Have You Ever Embarrassed Yourself While In Thailand

[bkkmick]

Mentioned this one before but it still makes me laugh when I think of it.

About 7 years ago when my first wee girl was a baby I got a night out with the boys. Towards the end of the night I got a call from my Mrs. asking me to bring home some Pampers.

I staggered into Foodland in Patpong to buy the Pampers, quite pished. Wondering around the aisles I found what I thought were what I was after but the wrong size. I called over a young girl staff member trying to explain the I wanted 'yai gwar' (bigger) but she just seemed confused. I tried gesturing about a baby, opening my hands to suggest bigger in case she didn't understand my Thai effort. Still nothing. Then I realised that I was standing infront of the sanitry towel section (the packaging looked exactly the same as the Pampers - at least to my addled brain).

Edited January 20, 2009 by bkkmick

[oevna]

I was taliking to my driver about the rain and he kept trying not to laugh. Instead of Fon tok I was saying Num tok (spicy beef salad). I was saying it was rainng beef salad.

num tok does not mean spicy beef salad.

correct dave.

น้ำตก = waterfall

ยำเนื้อ = spicy beef salad

ยำเนื้อยัง = spicy seared beef(very rare on inside, charred on outside) salad.......my favorite !

waterfall beef salad and the spicy beef salad are made with totally different ingredients...but both are very tasty

Come on guys, he's clearly talking about เนื้อน้ำตก (neua nam tok), which is beef salad, and it is spicy. No need to be so pedantic!

But most likely, Kickstand's Thai friend was laughing because as you oh so very cleverly pointed out, น้ำตก (nam tok) means "waterfall," which is a funny thing to say when it starts raining, since it implies much more water than what usually falls from the sky when it rains. It's not that much different from the cute way that some Thai people misuse English when they are still learning it.

Oh, and I don't have a hi-so rich Chinese-Thai girlfriend or wife. I learned to read and write Thai in the library of a little school up-country where I was teaching English.

While teaching there one day, I was working on English pronunciation with my seventh grade (mattayom 1) students. In this particular instance, I was trying to teach them to pronounce the English word "that" correctly, by attempting to transliterate it in Thai script (to the extent that it is possible, since Thai doesn't have the English "th" sound, voiced or unvoiced). There was a Thai teacher in the room supervising me, and as soon as I wrote my transliteration of the word on the chalk board, she immediately jumped up and told me to erase it. The class was in uproarious laughter. Apparently what I had written was also the Thai word for a certain part of the female anatomy. For obvious reasons, I won't reproduce my error here.

[kiakaha]

I was taliking to my driver about the rain and he kept trying not to laugh. Instead of Fon tok I was saying Num tok (spicy beef salad). I was saying it was rainng beef salad.

num tok does not mean spicy beef salad.

correct dave.

น้ำตก = waterfall

ยำเนื้อ = spicy beef salad

ยำเนื้อยัง = spicy seared beef(very rare on inside, charred on outside) salad.......my favorite !

waterfall beef salad and the spicy beef salad are made with totally different ingredients...but both are very tasty

Come on guys, he's clearly talking about เนื้อน้ำตก (neua nam tok), which is beef salad, and it is spicy. No need to be so pedantic!

But most likely, Kickstand's Thai friend was laughing because as you oh so very cleverly pointed out, น้ำตก (nam tok) means "waterfall," which is a funny thing to say when it starts raining, since it implies much more water than what usually falls from the sky when it rains. It's not that much different from the cute way that some Thai people misuse English when they are still learning it.

Oh, and I don't have a hi-so rich Chinese-Thai girlfriend or wife. I learned to read and write Thai in the library of a little school up-country where I was teaching English.

While teaching there one day, I was working on English pronunciation with my seventh grade (mattayom 1) students. In this particular instance, I was trying to teach them to pronounce the English word "that" correctly, by attempting to transliterate it in Thai script (to the extent that it is possible, since Thai doesn't have the English "th" sound, voiced or unvoiced). There was a Thai teacher in the room supervising me, and as soon as I wrote my transliteration of the word on the chalk board, she immediately jumped up and told me to erase it. The class was in uproarious laughter. Apparently what I had written was also the Thai word for a certain part of the female anatomy. For obvious reasons, I won't reproduce my error here.

ยำเนื้อ is quite literally beef salad...notice the use of the word ยำ

เนื้อน้ำตก is also a type beef salad, albeit made much differently than ยำเนื้อ, but the thai language is more colloquial than literal...sort of like "toad in the hole" vs "sausages in batter with gravy"

i know if i was taking a language test and had to write the thai for beef salad, i'd definately write ยำเนื้อ

[JoeThePoster]

i'd definately write

I would say, postpone the English test - indefinitely.

[jayjayjayjay]

Well maybe you don't have Thai/Chinese hi-so wife with merc and do not speak/read/write thai properly after all...

Maybe it's only me but recently it has been quite popular to publish here in TV that you can read/write/speak thai and you can even gain extra points by having thai/chinese hi-so wife and merc...

Anyways this is bit so maybe this really is my most 'embarrassed' moment in thailand

I'll grant you a fine come-back with this last line........ good one!

[MSingh]

I sh*t myself whilst driving a Friend of mine from the UK around on a Scooter, at the top of a Mountain..

I had to then find the nearest, fullest Waterfall in order to " clean " myself up after him complaining that it " Stinks of sh*t everywhere on this Island " whilst he was on the back of the Scooter...

[oevna]

I was taliking to my driver about the rain and he kept trying not to laugh. Instead of Fon tok I was saying Num tok (spicy beef salad). I was saying it was rainng beef salad.

num tok does not mean spicy beef salad.

correct dave.

น้ำตก = waterfall

ยำเนื้อ = spicy beef salad

ยำเนื้อยัง = spicy seared beef(very rare on inside, charred on outside) salad.......my favorite !

waterfall beef salad and the spicy beef salad are made with totally different ingredients...but both are very tasty

Come on guys, he's clearly talking about เนื้อน้ำตก (neua nam tok), which is beef salad, and it is spicy. No need to be so pedantic!

But most likely, Kickstand's Thai friend was laughing because as you oh so very cleverly pointed out, น้ำตก (nam tok) means "waterfall," which is a funny thing to say when it starts raining, since it implies much more water than what usually falls from the sky when it rains. It's not that much different from the cute way that some Thai people misuse English when they are still learning it.

Oh, and I don't have a hi-so rich Chinese-Thai girlfriend or wife. I learned to read and write Thai in the library of a little school up-country where I was teaching English.

While teaching there one day, I was working on English pronunciation with my seventh grade (mattayom 1) students. In this particular instance, I was trying to teach them to pronounce the English word "that" correctly, by attempting to transliterate it in Thai script (to the extent that it is possible, since Thai doesn't have the English "th" sound, voiced or unvoiced). There was a Thai teacher in the room supervising me, and as soon as I wrote my transliteration of the word on the chalk board, she immediately jumped up and told me to erase it. The class was in uproarious laughter. Apparently what I had written was also the Thai word for a certain part of the female anatomy. For obvious reasons, I won't reproduce my error here.

ยำเนื้อ is quite literally beef salad...notice the use of the word ยำ

เนื้อน้ำตก is also a type beef salad, albeit made much differently than ยำเนื้อ, but the thai language is more colloquial than literal...sort of like "toad in the hole" vs "sausages in batter with gravy"

i know if i was taking a language test and had to write the thai for beef salad, i'd definately write ยำเนื้อ

Right, but Kickstand wouldn't have accidentally said ยำเนื้อ (yam neua) when he was thinking ฝนตก (fon tok). That's the whole point of the embarrassing moment he was recounting. He was trying to say "it's raining" to the taxi driver, but it came out wrong. The driver started laughing, and he realized that he had misspoke and said something like "waterfall" or "beef salad" (who knows what was said, we weren't there). Get it? Embarrassing moment? Thailand? I.e. what this thread is all about?

Cheers everybody. I think this post is devolving into a new embarrassing moment for me, by over-explaining the matter. Now if only I were in Thailand...

[yabaaaa]

policeman caught me when i was smoking in a one-way street

Yeah that spontaneous combustion can be a tad embarrassing cant it??

[bkkjames]

this has gone from a moderately amusing thread into another one of those excrutiatingly boring I can write thai words better than you can.

back on topic, i once tripped on the escalator at the bts, falling forward and planted my face directly into the rear-end of an office girl. not sure if she was excited or angry by my actions.

[Hawkup2000]

I have a black belt in the art of embarrassing myself. When I first ever embarrassed myself in Thailand I had been on Thai soil for about 10 minutes. Took a taxi from Don Muang airport. Suddenly I saw something and pointed. When I pointed I struck the pra kruang hanging in the rearview mirror. It broke fell down on the floor.

[JoeThePoster]

i once tripped on the escalator at the bts, falling forward and planted my face directly into the rear-end of an office girl. not sure if she was excited or angry by my actions.

That depends on whether you were going down or not.

[bkkjames]

i once tripped on the escalator at the bts, falling forward and planted my face directly into the rear-end of an office girl. not sure if she was excited or angry by my actions.

That depends on whether you were going down or not.

well, if you ever wonder why ladies in skirts hold them closed going up the escalator - it's my fault, sorry guys.

[eek]

One that comes to mind is when my laptop got a nasty virus at a place I was staying at whilst studying here (stayed on site). Was getting one pop-up after another of porn images flooding my screen. I didnt want to close down my computer or shut the lid in case the virus would erase some data or some other problem would occur, so i left it running while I went to use one of the communal pc'sl to google advice on what to do. During the time that I had gone, I realised the cleaning ladies had been in. I was pretty embarrassed, especially because I would chat to them everyday. After that I could feel my face go red each time i saw them.

[ChangMaiSausage]

Walked into my mate's bugalow instead of mine one morning (major hangover) only to be confronted by his big white back side bouncing up and down.

Actually maybe she was/is more embarassed they are now married to each other.

[Spudger]

God, you lot are boring.

[Birdman]

if expats life would be more exciting, there would be no TV

Edited January 21, 2009 by Birdman

[patklang]

Well maybe you don't have Thai/Chinese hi-so wife with merc and do not speak/read/write thai properly after all...

Maybe it's only me but recently it has been quite popular to publish here in TV that you can read/write/speak thai and you can even gain extra points by having thai/chinese hi-so wife and merc...

Anyways this is bit so maybe this really is my most 'embarrassed' moment in thailand

a bit of taking the peee i think lol.he is a bit of a <deleted> isnt he

[oevna]

this has gone from a moderately amusing thread into another one of those excrutiatingly boring I can write thai words better than you can.

back on topic, i once tripped on the escalator at the bts, falling forward and planted my face directly into the rear-end of an office girl. not sure if she was excited or angry by my actions.

I wouldn't have gone down that road if it wasn't for people nit-picking on someone else's post!

Well, at least you followed up with an embarrassing story to bring the thread back on topic.

So, I'll see your "face in the backside story" and raise you a tranny story.

I was in a bar in Banglamphu area a few years ago having a few drinks with some friends and family members who were visiting -- the kind of loungey place with floor cushions for seating, low tables and candles, mostly patronized by backpackers. Anyhow, at some point we noticed that there was a really obvious tranny going around from table to table, hitting on all of the guys and stealing drinks from the girls. It was hilarious in a "I hope she doesn't see us" sort of way.

At some point the tranny left to go outside, which was down a flight of stairs. I think we figured she went home or something. Anyhow, after a while we finished our drinks and got up to leave. On the way down the stairs, we saw the tranny coming back up. She made a point of walking right up the middle of the stairway so that she would brush really close to me, and walked by really slowly. My friends did nothing to help me out. Instead, they laughed and blocked my way from going back upstairs! To this day they ask me about my "girlfriend" in Bangkok.

Yes, I still had my wallet afterwards (I kept one hand on it the whole time).

[mac.wheeler]

My most embarrassing moment stems from two facts...

1. I never wear underwear.

2. I have a terrible memory.

I had a pair of shorts, which split at the crotch one evening, I took them off when I went to bed and some how they found their way into the dirty laundry basket.

A week or so later I take a shower, grab a pair of shorts out of the cupboard (you can guess which ones), get dressed and go out for breakfast.

I'm sitting in a Thai street café, only farang there, and I'm thinking to myself "these folks are in a really good mood today they just keep laughing".

About 10 minutes later I get an itch on my thigh, so I reach down to scratch my leg and what do I find?

My meat and 2 veg are hanging out dangling off the edge of the chair!

[Lost in LOS]

I sh*t myself whilst driving a Friend of mine from the UK around on a Scooter, at the top of a Mountain..

I had to then find the nearest, fullest Waterfall in order to " clean " myself up after him complaining that it " Stinks of sh*t everywhere on this Island " whilst he was on the back of the Scooter...

best one of the lot

[Lost in LOS]

God, you lot are boring.

why have you read 37 of them already......what a grump you are

[henryalleman]

The first time I came to Thailand and was fooling around with the family,I liked to impersonate an Sioux Indian and put a Thai broom on my head. My wife immediately did rum to me and swept the broom out of my hands, whole the family looked shocked and upset. They realy could not see the fun of it.

A few day's later I pointed with my feet to something, again everybody checked and was very upset.

But the biggest fault I ever made was given my wife a friendly playful tap on the head in front of her friends, she did not speak to me for a week.

After that I got an intensive training of Thai social etiquette.

But all of this was more than 30 years ago. Now I even programmed to turn on the switch when I'm in Thai circles or with the in-laws.