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Stone Soup's Escalator Training School, for Thais


StoneSoup

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Thailand is not by far the worst place on earth and some "may pen rai" attitude will make this feel funny experiences. At a BTS station I simpy wait outside the "dangerous" area until all is over and quitly walk into the carriage with a big smile. Where I did not laugh was with chinese people in a Satun hotel at 5 am, all doors opened in the corridor and these people shouting to each other from one room to an other. They had the tour bus to catch by 5.30 I suppose. That was the only time I ever SHOUTED in a hotel corridor.

 

And then I was on this ship between some greek islands. I was first in line for a coffee at the bar and never got one, seems they only served greeks...:eek:

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The best place to give these kind of courses is MBK (Mahboonkrong) and make sure that everybody is not working that day. Sure you will see some scary thing with that big crowd, I saw for myself 2 years ago that it can be very scary when somebody make a stop at he exit of the escalator when maybe a thousand people try to go down at the same time.

 

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TigerMoth:

 

It goes with how you say it. I understand your point of view as I'm from NYC. If you do it in an aggressive tone, you will get looks because it's not kosher to get upset in Thai society (in most cases). If you mention that you have been waiting and need to get somewhere or mention it politely you were waiting then it should go better.

 

As for politeness while moving... Hong Kong is much worse. Probably because it is denser. I have a nice camera and I wore it on my neck strap. My camera was knocked around and almost broken on several occasions as people "elbowed" or tried to push me aside. That's just ridiculous.

 

<<burp>>

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Think you mist my point, it has nothing to do with politeness or agressive tone it's just very dangerous and you don't have time to discuss the matter with the person who decide to make a stop a the bottom of the escalator while maybe a thousand more are jumping in upstairs. ::

 

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There is an easy solution, just keep walking and force them all into a herd in front of you pushing them out of your way while constantly looking backwards to see who is doing the pushing :) works wonders and leaves people with stupified looks on their faces! Works for elevators too..

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Strange escalator behaviour is not uniquely Thai. It must be the same everywhere. Here is the UK (London especially) this sort of behaviour was featured recently in a "What we hate most" list. Hell in the UK they even have a convention that you must stand on the right-hand side of an escalator so those in a hurry can slip past on the left. Stand on the left and you'll quickly get a jab in the back from someone running in the rat race. This becomes ingrained in your consciousness and anywhere I travel on an escalator I immediately move to the right-hand side and make sure there's room on the left for someone to get by. After a few days in Thailand I begin to de-condition myself and it gives me great satisfaction to feel guilt free when standing anywhere I like, even - gasp - in the middle of the escalator. But what I find just as infuriating is the same dawdling behaviour at any kind of entrance/exit point - coming out of a shop, just past a ticket barrier, and so on.

 

I recall that the book "Wandering into Thai culture" has some comments about Thai attitudes to queuing, line jumping, and so in. We know Thai's are obsessed with social hierarchy and showing respect (as expressed by who wais first and how high). His idea was something like this: Thai's assume that anyone queuing for a bus, train, bank clerk, etc must be at the same social level and therefore not worthy of special respect. Why? Because, if a person was worthy of respect, they would obviously be wealthy/important and have a chauffeur driven car to take them around, an assistant to do errands for them, bodyguards to keep the way clear, and so on. The mere fact that you are out there in the public, doing things yourself, means you are no more important then any other Thai out and about in the public.

 

ShokDee

 

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