Yummy my last supper in Thailand was great! I had a green curry where soon after my first few bites my mouth was on fire....love that :) Thai food is all about the chillies! As a beverage I tried Thai iced tea and it was orange...it was refreshing with a bit of a spice kind of like Chai but not exactly.
Few Last Notes I forgot to mention:
1. In Thailand you will find the people to be very patriotic and the King's pictures will be found everywhere. The King Bhumibol Adulyadej has been in reign for about 60yrs and is almost 80yrs old. Make sure to be respectful of the King if in Thailand.
2. When visiting a temple make sure to dress properly, long pants/long skirt, long sleeved tshirt/shirt & no open toed shoes. If not some places may have clothing you can buy or rent. Just before entering the temple remove your shoes and be very careful not to point your feet towards the Buddha. As your feet are thought to be the lowest part of your body and this would be sacrilege and if you touch someones head it would also be unacceptable as this is the highest part of the body (temple of the body).
3. If you see shoes outside a home or business make sure to remove your shoes as well or make it a habbit everywhere you go as most find it disrespectful if you do not.
4. Shaking hands is not a custom to Thailand but if you do shake hands shake with the left hand. It was told to me that as the right hand is used while in the washroom and that the left hand would be the only hand someone would want to shake. The custom in Thailand is wai which is to put your hands together in front of your face and bow. Note: most bathrooms do not have toilet paper or soap (if so usually there is a surcharge of 5-10Baht) you can buy small packets of toilet paper and I brought tiny pocket purell soaps with me
5. In Thailand you drive on the left side of the road.
6. When I kept seeing people with a very long pinky fingernail I thought maybe it was a drug thing and Michelle found out that it actually means prosperity and that this person does not have to do manual labour.
7. Watch out for the Tuk Tuk driver scams trying to take you to places you do not want to go or charging crazy amounts. They get fuel coupons or money from certain business' if they take you there. This never happened to me luckily as I heard about this in advance and from travellers there. When I got a Tuk Tuk I made sure to get the price up front and to show them where I wanted to go written in Thai by my guest house and as well told the driver only this stop no other stops please.
8. Using the bus system in Bangkok is pretty easy and most guest houses are very helpful with writing where you want to go in Thai so you can show the bus driver. You can wait for an air-con or non air con bus of course with the air-con being a bit more expensive. When you get on the bus you can sit right away and someone comes around collecting the money. I found the Sky train easy to use as well. You pay a certain amount for each line that you use during your ride into a machine and it spits out a card that you put through the entrance gates and make sure to keep it as you need it at the exit gates.
9. Many stores I saw had time restrictiions on when to buy alcohol. Between 11am-2pm & 5pm-midnight you could purchase alcohol.
10. I could not get used to seeing the dirty old foreigner men with young Thai girls...made me sooooo mad!
11. Make sure when you get there to be patient when dining out as usually if you are out with friends it is most likely that you will not get dishes at the same time...don't worry about it just eat as it comes and we learned not to wait for everyones to come. Some foreigners found this to be highly annoying I did not let it bother me at all, I mean really BE HAPPY you are in Thailand.
12. As a woman traveller I felt very safe in Thailand. I only heard that it could be dangerous if you travel in Thailand closer to the Malaysian border in the south. This is where bandit and terrorism problems can occur. If you want to travel in that area watch out for travel advisories or do not travel alone.
