Do You Eat Out Of Plastic Bags And Cartons

[nickynomates]

It creeps up on you the longer you are here.

Table manners where did they go to.

Do you do this and more

1. Eating out of a plastic bag in the street.

2. Using toilet role on a table to wipe your face with.

3. Eating with a giant spoon.

4. Drinking out of a plastic bag.

5. Eating of a plastic plate while sitting in a plastic chair.

6. Missing that Sunday roast your Grandmother used to make and all else that went with it and a good upbringing.

I am sure there are more. let me know

[Guest Bellini]

No to all questions.

[Carib]

It is even worse, i eat while sitting on the sand

I donot use "tools" just my hands

I wash my hands with some sand and seawater

I donot miss my grandma`s sunday roast because where i come from it is not a big thing ( the roast)

And i donot miss my upbringing, i hated it, like most kids do, but...it has made me to what i am, and yes, it was good.

[Boater]

Do you do this and more

1. Eating out of a plastic bag in the street. - 7?11 so yes

2. Using toilet role on a table to wipe your face with. - this is 90% of Thai places so yes

3. Eating with a giant spoon. - hmm yes

4. Drinking out of a plastic bag - not now as the coke is always flat from these street sellers

5. Eating of a plastic plate while sitting in a plastic chair - yes....

6. Missing that Sunday roast your Grandmother used to make and all else that went with it and a good upbringing - for sure!!! if the price of an airline ticket was so high i would be back to me grans every week

[zaphodbeeblebrox]

Do you do this and more?

1. Eating out of a plastic bag in the street.

No, I can't even walk and chew gum at the same time.

2. Using toilet role on a table to wipe your face with.

No, I always leave small bits of toilet paper on my face, so I try to actually use water, but I also carry a handkerchef.

3. Eating with a giant spoon.

I've always done this. I just use it more now.

4. Drinking out of a plastic bag.

No. I don't like those sugary drinks they put in bags. Give me a bottle of water anyday.

5. Eating of a plastic plate while sitting in a plastic chair.

I've been doing this since I was a little kid.

6. Missing that Sunday roast your Grandmother used to make and all else that went with it and a good upbringing.

My grandmother was a good cook, but too ethnic to make a roast. My dad eventually started cooking Sunday roasts and yorksire pudding,

when all the kids came over on Sundays for dinner. Even though I'm a Yank, the kids would all have to fly into the U.K. for dinner anyway to

have dinner with the parents, so moving from the U.S. to Thailand didn't change this.

My biggest change: I hate wearing jewelry, but felt compelled to buy and wear a baht gold necklace.

[JetsetBkk]

Yes to all.

Anything wrong with that?

[jfchandler]

I can do MANY things for living in Thailand...without flinching... including watching cockroaches and rats scurrying along the street nearby..... as long as they don't climb on ME!!!!!

But, I WILL NOT wipe my face with toilet paper...and try my best to avoid using it for anything other than its intended purpose. How in the world Thais came to choose that paper for their napkins, I don't know...and don't really want to know. Same for using it as non-existent paper towels in most bathrooms.

Just doesn't work for the intended purposes, whether at the table, or at the wash sink. Even some Thais I know carry around their own bags of baby wipes so THEY have something to clean/dry their hands with...

[JetsetBkk]

But, I WILL NOT wipe my face with toilet paper...

It's not as if it's been used already...

[allexx]

Yes to all questions.

[justride]

It creeps up on you the longer you are here.

Table manners where did they go to.

Do you do this and more

1. Eating out of a plastic bag in the street.

2. Using toilet role on a table to wipe your face with.

3. Eating with a giant spoon.

4. Drinking out of a plastic bag.

5. Eating of a plastic plate while sitting in a plastic chair.

6. Missing that Sunday roast your Grandmother used to make and all else that went with it and a good upbringing.

I am sure there are more. let me know

Home, I miss Thailand and in three weeks I will be able to do all six again.

[SeaVisionBurma]

But, I WILL NOT wipe my face with toilet paper...and try my best to avoid using it for anything other than its intended purpose. How in the world Thais came to choose that paper for their napkins, I don't know...and don't really want to know. Same for using it as non-existent paper towels in most bathrooms.

I think you're reading into the 'toilet' part of toilet paper a bit too much!

I can't see the problem. I see the 'paper' part, not toilet.

It is heaps cheaper than buying boxes of expensive, perfumed, individual sheets - tissues. Probably a lot better for the environment too, given the process for making tissues, as opposed to tp.

I even use rolls of TP around the house in Oz now, instead of paying out money for a box of tissues in every room. Now that I read this thread, it has occurred to me that no visitor to my home has ever batted an eyelid to using TP to wipe their hands, instead of tissues. Nobody ever commented, so they obviously aren't phased by it either.

TOILET paper HAHAHAHA. It is just tissue in a convenient roll

[bino]

Yes to all.

Ditto.

Anything wrong with that?

I'd like to know too. What is the point of these questions?

[SeaVisionBurma]

Anything wrong with that?

I'd like to know too. What is the point of these questions?

a bit of fun? why post if you can't see any point to the questions?

[bino]

a bit of fun?

Fair enough- if that's the case.

why post if you can't see any point to the questions?

I never said that I couldn't see a point to the questions, I was merely wondering if there was one. Given the heavy focus on plastic and eating- plastic chairs, plastic plates, plastic bags- maybe the OP has something against this, or reason to believe that it might be unhealthy, dangerous or whatever. They all sound like pretty normal (and clean / sanitary) behaviour to me. Just curious as to why the OP considers them to be bad manners is all.

So- perhaps you could spare me the "why post" wisecracks and let the OP answer if he will?

[SeaVisionBurma]

a bit of fun?

Fair enough- if that's the case.

why post if you can't see any point to the questions?

I never said that I couldn't see a point to the questions, I was merely wondering if there was one. Given the heavy focus on plastic and eating- plastic chairs, plastic plates, plastic bags- maybe the OP has something against this, or reason to believe that it might be unhealthy, dangerous or whatever. They all sound like pretty normal (and clean / sanitary) behaviour to me. Just curious as to why the OP considers them to be bad manners is all.

So- perhaps you could spare me the "why post" wisecracks and let the OP answer if he will?

Perhaps if you had clarified that earlier I might have had some context to your question and 'spared you' the wisecrack.

Lighten up.

[turnpike]

I can do MANY things for living in Thailand...without flinching... including watching cockroaches and rats scurrying along the street nearby..... as long as they don't climb on ME!!!!!

But, I WILL NOT wipe my face with toilet paper...and try my best to avoid using it for anything other than its intended purpose. How in the world Thais came to choose that paper for their napkins, I don't know...and don't really want to know. Same for using it as non-existent paper towels in most bathrooms.

Just doesn't work for the intended purposes, whether at the table, or at the wash sink. Even some Thais I know carry around their own bags of baby wipes so THEY have something to clean/dry their hands with...

okay, i'll bite, although i think i'm gonna' regret it.

why can't you wipe your face with toilet paper? (without flinching)

How in the world Thais came to choose that paper for their napkins? cheap, sanitary, convenient...

[jfchandler]

OK...to everyone who asked... WHY... Here's the answer...

IT DOESN'T WORK for the other purposes...

Try drying wet hands at the sinks with toilet paper.... The sheets fall apart and turn into a mess on your hands, without really drying anything. Then you have to pull more paper, and repeat the process...

OK... so about the face thing...I was exaggerating a bit... You can..and I do... wipe my mouth with the ever-present toilet paper roll, as needed... But try cleaning your hands after eating a messy, hands-on meal and the same thing happens.. Toilet paper just doesn't stand up to oils and such used in food...

At least some places now have the (still very thin) pop-up sheets that stand up a little better to food and eating...

Sorry. toilet paper just doesn't!!!!

[Briggsy]

I'm sorry I've been here a long time and I don't get the giant spoon reference.

[zorro1]

But, I WILL NOT wipe my face with toilet paper...

It's not as if it's been used already...

Lets face it its a perfect solution, seems to me at times more siht comes out of the top end

Yes to all

Maybe its the humidity but I hardly ever crave a steak or a roast but ate it a lot back home

[Crossy]

Yep, I do the lot

I have however, trained my little lady to install kitchen towel rolls rather than toilet paper (which as previously noted breaks up and leaves embarrassing little white bits in the 'designer' stubble) on the dining table.

[tuky]

I'm sorry I've been here a long time and I don't get the giant spoon reference.

Hmm, giant spoon. I can't work out what that one is too.

[nickynomates]

I'm sorry I've been here a long time and I don't get the giant spoon reference.

Hmm, giant spoon. I can't work out what that one is too.

The soup scoop spoon used for eating everything. Tea spoon, Table spoon, Desert spoon, and the Thai big soup scoop spoon.

[tuky]

I'm sorry I've been here a long time and I don't get the giant spoon reference.

Hmm, giant spoon. I can't work out what that one is too.

The soup scoop spoon used for eating everything. Tea spoon, Table spoon, Desert spoon, and the Thai big soup scoop spoon.

Do you mean this spoon?

[flying]

The big spoon with the fork to push the food onto the spoon is the only way to go.

Actually it is just a table spoon in my house.

[Gary A]

I could NEVER return to so called PROPER eating habits nor could I return to wearing PROPER clothing. My uniform of the day is shorts, T shirts and sandals. I used to wear long pants and a button shirt to immigration but I have given up on that too. I hate fancy hotels and hate fancy restaurants even more.

My wife keeps throwing my favorite clothes away just when they get good and comfortable. I embarrass her because I drink beer right out of a big bottle. She thinks I should use a glass. I LIKE to drink out of the bottle.

[libya 115]

Years ago when I was in the Philippines, if you wanted a bottle of cola, they would open the bottle and pour the cola into a plastic bag and give you a straw to drink it.

If you objected; they would demand a 'large' deposit for the glass bottle. I think I was the only one who paid the extra '5 peso' because I did not like the plastic bag method.

The glass bottles always looked like they had been re-used a thousand times, I suppose they had been.

[turnpike]

I could NEVER return to so called PROPER eating habits nor could I return to wearing PROPER clothing. My uniform of the day is shorts, T shirts and sandals. I used to wear long pants and a button shirt to immigration but I have given up on that too. I hate fancy hotels and hate fancy restaurants even more.

My wife keeps throwing my favorite clothes away just when they get good and comfortable. I embarrass her because I drink beer right out of a big bottle. She thinks I should use a glass. I LIKE to drink out of the bottle.

amen, brother

[toptuan]

Not a matter of manners. Matter of adapting to the host culture. Just remember to switch gears when you go back to the old country.

[Dustoff]

It creeps up on you the longer you are here.

Along with some rather annoying expat infestations..

Table manners where did they go to.

Go to.. do what?

Do you do this and more

2. Using toilet role on a table to wipe your face with.

My grammar cried when she read this.

Reuters - 22May2008 - Breaking News - Your mouth is dirtier than your ass!

3. Eating with a giant spoon.

Big utensils, little utensils, prejudice sucks..

5. Eating of a plastic plate while sitting in a plastic chair.

Could you be a little more specific about 'eating of a plastic plate' and how doing it while seated in a plastic chair is significant?

6. Missing that Sunday roast your Grandmother used to make and all else that went with it and a good upbringing.

I wish I could contribute to this but my Grandmother died from the plastic bag my Grandfather tied over her head and with good reason.

Joking of course but, ya know, if you cannot squat down/sit on the floor with any culture's down-home po-folks and get in touch with 'real' people, perhaps a developing country is not your cup of elitist tea. I have found that by far the finest and most honest, respectful people here have been those I have met while sharing what little they have in their manner of presenting it.

There are certainly 5-star hotels/restaurants available where you can find the equivalent of Granny's roasts and pickled pig's knuckles but "good upbringing" is really about realizing that Western 'take away' sacks of Taco Bell samplings of so-called Mexican food is not superior to street-vendor food here in Thailand.

In fact, I would take the latter any day of the week...

[bino]

I embarrass her because I drink beer right out of a big bottle. She thinks I should use a glass. I LIKE to drink out of the bottle.

I used to get this one from Ms. Bino too. I told her that beer comes in a nice cold glass that has been sitting in the refrigerator. I dont want a warm glass filled with ice!