Farangs Shower Less Than Thais/asians

[bkkjames]

Thais do seem to be fastidiously clean, yet this is superficial.

Observe how it's quite acceptable to pick boogers out of the nose incessantly ( no wonder Thais are sick all the time..) or eat 2 inches off the sidewalk food that has had flies sh*tting on it all day..

It'a all about aesthetics in Thailand, absolutely no substance.

Yeah, having a clean car is THE most important thing.

Yea, it's all a scam.

Thai people don't really shower at all, they just put on a show for the fastidiously clean Farangs that wash up on the shores of this unclean nation. As to why these so called tourists keep on coming back amongst these dirty theiving decietful people............

I dunno, ask them! I'm sure you'll get some honest answers.

And keeping on topic, Farangs are certainly in the smelly brigade compared with Thai people, I don't speak for 100% of Farangs , but by christ, many of you guys really do need to shower more often.

Ok Somtum breath, I will take your word for it.

[TheWalkingMan]

I remember reading something about this and the general consensus was that, in general Thais shower more than westerners. For a working person, 3 showers a day would equal in the morning, after work (presuming people go straight home) and before bedtime. This looks nice on the personal hygiene level.

However, if look closer we can see that the goal seems to be clean enough as to not to smell bad and offend others. Once the smell test is passed then digging in the nose, picking teeth etc are standard business.

So I really think that keeping clean for Thai people is just for the individual to pass the smell test. Anything else is fair game.

[Samuian]

I come across many rather rank smelling foreigners here in Vietnam, whereas it is rare to have that happen with Vietnamese. However, I do not think it is just because they shower more often, it might also have something to do with diet (the Vietcong said they could smell the Americans because of the quantities of meat they ate) and the fact that they just generally transpire less.

Yipppiiiiiea!

Thumbs up for this one, not only loads of meat, very few vegetables, loads of carbohydrates and Diary products cheese, milk, curds...alcohol consumption, tobacco, but the milk acids are very close to that what makes an armpit smell!

Anyone who has a problem with that and does consume a lot of diary products, test it and go off diary products for at least3 weeks and witness the changes!

Besides we humans are the ONLY species on the planet who consume mothers milk of another specie en masse!

I do shower at least twice a day, even in cold climate like European winters, I love to take hot bath, shower and once a week into the sauna!

That foreigners aren't clean is a preoccupation!

If so it's an individual thing, some just don't feel to shower, or simply aren't overly concerned with body hygiene, this can be an obsession on the contrary, like using perfumed talcum powder every other minute...!

[PoorSucker]

Quick lesson in Thai.

Meen = smell bad (go take shower)

Hoom = smell good (lets go have sex)

[maccaroni man]

I remember reading something about this and the general consensus was that, in general Thais shower more than westerners. For a working person, 3 showers a day would equal in the morning, after work (presuming people go straight home) and before bedtime. This looks nice on the personal hygiene level.

However, if look closer we can see that the goal seems to be clean enough as to not to smell bad and offend others. Once the smell test is passed then digging in the nose, picking teeth etc are standard business.

So I really think that keeping clean for Thai people is just for the individual to pass the smell test. Anything else is fair game.

I was advised to never pay a bar fine for a girl with wet hair

[mpdkorat]

I remember reading something about this and the general consensus was that, in general Thais shower more than westerners. For a working person, 3 showers a day would equal in the morning, after work (presuming people go straight home) and before bedtime. This looks nice on the personal hygiene level.

However, if look closer we can see that the goal seems to be clean enough as to not to smell bad and offend others. Once the smell test is passed then digging in the nose, picking teeth etc are standard business.

So I really think that keeping clean for Thai people is just for the individual to pass the smell test. Anything else is fair game.

I was advised to never pay a bar fine for a girl with wet hair

Good advice...

[Travel2003]

Thais do seem to be fastidiously clean, yet this is superficial.

Observe how it's quite acceptable to pick boogers out of the nose incessantly ( no wonder Thais are sick all the time..) or eat 2 inches off the sidewalk food that has had flies sh*tting on it all day..

It'a all about aesthetics in Thailand, absolutely no substance.

Yeah, having a clean car is THE most important thing.

Im not sure you have the 100% right picture here.

Right about the nose picking.

But I noticed very early that hardly any of my friends, or my wifes friends (and family) ever got sick from the sidewalk food.

I have had my fair share of sidewalk food over the years here as well.

I never got sick from that food.

Only time I got very sick was from a delivery from a western Pizza maker.

Oh, and the cars, outside important, not inside. Same as back home.

[devona]

From my experience I shower loads more than any Thai people I've met. Usually at least 3 times a day but my Thai boyfriend and his family only shower before bed and sometimes in the morning. They find it amusing I like to shower before we got out to eat in the evening.

I also went on a bus trip with 20 Thai female kindergarten teachers. We left at 4am, spent the day stopping off at various places to sightsee and shop and got to our destination at 6pm. We then changed for dinner and I'm the only one who wanted a shower after sweating all day. Some of them didn't even change their clothes.

[Payboy]

I remember reading something about this and the general consensus was that, in general Thais shower more than westerners. For a working person, 3 showers a day would equal in the morning, after work (presuming people go straight home) and before bedtime. This looks nice on the personal hygiene level.

However, if look closer we can see that the goal seems to be clean enough as to not to smell bad and offend others. Once the smell test is passed then digging in the nose, picking teeth etc are standard business.

So I really think that keeping clean for Thai people is just for the individual to pass the smell test. Anything else is fair game.

I was advised to never pay a bar fine for a girl with wet hair

haven't tried wet hair yet, i usually use money....

Edited October 14, 2008 by Payboy

[dingdongrb]

Strangely enough, even though I find the Thais to be very clean, as they shower a lot, change clothes a lot, but for some weird reason a lot of them do not bother to wash their hands after a toilet visit.

This as well as picking (and I do mean PICKING) their noses in public as well as popping pimples....

[Samuian]

"Horsedoctor" got a point there somewhere, obsessed with "aap naam" (to get excessive heat out of the body to cool) and "ho:m", smell good personally, the room is swept so "lala", then it is all, including the remnants of the day/evening meal, the Chip bags, the M150, the empty Lao Kao/Mehkong, Saeng Som, the 2 l. Plastic Coca Cola and Water Bottles, plus Paper Tissue all just swept out of the house out on to the road, the surroundings of the house, or if collected, disposed of behind, beside the house, if there is a garbage container and the dogs were at it, hardly ever anybody feels the obligation to clean the spill.....same with most "natural waterways" the smaller they are, the more they are polluted by human waste......that these waterways stink like open sewers, doesn't seem to be much of a concern, if so the "sniff stick" comes into action... in the middle ages the same problem was big in Europe conquered with smelling salt, finally ended with the plague...

(Does anyone remember the open canal in Sathorn Rd. Bkk in the mid 1990???)

Superficial cleanliness is maybe adorable, but has nothing to do with genuine hygiene, sanitary and environmental basics!

[Travel2003]

Strangely enough, even though I find the Thais to be very clean, as they shower a lot, change clothes a lot, but for some weird reason a lot of them do not bother to wash their hands after a toilet visit.

This as well as picking (and I do mean PICKING) their noses in public as well as popping pimples....

Yes I have noticed that as well.

But I dont know how much a hygenic issue that really is.

The picking that is.

Its more an action that some of us have learned to think is an offensive view.

[londoedan]

As we Australians say, the Poms wash once a month whether they need to or not!

How do I report this poster for such racial sterotyping ? Very offensive indeed

[kmart]

As we Australians say, the Poms wash once a month whether they need to or not!

How do I report this poster for such racial sterotyping ? Very offensive indeed

Just racial-stereotype him right back. Preferably in a nasal tone, with a rising inflexion at the end of the sentence.

Diet has an influence on body odour for sure. Dairy products do make a difference, although I'd rather have minging armpits than be 4'11" with rickets or other calcium-deficiencies, for example. Thai people have started to introduce a lot more dairy products into their kid's diets. Although probably contaminated with melamine and other healthy additives.

[bkkjames]

If you include washing their feet as soon as they get home from shopping, yes Thais do shower more.

But I really think the OP meant to ask, do Thais shower longer than farangs?

The answer is yes. Although some might say they do this in order to remain as white as possible, my experience is that they shower for 30 mins at a time in order to not waste the hot water.

[sylviex]

Apocrine sweat glands produce sweat that contains fatty materials. These glands are mainly present in the armpits and around the genital area and their activity is the main cause of sweat odour, due to the bacteria that break down the organic compounds in the sweat from these glands. Emotional stress increases the production of sweat from the apocrine glands, or more precisely: the sweat already present in the tubule is squeezed out. Apocrine sweat glands essentially serve as scent glands. East Asian people typically have markedly fewer of these glands compared to people of other ethnicities [1], which is why East Asian people generally do not emit such odors.

(wiki)

Getting off the topic somewhat, but also rather interesting is that different ethnicities produce different types of ear wax:

Do you have dry, flaky earwax or the gooey, stinky type? The answer is partly in your heritage.

A new study reveals that the gene responsible for the drier type originated in an ancient northeastern Asian population.

Today, 80 to 95 percent of East Asians have dry earwax, whereas the wet variety is abundant in people of African and European ancestry (97 to 100 percent).

livescience.com/health/060129_ear_wax.html Edited October 14, 2008 by sylviex

[Geekfreaklover]

i think farangs are not in the habit of showering as much because most are from cold climates where you don't need to shower as often because you don't sweat.

Nail on ze head.

Thais 'ab nam' more than Westerners because it is hotter here, but also because thais are very concious of being clean and presentable..

I went back to farangland recently and was amazed at the small amount of time my Farang friends allowed for cleaning themselves. In Thailand we shower three times a day, back in the uk it seems once every couple of days was ok. urggghhhh.

[bkkjames]

i think farangs are not in the habit of showering as much because most are from cold climates where you don't need to shower as often because you don't sweat.

Nail on ze head.

Thais 'ab nam' more than Westerners because it is hotter here, but also because thais are very concious of being clean and presentable..

I went back to farangland recently and was amazed at the small amount of time my Farang friends allowed for cleaning themselves. In Thailand we shower three times a day, back in the uk it seems once every couple of days was ok. urggghhhh.

Give me break, I grew up in the coldest part of Canada and showered twice a day, same here unless I need an extra one during the day on the weekend or after shag*ing

[Jingthing]

I have a cousin who announced that he was "going back to nature" and wouldn't be bathing more than once a week. He did this for religious and environmental reasons, as a rejection of modern standards of normality. Haven't seen smelled him lately. He has a point from the western point of view. I don't know about Europe but in the US in the 1800s bathing once a year was considered high class. Thailand with its natural tropical waters I am sure had a different culture.

Edited October 14, 2008 by Jingthing

[jdinasia]

i think farangs are not in the habit of showering as much because most are from cold climates where you don't need to shower as often because you don't sweat.

Nail on ze head.

Thais 'ab nam' more than Westerners because it is hotter here, but also because thais are very concious of being clean and presentable..

I went back to farangland recently and was amazed at the small amount of time my Farang friends allowed for cleaning themselves. In Thailand we shower three times a day, back in the uk it seems once every couple of days was ok. urggghhhh.

Give me break, I grew up in the coldest part of Canada and showered twice a day, same here unless I need an extra one during the day on the weekend or after shag*ing

So once a year it is .....!

[DegenFarang]

ya well seeing as how every thai woman i have ever known showers like 3 times a day i would say yes. one a day is enough for me.

[bkkjames]

i think farangs are not in the habit of showering as much because most are from cold climates where you don't need to shower as often because you don't sweat.

Nail on ze head.

Thais 'ab nam' more than Westerners because it is hotter here, but also because thais are very concious of being clean and presentable..

I went back to farangland recently and was amazed at the small amount of time my Farang friends allowed for cleaning themselves. In Thailand we shower three times a day, back in the uk it seems once every couple of days was ok. urggghhhh.

Give me break, I grew up in the coldest part of Canada and showered twice a day, same here unless I need an extra one during the day on the weekend or after shag*ing

So once a year it is .....!

For the next 7 months for sure with the mrs knocked up.

[Nignoy]

Of course thai.s shower and wash more frequently than farangs, Aussies call us brits soap dodgers,they say the safest place to hide valuables from a pom is under the soap it always takes us brits a few weeks to adjust to foreign customs like bathing more than once a week, but with thai influence we learned too shower more often not to be so generous with our belongings, but we have a hard time getting used to aussie habits like not being able to take critisism, taking sickies when ever there is a monday or a friday in the week but all in all the thai love of personal hygiene beneifits us all,

[jdinasia]

ya well seeing as how every thai woman i have ever known showers like 3 times a day i would say yes. one a day is enough for me.

1 shower a day? even on days when you make your visa run by bus to cambodia? Eeeeeek!

[bkkjames]

ya well seeing as how every thai woman i have ever known showers like 3 times a day i would say yes. one a day is enough for me.

1 shower a day? even on days when you make your visa run by bus to cambodia? Eeeeeek!

I think he does it after running around the city looking for tator tots. (see Bangkok forum for more info)

[DegenFarang]

ya well seeing as how every thai woman i have ever known showers like 3 times a day i would say yes. one a day is enough for me.

1 shower a day? even on days when you make your visa run by bus to cambodia? Eeeeeek!

hah. well yes some days require more than one, but thai women can sit around the house all day and still take 3 showers.

[MKAsok]

I think he does it after running around the city looking for tator tots. (see Bangkok forum for more info)

I understand congratulations are in order on your being totally 'emmersed' in Thai culture.

[jdinasia]

ya well seeing as how every thai woman i have ever known showers like 3 times a day i would say yes. one a day is enough for me.

1 shower a day? even on days when you make your visa run by bus to cambodia? Eeeeeek!

I think he does it after running around the city looking for tator tots. (see Bangkok forum for more info)

I think we have seen enough of this one already

but I did look at his posts/topics

[bkkjames]

I think he does it after running around the city looking for tator tots. (see Bangkok forum for more info)

I understand congratulations are in order on your being totally 'emmersed' in Thai culture.

that last post made me sweat, I think I will just wait for the rain to come so I can smell like the damp soi dogs.

[BSJ]

We in Australia are in the grip of a drought. So "True Blue" Aussies only shower twice a week!

In LOS we think it's xmas everyday cos we can have not one but 2 showers. Yee Haa!