RamenRaven

You're probably thinking of middle-class Thais with hypochondriac tendencies. Working-class Thais: take a paracetamol pill, drink some herbal tea, and off you go. Hypochondriacs are common in countries with free or low-cost healthcare. Tough luck being a hypochondriac in the US though!

Annotated image

1st photo - view of stairs going down to the 1st floor 2nd photo - view of the stairs bending around as it reaches up to the 2nd floor

Does anyone know what the minimum Thai standard is for stair head clearance? In the US, OSHA says it's 80 inches or 203 cm.

Almost all of the house that I bought is actually built to US/UK standards. I've painstakingly measured everything. Thai friends commented on how things seem to be built higher in the house. All doors are 2 m. The top of all of the bathroom sink bowls are 38 inches (96.5 cm) high, which is much higher than usual than most Thai homes. Standard sink height in the US is 29-36 inches. Shorter Thais using the sink might have to reach up a bit to wash their hands. Ceilings are 2.9 m. The tops of the bathroom mirrors are all 2.1 m high, and I can still see ample space above my head while standing up straight. All windows are set up quite high. Toilet seats are 16 cm high (too high can mean a lot of straining). That's the weird thing about newly built Thai homes. They try to make some things Western-style with dimensions that might actually not be so comfortable for shorter Thais, while some of the other things are still built for shorter people. The bathroom sinks are higher even than in Western homes, but the stairway headroom and kitchen sink are too low. Go figure.

Great tip. Hopefully this can work in my case. Hang on tight guys, I'll get some photos in a bit. I'm not currently in my new house since there's some remodeling going on downstairs.

That's not a solution. That's just a way to remind you that your unsolved issue is still there.

Feed shed = chicken coop? That's usually what comes to mind when you use such phrasing.

Yes, it's the standard Thai-style block counter. I assume it's concrete inside.

I just bought a newly built two-story house in Thailand. It's gorgeous and everything looks great, except for the low kitchen counter and the low stairway headroom. At the 6th step, the space between the step and the roof or beam is 187 cm, which is dangerously low for me since I'm just a bit over 185 cm (I'm afraid to wear even slippers), and I'm always feeling my hair brush against the top. There are 18 steps total that are about 19-20 cm high each (irregular), not including the first and second level floors. Each step is 25 cm wide. There's a small storage room under the stairs too. US standards require the stairway headroom or clearance to 80 inches (203 cm). I'm not sure if this violates any Thai building codes, if they have any at all. I don't know why anyone would build a new house where you only have 187 cm when climbing the stairs, but then again, we're in Thailand. I would like the stairway clearance to be at least my height (185 cm) + the vertical height of each step (20 cm), or at least 205 cm (in New York City, the minimum is 213 cm). The seller warned me that chipping off the top (presumably made up of concrete and wood) to create more headroom is not recommended, since it could put the house at risk of structural damage. Or maybe I should just take a risk and see if I can at least chip off a bit to make the headroom to be 190 cm. But then, completely tearing down the steps to create spacious headroom is a tricky and expensive process. Presumably I'd have to raise the height of each step by 1-3 cm each, which would mean shortening the length of the stairway. There would be less room in the storage room underneath the stairway and then the bathroom that's below the stairs might also have to be modified. Which company or home renovator in Chiang Mai can take on this kind of work?

Where in Chiang Mai do they have 36 inch (90 cm) kitchen counters, which is the standard kitchen countertop height in most Western countries? I went to Thai Watsadu and the counters were all 33 and 34 inches (84 and 86 cm) high. I couldn't find any 36 inch counters. Would you recommend custom building it or buying a ready-built countertop? I can't find any ready-built countertops that are 36 inches high. I'm also trying to figure out cost estimates. Then I'd have to decide whether to use marble, granite, ceramic, wood, or another material. I'm asking because the counter in the new house that I just bought is 31.5 inches (80 cm), which is so low that I can't even use it except as a storage space and to do simple tasks like heating food in the microwave. I asked the seller (a property development company) if they can raise it, and they said the only option is to completely demolish it myself and build a new one. Current counter dimensions: about 88 inches long on both sides, measured starting from the corner. There's a big window above the sink that starts at 36 inches, but the stove area is entirely wall.

Culturally, Thais are by far most similar to Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Japanese. You can easily compare Thais with them. Shrewdness, luck, animistic traditions, lots of unspoken rules, absolutely needing to look good on the outside, and a certain obsession with gaining wealth for face that isn't the same in the Philippines. The same general attitudes towards foreigners. With Filipinos, you'd be better off comparing them with Latin Americans. Divine grace rather than good luck from spirits, living for today, "want to live a simple life," loud and direct way of talking, no behaviors that come off as overly soft and deferential.

Filipinos are so different from Thais that I don't know how you can even compare the two. It's like comparing Chinese with Brazilians, or Japanese with Egyptians. Filipino culture is extroverted, loud, and more Westernized. They do not have any Thai-like mannerisms and have very different outlooks on life.

No one cares if Somchai is only 160 cm or 140 cm tall. The problem is that Somchai appears to genuinely believe that the maximum height of Homo sapiens is 175 cm - and builds everything right at 175 cm, or perhaps 180 cm if he is being generous. This is evident in the way that street markets, covered markets, and rural homes are built all over Thailand. So the entire place gets turned into a "kingdom of the little people." https://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/26/health/china-kingdom-of-little-people/index.html https://time.com/5293240/dwarfism-china-kingdom-of-the-little-people/ It's a theme park in China, but I actually thought it was referring to LOS when I first saw the title.

I have a feeling that the local 7-Eleven did it, not Bangkok Bank. This looks like a local Thai village handyman job. Western men = European men

This ^ Don't cave into peer pressure and follow the script: Stay in a Western country, buy a house and work in an office job for 30 years to pay off the mortgage while keeping up with the Joneses.

To be more accurate, I believe the bottom of the roof was at my ear level (our ears aren't that far from our cheeks by the way), but still, that thing is substandard construction. Western men tend to stand a bit further and look down at ATMs when using them, but they're still usable. A typical Western man's head would be right at where the roof is. All over the world, standard roof and door heights for modern buildings and structures are always 2 metres (200 cm) or higher. Point is, we're all pretty darn sure that at least 50% of all Western men can't stand up straight under that thing.

Jokes aside, I know that this guy doesn't look that small if there is no farang standing next to him. It's an optical illusion! That's because in Thailand, literally everything looks shrunk by 15-20%. Just open up random images of streets, buildings, homes, markets, people, and even pets and trees in Europe, US, or Australia, and get your mouse scroll to shrink them by 15-20%, and everything will become Thai-sized. Get a typical farang dude for comparison and you can definitely see how low the ATM roof really is.

It depends on where you live in America. What you described is more like a small town in the rural Midwest or South. Many American expats from the suburbs, particularly in states like California and New York, complain about how neighbors don't talk to each other since they want privacy and quiet neighborhoods. No one helps each other at all. Conversations are really fake, 1-5 minutes of boring small talk about the weather and traffic. And all they'll do is to call the cops on you because of a crying baby or barking dog, or because you said "hi" to a girl. Cranky stuck-up suburban American neighbors giving you money and food, or even helping you move? Heck no. That's more like any part of Thailand except maybe for Bangkok.

But since they're all flush with cash, no one would ban them. Big 179 cm tall buffalos spelunking through street markets, dodging umbrellas and tent poles as they walk around like the Hunchback of Notre Dame - still good business. Never mind if they'll end up with a Harry Potter scar or Gorbachev mark on their heads as long as they buy some Som Tam!

That's not a farang. He's a Thai. Or Burmese or Cambodian or other Southeast Asian. I saw his face. Notice the black hair too. He's not 178 cm, although he was the tallest person I saw who went to use the ATM. I'm 185 cm and the roof was at my cheek/jaw level.

In practice, anyone over 175 cm is a disabled oversized buffalo in Thailand. ???? Anyways, this is meant to be humorous. Let's learn from the Thais - smile and laugh at anything, everything.

That is, until an awkward oversized farang bangs his head and smashes it into smithereens!

One-third? Manhattan has to be at least 10 times more expensive than Thailand, unless you're living a very posh lifestyle in Thailand.

Another "This is Thailand" moment. Last week, someone decided to build a metal roof above the ATM. It won't fit anyone much taller than 170 cm, and definitely not above 175 cm. Bangkok Bank ATMs have mostly the same standardized size, so you can get a 170 cm friend to stand next to any random ATM and see for yourself. Before, it got hard to see the ATM screen when the sun was out, but you could use your hands to block out the sun and see just fine. To my utter surprise, I saw 5-6 Thais, including both men and women, walking in and out without bumping their heads. Somchai and Noi will fit in just fine. But Hans and William, and even the Chinese, Japanese, and Indians, would most likely have to: - bend their backs at a 90-degree angle - or squat or kneel down - or give their ATM card and PIN to their kids, or maybe a tiny Thai wife/girlfriend - or bust the heads open and get sent to the ER I enjoyed using this ATM while the good times lasted. Farewell!