most commonly ate eaten like, street food things. Right?
Ed 00:07:41 That's a great question. You know, I wonder if maybe, maybe I'll give a quiz to my students because I think, I feel, you know, we've talked before about how the true Thai dish is the pad. Kapow. You know, totally. You know, Kapow! Move! We probably was number one. Like a basil.
Greg Jorgensen 00:07:59 With a fried egg.
Ed 00:08:00 Yeah, with egg on top. that's probably number one, but my students, like, are really into Som tum. Like, there's so many things like, that goi teow, like noodle soup, like at Pantai.
Ed 00:08:13 It's a it's a great question. Actually, it might be, it might be the 10th most famous thing.
Greg Jorgensen 00:08:18 Maybe. Yeah. You know what else is failing? There's a complete tangent here, but whenever I order, guy Padma Muang, chicken with with cashew nuts. My wife is always, like, such a farang dish. Yeah, right. Just don't eat that, you know? That's right. It's like.
Ed 00:08:32 Oh, yeah. So it's like, you know, you know. So we got to be clear here. Like, obviously some Thai people like iPad Thai, but it's just and but it's just not that popular. You know, it's the best way to put it. It's just not Thai people. Thai people are like, it's it's number ten, number 11, number 12 on the list.
Greg Jorgensen 00:08:50 I think we did a whole show on, on, on pad Thai the previous seasons, and we called it like, fascist noodles like that, because we won't get into the backstory here.
Greg Jorgensen 00:08:59 But if you're curious, look up the backstory.
Ed 00:09:01 It's got a very interesting it's got a very interesting history.
Greg Jorgensen 00:09:04 Yeah, yeah. well, the second one is something that I don't do that our friend Prop Pundit has told me I should do and that you're more familiar with than I am. But, this is meditation.
Ed 00:09:16 Yeah.
Greg Jorgensen 00:09:17 I mean, a lot of foreigners come here to. That's right on it.
Ed 00:09:21 Yeah. I mean, I think this is it's a bit of a sensitive topic, but I remember myself when I first came to Thailand 25 years ago, and I knew it was a Buddhist country, and it definitely is a Buddhist country. And I just assumed the Thai people would be really into meditation. And here's the truth. After being here a long time. it's not really that popular again. There is a caveat. Some Thai people are really into it. There are a lot of meditation retreats, and they're not all for foreigners. many time men do become monks for short periods of time, and they do do some meditation.
Ed 00:10:00 one of the, staff in my office at my university, a Thai woman in her 30s. She loves to go to meditation retreats. So some ties are into it. But I really think if you if you did some kind of survey in the US about people who've tried meditation, I think the percent of people who've tried meditation is higher in the US than in Thailand. It's it's.
Greg Jorgensen 00:10:27 Not really.
Ed 00:10:28 For sure, dude. Okay. Well, okay. Actually, I have to I have to correct myself. The only exception to that is I think a lot of Thai public schools, they actually make students, do some meditation. So, so that probably so I think they're kind of required to try it in public schools. And I think prop handed on the show, he he was criticizing this because he was saying that they kind of do a bad job of it. And so the young Thai people think meditation is kind of square and they don't want to do it. You know.
Greg Jorgensen 00:11:01 They write like when I was forced to do square dancing in grade eight.
Ed 00:11:03 That's right, that's right. So okay, I have to correct myself. Same thing in terms of trying it. More Thai people have tried it, but man, meditation is quite popular in the US. It's quite popular in the West. It's very hip like at at universities. At like corporate stuff. This is stuff we talked to, to prop handed about. Whereas I don't think among Thai people, it's just it doesn't have any cachet or hipness to it. And it's definitely Thai, like Thai Buddhism has a meditation component, there's no doubt about it. Like, I'm not saying that meditation is not is not Thai. I'm just saying that if you come here and ask your Thai friends, so listeners out there, go ahead, test.
Greg Jorgensen 00:11:47 Let's go meditate.
Ed 00:11:48 Like test me, test me. Ask your Thai friends. When was the last time you went on a meditation retreat and you're going to get some positives? You're like, I know some guys who do meditate, but I still think it's more popular in the US.
Greg Jorgensen 00:12:05 Well, yeah, I mean, I don't think I've ever asked any of my Thai friends about meditation. It's never sort of come up, which maybe supports your point, or maybe it's just something that they do privately and discuss anyway. I know my wife doesn't meditate as far as I know. but, yeah, I don't know. I it's it's not something that I've ever really talked with anyone about outside of you. Right. And spend it.
Ed 00:12:31 Well, I mean, it definitely exists here. There's tons of meditation teachers like Prop Handed. There's great retreats and, definitely some type of go to the retreats. But it is again, it's one of these things like I think in your intro, you said it. Well, it's like I think when foreigners come here, they go to a meditation retreat and they think it's going to be mostly Thai people and it ends up being it's mostly foreigners.
Greg Jorgensen 00:12:55 Interesting. Yeah. Although, you know, when we stop at Sanga Town on our bike rides and stuff like that, the halfway point up to Cochrane and it's there's a very popular meditation force meditation retreat there, and it's almost all Thai.
Greg Jorgensen 00:13:08 So it's definitely out there. But yeah, I don't know.
Ed 00:13:11 I think I think it's a niche thing. maybe that's maybe, maybe that's the, the word of the show. Like, all of these things are, are definitely Thai, but not like the majority of Thais are doing it, you know?
Greg Jorgensen 00:13:24 No. Not mainstream.
Ed 00:13:25 Yeah, yeah, yeah. The third one. I'm going to die on this hill. I'm going to say beaches are not really a Thai thing. Thailand has amazing beaches. and some Thai people go to the beach. But Thai people, in my opinion, are not beach people. They're not sand people. They're not water sports people. They're not sunshine people. So it's it's a symbol of Thailand. Thai people appreciate their beaches. They promote the beaches. As you pointed out in the intro. These are things that Thai people are smart enough to capitalize on.
Greg Jorgensen 00:14:01 So sure.
Ed 00:14:02 Yeah. So they promote the beaches, and the beaches are legit. And some type people, some Thai people love the beach.
Ed 00:14:10 I'm going to say 10%, 10% of Thai people love the beach. other other Thai people. Other Thai people, they like to get a big hat, go to the beach in quotes and sit under huge canopies and eat seafood.
Greg Jorgensen 00:14:27 Well, this is interesting. So when you say the beach, you mean frolicking in the waves and splashing around.
Ed 00:14:32 Or being on the sand, like like, you know, in the States we play beach volleyball. Like we're like, we're we're beach people. Like when we go to the beach. Sure. We're running in the sand. We're in the water.
Greg Jorgensen 00:14:44 You hold up mirrors to reflect the light into your face for more beach per beach.
Ed 00:14:50 I'm just saying I'm going to say 10% of the time people are into doing anything on the sand or in the water.
Greg Jorgensen 00:14:57 I would I would say it's probably higher than that, with the caveat that it's after 5 p.m. once the sun goes down, they're like vampires. The tides come out into the beach and splash the waters.
Ed 00:15:07 Okay.
Greg Jorgensen 00:15:08 Well, you know.
Ed 00:15:09 Oh, that. Well, you know, my point is, they're not sun people, that's for sure. But you're right. They sure they do. Kind of like to hang out after hours on the beach. And again, it's an eating thing. It's like. Yeah, like.
Greg Jorgensen 00:15:21 But in terms of, in terms of frolicking on the beach, though, it's almost always kids, parents with young kids or teenagers. Yeah, right. You know, I.
Ed 00:15:29 Agree, and a lot of foreigners and a lot of foreigners.
Greg Jorgensen 00:15:32 Yeah. And a ton of foreigners. I kind of feel this way about beaches, too. I've always said I'm not a beach guy, but whenever I'm on a beach, I'm looking around and go, this is really nice, I should do this.
Ed 00:15:40 I love beaches, I'm a total beach guy.
Greg Jorgensen 00:15:42 Okay, you're a beach bum. the next one, sounds silly on its face, but actually you have some insight into this.
Greg Jorgensen 00:15:50 That surprised me when we were talking about this, tuk tuks?
Ed 00:15:54 Yeah, I think tuk tuks are. They're definitely a symbol of Thailand. They're they're. I wouldn't say they're all over the place, but they're pretty easy to find. Right. But, I feel that. I feel that they're just not that popular with Thai people. Thai people are motorbike people or taxi or Skytrain people. again, some Thai people take tutus, but I think it's mostly foreigners that they come to Bangkok and they're like, I gotta take a tutu cry.
Greg Jorgensen 00:16:25 Right? Yeah, it's it's ki. It's like. It's like a checklist.
Ed 00:16:29 That's right. But, you know, I again, I'm going to give credit to pylon for this. on her recent episode, she was kind of, to be honest, she was she was throwing not really throwing shade, but she was she was kind of laughing a little bit at foreigners, saying, like, you know, that foreigners come to Thailand and they, they think that tuk tuks are cool or they think that Thai people love it.
Ed 00:16:52 And so she was kind of implying the Thai people are maybe like, laughing a little bit at foreigners, like our obsession. Like we're the ones obsessed with tuk tuk. And like, Thai people don't really pay that much attention to them.
Greg Jorgensen 00:17:05 Right? Like when you get right down to it, it's like, like all of the problems of a taxi and none of the conveniences, like it's too big to get through middle of traffic, like to cut down the lanes. There's no air conditioning that's behind a bus, breathing in the fumes like they're not safe.
Ed 00:17:20 Right? They're not very safe and right. The truth is that, I did take tutus a lot when I first got here. Like, I was that guy. And then I do occasionally do it now, but it's only. It's pretty rare. I mean, it was. I can't remember the last time. I mean, I probably take, what, 2 or 3, two, two cards a year. Like, how often do you ride a tuk tuk?
Greg Jorgensen 00:17:43 Well, I might push back on this one a little bit.
Greg Jorgensen 00:17:46 I think they are more popular than that. We, me and my wife and my son take them quite a lot. They're very convenient. We can fit three people in them perfectly. you don't have to mess with.
Ed 00:17:57 But why not take a taxi? Why are you taking a tuk tuk? Why don't you take a taxi?
Greg Jorgensen 00:18:01 Because most of the time, taxis will just be like, no, I don't want to go there. Or they'll say no. And tuk tuk drivers, in my. In my opinion, unless you're in like the Calle San road area, are almost always going to take you somewhere. Oh, and interesting, I don't know, I, we just, we just find them more convenient. I take them not all the time, but more than you do.
Ed 00:18:19 Interesting. Well, it's funny, when I was chatting with Pailin, I did tell her that near my university students, they do sometimes crowd into tutus when they want to go, like down the street and they don't want to walk, and so they'll kind of use them as like a, a tram, you know, kind of.
Ed 00:18:37 So there might be, there might be a little more popular than she indicated. But I do think she's kind of right. Like, I think it's, it's this thing that that foreigners think So Thai people are like. Thai people love tuk tuks, but it's it's down the list. Two tuks are down the list of options.
Greg Jorgensen 00:18:56 I don't think Thai people love them or, like, celebrate them. They're just.
Ed 00:18:59 They're right.
Greg Jorgensen 00:19:00 Yeah, they're sort of like bananas. No one goes crazy about. No one goes bananas about bananas. They're just there. And. Yeah, I'll have.
Ed 00:19:06 Well, to me, the tuk tuk is the it's like the pickup truck of Thailand. So if I, if I have a big thing that doesn't fit in a taxi, that's when I go to a tuk tuk.
Greg Jorgensen 00:19:16 Right, right. They're great on bike rides too, because I don't know if anyone knows, but, the tuk tuk have a they've got a little shelf in the back that folds down, and it's for the perfect width for it to put your bicycle wheels on either side of.
Greg Jorgensen 00:19:29 And then you most tuk tuk drivers have a little rope in the back, and they just tie your bike to the back. And every time you want to give up on a bike ride and just sort of cheat on your way back home.
Ed 00:19:39 You seem to know a lot about that grip.
Greg Jorgensen 00:19:42 I get home and I look at my Strava thing. I'm like, wow, I hit 55km an hour on this stretch. Oh, right. I was in a Toyota.
Ed 00:19:48 That's great. That's great. All right. Again, this might be a little controversial. You know, this show is more controversial than I thought. Now that you think about it, it's a little bit sensitive.
Greg Jorgensen 00:19:58 It all kinds of kind of hate mail and who knows what else.
Ed 00:20:01 That's right. Here we go. I'm going to say this. Muay Thai is niche is not the great word. But my students. How do I say this? What's the best way to put it? I feel that if you're middle class and above Thai person, you kind of ignore more Thai.
Ed 00:20:22 Like more Thai is just not that popular. It's not like baseball, football, basketball in the US, it is the national sport. It is the national sport. It is popular on a percentage basis, like Muay Thai is popular here, but it's almost like it's in a box, like it's it's kind of sad in a way. It's kind of class based, like Muay Thai is. It's a working class sport.
Greg Jorgensen 00:20:50 It's definitely your. You're right. It is. And is it the national sport of time? I know, I know, Thailand has takraw is, I don't know, national sport.
Ed 00:20:57 So let me, let me I'll ask Gemini right now. okay. But, I, I'm gonna I will defend this Muay Thai. It certainly it is a real Thai thing. It is a thing. But, you know, I've had this conversation with my students where I asked them, like, have you ever seen Muay Thai in your life in person? And honestly, it's almost none of my students have done it, like.
Greg Jorgensen 00:21:23 Like really that many.
Ed 00:21:24 A few guys, like, a few guys will raise their hand. So it's not it's not like basketball, baseball, football. It's not like that.
Greg Jorgensen 00:21:33 If those sports are, for lack of a better word, soft and pretty easy for all of the band geeks and drama nerds like me and my friends were to to do. Like, anyone can pick up a bat and swing at a ball, but to get in a ring half naked and start beating on someone. That's a pretty big barrier to entry for for a lot of people, I think.
Ed 00:21:53 Well, it's not about doing it. I'm talking about just going and witnessing it.
Greg Jorgensen 00:21:57 Okay. Fair enough. Yeah, yeah.
Ed 00:21:58 It does say okay. So Gemini says Muay Thai is the official national sport.
Greg Jorgensen 00:22:05 okay. I also thought it was DeGraw.
Ed 00:22:07 It does. Okay. That okay. That is so basically it says that takraw is the secondary national sport. So there you go.
Greg Jorgensen 00:22:15 Okay, interesting. Like in Canada, you know, I mean, everyone thinks hockey is a national sport, but it's not.
Greg Jorgensen 00:22:20 It's actually lacrosse is Canada's national sport. And I.
Ed 00:22:24 I didn't.
Greg Jorgensen 00:22:24 Know I never met a lacrosse. I never met a lacrosse player in my entire life. Not one person who has ever played or gone to watch lacrosse.
Ed 00:22:32 I did not know. I didn't know that I thought it might be. Yeah, I thought it might be curling.
Greg Jorgensen 00:22:36 But I should say that actually, I think like in the mid 1990s, hockey was adopted as Canada's second national sport. So as late as, like Thailand, it has two. It has a winter one and a summer one. Oh, wow. that was still. That was only recently. And before that it was lacrosse. And like I said, I have never met anyone who played lacrosse. Tons of people who played hockey, but not lacrosse.
Ed 00:22:58 Right, right. Right, right. Well, we got one more. You want to bring it up?
Greg Jorgensen 00:23:02 Sure. the famous, which I have never been to actually, shamefully or either proudly at this point.
Greg Jorgensen 00:23:08 full moon parties.
Ed 00:23:09 That's right. Thailand is quite famous for the full moon parties. They are real. They're quite popular. And it's 90, so I've been to. Not that many, I think. Two, maybe three really over the years. and it's again, it's 90 to 95% foreigner. So when you go to full moon parties, I don't even know. It's actually a good question. if there's a Thai version, like sometimes there are certain things we were mentioning before the show. You know, when you when you think of things like Go-Go bars, if you go to if you go to, gogo bars. As a foreigner, a lot of times the areas that foreigners go to, there's actually only foreigners there. So. So you might. So you might think, oh, ties aren't into this, but actually there's other there's other gogo bars or, or massage places that Thais go to. So maybe right. Maybe there's some like Thai full moon parties, but I don't think so.
Ed 00:24:09 Like, I think this is.
Greg Jorgensen 00:24:10 I've never heard of. I've never heard of anything like that.
Ed 00:24:12 Yeah. I think this is the thing. Like you said, this is something that it definitely exists here. And Thais promote it. And it's a cool thing. Like, I, when I went back in the day, I liked it. But, it's not really a Thai thing as Thais are not that into it.
Greg Jorgensen 00:24:30 I'm sure there's tons of Thais at them, but they're all like, you know, the the subcultures, the young Thais, the hippies, the beach bums, but.
Ed 00:24:38 Well, there's not that many. No, I'm telling you know, there's some like, you know, some of them are working, you know, you got the fire guys. You got, you know, it's like the beach because it's a terrorist thing. So there's there's Thai people working there, there's Thai girlfriends, and then there are some fun hip ties who want to go to a full moon party because they've been westernized, you know, it's like, so okay.
Greg Jorgensen 00:24:59 That's that's interesting. So they're they're introduced to the full moon party through their Western friends.
Ed 00:25:04 Yes, yes. Because no, they meet foreigners and the foreigners. Like, we got to go to the full moon party. It's so Thai.
Greg Jorgensen 00:25:12 That's funny. Yeah, yeah. I mean, the full moon party did originate in Thailand, but it's it's not. Yeah. I mean, I don't know, I've never been to one, so I can't really talk about it.
Ed 00:25:21 Well, I'm curious what listeners think about this. Like, I guess it's funny when I, when we were talking about this show, I didn't think of it as, like edgy, but I realized some of this could be a little bit sensitive. Like, all of these things are really tied, like, they're definitely Thai and some Thai people are into them. I just think the foreigners and I'm from experience, I'm talking from experience. that's, like when I first came here, I, like I said, I thought Thai people ate a lot of pad Thai.
Ed 00:25:49 Like, I thought Thai people were really into meditation. but, I'm curious what people think. it's like, these are things that they're symbols. These are legitimate symbols of Thailand. but oddly as such. But oddly, I don't think Thai people are like that into them.
Greg Jorgensen 00:26:13 Yeah, well, if you have any insights or feedback or contradictions or arguments. Yeah, let us.
Ed 00:26:18 Know. Let's do.
Greg Jorgensen 00:26:18 It. Yeah. The next us in the series will be what is Canadian the Canadians don't do and American that Americans don't.
Ed 00:26:25 That's a good question. You know, it's funny I was thinking that, you know, people associate hamburgers with the US. But if you go to the US, we actually do eat a lot of hamburgers. you know, maybe something like, you know, you know, you know, people think or at least Americans when we, you know, we talk about, you know, apple pie and I, you know, I probably have apple pie once a year or so in the US.
Ed 00:26:51 Maybe apple pie is not quite as popular has as it's supposed to be, you know?
Greg Jorgensen 00:26:56 Well, I don't know American as apple pie, I mean. Right. You say as as as ty as part time. But. Yeah, but it wouldn't be, though, would it?
Ed 00:27:06 But how often do Americans actually eat apple pie as my point? Maybe we don't actually eat apple pie that often.
Greg Jorgensen 00:27:13 That's a good point. Although I will say the apple pie at Starbucks is pretty damn good.
Ed 00:27:18 interesting. The thing about Canadians, you know, we associate you guys with hockey and you play hockey. We associate you guys with maple syrup, and you do use maple syrup. Like, I think Canadians are kind of what we think you guys are.
Greg Jorgensen 00:27:31 We are the stereotype. what about poutine? I didn't even, you know what? I didn't even know what poutine was until I was, like, 22. So.
Ed 00:27:39 Oh. That's funny. It's funny. I never knew it was a Canadian thing because I associated I associated with like Wisconsin.
Greg Jorgensen 00:27:49 Right?
Ed 00:27:50 You know, which is basically Canada. It's like Lower Canada.
Greg Jorgensen 00:27:54 It does say a lot about Canada's culinary scene, though, right? Like our big our big food export is just French fries with some gravy on it. That's right. It's not really a lot more to it than that. Anyway, interesting. Interesting list. And, yeah, let us know what you think. Give us some feedback. Cool. All right. Let's do something we call. Would you rather or one of us picks two contrasting situations tied to Thailand to debate and choose which one we'd prefer. And I got an easy one for you. Edit something we've talked about briefly in various forms on the show over the years, but I want to hear exactly what you think about it. All right. So as we said, I'm going back to Canada soon. And, the one thing I am not looking forward to is sitting in a coffee shop or a restaurant and being able to understand what everyone is saying around me.
Greg Jorgensen 00:28:37 So would you rather have a have a nice cup of chai or latte or whatever, in a place where you could understand what people are saying around you. Or would you prefer like you are in Thailand, where you're sitting in a Starbucks surrounded by Thai people and just completely oblivious to what everyone's talking about?
Ed 00:28:57 Great question. Before I lived here, before I lived my life as an immigrant. If we're going to be accurate, I definitely would have said that. I would prefer understanding people around me. But now that I've been in the expat bubble for so long, I actually enjoy not understanding what's going on around me. So this is a great question. I, I like it, I like just, you know, so it's kind of, you know, it's kind of a it's almost like a scene in a movie where there's kind of like the the hubbub in the background, you know, that is, it's it's literally background. And then, you know, in the movie there's a focus on, like a cone of relevance.
Ed 00:29:43 It's kind of like that. Like I, I've gotten used to that bubble, and it allows me, you know, it allows me to just, I don't know, like, I don't know if ignore is the right word, but it allows me just to do my do my own thing. And I'm less I'm less distracted by other people in other conversations because there's that barrier of like, my bad Ty, there's a barrier there. So it's like, why, why, why, why? And I don't yeah, I don't have to worry about it. I just don't I don't care.
Greg Jorgensen 00:30:15 100% 100% agree. And I hate being surrounded by people where I can understand what they're saying. I can't concentrate anymore. I love, I love sitting in a place where around me, like. Like you said, it's like the Charlie Brown teacher.
Ed 00:30:28 What it is.
Greg Jorgensen 00:30:29 Yeah. It's just I might as well have white noise headphones on, just going.
Greg Jorgensen 00:30:36 I, I love it. I love the isolation and the focus it can give me.
Ed 00:30:41 It's funny, we're totally on the same page, and I think that I never would have thought that, you know, when I first came here, I would have thought that it would have been very disconcerting or would have been very weird not to understand what everyone is saying, but it's like it's strangely peaceful. It's strangely peaceful to to to not to not be able to communicate. It's like I can't talk to you. You can't talk to me. So we're going to we're going to actually leave each other alone.
Greg Jorgensen 00:31:12 That's right. That's what I want to say when I hear all these stories about these dipshits who the yellow people speak English like. Don't you know you're missing out here, man? Just. That's great. Let them speak in whatever language they are and enjoy the silence.
Ed 00:31:24 You know what this reminds me of? This opens up a whole nother can of worms. But I'll just mention it. It reminds me of a. This is either. I don't know if it was an actual meme on the internet, or just jokes.
Ed 00:31:33 It was just guys joking, but they were talking about how how they get along a lot better with their Thai girlfriends. Because. Because they they don't understand each other. It's like. So it's like. It's like. Yeah. My Thai girlfriend, you know. You know, she she knows, like 100 words. And we get along great. Like, we're like a happy. We're a happy couple. We're a happy couple. This is because we cannot communicate.
Greg Jorgensen 00:31:59 This is a deep topic to mind. We'll have to come back to this one.
Ed 00:32:02 Well it's tricky. It's tricky because everyone says, you know, great communication is the key to a good relationship. And it's a bit. It's a bit weird. It's it it. I understand that point, but when you can't talk to each other, you just like there's some peace. There's some peace of mind there.
Greg Jorgensen 00:32:20 Like what we said or what we were talking about earlier in the day with another topic. But I said in some cases, ignorance is bliss.
Greg Jorgensen 00:32:26 Correct?
Ed 00:32:27 No, that that is true. I'll take. I'll take my cone and my cone of silence or whatever you want to call it. I'll take it.
Greg Jorgensen 00:32:33 That's awesome.
Ed 00:32:35 Alrighty, a final thanks to our patrons who support the show. Patrons get a ton of cool perks and the warm, fuzzy feeling knowing that they're helping and are never ending. Quest for cool content. Find out more by clicking support on our website now! Connect with us online. Where Bangkok podcasts on social media Bangkok podcast. Com on the web or simply Bangkok Podcast at gmail.com. We love hearing from our listeners and always reply to our messages. Unless, of course, you're an agent who sends endless pitch emails on behalf of a client.
Greg Jorgensen 00:33:05 That's right. You can listen to each episode on YouTube, send us a voicemail through our website, and we'll feature that on the show. Hit me up on blue Sky I am Greg. Thank you for listening everyone, and we will see you back here next week.
Ed 00:33:16 No doubt.
Ed 00:00:13 So if you've ever wondered why you're surrounded by other foreigners while doing something Thai, you'll love this episode of the Bangkok Podcast.
Greg Jorgensen 00:00:36 So this is the Bangkok Podcast. My name is Greg Jorgensen, a Canadian who came to Thailand in 2001 because I was scared of moose, giant land mammals that roam around the forests trying to satiate their bottomless appetites and can kill you with a single strike. Luckily, there's nothing like that here.
Ed 00:00:54 Nope. Nothing. Nothing like that at all. Dude, have you seen those Elephant attack videos are pretty scary.
Greg Jorgensen 00:01:03 Like elephants chasing after jeeps and stuff like that. Yeah.
Ed 00:01:05 That's right. Like, you.
Greg Jorgensen 00:01:06 Know, you want to be there.
Ed 00:01:06 Man. You know, in Kauai and stuff. There's some I guess they're I guess they're young males. It's always young male of any species. They're always.
Greg Jorgensen 00:01:14 Just. They're always the assholes.
Ed 00:01:16 Yeah, they're always the assholes. No. Elephants can be scary. They're lovable, but scary.
Greg Jorgensen 00:01:21 Anything they can pick you up and throw you over the horizon without a second thought is something to be wary of.
Ed 00:01:26 That's right. And I made canoe with an American and came to Thailand on a one year teaching contract over 25 years ago. I fell in love with being asked, have you eaten yet? At literally any hour of the day. So I never left.
Greg Jorgensen 00:01:40 Wake up at night. Your wife next to you. Have you eaten.
Ed 00:01:43 Yet? Well, you know how I thought about this on the on the bonus show, I mentioned a buddy of mine who's back in town, from a long time ago, and he's a bit of a partier. He he, I stayed out semi late with him, and he wanted to go out laters. But so I think it was about 1:30 a.m. and I bumped into a girl I knew. So it was like 130 in the morning on a Saturday night.
Ed 00:02:05 And she said, have you eaten yet? I was just.
Greg Jorgensen 00:02:09 Like, yo.
Ed 00:02:10 It's just the general, you know, you can say it at any time. At any time. Yeah, yeah. All right. We want to give the big thanks to all of our patrons who support the show. Patrons get every episode a day early, behind the scenes photos of our interviews, heads up to send questions to upcoming guests and access to our discord server to chat with me, Greg, and other listeners around the world. But best of all, patrons also get an unscripted, uncensored bonus episode every week where we riff on current events and Bangkok topics. On this week's bonus show, we got to do a bit of a behind the scenes discussion about making the podcast and how it competes. Or maybe it does not compete with the immense amount of video content coming out of Thailand. Greg's embarrassing mistake while going to see Project Hail Mary with his family. Thoughts on the annual trip home for Greg and his son to see grandma, and a quick discussion on what's happening with the war in Iran and how it's affecting things here in Thailand.
Ed 00:03:10 To learn how to become a patron and get all this good stuff, plus full access to over 800 bonus and regular back episodes, click the support button at the top of our website.
Greg Jorgensen 00:03:21 That's right. And don't forget, if you are out and about in Bangkok and see a Bangkok Podcast sticker, take a picture, send us three pictures of three different stickers and we'll send you a gift. I might also slap a few up around Vancouver as well, so we might get some people from Vancouver letting us know.
Ed 00:03:36 Excellent.
Greg Jorgensen 00:03:37 All right. On this episode, we wanted to talk a bit about Thai stereotypes, symbols and icons, things that a lot of people strongly associate with Thailand or assume that all Thais do. But guess what? Many of them have simply been adopted and promoted by Thailand as being an integral part of daily life here, but actually play a smaller role in the life of an average Thai person that you may think. Now, we've talked many times about how ties are very pragmatic and are able to sense which direction the current is moving and move with it.
Greg Jorgensen 00:04:05 So we thought it would be interesting to shine a light on some of these things, and discussed just how tie they actually are. Well, this is interesting because there's a couple of different angles to to to go here. And you and I were discussing before the show about whether we wanted to talk about what Thailand promotes as being Thai or whether they adopted foreign things and then use like, localize them. But. Right. I think we would kind of want to stick with what a lot of people come to Thailand to have the classic Thai experience for, but look around and realize that they're only surrounded by foreigners. That's right. There's not a lot of Thai people.
Ed 00:04:44 That's right. I like this topic. I got to give a shout out to our friend Pailin of How Thai Kitchen. She. She partially inspired the show. I don't want to give away one of our things, but, on a on a recent episode of her podcast called Sabai Talk, which I'm the video editor for, by the way.
Ed 00:05:02 she. She was mentioning things that, basically certain things that foreigners always. Think Thai people are really into, but actually they're not that into it. And so that kind of. Inspired this list. so just to be clear, listeners, each of the things we talk about. They definitely are these are Thai things. No doubt about it. maybe some of them were adopted from other countries, but that's kind of a side issue. So these are definitely Thai things. And certainly some Thai people are very into these things. But the truth is they're more niche. It's more of like a niche thing if you live here. Not that many Thai people actually doing or into these things.
Greg Jorgensen 00:05:46 The thing I'm interested in with these kind of things, this this topic in a broader sense, is, as I've said a long time ago, I think Thailand sort of sort of accidentally fell into success. Like what do they say? Fell bass backwards, fell backwards into success because it's just by dint of their geography or, or climates and you know, they have the beaches and they have the mountains and they have the, you know, they for whatever economic reasons, they have the strongest economy in the region.
Greg Jorgensen 00:06:14 And, and, you know, they've sort of been able to capitalize on a lot of things that may not be necessarily purely from Thailand, but, you know, more power to them. They're more than happy to promote and adopt and take and make their own.
Ed 00:06:32 Yeah, it's kind of interesting. I don't know I don't know how these things became kind of symbols of the country. I think you're right. To some extent, Thais are intentionally promoting things as symbols when actually right, when actually they are not that into them. But I'm not sure. Like I'm not sure how much of this was kind of by accident. So let's just jump right in the classic one. I'll just go with number one. The classic one is, of course, pad Thai. So the dish pad Thai. Some Thai people eat it. I would not say it's like extremely unpopular. I would not say that, but it is the classic dish that around the world people think of first. And I think people do assume that Thai people eat Pad Thai the way Americans eat hamburgers.
Ed 00:07:21 and that is not true. Like Thai people do not eat Pad Thai the way Americans eat hamburger.
Greg Jorgensen 00:07:26 No, no. It's funny, though, because my wife came home tonight and she was telling me that she had for dinner, she went to a pad Thai restaurant, but but it's. Yeah, I, I would say it's quite far down the list of most commonly ate eaten like, street food things. Right?
Ed 00:07:41 That's a great question. You know, I wonder if maybe, maybe I'll give a quiz to my students because I think, I feel, you know, we've talked before about how the true Thai dish is the pad. Kapow. You know, totally. You know, Kapow! Move! We probably was number one. Like a basil.
Greg Jorgensen 00:07:59 With a fried egg.
Ed 00:08:00 Yeah, with egg on top. that's probably number one, but my students, like, are really into Som tum. Like, there's so many things like, that goi teow, like noodle soup, like at Pantai.
Ed 00:08:13 It's a it's a great question. Actually, it might be, it might be the 10th most famous thing.
Greg Jorgensen 00:08:18 Maybe. Yeah. You know what else is failing? There's a complete tangent here, but whenever I order, guy Padma Muang, chicken with with cashew nuts. My wife is always, like, such a farang dish. Yeah, right. Just don't eat that, you know? That's right. It's like.
Ed 00:08:32 Oh, yeah. So it's like, you know, you know. So we got to be clear here. Like, obviously some Thai people like iPad Thai, but it's just and but it's just not that popular. You know, it's the best way to put it. It's just not Thai people. Thai people are like, it's it's number ten, number 11, number 12 on the list.
Greg Jorgensen 00:08:50 I think we did a whole show on, on, on pad Thai the previous seasons, and we called it like, fascist noodles like that, because we won't get into the backstory here.
Greg Jorgensen 00:08:59 But if you're curious, look up the backstory.
Ed 00:09:01 It's got a very interesting it's got a very interesting history.
Greg Jorgensen 00:09:04 Yeah, yeah. well, the second one is something that I don't do that our friend Prop Pundit has told me I should do and that you're more familiar with than I am. But, this is meditation.
Ed 00:09:16 Yeah.
Greg Jorgensen 00:09:17 I mean, a lot of foreigners come here to. That's right on it.
Ed 00:09:21 Yeah. I mean, I think this is it's a bit of a sensitive topic, but I remember myself when I first came to Thailand 25 years ago, and I knew it was a Buddhist country, and it definitely is a Buddhist country. And I just assumed the Thai people would be really into meditation. And here's the truth. After being here a long time. it's not really that popular again. There is a caveat. Some Thai people are really into it. There are a lot of meditation retreats, and they're not all for foreigners. many time men do become monks for short periods of time, and they do do some meditation.
Ed 00:10:00 one of the, staff in my office at my university, a Thai woman in her 30s. She loves to go to meditation retreats. So some ties are into it. But I really think if you if you did some kind of survey in the US about people who've tried meditation, I think the percent of people who've tried meditation is higher in the US than in Thailand. It's it's.
Greg Jorgensen 00:10:27 Not really.
Ed 00:10:28 For sure, dude. Okay. Well, okay. Actually, I have to I have to correct myself. The only exception to that is I think a lot of Thai public schools, they actually make students, do some meditation. So, so that probably so I think they're kind of required to try it in public schools. And I think prop handed on the show, he he was criticizing this because he was saying that they kind of do a bad job of it. And so the young Thai people think meditation is kind of square and they don't want to do it. You know.
Greg Jorgensen 00:11:01 They write like when I was forced to do square dancing in grade eight.
Ed 00:11:03 That's right, that's right. So okay, I have to correct myself. Same thing in terms of trying it. More Thai people have tried it, but man, meditation is quite popular in the US. It's quite popular in the West. It's very hip like at at universities. At like corporate stuff. This is stuff we talked to, to prop handed about. Whereas I don't think among Thai people, it's just it doesn't have any cachet or hipness to it. And it's definitely Thai, like Thai Buddhism has a meditation component, there's no doubt about it. Like, I'm not saying that meditation is not is not Thai. I'm just saying that if you come here and ask your Thai friends, so listeners out there, go ahead, test.
Greg Jorgensen 00:11:47 Let's go meditate.
Ed 00:11:48 Like test me, test me. Ask your Thai friends. When was the last time you went on a meditation retreat and you're going to get some positives? You're like, I know some guys who do meditate, but I still think it's more popular in the US.
Greg Jorgensen 00:12:05 Well, yeah, I mean, I don't think I've ever asked any of my Thai friends about meditation. It's never sort of come up, which maybe supports your point, or maybe it's just something that they do privately and discuss anyway. I know my wife doesn't meditate as far as I know. but, yeah, I don't know. I it's it's not something that I've ever really talked with anyone about outside of you. Right. And spend it.
Ed 00:12:31 Well, I mean, it definitely exists here. There's tons of meditation teachers like Prop Handed. There's great retreats and, definitely some type of go to the retreats. But it is again, it's one of these things like I think in your intro, you said it. Well, it's like I think when foreigners come here, they go to a meditation retreat and they think it's going to be mostly Thai people and it ends up being it's mostly foreigners.
Greg Jorgensen 00:12:55 Interesting. Yeah. Although, you know, when we stop at Sanga Town on our bike rides and stuff like that, the halfway point up to Cochrane and it's there's a very popular meditation force meditation retreat there, and it's almost all Thai.
Greg Jorgensen 00:13:08 So it's definitely out there. But yeah, I don't know.
Ed 00:13:11 I think I think it's a niche thing. maybe that's maybe, maybe that's the, the word of the show. Like, all of these things are, are definitely Thai, but not like the majority of Thais are doing it, you know?
Greg Jorgensen 00:13:24 No. Not mainstream.
Ed 00:13:25 Yeah, yeah, yeah. The third one. I'm going to die on this hill. I'm going to say beaches are not really a Thai thing. Thailand has amazing beaches. and some Thai people go to the beach. But Thai people, in my opinion, are not beach people. They're not sand people. They're not water sports people. They're not sunshine people. So it's it's a symbol of Thailand. Thai people appreciate their beaches. They promote the beaches. As you pointed out in the intro. These are things that Thai people are smart enough to capitalize on.
Greg Jorgensen 00:14:01 So sure.
Ed 00:14:02 Yeah. So they promote the beaches, and the beaches are legit. And some type people, some Thai people love the beach.
Ed 00:14:10 I'm going to say 10%, 10% of Thai people love the beach. other other Thai people. Other Thai people, they like to get a big hat, go to the beach in quotes and sit under huge canopies and eat seafood.
Greg Jorgensen 00:14:27 Well, this is interesting. So when you say the beach, you mean frolicking in the waves and splashing around.
Ed 00:14:32 Or being on the sand, like like, you know, in the States we play beach volleyball. Like we're like, we're we're beach people. Like when we go to the beach. Sure. We're running in the sand. We're in the water.
Greg Jorgensen 00:14:44 You hold up mirrors to reflect the light into your face for more beach per beach.
Ed 00:14:50 I'm just saying I'm going to say 10% of the time people are into doing anything on the sand or in the water.
Greg Jorgensen 00:14:57 I would I would say it's probably higher than that, with the caveat that it's after 5 p.m. once the sun goes down, they're like vampires. The tides come out into the beach and splash the waters.
Ed 00:15:07 Okay.
Greg Jorgensen 00:15:08 Well, you know.
Ed 00:15:09 Oh, that. Well, you know, my point is, they're not sun people, that's for sure. But you're right. They sure they do. Kind of like to hang out after hours on the beach. And again, it's an eating thing. It's like. Yeah, like.
Greg Jorgensen 00:15:21 But in terms of, in terms of frolicking on the beach, though, it's almost always kids, parents with young kids or teenagers. Yeah, right. You know, I.
Ed 00:15:29 Agree, and a lot of foreigners and a lot of foreigners.
Greg Jorgensen 00:15:32 Yeah. And a ton of foreigners. I kind of feel this way about beaches, too. I've always said I'm not a beach guy, but whenever I'm on a beach, I'm looking around and go, this is really nice, I should do this.
Ed 00:15:40 I love beaches, I'm a total beach guy.
Greg Jorgensen 00:15:42 Okay, you're a beach bum. the next one, sounds silly on its face, but actually you have some insight into this.
Greg Jorgensen 00:15:50 That surprised me when we were talking about this, tuk tuks?
Ed 00:15:54 Yeah, I think tuk tuks are. They're definitely a symbol of Thailand. They're they're. I wouldn't say they're all over the place, but they're pretty easy to find. Right. But, I feel that. I feel that they're just not that popular with Thai people. Thai people are motorbike people or taxi or Skytrain people. again, some Thai people take tutus, but I think it's mostly foreigners that they come to Bangkok and they're like, I gotta take a tutu cry.
Greg Jorgensen 00:16:25 Right? Yeah, it's it's ki. It's like. It's like a checklist.
Ed 00:16:29 That's right. But, you know, I again, I'm going to give credit to pylon for this. on her recent episode, she was kind of, to be honest, she was she was throwing not really throwing shade, but she was she was kind of laughing a little bit at foreigners, saying, like, you know, that foreigners come to Thailand and they, they think that tuk tuks are cool or they think that Thai people love it.
Ed 00:16:52 And so she was kind of implying the Thai people are maybe like, laughing a little bit at foreigners, like our obsession. Like we're the ones obsessed with tuk tuk. And like, Thai people don't really pay that much attention to them.
Greg Jorgensen 00:17:05 Right? Like when you get right down to it, it's like, like all of the problems of a taxi and none of the conveniences, like it's too big to get through middle of traffic, like to cut down the lanes. There's no air conditioning that's behind a bus, breathing in the fumes like they're not safe.
Ed 00:17:20 Right? They're not very safe and right. The truth is that, I did take tutus a lot when I first got here. Like, I was that guy. And then I do occasionally do it now, but it's only. It's pretty rare. I mean, it was. I can't remember the last time. I mean, I probably take, what, 2 or 3, two, two cards a year. Like, how often do you ride a tuk tuk?
Greg Jorgensen 00:17:43 Well, I might push back on this one a little bit.
Greg Jorgensen 00:17:46 I think they are more popular than that. We, me and my wife and my son take them quite a lot. They're very convenient. We can fit three people in them perfectly. you don't have to mess with.
Ed 00:17:57 But why not take a taxi? Why are you taking a tuk tuk? Why don't you take a taxi?
Greg Jorgensen 00:18:01 Because most of the time, taxis will just be like, no, I don't want to go there. Or they'll say no. And tuk tuk drivers, in my. In my opinion, unless you're in like the Calle San road area, are almost always going to take you somewhere. Oh, and interesting, I don't know, I, we just, we just find them more convenient. I take them not all the time, but more than you do.
Ed 00:18:19 Interesting. Well, it's funny, when I was chatting with Pailin, I did tell her that near my university students, they do sometimes crowd into tutus when they want to go, like down the street and they don't want to walk, and so they'll kind of use them as like a, a tram, you know, kind of.
Ed 00:18:37 So there might be, there might be a little more popular than she indicated. But I do think she's kind of right. Like, I think it's, it's this thing that that foreigners think So Thai people are like. Thai people love tuk tuks, but it's it's down the list. Two tuks are down the list of options.
Greg Jorgensen 00:18:56 I don't think Thai people love them or, like, celebrate them. They're just.
Ed 00:18:59 They're right.
Greg Jorgensen 00:19:00 Yeah, they're sort of like bananas. No one goes crazy about. No one goes bananas about bananas. They're just there. And. Yeah, I'll have.
Ed 00:19:06 Well, to me, the tuk tuk is the it's like the pickup truck of Thailand. So if I, if I have a big thing that doesn't fit in a taxi, that's when I go to a tuk tuk.
Greg Jorgensen 00:19:16 Right, right. They're great on bike rides too, because I don't know if anyone knows, but, the tuk tuk have a they've got a little shelf in the back that folds down, and it's for the perfect width for it to put your bicycle wheels on either side of.
Greg Jorgensen 00:19:29 And then you most tuk tuk drivers have a little rope in the back, and they just tie your bike to the back. And every time you want to give up on a bike ride and just sort of cheat on your way back home.
Ed 00:19:39 You seem to know a lot about that grip.
Greg Jorgensen 00:19:42 I get home and I look at my Strava thing. I'm like, wow, I hit 55km an hour on this stretch. Oh, right. I was in a Toyota.
Ed 00:19:48 That's great. That's great. All right. Again, this might be a little controversial. You know, this show is more controversial than I thought. Now that you think about it, it's a little bit sensitive.
Greg Jorgensen 00:19:58 It all kinds of kind of hate mail and who knows what else.
Ed 00:20:01 That's right. Here we go. I'm going to say this. Muay Thai is niche is not the great word. But my students. How do I say this? What's the best way to put it? I feel that if you're middle class and above Thai person, you kind of ignore more Thai.
Ed 00:20:22 Like more Thai is just not that popular. It's not like baseball, football, basketball in the US, it is the national sport. It is the national sport. It is popular on a percentage basis, like Muay Thai is popular here, but it's almost like it's in a box, like it's it's kind of sad in a way. It's kind of class based, like Muay Thai is. It's a working class sport.
Greg Jorgensen 00:20:50 It's definitely your. You're right. It is. And is it the national sport of time? I know, I know, Thailand has takraw is, I don't know, national sport.
Ed 00:20:57 So let me, let me I'll ask Gemini right now. okay. But, I, I'm gonna I will defend this Muay Thai. It certainly it is a real Thai thing. It is a thing. But, you know, I've had this conversation with my students where I asked them, like, have you ever seen Muay Thai in your life in person? And honestly, it's almost none of my students have done it, like.
Greg Jorgensen 00:21:23 Like really that many.
Ed 00:21:24 A few guys, like, a few guys will raise their hand. So it's not it's not like basketball, baseball, football. It's not like that.
Greg Jorgensen 00:21:33 If those sports are, for lack of a better word, soft and pretty easy for all of the band geeks and drama nerds like me and my friends were to to do. Like, anyone can pick up a bat and swing at a ball, but to get in a ring half naked and start beating on someone. That's a pretty big barrier to entry for for a lot of people, I think.
Ed 00:21:53 Well, it's not about doing it. I'm talking about just going and witnessing it.
Greg Jorgensen 00:21:57 Okay. Fair enough. Yeah, yeah.
Ed 00:21:58 It does say okay. So Gemini says Muay Thai is the official national sport.
Greg Jorgensen 00:22:05 okay. I also thought it was DeGraw.
Ed 00:22:07 It does. Okay. That okay. That is so basically it says that takraw is the secondary national sport. So there you go.
Greg Jorgensen 00:22:15 Okay, interesting. Like in Canada, you know, I mean, everyone thinks hockey is a national sport, but it's not.
Greg Jorgensen 00:22:20 It's actually lacrosse is Canada's national sport. And I.
Ed 00:22:24 I didn't.
Greg Jorgensen 00:22:24 Know I never met a lacrosse. I never met a lacrosse player in my entire life. Not one person who has ever played or gone to watch lacrosse.
Ed 00:22:32 I did not know. I didn't know that I thought it might be. Yeah, I thought it might be curling.
Greg Jorgensen 00:22:36 But I should say that actually, I think like in the mid 1990s, hockey was adopted as Canada's second national sport. So as late as, like Thailand, it has two. It has a winter one and a summer one. Oh, wow. that was still. That was only recently. And before that it was lacrosse. And like I said, I have never met anyone who played lacrosse. Tons of people who played hockey, but not lacrosse.
Ed 00:22:58 Right, right. Right, right. Well, we got one more. You want to bring it up?
Greg Jorgensen 00:23:02 Sure. the famous, which I have never been to actually, shamefully or either proudly at this point.
Greg Jorgensen 00:23:08 full moon parties.
Ed 00:23:09 That's right. Thailand is quite famous for the full moon parties. They are real. They're quite popular. And it's 90, so I've been to. Not that many, I think. Two, maybe three really over the years. and it's again, it's 90 to 95% foreigner. So when you go to full moon parties, I don't even know. It's actually a good question. if there's a Thai version, like sometimes there are certain things we were mentioning before the show. You know, when you when you think of things like Go-Go bars, if you go to if you go to, gogo bars. As a foreigner, a lot of times the areas that foreigners go to, there's actually only foreigners there. So. So you might. So you might think, oh, ties aren't into this, but actually there's other there's other gogo bars or, or massage places that Thais go to. So maybe right. Maybe there's some like Thai full moon parties, but I don't think so.
Ed 00:24:09 Like, I think this is.
Greg Jorgensen 00:24:10 I've never heard of. I've never heard of anything like that.
Ed 00:24:12 Yeah. I think this is the thing. Like you said, this is something that it definitely exists here. And Thais promote it. And it's a cool thing. Like, I, when I went back in the day, I liked it. But, it's not really a Thai thing as Thais are not that into it.
Greg Jorgensen 00:24:30 I'm sure there's tons of Thais at them, but they're all like, you know, the the subcultures, the young Thais, the hippies, the beach bums, but.
Ed 00:24:38 Well, there's not that many. No, I'm telling you know, there's some like, you know, some of them are working, you know, you got the fire guys. You got, you know, it's like the beach because it's a terrorist thing. So there's there's Thai people working there, there's Thai girlfriends, and then there are some fun hip ties who want to go to a full moon party because they've been westernized, you know, it's like, so okay.
Greg Jorgensen 00:24:59 That's that's interesting. So they're they're introduced to the full moon party through their Western friends.
Ed 00:25:04 Yes, yes. Because no, they meet foreigners and the foreigners. Like, we got to go to the full moon party. It's so Thai.
Greg Jorgensen 00:25:12 That's funny. Yeah, yeah. I mean, the full moon party did originate in Thailand, but it's it's not. Yeah. I mean, I don't know, I've never been to one, so I can't really talk about it.
Ed 00:25:21 Well, I'm curious what listeners think about this. Like, I guess it's funny when I, when we were talking about this show, I didn't think of it as, like edgy, but I realized some of this could be a little bit sensitive. Like, all of these things are really tied, like, they're definitely Thai and some Thai people are into them. I just think the foreigners and I'm from experience, I'm talking from experience. that's, like when I first came here, I, like I said, I thought Thai people ate a lot of pad Thai.
Ed 00:25:49 Like, I thought Thai people were really into meditation. but, I'm curious what people think. it's like, these are things that they're symbols. These are legitimate symbols of Thailand. but oddly as such. But oddly, I don't think Thai people are like that into them.
Greg Jorgensen 00:26:13 Yeah, well, if you have any insights or feedback or contradictions or arguments. Yeah, let us.
Ed 00:26:18 Know. Let's do.
Greg Jorgensen 00:26:18 It. Yeah. The next us in the series will be what is Canadian the Canadians don't do and American that Americans don't.
Ed 00:26:25 That's a good question. You know, it's funny I was thinking that, you know, people associate hamburgers with the US. But if you go to the US, we actually do eat a lot of hamburgers. you know, maybe something like, you know, you know, you know, people think or at least Americans when we, you know, we talk about, you know, apple pie and I, you know, I probably have apple pie once a year or so in the US.
Ed 00:26:51 Maybe apple pie is not quite as popular has as it's supposed to be, you know?
Greg Jorgensen 00:26:56 Well, I don't know American as apple pie, I mean. Right. You say as as as ty as part time. But. Yeah, but it wouldn't be, though, would it?
Ed 00:27:06 But how often do Americans actually eat apple pie as my point? Maybe we don't actually eat apple pie that often.
Greg Jorgensen 00:27:13 That's a good point. Although I will say the apple pie at Starbucks is pretty damn good.
Ed 00:27:18 interesting. The thing about Canadians, you know, we associate you guys with hockey and you play hockey. We associate you guys with maple syrup, and you do use maple syrup. Like, I think Canadians are kind of what we think you guys are.
Greg Jorgensen 00:27:31 We are the stereotype. what about poutine? I didn't even, you know what? I didn't even know what poutine was until I was, like, 22. So.
Ed 00:27:39 Oh. That's funny. It's funny. I never knew it was a Canadian thing because I associated I associated with like Wisconsin.
Greg Jorgensen 00:27:49 Right?
Ed 00:27:50 You know, which is basically Canada. It's like Lower Canada.
Greg Jorgensen 00:27:54 It does say a lot about Canada's culinary scene, though, right? Like our big our big food export is just French fries with some gravy on it. That's right. It's not really a lot more to it than that. Anyway, interesting. Interesting list. And, yeah, let us know what you think. Give us some feedback. Cool. All right. Let's do something we call. Would you rather or one of us picks two contrasting situations tied to Thailand to debate and choose which one we'd prefer. And I got an easy one for you. Edit something we've talked about briefly in various forms on the show over the years, but I want to hear exactly what you think about it. All right. So as we said, I'm going back to Canada soon. And, the one thing I am not looking forward to is sitting in a coffee shop or a restaurant and being able to understand what everyone is saying around me.
Greg Jorgensen 00:28:37 So would you rather have a have a nice cup of chai or latte or whatever, in a place where you could understand what people are saying around you. Or would you prefer like you are in Thailand, where you're sitting in a Starbucks surrounded by Thai people and just completely oblivious to what everyone's talking about?
Ed 00:28:57 Great question. Before I lived here, before I lived my life as an immigrant. If we're going to be accurate, I definitely would have said that. I would prefer understanding people around me. But now that I've been in the expat bubble for so long, I actually enjoy not understanding what's going on around me. So this is a great question. I, I like it, I like just, you know, so it's kind of, you know, it's kind of a it's almost like a scene in a movie where there's kind of like the the hubbub in the background, you know, that is, it's it's literally background. And then, you know, in the movie there's a focus on, like a cone of relevance.
Ed 00:29:43 It's kind of like that. Like I, I've gotten used to that bubble, and it allows me, you know, it allows me to just, I don't know, like, I don't know if ignore is the right word, but it allows me just to do my do my own thing. And I'm less I'm less distracted by other people in other conversations because there's that barrier of like, my bad Ty, there's a barrier there. So it's like, why, why, why, why? And I don't yeah, I don't have to worry about it. I just don't I don't care.
Greg Jorgensen 00:30:15 100% 100% agree. And I hate being surrounded by people where I can understand what they're saying. I can't concentrate anymore. I love, I love sitting in a place where around me, like. Like you said, it's like the Charlie Brown teacher.
Ed 00:30:28 What it is.
Greg Jorgensen 00:30:29 Yeah. It's just I might as well have white noise headphones on, just going.
Greg Jorgensen 00:30:36 I, I love it. I love the isolation and the focus it can give me.
Ed 00:30:41 It's funny, we're totally on the same page, and I think that I never would have thought that, you know, when I first came here, I would have thought that it would have been very disconcerting or would have been very weird not to understand what everyone is saying, but it's like it's strangely peaceful. It's strangely peaceful to to to not to not be able to communicate. It's like I can't talk to you. You can't talk to me. So we're going to we're going to actually leave each other alone.
Greg Jorgensen 00:31:12 That's right. That's what I want to say when I hear all these stories about these dipshits who the yellow people speak English like. Don't you know you're missing out here, man? Just. That's great. Let them speak in whatever language they are and enjoy the silence.
Ed 00:31:24 You know what this reminds me of? This opens up a whole nother can of worms. But I'll just mention it. It reminds me of a. This is either. I don't know if it was an actual meme on the internet, or just jokes.
Ed 00:31:33 It was just guys joking, but they were talking about how how they get along a lot better with their Thai girlfriends. Because. Because they they don't understand each other. It's like. So it's like. It's like. Yeah. My Thai girlfriend, you know. You know, she she knows, like 100 words. And we get along great. Like, we're like a happy. We're a happy couple. We're a happy couple. This is because we cannot communicate.
Greg Jorgensen 00:31:59 This is a deep topic to mind. We'll have to come back to this one.
Ed 00:32:02 Well it's tricky. It's tricky because everyone says, you know, great communication is the key to a good relationship. And it's a bit. It's a bit weird. It's it it. I understand that point, but when you can't talk to each other, you just like there's some peace. There's some peace of mind there.
Greg Jorgensen 00:32:20 Like what we said or what we were talking about earlier in the day with another topic. But I said in some cases, ignorance is bliss.
Greg Jorgensen 00:32:26 Correct?
Ed 00:32:27 No, that that is true. I'll take. I'll take my cone and my cone of silence or whatever you want to call it. I'll take it.
Greg Jorgensen 00:32:33 That's awesome.
Ed 00:32:35 Alrighty, a final thanks to our patrons who support the show. Patrons get a ton of cool perks and the warm, fuzzy feeling knowing that they're helping and are never ending. Quest for cool content. Find out more by clicking support on our website now! Connect with us online. Where Bangkok podcasts on social media Bangkok podcast. Com on the web or simply Bangkok Podcast at gmail.com. We love hearing from our listeners and always reply to our messages. Unless, of course, you're an agent who sends endless pitch emails on behalf of a client.
Greg Jorgensen 00:33:05 That's right. You can listen to each episode on YouTube, send us a voicemail through our website, and we'll feature that on the show. Hit me up on blue Sky I am Greg. Thank you for listening everyone, and we will see you back here next week.
Ed 00:33:16 No doubt.
