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Posted

As I type this, it's 6pm 25th January. Now, you need to concentrate a bit here .... all set ? ok

 

All day MCOT9 television has been advertising an English Premier League live broadcast for 0300hrs on 25th January. I said to my wife "Well, that's pretty useless ... that time was 15 hours ago. Game finished. Why would they advertise it ?"

 

She replied "No .... that's 0300 tonight." Stupid me said "Well ... that means it's 0300 early tomorrow morning which is 26th ... not 25th."

 

"That's the way Thai talk time .... after midnight is still today, not tomorrow" was her reply. ummm .... what ?

 

For the sake of domestic bliss, I decided it would be fruitless to contest this logic any further, so here I am .... sadly blogging my experience on TV Forum   5555555

 

Once before, I had this situation. Nakhon Chai Air (NCA) bus timetable has a departure 0010 hours from Buriram to BKK.  They use the same logic. If you want to travel at 0010hrs tonight, (which by any Western standard is actually tomorrow 26th), you've got to ask for a ticket for 25th !! Silly thing is , the actual printed ticket has the correct date (26th) on it.

 

Confused .... you bet. But now I know better? Try it out on your lady. Ask her "0300 hours tonight ... is it 25th or 26th ?"

 

 

 

Posted

Coming from a maritime background....I find the 24 hour clock flawless and unambiguous.

 

Since being married to a Thai and now living here.....time becomes nonsensical....basically they operate on a 6 hour clock.....so if you ask what time will we meet for coffee, you can get 2 o'clock....which they may mean 0800.....or you may get 4 o'clock which is really 1000 hours.

 

Therefore I am amazed that any public transport system can operate with any success. So OP I can understand your dilemma...just have to shake your head and go with the flow.....Cheers. 

Posted

It's not just Thailand, I've lost count of the number of times I've arrived at the airport on a Sunday evening heading for a job that starts on Monday, to be either 24 hours early, or 24 hours late for the flight. I've managed to get on every time but I now rigorously check every booking, twice. Then confirm that the driver will be there to pick me up at 6AM on Monday morning rather than 6PM, and it still goes wrong (ergo, call from driver at 6AM [correct] on Sunday morning [not so correct]).

 

In the transport industry we have the concept of business day as opposed to calendar day, where 2AM on the 26th is still the 25th as far as the business is concerned. It makes clearing transactions and apportioning revenue when operating past midnight slightly less fraught.

 

"I don't want to know why you can't. I want to know how you can!"

Posted

Yes ... the Thai system of 6 hour blocks with completely different lingo for each, took me a long time to get my head around.

 

I understand all the different terminology now, but learning Swahili may have been easier :wacko:

 

I said to my wife "In farang land, time is either "am" or "pm".

 

Bless her cotton socks. She said "Wow .... that's easy."

 

No shit Sherlock.

 

Getting back to the OP.  I'm still unsure what time after midnight tomorrow actually starts, in my wife's mind. Of course it doesn't really matter in the big picture does it.

 

All I know is I'm teeing off with the guys at 7am tomorrow ..... or is that today ?

 

 

Posted
On 25/01/2017 at 8:32 PM, Rsquared said:

Coming from a maritime background....I find the 24 hour clock flawless and unambiguous.

 

Since being married to a Thai and now living here.....time becomes nonsensical....basically they operate on a 6 hour clock.....so if you ask what time will we meet for coffee, you can get 2 o'clock....which they may mean 0800.....or you may get 4 o'clock which is really 1000 hours.

 

Therefore I am amazed that any public transport system can operate with any success. So OP I can understand your dilemma...just have to shake your head and go with the flow.....Cheers. 

Ex 2nd Mate (Merch) sailing east/west meant advancing/retarding clocks, sometimes every other day to keep noon around middayish.

 

Crossing the IDL got quite a few crew confused as to what day it was.

 

Whilst we had four hour watchkeeping I'm glad the MN did away with this system long before my time - you think the Thai way is confusing, have a look at the link below.

 

http://www.navy.mil/navydata/questions/bells.html

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