Bangkok Blogger|Tales from Thailand

If you are into any sports and live in Thailand it probably won’t have escaped your notice that whey protein and other fitness and bodybuilding supplements are hard to come by and when you do find some the quality usually isn’t that great and prices are way higher than what you would pay back home.

Sports Supplements in Thailand

As far as I know the reason for the lack of products and the high prices is due to the rules for selling this sort of stuff in Thailand. Some sort of medical type permit is need as far as I can gather which makes producing and importing things like whey protein in and into Thailand quite expensive.

After looking around for a while I finally found a site that seems to have what I need with a great selection of whey protein and other bodybuilding supplements. Although they are based in Phuket they offer free delivery to anywhere in Thailand no matter how much or little you order which is great. They also take paypal which is handy for those of use without credit cards registered in Thailand.

I’ve ordered the 1kg Dymatize Whey Protein which I’ve had before from another supplier and at the Phuket Health Shop it retails for a very reasonable 1300 baht including free shipping to Bangkok or anywhere else in Thailand. You can visit their website by clicking on the link below:

• Phuket Health Shop

If you know of any other places to get sports supplements in Thailand please leave a comment below.

Reading Thai isn’t as hard as it first seems and although I’ve only just started it definitely seems worth while.

Not only will you be able to read menus and street signs but you will be able to look words up in the dictionary and know how to pronounce them without relying on the the dodgy transliteration or karaoke Thai.

I think it is a more accomplish-able task than learning to speak Thai as you can never learn all the words and phrases but at least with reading, once you have learnt how to read you can then read all words. Knowing what they mean is another thing though!

If you are like me and have been putting off learning to read Thai this website might be just the thing you need to get you going:

• http://www.phil.uk.net/thailand/learn_to_read_thai_tutorial_1.html

Phil teaches you a few letters at a time and then shows you some words using those letters so you can get reading straight away. This is a much better way to draw people into reading Thai as opposed to making them learn all the letters first. This way you can start seeing results early on.

Can you read Thai? How did you learn? Leave a comment to share any tips or resources that helped you.

If you have a look you will find a surprisingly large number of novels written by Westerners set in Thailand and Bangkok in particular. The two main types are the auto-biographical accounts of Westerners banged up abroad in Thai jails such as the Bangkok Hilton and novels about the bar scene and hapless farangs who get caught up in the world of bar girls and sick buffaloes. Some are ok and some are dire but when I first moved to Thailand I found it hard to resist them as at first there was a certain novelty factor gained from reading about a place you are living in but did not know much about. After a while they all get to sound the same and you go back to reading ‘proper’ books.

The other weekend though I was away at the beach and I realised I’d forgotten my book so I went down to the hotel shop and lo and behold there was an array of books set in Thailand. Whilst having a quick flick one tag line jumped out at me: ‘Jeremy Clarkson with a Gun’. I couldn’t resist it so I picked up the book so get a better view of the cover: gun (check), flames (check), scary looking man (check) quote from Radio 5 live (check), sticker proclaiming the book was set in Thailand (check). I was sold. The book was, in case you feel the urge to run out and get a copy, Live Fire by Stephen Leather. The name sounded familiar too and it turns out it is the same guy who wrote the infamous Private Dancer, also set in Thailand.

Is Live Fire any good? Well I read it in about two days so it is very readable and provides a few laughs along the way. The Thailand part is set is Pattaya no less so you can guess what goes on! The book has two main story lines: a group of British Muslims on a Jihad and some rough-diamond-cockney-geezer-types living in Thailand whilst coming back to the UK every now and then to do a blag. The main character is Dan Shepherd, an undercover cop, send out to Patts to infiltrate the gang. Its a good romp and better than a lot of books set in Thailand although that isn’t really saying much but if you want a good beach read and its definitely worth a punt.

Read any good books set in Thailand lately?

If you’ve got an Apple Iphone, Ipad or an Ipod touch and are not yet fluent in Thai this free Thai language app might be right up your soi. The Speak Thai app was released in September 2010 but I’ve only just discovered it.

Apart from being free it has a few nice features that separate it from the rest of the free Thai language Iphone apps and some of the ones you have to pay for. It was developed by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and although they get a bit of stick from time to time they seem to have done a pretty good job with this teach yourself Thai language app.

It has over 2500 words and covers the usual topics most Thai language books or software applications tend to focus on such as shopping, eating out, travel, doctors and hospitals and numbers to name just a few.

The phrases are written in English, Thai script and transliteration and you can chose to have them read out by a man or a woman. You can add phrases to your favourites so they can be easily accessed when you need them.

I’d say this was almost as good as the Ipood Iphone app which you have to pay for except that with this app you cannot see a list of all the individual words so could not use it as a dictionary, just a phrase book.

As it is free it is definitely worth a look and as speaking Thai is so focused on the pronunciation, being able to hear the words and phrases spoken is invaluable.

To find this Thai language application search for ‘Speak Thai EN’ on the Apple app store in Itunes.

Let us know how you get on!

It wasn’t soon after I first arrived in Thailand that I spotted red number plates on some of the cars driving around Bangkok.  ”What could this mean?” I though.  The cars I noticed the red license plates on all had one thing in common and that seemed to be that they were shiny and expensive looking.  Perhaps the red number plates in Thailand were some kind of status symbol like a private number plate in the UK.

Later on I found at that the red coloured license plates you see on cars in Bangkok and the rest of Thailand are actually trade plates and come on new cars.  Drivers have a grace period in which to get the regular white and yellow plates in.  If they do not they can get a fine from the Boys in Brown.

I have also heard that cars with red number plates are not allowed to drive on the roads after dark.  I’m not sure why this is.  If it was new drivers I could understand but new cars?  Perhaps it is to do with the contrast of the black text on the red plates not being visible at night; but if that is the case why not have a different colour.

Maybe once the current unrest is over we will start seeing yellow number plates in Thailand!

Look out for another exciting post on why some taxis are pink in Bangkok and what the different coloured vest the motorcy taxi guys wear means…

After a few lessons and some attempts at self-teaching I have decided to start taking proper lessons and have enrolled at a Thai language school.  We are having two one hour lessons a week which should help us get more familiar with the language.

After the first two lessons we’ve realised how little we know!

Going to have a go at learning to read the Thai script in my own time too as it would be good to be able to read all the signs and menus.

This Thai alphabet soundboard looks like a good resource for learning the names of the letters.

Due to the tight immigration rules in Thailand teaching English is pretty much the only job a foreigner can get out here without jumping through major hoops.  Thanks to this there are many many people out here working as English teachers at Thai schools, language centres and universities.

I wasn’t too keen to work as a teacher in Thailand but I knew my options were limited so I started a part-time job teaching ICT in English at a Thai secondary (or mathayom as they are known out here) school.  I got the job through an agency and the contract was for one term.   I was relieved to hear from the agency that it was a good Thai school and even had air-con!

I arrived on my first day to find myself in a large classroom in front of 35 14 year olds.  Each student had their own computer and I had one at the front that was connected to a projection screen.  That first lesson lasted for two hours and was probably one of the hardest things I have ever done.  The kids weren’t interested, I had no means of discipline and our lack of a common language didn’t really help much.

After a few more lessons like that the end of the day had arrived and I left a dejected, broken, former shadow of myself vowing to quit and not go back.

Over the weekend with time to think it over I decided to go back the following week and try a different approach.  But I finished my day in the same mood vowing never to return.

But I stuck with it.  It didn’t get any easier overall although some lessons were easier than others but as time went by my expectation of what teaching would be like changed and I no longer had the idealistic thoughts of it being fun or making a difference.  I was just there to try and teach to the few who were interested and keep the naughtiest kids from disturbing the rest of the class too much.   Once I’d become resigned to this it became more easier to get through the day.

Eventually the contract was up and I walked out for the last time (hopefully).  I will look for some more teaching work but will be looking for jobs in language schools where people actually want to learn rather than at schools teaching adolescent teenagers!

To all the full-time permanent English teachers in Thailand earning 35,000 a month, I don’t know how you do it but I salute you!

Since coming to Thailand I’ve been reading lots of books about the land of smiles.  Some have been fiction and some have been non-fiction accounts of peoples’ time in the country.  One that I finished recently was Farang: Thailand Through the Eyes of an Ex-pat by Dr Iain Corness.

It is a collection of short stories written by a guy from Australia and England who moved to Thailand during the latter part of his life.  He doesnt get up to much but I learned a few things from some of his tales and it is very easy to read.  There is also a part 2 if you liked the first one.

I’d probably recommend it to people who are yet to reach Thailand or have only just got here as some of the topics covered you will quickly discover for yourselves!

Its an easy read and you do learn a bit so you can’t really go wrong.

To view the list of other books about Thailand click here today.

The least favourite season, the wet season, has just ended.  The end was marked by the Loy Krathong festival in which a tribute is made to the water by launching wreaths into the river.  The first day of the following cool season was overcast, grey and quite chilly.  We had some friends staying who arrived on that day and it felt like they had brought the English weather with them.  Most of my kids didn’t come into school and some of the ones that did come in were wearing jeans and jackets!  Even though it was cold for the Thais I was still comfortable wearing flip flops, shorts and a t-shirt.  Since then the weather has been back to its old self and the sun has been out and it’s been pretty hot but not as humid as before which makes a nice change.  The cool season lasts until around March and then it is the hot season.  I thought the wet season was hot enough so it should be interesting to see how it gets out here.

Same Same, But Different

I’ve seen the above slogan on quite a few t-shirts worn by the Thai folk and wondered if it might be some joke about Thais trying to speak English.  After a quick Google search I found out that I was right and it refers to Tinglish which is a mutation of English spoken by some Thai people.  Here are some examples that might help you better understand Thais speaking English:

• same same (similar, as usual) and same same but different (seems similar but different in some ways);
• open/close the light (means “To turn on/off the light”);
• no have … (means “there is no …” or “I do not have a …”);
• I send you to the airport (means “I will take you to the airport”);
• I love you too much;
• I’m not pretty sure (means “I don’t know”);
• I have ever been to London;
• I’m interesting in football (means “I am interested in watching/playing football”);
• wash the film (means “develop the film”);
• I very like it (means “I really like it”);
• I’m sad when my mother angries me meaning is angry with me;
• I used to go to Phuket meaning I have been to Phuket before;
• take a bath referring to taking a shower;
• “Do you know how to eat this?” referring to food with taste that may be unfamiliar, or food requiring special eating method (such as wrapping it in lettuce) that may not be known to the listener;
• I play internet (I go on/use the internet);
• “This is suck!” means “This sucks!”;
• omission of pronouns and of the verb be;
• use of present tense + “already” instead of past tense

Stolen from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinglish

Anyone got any photos of signs in Tinglish?