I have come across a few weird things up North over the years, don't wash your hair on a Wednesday, don't get your haircut on the day of the week you were born, don't dry the wife's knickers with the husbands...blah blah blah.

But today I saw one I had never seen before.

The throwing out of the old knickers and underpants tradition!

From what I can gather, it appears to be a taboo here (they are Mon people in the main) to dispose of old underwear by burning them (we have no rubbish collection around here so everything is burned.

Not as far as the Gang Keng Nigh are concerned...oh no sireee!

My wife has just had a clear out of all her old knickers and the boys underpants, and guess what they are away to do? They are going to float them away in the Nam Ping River!

So, should you be out fishing and catch a fish wearing a pair of holed knickers a a small kids underpants, then you know where they came from.

I never thought at the time I should have written my name and address in them so if found you could contact me, like they do with balloons and bottles, maybe they will turn up in Australia, who knows eh?

And the Aussies will be glad to have them.

And the Aussies will be glad to have them.

They will indeed being a Nation descended from criminals! (was knickersniffing a crime that warranted deportation back then, or was it just things like stealing a loaf of bread or clipping coins?)

Or as David Irving once said,

"Having my character called into question by an Australian Labour Party minister is an unusual sensation: I now know how it would feel to have the cut of my raincoat criticized by television's Lieutenant Columbo."

"Here Sheila, I got ya a pair of knickers for ya birthday while I was down the beach looking for a barramundi".

"Crikey Bruce, now I'll be able to rinse out the ones I'm wearing".

"They're a bit fishy and salty, but what's new eh?"

"Here Sheila, I got ya a pair of knickers for ya birthday while I was down the beach looking for a barramundi".

"Crikey Bruce, now I'll be able to rinse out the ones I'm wearing".

"They're a bit fishy and salty, but what's new eh?"

"No worries Luv, I'd sooner pick up a blue ringed octopus than put my hands down there, dýa like my new singlet I found on the dump?"

And here is a strange tradition from the UK!

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article2994783.ece

Here in Isan it's said men won't walk under a washing line in case it has had womens panties hanging on it, won't lift a hammock to go under it for the same reason.

Why should I bother building a fence around our land when I only need to run a head-high string of knotted knickers around the place.

I'll start collecting them tonight.

My wife is from the North, but before i continue with my rant, what part of the north are you talking about, Chang mai north or Udon North

In the udon area, this is stange to hear about, she never heard of this tradition before so i will assume that you mean the way way up north of thailand, or the fact that your g/f family does things differently

As for floating your old skiddies down a river to satisfy some obscure Falk law and unwittingly, it would appear, provide a nether region type cloths bank for our antipodean friends. Guys! You may be picking up more than you banked on, I for one when deciding to off load my old grots tend to say good bye without a last visit to the washing machine, they just receive a mental “long service and conduct medal” and sent on their way. So when out shopping for underwear at the shores edge, be afraid, be very afraid, my old skiddies might be decorated with more than a fly button! Happy hunting.

Here in Isan it's said men won't walk under a washing line in case it has had womens panties hanging on it, won't lift a hammock to go under it for the same reason.

Why should I bother building a fence around our land when I only need to run a head-high string of knotted knickers around the place.

I'll start collecting them tonight.

I get a clip around the ear if I go under a washing line wearing a Bhudda! - so I sold it and that is the end of that.

My wife is from the North, but before i continue with my rant, what part of the north are you talking about, Chang mai north or Udon North

In the udon area, this is stange to hear about, she never heard of this tradition before so i will assume that you mean the way way up north of thailand, or the fact that your g/f family does things differently

Depends really who you are addressing the question to, my wife (we are about 40Km from Chiang Mai) is Mon, but there are a lot of different persuassions here, 1KM down the road and they are a totally different tribe, and speak a different dialect, 500 metres up the road they speak differently again, 6KM it is a kind of Chinese, so as you can see there are a lot of very different traditions. Hence, my learning of the Thai language is an uphill struggle, for instance to apply salt in Thai would be something like "Sai Gluar" the village up the road is "Sai Gear"...dazed and confused I surely am!