Thailand Blog: Blog

Save Trees In Thailand

After having a great Chicken Pad Thai in downtown Thailand and treating yourself to a nice coffee to regain energies, you get the unavoidable feeling of going to the bathroom. You ask the waitress for directions to the nearest bathroom, and once you're there you search aimlessly for the toilet paper, and soon realize there is none. What there is, is a nice butt hose staring at you right next to the throne.

The butt hose or the bum gun, called by fellow westerners, is commonly used in East Asia as a means to wash yourself after using the bathroom. Before coming to Thailand, I had never even seen such an apparatus. Not even when I traveled to Europe where I first saw squat down toilets for the first time, did they have a hose. Toilet paper was so common for me, that I thought I would ever questioned what I would use as TP when going to the bathroom in Thailand. Even when I first saw it in my dorm's bathroom, did I think that was it's purpose. Initially, I believed the hose was there to spray the bathroom floor when it was dirty (which was what I cluelessly did the first time I cleaned my room). It was when I first went to a public bathroom without toilet paper that I realized its true purpose. I was in my new campus in Bangkok, when I first went to the bathroom and realized there was no toilet paper inside the stalls. I searched on top and behind the toilet, I pulled my pants up again and wobbled around the bathroom in search of toilet paper, hoping I would be able to reach the stall on time. When I noticed I could not hold any longer, I wobbled right back in the stall, worried about what I was going to do after I was done. As I looked around the stall for an answer, is when I realized that the hose was not there to clean the floors but butts. At first, I was a bit hesitant to use it considering I did not even think people used other something else other than toilet paper, but since that I had no other choice I decided to give it a try.

Ever since then, I have been a regular butt hose user. It was not at all uncomfortable as I believed it was going to be, and it did the job a lot faster than with paper. Even more so, not only is the butt hose very convenient in cleaning us better than paper is, but it is very good for the environment. I remember seeing stickers at my old university's bathrooms asking us to use as little toilet paper as possible, which I would always disregard. But with the butt hose there is no need to use so much paper! It is faster, more effective, and eco-friendly. . Once I tried the butt hose, I finally got over my tenacious belief that the westerner way is always the best way.

People always think that the way they were brought up, is what should be and thus they hesitate to get out of their comfort zone. However, after trying the butt hose I realized how important to always try new things, no matter how foreign or unknown it is for us. If it wasn’t because I had no other choice but to try the butt hose, I would have never used it. I would have continued using toilet paper, and would have never learned how good it is. This same mentality happens with many other things we experience abroad, like trying different types of foods. Many times have I seen myself turning down what is actually a very delicious local dish because of how odd it appears, but when someone convinces me to try it I realize how good it actually is. It is important that when one is abroad, one assimilates the most we can so we can really learn about the country, even if that means spraying our butt's with a hose. We can't be scared of it because it is foreign, rather we should be eager to experience what it is because we might discover new things we have nevseen before.

Fireburning on the Dancefloor

Any study abroad student knows how much their parents - I'm looking at you, mom - worries about them while their traveling the world and living on a whim. The reality is, ninety-nine percent of the time we're perfectly safe, without a single reason for them to worry. But there is that one percent, those times where we maybe get in a little over our heads, and any parent who worries a lot thinks that one percent could happen at any moment. For me, that moment happened in Koh Phi Phi.

Anyone who has been or plans to visit these islands knows that maybe the most famous tourist attractions are the fire shows. Usually taking place on or near bars on the weekend nights, these fire shows feature up to seven or eight fire wielding experts at a time who dazzle the crowd when they throw and spin their fire batons. Since these batons are dangerous, the crowd and the entertainers keep a safe distance… most of the time.

During my last night on the island, I was at a smaller fire show with some friends when one of the entertainers stopped and appeared to be motioning to me. Confused, I pointed to myself with a questioning look on my face, only to have him say to the audience "we have a volunteer!" I couldn't believe what was happening, but I went along with it - if these guys were going to spin fire around me, it meant that they've done it hundreds of times before, so I had nothing to worry.

They gave me a few shots of complimentary Thai whiskey and brought me up to the stage, only to hand ME the fire baton. I could barely believe it. The heat from both ends reached my hand in the middle, and I could definitely tell just how dangerous of a tool this was. "Go ahead, spin!" the entertainer announced, and before I knew it the audience was on its feet while the DJ played a song for me in the background. Maybe it was because it was my last day on the island, or because I knew these guys must have people do this all the time, or maybe it was the free Thai whiskey, but before I knew it I was spinning the fire baton like a pro - or, at least as well as I could.

In what seemed like an instant, my song was over, but just as I went to hand the baton back to its rightful owner he made a throwing motion with his hand, daring me to attempt the same graceful toss that he made look so easy. Without hesitating, I flung the burning object into the air - only to have it come crashing down on the (thankfully) empty table in front of the stage. Trying to hold back his laughter, the man sprinted to pick up the baton before anything caught fire, and thanked me for being a volunteer by offering another free shot of that infamous Thai whiskey. I went back to my friends feeling like a hero, now possessing one of my favorite study abroad stories that I would never tell my mom about.