sayjann Posted December 3, 2011 Report Share Posted December 3, 2011 religion is a funny thing. i have never been subjected to a church upbringingand i think the only times i have been ina church was for my christening and various weddings and funerals....oh before i forget i did make love on a gravestone once.... but i have noticed a different attitude in thailand over the past few years. there are many shrines to the king/royal family/buddah everywhere and years ago it seemed the ladies i was with never really respected these sites. but the last couple of trips i have been with ladies who have left my side and given a prayer while i waited. visiting the big wats are interesting as i like to see the locals really giving some honour to whatever they want to. i also enjoy ladies in the bars offering gifts to a shrine. i have no idea what it all means but good to watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamui Posted December 3, 2011 Report Share Posted December 3, 2011 Is there a language problem here? Have you ever heard the expression "tongue in cheek"? If you like issuing travel warnings you should get a job with the Australian government, they have a huge department of people doing that. (That's also tongue in cheek). Sorry, that you took my travel advice seriously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted December 3, 2011 Report Share Posted December 3, 2011 i also enjoy ladies in the bars offering gifts to a shrine. i have no idea what it all means but good to watch. Theravada Buddhism has no divinity. It doesn't say that God doesn't exist, simply that He is irrelevant, having done nothing more than creating the Big Bang that got the whole mess going. It is human nature to want to turn to someone for help, and that is what the Thais do. Sometimes they "borrow" Hindu gods and pray to them when the need strikes. More often they return to the spirit cult of their remote ancestors, one that says wandering spirits are all over the place, not ghosts ... just spirits. (It's sort of the Asian version of the Little People, the fairies, elves etc.) A spirit supposedly has some power within a reasonable distance, say a few blocks or more around its spirit shrine. For some reason spirits in SE Asia like to hang around old banyan trees, though in Korea they have to make do with big rocks. These spirits are neither good nor bad, but if you are smart you want to keep them happy. I've asked university students if they believe in the spirits. They usually say probably not, but they are not about to take any chances. Makes sense to me. Old and revered Buddha statues also have been brought into play, more or less turned into big spirit shrines. I still remember my surprise when a young university lecturer announced that his prayers to the Buddha Jinarat had been answered and he had won a scholarship to study for his PhD in the US. Ummm ... the Buddha Jinarat is a beautiful Buddha figure dating from around 1300 AD or so. I don't know where it is supposed to have acquired magical powers from. This is completely contrary to what the Buddha taught, but I'm not about to say that to a Thai. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamui Posted December 4, 2011 Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 Theravada Buddhism has no divinity. It doesn't say that God doesn't exist, simply that He is irrelevant, having done nothing more than creating the Big Bang that got the whole mess going. It is human nature to want to turn to someone for help, and that is what the Thais do. Sometimes they "borrow" Hindu gods and pray to them when the need strikes. More often they return to the spirit cult of their remote ancestors, one that says wandering spirits are all over the place, not ghosts ... just spirits. (It's sort of the Asian version of the Little People, the fairies, elves etc.) A spirit supposedly has some power within a reasonable distance, say a few blocks or more around its spirit shrine. For some reason spirits in SE Asia like to hang around old banyan trees, though in Korea they have to make do with big rocks. These spirits are neither good nor bad, but if you are smart you want to keep them happy. I've asked university students if they believe in the spirits. They usually say probably not, but they are not about to take any chances. Makes sense to me. Old and revered Buddha statues also have been brought into play, more or less turned into big spirit shrines. I still remember my surprise when a young university lecturer announced that his prayers to the Buddha Jinarat had been answered and he had won a scholarship to study for his PhD in the US. Ummm ... the Buddha Jinarat is a beautiful Buddha figure dating from around 1300 AD or so. I don't know where it is supposed to have acquired magical powers from. This is completely contrary to what the Buddha taught, but I'm not about to say that to a Thai. In my limited understanding Buddhism has been mixed up with local religious believes all over Asia. First you have different kind of Buddhism, Theravada, Mayama, e.g.. which appeals to different people, like common people who prefer some deities they can communicate with and who ideally answer directly to them, or for example monks, who can relate to more abstract concepts of Buddhism. In LOS you probably have pre Buddhist traditions of ghost and spirits mixed with Hinduism (which arrived in SE Asia before Buddhism) and Buddhism... See here: Hindu shrine in BKK, open 24/7 with the elephant good Ganesha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el diablo Posted December 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2011 I went to the local filipino embassy yesterday for an open day, yes lots of beautiful filipina girls there and the people are really friendly.. but the food.. Its got nothing on LOS food.. fatty deep fried with not much taste.. i tried a few dishes too.. It must be like the Holland of Asia... eg. you have to be local to enjoy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sayjann Posted December 5, 2011 Report Share Posted December 5, 2011 I went to the local filipino embassy yesterday for an open day, yes lots of beautiful filipina girls there and the people are really friendly.. but the food.. Its got nothing on LOS food.. fatty deep fried with not much taste.. i tried a few dishes too.. It must be like the Holland of Asia... eg. you have to be local to enjoy it. i worked with many filipino nurses for years and they are like all women,vary in looks and dress sizes. i find them friendly and used to the western ways with their upbringing in their home country. went out with one for a few years and after her miscarriage and my problems with leaving my job we drifted apart and i now regret that. i loved the food at their private homes and always enjoyed the hospitality. the celebration i remember the most was a party for a couple's child who was christened on that day and what a night it was. the menfolk had been in london a couple of days before and bought fish in the markets and it was all prepared on the day. the fish was being baked/grilled all through the party and coming out piping hot and smelling/tasting wonderful. a lot of homemade salads and fruit dishes available and it made for a great buffet. but of course there were a few dishes which had obviously been into their culture by the americans,but i avoided them. they used to make me smile in the works canteen when they had a choice of 6-8 main meals and all sorts of veggies and the suchlike but most of them just ordered chips/fries with grated cheese and smothered the stuff in mayonaise. that's what i like about the thai's. many will look at western food,sniff if and maybe try a mouthful and then say 'no like' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted December 5, 2011 Report Share Posted December 5, 2011 I like Filipinas, but you will find many who object to their accent - I really think that's nitpicking compared to the fun and games you can have trying to communicate with some Thai girls. Even in Patts, you will still find girls who have had very little to do with Farang - I have yet to encounter that with any of the Filipina gals. Personally, I wont be going out of my way to find any Viet girls after my experience in KL - an experience I've seen repeated by many others on various fora. I guess landing with a mercenary starfish beats getting ripped off/robbed, but it was 180 degrees away from my experience with the Filipinas and Thais from that bar. She was a wake-up call, no question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted December 5, 2011 Report Share Posted December 5, 2011 Some of the Vietnamese women are heart breakingly beautiful. By and large though I'd rate the Thais over them in attractiveness. But as I said, Vietnam belongs more to the Chinese cultural sphere. Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Burma are more heavily influenced by India. The Viet gals often have that nasty Chinese temperment, not the tolerant attitude of the rest of SE Asia. Still, the Vietnamese ao dai, worn by a slender Viet girl with her long silky hair reaching to her waist, is one of the sexiest outfits ever designed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamui Posted December 5, 2011 Report Share Posted December 5, 2011 I went to the local filipino embassy yesterday for an open day, yes lots of beautiful filipina girls there and the people are really friendly.. but the food.. Its got nothing on LOS food.. fatty deep fried with not much taste.. i tried a few dishes too.. It must be like the Holland of Asia... eg. you have to be local to enjoy it. I guess you haven't been Cambodia yet. The food is so bland that most visitors seem to prefer to eat non-Khmer food. I wonder if this was always like this or if the the Khmer Rouge damaged this part of the Khmer cultural heritage as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el diablo Posted December 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2011 Philippines Awesome advice.. i'm on a filipino dating site now... Soooooo many beauties there.. going to head to Cebu soon.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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