A change of pace

Well, even though I could continue to blast Korea (they are such an easy target) I think will go to Thailand today.
In Thailand, as I have mentioned before, 95% of all Thais are Buddhist. What I did not mention was the fact that Thailand also has a mandatory military service requirement for all men. They do have a choice however. If they decide to become a monk for...hmmm I think it's either 1 or 2 years, then they don't have to join the military. This could  be a reason for so many monks. While many do use this as a way out of their duty, many also do it because that's what they want. You can imagine the things we would say about them back in the good ole U.S. of A. But Thais truly respect this decision, whether it's a calling or a draft dodging measure, doesn't matter.
Monks are not allowed to touch women, and vice versa. Certain things are funny, well to me at least. Like if a woman is going to give a monk a donation. The monk will usually hold out a towel or plate that they can put the money onto, never directly hand something to a monk. Also, when you go to temple, most times they monk will take a piece of string and tie it around your wrist. This is like a blessing kind of thing. When my wife and I go to temple, the monk will tie my string on my wrist and then give me a second one to tie on my wife's wrist.
I have made my share of mistakes with temples. with each mistake I can expect a light smack from my little 4'10 wife ! Hmmmm.. maybe on a  subconsciencous  level I am making these mistakes on purpose ! Come to think about it , I get smacked when we are in town, temple, at school or with the police. Home is the only safe place ! lol.
Being a falang (foreigner) I have a big target on my back, especially to the police. They put up check points all over the place. Some cars they just let drive right through, me they always stop. They come up to my window, I hand them my Oregon Drivers License that expired in 2005 and 100bhat ( $3) tucked behind it. They look at it, even though they can't read it and hand it back to me.....minus the Baht.

Another item I forgot to mention and I don't know how it slipped my mind. In Thailand, having girl babies is a good thing. Sorry China ! So, the reasons why having a daughter is good. First and foremost, she will be someone to take care of you when you get old. When the depends need to be changed, they will be there. Also financially, they will take care of their parents. For this reason, most property goes to the daughters and not the sons. Another thing is that daughters can be a good investment and I do mean that literally. Traditionally European and early American women would have a dowry that the husband would get once they got  married. Not so in Thailand ! Here the women basically get graded like cattle and the guy who wants to take the cow home has to pay accordingly. In Thai it's called a sin sot. A bride price to be paid to the parents. So if you have an educated and attractive daughter and your family is fairly well off, You are going to charge the groom a higher price to marry your daughter. If she's fat, stupid and ugly, you'd be lucky to get $100 for her. On the flip side though, about 5 years ago an Australian wanted to marry Miss Thailand. They had a relationship and he asked to marry her. The sin sot was $1,000,000 USD plus a new house for the parents. The Aussie paid it and I believe they are still married to this day.
I got lucky because both of Laila's parents are dead. So when we married I gave her sister a bunch of money, that she spreads around so that everyone could see that Laila was marrying a good ,wealthy falang !
Then after all the guest went home, she gave it back to me . Sweetness !

OK, now for an admission.....don't get you're hopes up, it's nothing juicy ! This blog is just a time killer. You will never find me writing it at home during the evenings or weekends. These are all written during my dead time at work..which is a considerable amount of time. So toady is Thursday, tomorrow I go to the US Embassy and on the weekend I won't write. Monday should be my next blog entry.
I promise to make it a bit more entertaining than this one was. I'll talk about some kinda whacked shit that happened to me over the weekend LOL !