Thai masked dance: Khon

There are many performing arts  but The most outstanding one isKhon, Thai classical masked dance.
In such play, the characters are divided into 3 groups: human beings, demons and monkeys. The performers who represent monkeys. All performers  have to wear mask except those who perform human beings and the likes.
Rammakian is a Thai literature based on  Ramayana,one of well-known  Indian epics.
 For the costumes, The play is rhythmically drama the story is recited by  another man behind the stage and the players use hand gestures and body movements to communicate  instead of speaking.
 Khon is considered a high class performing art  and therefore performed only on special occasions i.e. the funeral of an important member of royal family. However, In  an attempt to promote and preserve this typical Thai performance, The office of performing arts always hold the shows at the  well-equipped and well known spots around the country, still it doesn't seem to interest Thai people muchprobably because the show portray only the same story that most Thai people have known well. I  For me, I attended the the shows twice times  but not because of its episode but because I just happened to see something beautiful and that I attended the show was right! Every costume of each performer was so elegant but the performance was very very  slow as always.umm in fact I try to avoid saying that it's quite boring >_<

''Tuk tuk Thailand!!! " loudly shouted from Nat Anipond , miss Thailand  Universe who won the best national costume in The latest Miss Universe Pageant in Lasvagus, U.S.A.The dress represented  as Tuk tuk --Thai taxi tricycle which foreign travelers love to try when they come to Thailand. Tuk tuk  can be called Samlor  which directly means tricycle. For the word Tuk tuk ,  it's  the  name that  derived from the sound of its engine.However, I can say Samlor is the model of present Tuk tuk. In old ageThai people had used Sam lor  to travel before the first Japan motor tricycle was introduced.Since then, various kinds of three wheeled vehicle have been developed and adapted in many styles for several different purpurses of the owners as follows: 

1.Saleng : tricycle with a sidecar. This is previously used by trash merchants in rural area to load their stuff and empty plastics to sell out at a recycle factory. But now Sa leng has been developed and formed a movable small food shop that can be found in both urban  and rural area.

The first is an original  version of Saleng ;the other is a modified one.

2.Tuk tuk song taew : the motor tricycle of which sidecar is modified into a  2-raw seat coach and moved to the back of the driver.

the pictures below are original Sam lor, present Sam lor, and Sam lor song taew

However when the world has change and people have to  live against time, the first original version has been given up and gradually dying from the Thais' society.

Let's come to the present and wildly found version. such vehicle looks  pretty interesting for some foreigners but I'll never think to recommend it to any one!   most Samlor drivers drive so fast and like to call for  dear fee especially with those who are foreigners.

It's time I slept now  bye bye and thank you a lot for reading. Im a new blogger and love to let foreigners know the fact of my country with out any bias or prejudice ;)

Thai salad: Som tam

there are a lot of different dilicious Thai dishes; One of my favorites menus is  ''Somtam''or Thai  spicy and sour papaya salad.I can say this  is such a must try for foreigners. Somtam can be divided into several different types due to the extra ingradients added for seasoning. the major and essential   ingradient is green papaya that must be grated and then mixed in  the mortar with the other ingredients and salad dressing  prepared from  fish sauce, lime juice , chilli , palm sugar. Here is a run-down on the most common variations:

Som tam Thai: papaya salad  in with crunchy roasted peanuts, and dried shrimp.

Som tam poo: papaya salad seasoned by salty crab

Som tam poo pla ra: papaya salad with the addition of salty crab and some pla ra( fermented fish)

Som tam Thai-Poo: Som tam thai  with the addition of salty crabs.
However these days this kind of Thai food has more various menus that usually named after the ingredients and the preparing method. Apart from papaya  Som tam can be made of  other ingredients such as mango(Tam Mamuang), curcumber(Tam Taeng), carrot(Tam Carrot), yardlong bean(Tam Tua), corn(Tam Khaopod)
 In addition Som tam sellers still create new version of  Som tam to introduce to their customers. Recently Som tam tard  ( papaya salad  and many side dishes served on a big tray) and Som tam tord (crispy fried papaya salad) have just been  introduced and  becomethe   new popular ordered items.      

somtam tard                                                                    

som tam tord    














Som tam is usually accompanied with khao niao (sticky rice),but some people (especially in the northeast of Thailand)   prefer to have it with khanom chin(rice noodle).Since som tam is loved by Thai people around the country. somtam sellers canbe found everywhere and nowadays a convenient store called "Family mart" has produced ready-to-eat  som tam khaopod( sweet corn salad) in a plastic glass-like container. I had tried once but such small portion couldn't fill my stomach lol.

  


   

 If you have been to Thailand, a small developing country which is well known as ''the land of smile'' you might have seen many things weird and make you curious. One object that I am always questioned by foreigners is about “san phra phoom”or a miniature Thai house that is erected in front of every building.Though almost the Thais are Buddhists, animism has a great influence in their lives. This one is also from the supernatural belief.. Thai people believe that every place is guarded by “Chao Tee”or the genius of the land on which the buildings are located. Therefore, they provide the Genius a small house standing in the same fence of theirs and ask the spirit to guard them against the devils and all kind of mishaps. There are various architectural styles of spirit houses but the most popular style is the original one – a small Thai temple-like house on a pillar. If the building’s owner wants to have a spirit house, they must hold a ceremony performed by ''phram'' or Hindu priest to settle the shrine and invite the guardian spirit to dwell inside. When the spirit house is settled, care must be taken to please the genius residing there. The offerings of food, flowers, candle and incense sticks shouldn’t be neglected for long time. There is no any strict rules about the frequency of presenting the offerings;people can present the offerings as frequent as they like. For me, I normally present the offerings just on Buddhist holy days.( usually about 4 times a month)
These are a few examples of The spirit houses in Thailand: the left is mine-- an example for the most popular style and the other is for the modern one.