As we all know most bathrooms in Thailand generally don't have hot water or soap or any kind of clean cloth or paper towels to dry your hands if you do wash them.

 

I have been in many bars where guys would want to shake hands and I really do not WANT to shake their hand as i would bet it's not very clean to say the least.  Some guys seem a bit offended when i instead offered a simple wai or maybe a fist bump.  I do not want to shake a hand that maybe just came from the toilet or just got sneezed into as I do not want to pick up germs if I can avoid it.

 

  Seems to me the Thais have it right that a simple wai is a preferred method of greeting etc and avoids the whole issue of spreading germs.

 

Maybe just a pet peeve but why do so many people seem hell bent on shaking hands?

 

 

 

 

Moved to the Farang Pub.

If you ever eat in a restaurant where food is cooked or prepared by a Thai....you see how they clean their a$$ with a dunk bowl and their fingers, with many other people touching it / using it. Shaking hands the least of ur problems lol

9 minutes ago, Kenny202 said:

If you ever eat in a restaurant where food is cooked or prepared by a Thai....you see how they clean their a$$ with a dunk bowl and their fingers, with many other people touching it / using it. Shaking hands the least of ur problems lol

no doubt but why exacerbate it by going around shaking hands

4 hours ago, pomchop said:

I have been in many bars where guys would want to shake hands

Do you touch any girls in those bars?

Do you think anybody else touched them before?

What is a higher risk?

Not only Thai's   but most of Asia  use the greeting of clasped hands, or  a bow,   as in Japan 

I've always found shaking hands to be a revolting tradition.

Fortunately nobody has wanted to shake my hand for years.

The fluorescent green mankini and socks with sandals look works perfectly to dissuade hand-shakers.

2 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Do you touch any girls in those bars?

Do you think anybody else touched them before?

What is a higher risk?

not really anymore but thanks for asking......at least touching the gals has a benefit but yet to see the benefit of shaking hands with bunch of guys in a bar....

9 minutes ago, pomchop said:

not really anymore but thanks for asking......at least touching the gals has a benefit but yet to see the benefit of shaking hands with bunch of guys in a bar....

Basically it's all the same: exchanging body fluids ???? 

7 hours ago, pomchop said:

I have been in many bars

For avoiding germs , that was where you made your first big mistake.

 

To avoid another , do not under any circumstance have sex or exchange bodily fluids with any ladies employed therein.

I'll shake hands with anyone.  It's not on my list of phobias. 
If I at a pub, I'll go wash my own hands the next trip to the hong naam. 

But, I've found a lot of Westerners to be germaphobes. 
Well, elbow bump.

I wash my hands before preparing or eating food.

IMO the OP should avoid any social milieu, problem solved. Use your knuckles when operating a lift/elevator button, or ATM.

Given the past couple of years I’m kind of with the Op on this.

 

I’m a ‘hand-shaker’....  I shake hands with friends when I meet or see them for the first time in a week or so... 

 

Some guys (who I play football with) have become ‘fist bumpers’... that doesn’t bother me at all, it makes sense and it's quicker. 

 

So... IF the op is going to bars etc and doesn’t wish to shake hands and chooses to fist-bump instead, I think thats fine. He’s still offering a greeting....    

 

IF people are going to become offended by that, then perhaps the ‘fist-bump’ has become a good filter to avoid the over-sensitive tools !!! 

26 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

I wash my hands before preparing or eating food.

IMO the OP should avoid any social milieu, problem solved. Use your knuckles when operating a lift/elevator button, or ATM.

Amazing how the world has changed...  

 

I ‘knuckle’ the lift buttons etc... .... I now thing twice and look for the sanitiser gel before eating a burger or sandwich etc when out and about.... 

13 hours ago, connda said:

I'll shake hands with anyone.  It's not on my list of phobias. 
If I at a pub, I'll go wash my own hands the next trip to the hong naam. 

But, I've found a lot of Westerners to be germaphobes. 
Well, elbow bump.

or just when in thailand follow the thai practice of a simple wai...seems to me they got it right and much more civilized and sanitary than the western handshakes...all the fist bumping and elbow bumping gets a bit goofy and awkward after a while IMO

On 6/29/2022 at 7:27 AM, Kenny202 said:

If you ever eat in a restaurant where food is cooked or prepared by a Thai....you see how they clean their a$$ with a dunk bowl and their fingers, with many other people touching it / using it. Shaking hands the least of ur problems lol

you can say 'ass' we are not offended

 

Much more clean than wiping your <deleted> with paper

 

How about in the UK, people blow their snot on their handkerchief and stick in in their pocket?

On 6/29/2022 at 3:44 AM, pomchop said:

As we all know most bathrooms in Thailand generally don't have hot water or soap or any kind of clean cloth or paper towels to dry your hands if you do wash them.

All bathrooms I use have soap and water.

 

What dives are you going to? 

I use to have a problem with shaking hands, until I quit drinking! 

Get one of those small flat sanitisers to spray your hands with. Wai ing other foreigners always looks idiotic to me

Edited June 30, 20224 yr by proton

On 6/29/2022 at 3:44 AM, pomchop said:

or maybe a fist bump. 

 

22 hours ago, connda said:

Well, elbow bump.

Modern super cool affectations. Silly and superfluous. 

 

People are happy to use doorknobs/handles etc.  

nowdays even petrol station loos do have soap.

Gel alcohol or the other sanitiser dispensers are also everywhere.

And many people carry them and use.

You can get a small dispenser with a clip, to attach to trouser's belt or outside your shirt pocket - same, which medics always used. You can get them at any pharmacy. Refill when empty.

I was hand shaked by a hospital doctor at the end of consultation. That was August the last year, at Delta times.

It was a nice gesture of him, he initialised it. I was surprised and moved.

Physical contact is important. 

It's you who can initialise greeting - fist, pat on the shoulder. Don't wait for them to extend hand to you, it's too late to not react to it, they would be offended.

Money is full of germs!

Most people don't mind handling it.

On 6/29/2022 at 7:51 AM, actonion said:

Not only Thai's   but most of Asia  use the greeting of clasped hands, or  a bow,   as in Japan 

Clasped?  Isn't that grasping, as in griping something with the hands?  I think the wai would be hands pressed together, rather than clasped.

On 6/30/2022 at 9:44 AM, VocalNeal said:

People are happy to use doorknobs/handles etc.

Speak for yourself.  Many people hate touching doorknobs/handles.  Worst is having to touch one to get out of the toilet, having just washed your hands.

On 6/30/2022 at 9:23 AM, Neeranam said:

Much more clean than wiping your <deleted> with paper

More clean for your anus; not so clean for everything else.

On 6/30/2022 at 9:23 AM, Neeranam said:

you can say 'ass' we are not offended

 

Much more clean than wiping your <deleted> with paper

 

How about in the UK, people blow their snot on their handkerchief and stick in in their pocket?

Blow snot into their handkerchief then stick it in their pocket!?!

How revolting!

I blow my snot on to the ground.

If you start going down that path, the only solution is to become a hermit. Do you wear gloves when pushing the trolley at the supermarket? Those are probably the most disgusting things ever if you look at them with a microscope. Germs are everywhere and healthy people have nothing to fear from them. Just clean your hands after going to the toilet and when returning home after going out.

10 hours ago, BangkokReady said:

Clasped?  Isn't that grasping, as in griping something with the hands?  I think the wai would be hands pressed together, rather than clasped.

Yes Teacher Clasped  is Grasping, as in the Rright hand grasped the Left hand, as seen many times  while working for a Japanese company, but this isnt about an English language lesson is it ? Oh by the way,    its "Gripping"  not "Griping" 

19 minutes ago, actonion said:

Yes Teacher Clasped  is Grasping, as in the Rright hand grasped the Left hand, as seen many times  while working for a Japanese company, but this isnt about an English language lesson is it ? Oh by the way,    its "Gripping"  not "Griping" 

You're welcome. ????

On 6/29/2022 at 3:44 AM, pomchop said:

I have been in many bars where guys would want to shake hands and I really do not WANT to shake their hand as i would bet it's not very clean to say the least.

A glove or mitten on your right hand would protect you. (left hand if you are an old boy scout at a reunion).