Making Thai contacts in Australia

Menus I picked up from Local Thai restaurants

I went walking down a local shopping strip getting menus from the restaurants where we can get takeaway or home delivery. Out of about 8 restaurants, 2 of them were Thai. I hesitated outside the one Thai restaurant which was open. I wanted to go in and see if the owners spoke Thai or not but I was afraid of looking like a fool. I walked passed the restaurant but then turned back and went in. I heard the cooks speak Thai so I felt a bit braver. I asked the cook whether she spoke Thai and said that she did. I ordered a Larp Gai (minced chicken dish) not that I was hungry or wanted food but to order something. She said that it would take about 10 minutes. During that time I was able to chat with the 3 ladies working behind counter cooking food in Thai. One of the ladies had just arrived from Thailand and couldn't speak much English but the other lady spoke English quite well. The ladies invited me to come back with the children.

Later in the afternoon I went to pick up the kids from their first day at preschool and I went past so many Thai restaurants. I wondered whether real Thai's worked in these restaurants or not. It might be a great outreach opportunity just visiting different Thai restaurants in Sydney.

Reverse Culture shock 2

Self Check out

Taking the frustration out of finding parking

EFTPOS machines. I didn’t use it at all in checking out at the supermarket in Thailand. Cash is still king in Thailand even for buying cars! However, I mostly use credit cards in Australia and when I was checking out at Woolworths for groceries I saw the EFTPOS machine it said, "swipe anytime", even though the checkout chick was still scanning the items. This was new. So I swiped the card and started going through the options. But I got stuck at the last option. It had “Entire sale” or another option I can’t remember. I paused thinking which button should I press. I didn’t know the entire sale amount and it wasn’t showing so I hesitated in pressing it. By that time the check out chick had finished scanning my items and seeing how incompetent I was, she reached over and pressed the “entire sale” button for me. She had a bit of look of contempt on her face as if I was such an idiot.

Anyway, I said my nicest “Thankyou” to her when she gave me the receipt and she gave me a sincere and happy “have a nice day”. Obviously she didn’t know that I was some weirdo out of Australia for the last 2 and half years. This option must have come in while we were away. It certainly wasn’t there before we left.

Just before this incident, I overheard an elderly couple who had lined up behind me, seeing that the line was long, say to his wife “lets go to the self-serve option”. This is something new too. I guess it involves scanning the items yourself and paying by credit card(see photo at the top). I heard rumours about this just before we left so it must have been introduced while we were away.

Parking: One very positive reverse culture shock was seeing thin metal rods coming down from the ceiling at the parking lot of the shopping centre at Westfields, Hornsby. A green light at the botton of these rods indicated an empty space, the red light an occupied space. Then there were helpful indicators showing you how many empty spaces were left and which direction. So all you needed to do was follow the arrows and look for the green light. Fantastic. Gone are the days of spending endless minutes going round and round looking for parking.

Reverse Culture shock 1

We’ll we’re back (in Sydney)! Thailand gave a fitting farewell. The plane taxied to the runaway. Their were blue skys when we left the terminal. We had 4 planes in front of us waiting to take off. 5 minutes later, it was bucketing down with rain, so hard that at times you couldn’t see more than a few metres ahead. With winds up to 100kph, the Captain decided to wait on the tarmac. We sat on the tarmac for 40 minutes before it was safe for us to take off.

The 8 hour flight was not so bad as our two sons slept reasonably well (apart from our eldest son vomiting some flem up). However our daughter (9 months) woke every couple of hours.

We landed in Sydney at around 5:30 am (2:30am Thai Time). We got through immigration and picked up our bags in quick time. Too quick in fact. We forgot our stroller. So it took another 20 minutes to get Qantas baggage staff to go back in and get it.

First reverse culture shock happened at the airport. Lisa was feeling faint so I went to buy her a bottle of water. AU$3.50 (120 baht) for one small bottle of water! I couldn’t believe it! So expensive. Prices seemingly have gone up incredibly in the last 2 and half years. I had to do some grocery and other essential shopping yesterday at the local supermarket (Woolworths). I didn’t buy that much but I ended up forking out nearly $200. That’s nearly amounts to 6,000 baht in Thailand (and a month's rent or us in Lampang). The most I’ve spent in Thailand has been only half that amount for a lot more things.

The second reverse culture shock was the amount of choice at the supermarket. In Thailand (outside of Bangkok or Chiang Mai) there are maybe 5 different cheeses all up in just one small row of the diary section. In Australia, the cheese has it’s own section taking up half an aisle. I felt overwhelmed with choice to the point I couldn’t buy anything. With things being so expensive I didn’t want to make an expensive mistake. The range of food (at this small to medium size Woolworth’s supermarket) was extraordinary. So much choice with everything and so nicely packaged.

One positive reverse culture shock was not seeing a single dog on the 1 hour trip from the airport back to my parent’s house. Also, I’ve hardly heard a dog bark (apparently our neighhour has a small dog though which barks and poos in our lawn). Anyway, I didn’t hear any dogs barking last night and had a great sleep.

I got to see my first Bledisloe Cup (Rugby Union - Australia vs. New Zealand) on T.V for the first time in over 2 and half years. Unfortunately, Australia lost by 1 point in the final minute (not much has changed in this regard).

Anyway, more reverse culture shocks in up coming posts.

Stopped by Police

Two days ago as we were speeding along the highway (literally) towards Bangkok from Lampang, I was day dreaming a little bit when I saw a man waving his arms frantically ahead. It took me a moment to register this and then I realised that it was a policeman. There was a lump in my throat. I was driving on the right overtaking lane at the time and most likely speeding above the 120kph limit.

I stopped where the two police officers were waiting for me. The officer asked me in Thai for my driver’s licence. I looked at him blankly as if I couldn’t understand him. Then after a few seconds, he said in English “licence”. I looked in my wallet for the copy of my licence which I had prepared for just this kind of occasion (if you give your real licence then you are forced to go to the police station to get your licence back). However, I couldn’t find it and had to give him my real licence. He told me in Thai that I was in the right lane and that I was going too fast. I have him another blank look and raised my eye brow. He stopped for a moment and finally said in English “high speed”. I replied, “I thought the speed limit was 120” in English. He talked into his walky-talky and after hearing a reply said to me “126” in Thai. I looked confused. Then he wrote down the number 126 on his note paid. Then he said “200 baht”. If I gave him 200 baht I knew that it would most likely just go into his pocket. The normal process is to write a ticket and that I have to go to the police station to pay the fine. I didn’t want to go to the police station and add additional time to 9 hours journey. But I didn’t want to pay the quasi bribe either. He asked me “back in Lampang when?”. I replied “I’m going to Australia”. The officer looked back at the back of our car full to the brim with luggage and knew I wasn’t lying. He might have been thinking of writing me a real ticket but if I wasn’t going back to Lampang I couldn’t pay the fine at the police station. He thought for a moment and I kept on waiting. Finally, he gave up and waved me on telling me “slow, slow”. As we were driving off I couldn’t keep the smirk off my face. This about the third time I’ve been stopped police and pretended that I can’t speak Thai. I don’t like doing it and I feel a bit guilty about it but I don’t like paying bribes either. I’ve heard so many stories of missionaries being fined for speeding when they definitely weren’t (e.g. saying that they were going at 140 km when the car is physically incapably of going at that speed).

I know many other missionaries who try talking Thai with the police when they are stopped buvt in most cases it doesn’t work and they end up either with a ticket or paying the fine directly to policeman to avoid the hassle of going to the police station. I'd say in this rare case, having Thai is not an advantage.

Asian way to pray

Yesterday morning our househelper and her husband (a pastor) came to see us off, as well as our team mates, Peter & Kelly. Our househelper apologised that she was too poor to give us a going away gift but offered to pray for us as we left. So our househelper and her husband, Peter and Kelly gathered around us to pray. The pastor and our househelper started praying out loud both at the same time. This is way that prayer is done in many Asian countries i.e. simultaneous prayer with everyone praying out loud. I’d forgotten this though (I was expecting just the Pastor to pray) so after a few moments, I gathered my wits and started to pray in Thai as well for the Pastor’s family (quietly though as I’ve still a lot of work to do in praying in Thai). It was hard though as I’m not used to this style of praying. I lost my train of thought a number of times as I picked up bits and pieces of what the Pastor and our househelper was praying and was distracted. After the 3 of us stopped praying, Peter then prayed in English for our family. Even in farewells there is a cross cultural experience.

On Dial up

Last week I went to our landlord to have our internet connection cancelled. We discussed the various options and decided to disconnect the internet at our house. Anyway, the next day I come home and I find our ADSL (broadband internet) is down. My first thought was, "Oh, no. He's cut the internet now and didn't wait until we left!". I called him to check my suspicions. Yep. He got his secretary to go and cut off the internet that morning! Urrgghhh. I thought that it was fairly obvious that we would want the internet disconnected after we left. He knew we weren't leaving until the end of the following week.

Even after 2 and half years we still face these situations all too often. Anyway, we are limping on dial-up internet until we leave. Very, sloooooowwwwwwww.

Memories come flooding back

Did I really do this? Life before our car!

As noted previously I went down to the language school in Lopburi to sit my Level 2 exams. The time coincided with a new batch of missionaries arriving. After sitting my exams in the mornings I had to the opportunity to help out the new arrivals as I had lots of spare time and not much to do.

Seeing these new missionary in there first days at Lopburi brought back so many memories. It also reminded me how much I had forgotten about the huge adjustments process when we first arrived in Thailand.

What do I do with the hose?

I mainly helped one European family from one of the Nordic countries. They had three children under 5 (like us). Very, very blond haired. None of the children speak English. My heart went out to them at what lay ahead for them because we were in their shoes 2 and half years ago. They will probably have it a bit harder than us as their children don’t speak English (so won’t understand the childcare helpers) and they are so blond so they will receive lots of attention from Thais whenever they go out.

On their first night in Lopburi I took the family to Big C (a shopping centre). I showed them where to buy a food court card to be able to buy food. I suggested a Khaow Mun Khay (Chicken rice) as something suitable for the children. They didn’t really eat much of it though. Then they went through Big C trying their best to buy what they needed to start living in Thailand with the frustration of not knowing where things were and whether it is the same thing as back home. It was probably close to 9 pm when I got the the family back to their new home, and by that time it was well past the kids bedtimes and understandably they were tired and irritable.

The next day after my written exam in the morning, I helped the a bunch of the missionaries when they were opening their bank accounts. They had questions about when and where to use the debit cards which they received and it was a Visa Electron card which we don’t have in Australia - “Could they used it as a credit card or not”.

Then I took the husband of the family from the night before to find a suitable SIM card. His family stayed at the administration centre because they didn’t have many toys at their new home. Even with my 2 years of Thai it was hard understanding the details of the different prepaid SIM cards available with different amounts you had to top up with different credit expiry dates. Unfortunately the phone they brought from Europe wouldn’t accept the Thai SIM so we looked around for a new phone. Then 2 pairs of new trousers. A quick trip to the dressmaker to get the trousers put up. I was tired after all that and I’m sure he was more tired than me.

Late afternoon all the language students met for fellow group. I took this European family back home and said goodbye to them as I would be heading back to Lampang on the train that night and probably would not see them again. I prayed that God would look after this family and help them through what will probably be one of the hardest years of their lives with so many adjustments make especially with 3 young children to care for too. God did for us and only 2 years down the road that time is already a distance memory. As the orientation directors commented it showed how far we had come. It was great seeing my favorite sellers at the market, the fruit lady, fried bananas ladies, the dried meat and sticky rice couple, the eccentric
grilled chicken guy, the old lady across the street from where I lived; and to be able to converse them with Thai so much more than when I left over a year ago.

Perhaps the timing of my level 2 exam and this new batch of missionaries was coincidental, or perhaps God was encouraging us as we go home on home assignment in a couple of weeks that we have come a long way since we started 2 and half years ago.

Café church served up in Marrickville | News stories | Sydneyanglicans.net

Ross, a friend of mine from Bible College and his wife Rachel are starting a new church in a cafe in Marrickville, Sydney. The owner of the cafe is Muslim! They can have church there as long as they buy coffee.

Café church served up in Marrickville | News stories | Sydneyanglicans.net

Great stuff!

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Training it in Thailand and other Anecdotes

I caught a train to my Level 2 Thai language exam in Lopburi. My first long train trip in Thailand! I nearly didn't get on my train as I was expecting a long train with at least 10 carriages. When a tiny two carriage train pulled up I couldn't believe that this was my train.

I prayed before I got on the train that either I'd be able to share the gospel with someone who sat next to me or have a good period of study. Well no one sat next to me so I nearly studied for 7 hours of the 9 hour trip!
I had a bit of a cough (no fever though!) leading up to the train trip so to allay the fears of the other travelers I bought some face masks. It wasn't so comfortable breathing so I took it off after about 30 minutes.
Then I happened to look across at the lady sitting across from me on the other side. She was wearing the same type of mask. Then I realised that I had been wearing the mask inside out! No wonder it wasn't so comfortable breathing through it! (Hint: the blue side goes on the outside, the white side on your mouth!). I don't recommended the "sprinter" train during the day. Even thought I bought a second class ticket, the aircon was broken and I had to flick the cockroaches off my arm a couple of times.
Well I passed my Level 2 exams (the speaking and listening parts anyway - the written section I'll find out in the next couple of weeks) and I was on the overnight "sprinter" back to Lampang. Much nicer than the day "sprinter". After an hour delay at the train station I finally board at around 11pm. This nice bed was waiting for me. Just the right size for me so that me feet just touched the end of the bed (so if you are taller than 171 cm - the bed will be a bit short for you). Lower bunk is definitely better than the top bunk I've been told. Unfortunately the European tourists opposite chatted away until about 1am so that I couldn't sleep. Urrgghh. Not the best night sleep I've had, but I must have had some patches of sleep here and there.
In the morning, the beds were put up and I was face to face with the person traveling on the top bunk who I hadn't met the previous night (he'd got on previous to me in Bangkok). A nice medical student from the U.K on holidays with his wife(?) who was in the top bunk in the next section as they had booked their tickets too late to get the same section. We had a nice chat. I asked him if he had any "faith" at all since I'd told him I was a missionary working in Thailand. He was religious until about 17 but then moved away. His issues lay with the question of who created God and he found it more reasonable for life to develop through evolution. He had obviously read up a lot on the topic and he explained to me why the second law of thermodynamics (which says that all things degenerate rather than improve) only applies to "closed system" and not open systems such as cells so doesn't contradict the theory of evolution. Unfortunately, we were approaching Lampang so I gave him some tips about what to do in Chiang Mai and we parted company.

The Unexpected

Last Friday night, Nick (Team Leader) and I were at the Lighthouse as usual for our International Student evening. The two weeks before that no one turned up so I was not that hopeful. I prayed for people to come but it was 7:15pm (15 minutes after the starting time of 7pm) and no one had come. Mentally I was packing up and preparing to go home in another 15 minutes. But then one of the Chinese exchange students, Sonya turned up. The Chinese students hadn't been at the Lighthouse for a couple of months, but Nick had bumped into them at the market earlier in the week.

Later in the evening, close to 8pm, two Thai uni students from the local Rajaphat University turned up. "Tee" had been once to the International Evening many months ago and brought along a friend. If Sonya hadn't come, we probably would have gone home before these two arrived.

So I left thankful to God for answering prayer and bringing students when we weren't expecting any.


Later this morning I'm off to the train station for a 7 hour train journey to Lopburi where I will start my level 2 language exams. I feel so unprepared. Didn't have much time to study this week, with discussions with the landlord about reducing the rent while we were away (they agreed - praise God!), North Thailand Team meetings in Chiang Mai and other things. Surprusingly, this will be my first long train trip in Thailand. Not that I'll be looking at the scenary much - I'll be desperately trying to review as much Thai as possible. Also, I had to change my train ticket a couple of days ago. I didn't realise that the exam was over two days until my team leader queried why I was only staying one day in Lopburi.