Top Five Passions Of Thailand

[mark45y]

I was reading an article on the top ten passions of ancient Rome. I will list five. And I wondered what are the top five passions of Thailand.

Top five passions of Ancient Rome from the Independant co.uk news

 

1. Binge Drinking

It was under the emperor Tiberius that the Romans developed a taste for drinking on an empty stomach.

Wine was available in quantity as well as quality, the former was cheap and mass produced ? sometimes needing to be sweetened with lead acetate or more expensively with honey.

At the Saturnalia (December Festival), drinking was the done thing with both the Romans and their slaves drinking large quantities of wine.

Bars can be found throughout Pompeii, some opposite the famous brothel (sex with a prostitute cost the equivalent of 2 glasses of wine).

Scenes of dinner parties in frescoes from Pompeii, often include semi-naked males and dressed females ? one of whom is usually vomiting.

The conclusion of the bibulous scene leads to nudity and sex in the mind of the viewer

2. Getting Naked

The Romans liked to get clean in company, and that company was undressed.

The development of window glass in the first century AD transformed the bathing experience from a dark dingy steamy event into a new experience.

The baths were now well-lit and beautiful structures with mosaics, clear water, and populated by naked bodies ? some included mixed bathing, others single sex.

The passage through the unheated room (frigidarium) into warmer heat (tepidarium) and on into the hottest rooms (caldarium) were associated with the skin feeling the changes in temperature - rounded off perhaps with a cold plunge.

The tactile feeling of hot and cold was further accentuated by oiling of the body, massage and the scraping of the oil off. nud_e sun-bathing was also a possibility at the baths.

Public nudity was contained in one location - the baths.

3. Grand Designs

Romans had a passion for building.

All the more famous characters from Roman history have at least one iconic building: Pompey's Theatre, Augustus' Forum, Nero's Golden House, Vespasian's Colosseum, Trajan's Forum, the Pantheon of Hadrian and so on.

The sophistication of architecture did not just reside at the emperor's pleasure.

Villas in the first century AD developed ever greater sophistication of design to incorporate dining rooms in caves, for example at Sperlonga, or views across the Bay of Naples found in the Villa of San Marco at Stabiae.

Whilst in the public domain, we find theatres and amphitheatres being built in most of the towns of Italy during the first century AD.

4. The Older Woman

Roman history is full of sex.

There is Augustus' daughter Julia, who had sex in the forum and was exiled.

There is Claudius' wife Messalina having sex in a brothel, and there is Clodia, the seductress of young men.

All these women were mothers in their late 20s or 30s, rather than the young idealised virgin wives who were married off in their teens.

Cleopatra was not young when she seduced Antony, but for the Romans she was far sexier because she was older.

These were also powerful women and perhaps this is how the Romans conceptualised their appeal as powerful and thus also sexy.

This leads us, when reading Roman history, to locate an eroticisation of the mothers of others.

There is always, of course, Nero, who broke all the rules and made love to his own mother – Agrippina

5. The Younger Man

Roman men are difficult to classify via the terms homo-, bi-, and hetero-sexual.

Looking at wall-paintings, graffiti, silver cups, pottery vessels and so on, we can find images of men having sex with both women and men.

The Suburban Baths in Pompeii contains unique images of group sex with most permutations covered.

However, when we turn to literature, we find the expression of desire for younger males and the stories associated with young men that suggest that male adults did have sex with young Roman men.

The adoption of Octavian (the future emperor Augustus) by Julius Caesar was explained in sexual terms - Julius Caesar fell for the young man.

Disturbingly, the age range of desire was not confined to young adults but also included children for some. Perhaps given our own society?s experience, we might find this phenomenon unacceptable but not surprising.

A sexual desire for young men was seen as normative; whereas sexual desire for men who were of their own age was deviant, and caused men to be seen as soft or as 'cinaedi' (feminine men), as opposed to real men or masculine men.

So what are the top five passions of Thailand?

[mark45y]

I'm not proud. I'll answer my own questions.

1. Fun, sanuk.

2. Binge drinking.

3. Eating

4. Young women.

5. Family or a toss up spending money.

My reasoning is as follows. If there is a party everything stops. In the oddest of circumstances they throw parties, like revolutions and terrorist activities. If there is something to drink same as above. Eating same as above.

Everyone seems to like young women including but not confined to old men, young men, other young women and old women, well just about everyone.

Family and spending money seem to be a toss up. I have seen people on the way to send money home but get sidetracked by the mall.

[domprz]

If this isn't about the top five passions of the falang in Thailand, then I suspect spiritualism, superstition and/or Buddhism may be near the top.

There's something that moves me when I see a Thai woman (yes I'm a falang) garlanding and kneeling at a shrine and praying with joss sticks between her palms. What did bring a tear to my eye was the sight of bar-girls and masseuses rushing out to kneel before a group of monks on Loi Kroh Road, Chiangmai. They looked up at the monks with an innocence in their eyes which I have previously only associated with children (before they are 12, before they are corrupted by cynicism). It was so incongruous that, though I was privileged to witness it, I didn't have the background to understand what I saw.

I'd love to know what their true passions are. I'm sure I don't have a clue.

Edited November 2, 2010 by domprz

[mark45y]

If this isn't about the top five passions of the falang in Thailand, then I suspect spiritualism, superstition and/or Buddhism may be near the top.

There's something that moves me when I see a Thai woman (yes I'm a falang) garlanding and kneeling at a shrine and praying with joss sticks between her palms. What did bring a tear to my eye was the sight of bar-girls and masseuses rushing out to kneel before a group of monks on Loi Kroh Road, Chiangmai. They looked up at the monks with an innocence in their eyes which I have previously only associated with children (before they are 12, before they are corrupted by cynicism). It was so incongruous that, though I was privileged to witness it, I didn't have the background to understand what I saw.

I'd love to know what their true passions are. I'm sure I don't have a clue.

Good point. That is right up there at the top.

[PhilHarries]

You mean to say binge drinking is not Tony Blair's fault?

Near the top of the list for Thai men, if not right at the very pinnacle, has to be sleeping.

Thais could sleep on a washing line.

[mark45y]

You mean to say binge drinking is not Tony Blair's fault?

Near the top of the list for Thai men, if not right at the very pinnacle, has to be sleeping.

Thais could sleep on a washing line.

I thought about that. Then I asked myself what will a Thai women get up for? Party or shopping. At least that has been my experience. Sleeping is certainly without a doubt in the top ten.

[DP25]

I thought about that. Then I asked myself what will a Thai women get up for? Party or shopping. At least that has been my experience.

Try meeting some with a job

[surayu]

1) Crackdowns

2) Sexy Men

3) Quality Tourists

4) "You falang, you cannot undestand"

5) if it can be eaten, then it's time for eating, but it's ok even if it cannot be eaten, same same, just postpone whatever else you are doing if you are actually doing something at all.

:jap:

[Antathome]

You mean to say binge drinking is not Tony Blair's fault?

Near the top of the list for Thai men, if not right at the very pinnacle, has to be sleeping.

Thais could sleep on a washing line.

Hey don't knock sleeping as a pasttime. After years of working shift work, I can appreciate a good nap. Once when I worked as a filler for a super market I feel asleep pushing a pallet of softdrinks down the aisle. Woke up when I ran it into the dairy cabinet at the end. No damage except to my pride fortunately

[SantiSuk]

Eating

Drinking alcohol

Fishing

Playing cards

Shopping

Karaoke

OK - I cheated with 6

Edited November 4, 2010 by SantiSuk

[rametindallas]

In no particular order: finding a restaurant that is both cheap and good, sleeping, going and doing anything with friends, muay Thai, watch TV, drinking, gambling, karaoke, sex, eating (again).