By Pennie Azarcon dela Cruz, Executive Editor
Sunday Inquirer Magazine

THEY’VE always been known as a gracious people, so gracious in fact that the Thais can accurately boast that they’ve never been conquered by any alien nation. Yup, and that’s because they welcome invaders like farang tourists and proceed to tamp down the enemy’s inner Bonaparte with huge servings of tom yum and phad thai.

So imagine my surprise and amusement when the hubby, in preparation for our long overdue family vacation in Bangkok, fed the car’s DVD player with assorted “Speak Thai” tapes, and the translations turned out to be less than gracious. Well hey, they were downright vulgar! Okay, so the tapes were supposed to be Thai expressions, slang and idioms, but just where did the author get the impression we were going to stay in Pat Pong, Bangkok’s red light district? (We didn’t; too many night markets and too little self control). [Read the rest of this entry »]