Thai Hospitality
Posted in Uncategorized on 07/24/2006 03:56 am by lee
We have been in Chiang Mai, Thailand for nearly two weeks, and I am frequently reminded of what a hospitable people the Thai are. Within our first couple of days here a group students took us on a tour of their campus. Last Two Sundays ago several of the same students took us to see Doi Su Thep, a large temple overlooking Chiang Mai. But the day did not end there, they took us around the walking markets in the downtown area, helped us to find all the local food favorites. This was a whole days endeavor, and many of these students had mid-terms to study for. These same students have gone out with the VIA volunteers for several other dinners or social outings.
Two Saturdays back, a few other volunteers, Sara and I stumbled into a party and were quickly made into guests of honor. At Chiang Mai university every department (they call them faculties) hosts a dinner to welcome the incoming freshman (called Freshies).
While heading out for dinner that evening we noticed some sort of big event in some sort of outdoor meeting area. Everyone was dressed in some sort of costume. A few of us decided to go closer to ask what was going on. Instead simply telling us “This is a dinner to welcome the freshman Economics students” they invited us to join in. Not wanting to overstep their hospitality, we waffled for a bit, and checked to see if it would be an inconvenience. They insisted they had enough food, and then they sat us in the front row, and fed us a huge Khantok (traditional Northern Thai meal) dinner.
One of the upperclassman was nice enough to sit next to our group and translate for most of the evening. She explained how to eat the dishes, and made sure we all stuffed ourselves.
After the food there was some students performed some traditional Thai dancing, but the old quickly gave way to the new. Next up was the Miss Lady Econ contest. It seems that there is a strong transvestites or transgendered males population in Thailand. They are called Ladyboys, and unlike the drag queens you typically see in the U.S. their looks are incredibly deceptive. While some still look distinctly male, some look very delicate and carry themselves in the most feminine of manners. Our translator told us that at Chiang Mai University the Ladyboys are well accepted and they carry on their day to day activities dressed in women’s clothing. The only time it gets confusing is when they have to show their IDs at examinations.
In case you’re wondering when you’re talking about a Ladyboy, you use the pronoun “she”. In the Thai language many sentences end with a gender classifier of “kha” for females and “khrap” for males. Saying hello goes something like “Sawot di ka/khrap.” While watching TV, you see these gender markers sprinkled all over the place. I imagine the Ladyboys probably use “kha”.
Anyway back to the Miss Lady Econ pageant. One of the contestants had been going around campus all week asking for people to vote for her. She was quite the drama queen, and act catty toward the other contestants. It was hard to tell if she was acting that way seriously or not. Either way, it made for quite the spectacle.
There were two other pageants/contests to select the freshman class king and queen. In typical beauty pageant fashion, they had a question and answer session. Instead of your typical Miss America, world peace questions, the contestants were asked very ribald and risque questions. Contestants were expected to pander to the crowd. Since we have a mixed audience on this blog, I won’t repeat the questions.
After the pageants, we were treated to a stream of Thai rock n’ roll from what I took to be local college bands. The crowd was quite energetic, and they sung and dance along to all of the songs. The girls even seemed to sing when the band wasn’t playing. If you asked me a year ago, I never would have imagined I would be dancing in a crowd Thai freshman.
Thank you Thailand and Chiang Mai University for your hospitality.
