Holidays in Thailand

Thailand is Buddhist country, right? Then why are they celebrating Christmas?

We spent Christmas at a guest house in Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. Guest houses are different from hotels in that the family lives on the premises and runs the place like a small hotel, typically offering breakfast, coffee and tea and sometimes a restaurant.

We stayed at a place called Nuanpranee (not sure of the meaning) where they had a Christmas tree and fake gifts under it (to look real). But they went further and had a Christmas party for all the guests, most of whom were ex-pats or people traveling over the holidays because they care nothing of Christmas. Perhaps they even wanted to get away from the consumeristic feel of it in their own countries.

Well, we had a party anyway. Noah was really happy because there was a gift exchange, which meant he got a gift. We were instructed to buy a gift that costs over 200 baht (200 baht = ~$6.60). Noah and I looked in the night market and found nice shirts for men, because I saw mostly men at the guest house. I later found out there was about an equal number of men and women.

When the party started, I was very surprised to see that about half of the people were Thai, half foreigners. Food was provided, after which came agonizingly loud karaoke, with almost every Thai man taking a turn. There was actually one very good singer - the local colonel of the police. He knew all the songs with all the proper English intonations.

After a couple of hours of karaoke, during which time I tried talking to people, but just got a headache instead, we had the gift exchange. Everyone would draw a number which corresponded to a present /giver of the present. The giver came up to give the gift to whomever drew the number -- with a photo taken of every exchange. It was quite formal, and very fun!

Noah got a scarf/shawl that is part cashmere, part silk. I got a big fluffy pink stuffed dog and a round bolster-type pillow. They were perfect for a small child -- like the children we met at our next place we stayed, the Eco Resort. They were happy to receive "Pinky", as we started to call the dog, and the pillow. Their mom was very appreciative. (Darn, should have taken a photo of Pinky before passing him on.)

A French man got one of the shirts we gave. A Thai woman who drove a tuk-tuk (will explain this in another post) got the other shirt. The Thai woman and wife of the French man traded the shirt for a huge pink pillow. They were both happy! And the shirts looked really good on the French guy. All around a win-win!

So there's our Christmas story. Oh yes, I ended up singing karaoke with another American woman, both of us being too shy to do it by ourselves. And Noah danced with a bunch of Thai girls who were in the family. They really enjoyed our involvement; and we really enjoyed seeing them have such a great time!

We didn't take photos of the party, but later took these in the street.

This was a huge Christmas tree made of recycled materials. It must have stood 3 (maybe 4?) stories high. You can see in the following photos what it is made of.