Food - Thai Style

A motto that I have learned from my time here is, “with food comes spice.” Thais love their spices. They love a good sweat while eating. This spiciness is not your average tingle in your mouth; it is an unbearable, yet delicious sensation. From the first bite to the last, you will fell the burn…I promise you. But this spice, which is so popular among all Thai food, is part of the culture. It is what makes Thailand so unique and different. Below are a few Thai dishes that I personally love.





This is called giaow gung (เกี๊ยวกุ้ง) which is Wonton Soup with shrimp. This dish is extremely spicy. There is a local restaurant that serves this and when they see me come in they always laugh because I leave with a soaked shirt







This dish is called khanom beuang yuan (ขนมเบื้องญวน) which is a Thai style omelet. The ingredients include chopped peanuts, tofu, chopped spring onions, Chinese turnips and grated coconut that has been coloured orange. Guess how much this usually is? 20 baht ( less then 50 cents)





This Thai Basil Pork Stir-Fry is classic Thai dish. Usually this dish is made with ground pork, but nearly any type of pork or chicken can be used.






Tom Yum Kung Soup is a typical Thai soup that is delicious. Its spicy-delicious taste will really wake you up. This soup is very unique because it can also act as a medicine by providing health benefits and increasing your immune system (don't ask me how)






This Bok Choy is a vegetable dish. Usually served as a side, it pretty much acts as a salad. Also the greens shown here in the picture can be found in any dish



These are just a few, but I hope you understand the style of Thai food. I find the Thai food incredibly tasty and I hope to take a cooking class before I leave here. To add on, eating here is very unique to participate in because when you go eat its not a sit and go type of thing. Eating is part of the social life here. Whenever you go out you will notice that Thais are always eating or snacking. I personally have picked up this norm because it happens everywhere. To tell you the truth I am currently sitting in a computer lab between two Thais who are snacking on noodles... It really is incredible how connected eating is with socializing here. As I stated before, with food comes spice but also socializing.

P.S. Another rule of thumb I have come to follow is when you eat Thai food make sure you have a fan on you, tons of water and napkins to whip the sweat away.

Extracurricular Activities

When living in a city you become absorbed with it. Although its not a negative, sometimes you miss things that are going on around you. Don't get me wrong I love Chiang Mai, the grind and social life that comes with it, but recently I have been forgetting that I am living in one of the most beautiful, lush environments in the world. Outside of the busy streets lies endless opportunities. Yesterday I took advantage of Thailand's unique landscape. Five of my friends and me heard through the grape vine that there was a waterfall about 40 minutes away from campus. We put our money together and took a taxi ride to this jungle oasis. It may sound generic to say but the waterfall was amazing and beautiful. The waterfall, however, was not your typical falling water off rock. As you will see in the pictures, it started on the top of this hill and formed slides and branches that moved all the way down to a pool at the bottom. The reason why the waterfall is so popular is because the rock that the water moves over is a sticky rock. You can honestly run full speed up the falls without slipping. I am not sure what type of rock it was, but I definitely felt we were in some alien world; it was truly bizarre.






Here is one part of the falls






The water was extremely warm






My friend Pope and I climbed one of the vertical parts without any trouble. The rock was seriously sticky











Buddha Peter





















What a view



I am heading for a class trip this coming Wednesday to the south of Thailand. I will keep everyone posted and I hope to continue my extracurricular activities.

My Time Here

Many people have asked me so far was going to Thailand the right decision? How are the people and culture?

In short, Thailand by far has been one of the best decisions I have made in my life so far. This culture, its people and the environment that surrounds me everyday fits perfectly with what I need and want in my life at this point. One of the best ways to describe this culture is by one word... SMILE. Thailand and Thais, in general, are described as the friendliest people in the world and being here for almost a month, I will attest to this fact. Whether its walking down my dorm hallway or meeting a Thai for the first time, they always greet you with the biggest smile with friendliest demeanor possible. Living in Thailand has really shown me how mean, rude, loud, obnoxious and unkind our american culture can be. I have yet to meet a Thai that has shown any animosity towards me because of my foreigner status; in fact they show patience, respect and gratitude towards me. Imagine if a international student came up to you in the states and tried to introduce themselves in horrible broken english? How long will you stay patient?

The Thai culture is like nothing I have ever seen before. Their social norms, tendencies and attitudes are completely different from American and western cultures; however you can see a taste of globalization in many Thais. Thais are very materialistic. They love having the trendiest clothing and accessories. For instance my roommate insists on wearing his tight black jeans and fresh designer shirt along with a brand new pink watch followed by brand new red NIKE shoes to school (whereas I just wear the generic black pants with a tie and white shirt and black shoes) everyday. Furthermore, Thais are very vain. Every time you go into a bathroom or see a mirror there will always be a Thai doing themselves up. It was very odd for me at first to get onto an elevator with a bunch of Thais and see them all turn towards the mirror behind me and stare at themselves while fixing their hair the whole way up. A Thai friend of mine even takes a small mirror out with him so he doesn't have to get up at dinner to check himself out.... In American culture this would be considered strange, even gay but here everyone does it, it is their social norm. Another aspect that baffles me everyday is the fact that Thais think white is beautiful. They all want white skin. They fear the sun, because they do not want to be tan. When you walk through a convenience store soaps, lotions and body sprays all have WHITENING agents in them. I understand that this unique phenomenon not only occurs in Thailand but all throughout Asia. These social norms like I listed are just some of the few I see on a regular basis. Everyday I learn and see more and I hope to be able to explain and tell you all about them.

As I mentioned before briefly, the people and this culture are truly amazing... incredible. I have been very lucky with being set up with a great roommate and meeting tons of Thai friends. I know many kids on campus and go out with them all the time. In fact I have their numbers and they text me 24 7 (a Thai thing...they love using their phones and texting). I have also befriended an amazing kid by the name of Champ. Champ is a 22 year old senior here at Payap. He speaks perfect English and loves going out and showing me the best places to go. When I go out, Champ brings me to the best places to go in Chiang Mai (where there are zero westerns). Through Champ I have met so many great Thai people. The other night I went out with Champ and he brought three of his girl friends who are also seniors at a local university by the name of Chiang Mai University. These girls spoke good english and were very fun. In fact, two of these girls that we met brought us to the top of the Doi Suthep (a huge mountain the overlooks Chiang Mai). We watched the sunrise and I got home around 8:30 in the morning; another unique aspect of the Thai culture is they stay up all night long and party. I thought, as a college student, I knew how to party but the Thais are professionals. Below are a few pictures of my long night atop a Thai mountain. My trip to see the sunrise really justifies how nice and friendly Thais are.



-let the sun set








-conclusion