A Whimsical Sight!

[gisele]

Driving around this morning, what do I see, a fully grown tree planted in a old front loading washing machine painted blue.

Made me smile.

Since all the other trees are planted in the ground or in nice planters, it struck me as quite a whimsical thing to do.

What whimsical sights have you found living in Thailand?

[Smokin Joe]

A couple years ago in December I was in a mini-bus going to Bangkok and we stopped to gas up. To display their Christmas spirit the station had a cute little girl, maybe 10 or 12, dressed up in an elf outfit as a "greeter". Her costume looked to be of very heavy material and looked Hot!

She was standing between the pumps with her arms crossed in front of her with a murderous scowl on her face. Obviousley she was not a happy little elf.

[Abandon]

people feeding mangey diseased soi dogs.

[gisele]

people feeding mangey diseased soi dogs.

I don't know about whimsical but that is certainly a sight

[Totster]

I always smile when driving past the yards full of used tyres and wheels.. and they have made chairs and other items out of them..

totster

[chownah]

The people in my village aren't too much into whimsy....they like everything to be just like what everyone else has....creates great social cohesion and mutual understanding. I do things a bit differently sometimes and at first people would smile politely but you could see that they were sort of sceptical....with the passage of time they mostly have learned that this is just the way I am and is not meant to indicate any kind of superiority feelings on my part....some of them have even come to appreciate it a little..but most of them still just think its strange.

[sakaew]

I was taken aback some years ago...to see two ratbags riding on a small motorcycle with--incredibly--a twin tub washing machine perched sideways between them

Only in Thailand............

[gisele]

I do things a bit differently sometimes and at first people would smile politely ....some of them have even come to appreciate it a little..but most of them still just think its strange.

Do tell. what strange things have you been up to?

[Jeff1]

I was taken aback some years ago...to see two ratbags riding on a small motorcycle with--incredibly--a twin tub washing machine perched sideways between them

Only in Thailand............

I will go with that one . The things I see people hauling on a motorcycle always gives me at least a smile . Like when I saw two boys holding a bundle of lumber ( looked like 2x4 's about 8 foot lenghts ) sideways on a busy street

[TheAceFace]

Too many to mention..... but the food (insect) stalls always make me giggle. Taste like chicken...yeah right.

[Phuket electrician]

I was trying to pass an overweight Thai on a beaten-up motorbike when I noticed he was carrying a tyre for a motorbike not in his hands but over his head, shoulder, chest and settling around his stomach. Literally a spare tyre.

[Khun Jean]

Riding on my motocy behind another one. A man and a woman.

The woman was sitting a litle odd and i wondered why.

Upon passing i saw..... she was sleeping!! She was holding the man around his belly and he hold her hands together. I know Thai people can sleep everywhere but this was incredible. It was in Samui and driving is not easy with all those steep hills and sharp corners.

[chownah]

I do things a bit differently sometimes and at first people would smile politely ....some of them have even come to appreciate it a little..but most of them still just think its strange.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Do tell. what strange things have you been up to?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I doesn't take anything too outlandish for the villagers to think it is strange....one example: When mixing cement for the house and garden wall you usually have a little bit left over so I started making concrete spheres of different sizes up to about 15 cm in diameter and then I made some heart shaped stepping stones and some flower shaped ones and eventually I made a crude face which I actually thought turned out nicely....all of this over a period of about a week....just using the leftovers every day. At first everyone would ask what are you doing...I'd try to explain and so would my wife(who had a hard time at first understanding why I was doing this)...they would sort of smile politely and shrug their shoulders....but then....one day....one of my workers made a face from the left over concrete and smiled really big when he showed it to me so now I've got a pair of concrete faces by the front entry...definitely two different facial expressions and two different artistic styles......I like it.

[Khun Jean]

I agree with the villagers. There is something wrong with you. I always say "Mai ting tong, mai sanook".

I had my share of strange looks when i was carrying large pieces of bamboe that were washed upon the beach. I made a nice looking fence out of it, some chairs, a large table and a sala. I must have been completely mad to do all that work, why did i not just buy the bamboe and let somebody else do it for me. Never bother to explain the concept of a hobby and accomplishing something on your own.

Edited September 29, 2005 by Khun Jean

[AlexLah]

When returning to the house in Kalasin the grass that I planted 4 months before had never been mowed. I expected this so I bought a nice lawnmower (do I say that right?). That part of the garden is about 20x20 m. and it took me 2,5 days to make it look like a golfcourse. Whenever I was mowing/cutting, some villagers were peeking through the fence and were shaking their heads.

I tried to explain that it was very relaxing for me, just mowing grass all day, nothing else to think about.

It must have been a whimsical sight for them, I guess.

Alex