Please, anything but your real name!

Would you mind being called a “pig” or a “buffalo”? I didn’t think so. But lots of people in Thailand are called just that and some other names that seem very strange to us. Thais have first and last names like we do, but they are often four or five syllables long and, at least for us, impossible to pronounce, what to speak of remember.

It was not always like that. A few generations ago Thai names were much shorter and simpler. Recently it has become fashionable to take on those monstrosities of names. The Thais actually had to come up with a law that limits the amount of syllables that a name can have. Otherwise those enthusiastic name creators would have made any official business a syllable nightmare. It is quite easy to change your name in Thailand. Don’t like it, no problem, pick another one. It is a relatively simple procedure.

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I live in Thailand, the Land of Smiles, as it is called a lot. The Thais pride themselves of their easy, natural and beautiful smiles. Many times I have gone out and felt touched by the wonderful smile of someone whom I had never seen and will probably never see again. It might have been a passerby on the street, a market vendor, or someone who stopped at a red light on their motorbike and flashed me one of those great Thai smiles.

What I love about the smiles in Thailand is that total strangers, including those of the opposite sex, will smile at you without ever feeling that this might be inappropriate or seductive or overly friendly. Thais are normally quite shy people, but this is one area where there is no shyness and no hesitation at all. They give away the greatest smiles to anyone at any time and there does not have to be a reason or justification for it. This is the Land of Smiles, after all. Read the rest of this entry

Is traditional better than non-traditional?

Thai massage has almost a certain mystique about it. It sounds exotic and it looks quite amazing with all those stretches and yoga-like positions. It is the only massage system that I am familiar with which is branded as “traditional”. Whoever heard of ‘traditional’ Swedish massage or ‘traditional’  sports massage? But Thai massage is promoted as ‘traditional’, implying that this makes it somehow better than non-traditional.

Actually the truth is just the opposite. Some of the very best Thai massage teachers I ever had were all very much non-traditional. They developed their own style, they were very creative, came up with modifications and significantly diverged from the ‘traditional’ style that is taught in most schools in Thailand. Read the rest of this entry

Why is everyone frozen in time suddenly?

Imagine this: You are walking in a crowded market with thousands of people milling around, and suddenly everyone freezes, standing motionless. What is going on here!? You will get used to it. Every day at 8 am and 6 pm all over Thailand a mini ceremony takes place in honor of the King. A special song is played over the loudspeakers and everyone stops whatever they are doing and is standing motionless until the song ends. At that time everyone just continues with whatever they were doing.

This can happen in all kinds of places. It is a familiar scene at Chiang Mai’s busy Sunday market. While you will not see it in big city traffic, I have been in smaller towns where all traffic just stopped in the middle of the street as soon as the song started to play. If you go to Bangkok’s huge Hualampong train station, all the police and security people will line up in a row and salute while all passengers stand up to honor the king twice a day. Read the rest of this entry

Thai massage is very popular nowadays. It is being offered in spas around the world. Here in Thailand massage schools are popping up everywhere, and students come from all over the world.  Many books and DVDs are available for home study. However little is written about the challenges  that therapists can encounter.

The positive side of a Thai massage business

There are two sides to being a Thai massage therapist. New practitioners see mostly one side: Meaningful work with decent income, holistic, positive, and beneficial healing work, interaction with many interesting and wonderful people (clients and fellow therapists), the ability to have one’s own business, set one’s own working hours, and contribute something of value to the world. Read the rest of this entry

What does it mean to be truthful? In the west we think that there is an easy answer – tell the facts, don’t hide anything, say it as it is. But it turns out to be a confusing fact that other cultures don’t agree with this definition. Thais have a very different relationship with the “truth”. We call it lying, but that is just our own cultural bias, and it is more of a judgment than a correct assessment.

Is there a correct definition for the “truth”?

The western model of truth often places truth ahead of other considerations, like being inconvenienced or put in an uncomfortable position by speaking the truth. We have sayings that confirm this: “Call a spade a spade”, or “Just the truth, nothing but the truth”. Lying is considered totally unacceptable to us, and the truth is upheld as a sacrosanct principle. Read the rest of this entry

The answer that comes to mind most easily is “money” – massage therapists can make $60.-, $70.- or even more more per hour. But the focus of this article is everything except money. After having done massage therapy for many years, I know that money alone is not a good enough reason to be in this profession.

Thai massage happens to be my specialty but the concepts in this article really apply to any massage therapist. Every therapist knows the rewards and challenges of this work, and I intentionally choose to highlight only positive aspects in this context. Read the rest of this entry

What planet do you live on?

What if I told you that I live in a place where the year is 2553? No, I am not schizophrenic, I did not watch too many science fiction movies, and I do not live on another planet. But I do live in Thailand, and the year is 2553 for the simple reason that they use the Buddhist calendar instead of the Christian one.

The Christian (Gregorian) calendar starts with the birth of Jesus, 2010 years ago. The Buddhist calendar starts with the birth of Buddha, 2553 years ago. Most dates in Thailand are written with the Buddhist year which tends to be very confusing for westerners. The trick is to subtract 543 years and you are right back to 2010. Read the rest of this entry

Doi Suthep Temple, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Is Thailand a third world country? I will let you decide. I live in Chiang Mai which is the second most important city in Thailand after Bangkok.

 My home is:

•  5 minutes from one of the biggest universities of the country
• 5 minutes from an olympic size swimming pool
• 10 minutes from a gigantic super modern mall
• 10 minutes from a health food store
• 5 minutes from an organic produce market
• 15 minutes from a national park
• 10 minutes from 3 big computer and electronics centers
• 10 minutes from a modern international airport
• 10 minutes from several  major hospitals
• 10 minutes from a western style supermarket
• 5 minutes from a zoo Read the rest of this entry