Christmas in Thailand

There’s been a bit of a British spin on proceedings recently in Thailand as the two most popular topics of conversation have been Christmas and strangely enough, the weather. Normally the latter doesn’t provoke much discussion as the general consensus is there are only three seasons in Bangkok: hot, hotter, hot & wet.

Cooling Down

So, it came as a bit of a shock the other morning when I stepped out into the garden and it was noticeably colder outside than in. A quick check on the weather app on my phone revealed it was only 17 °C! Winter was upon us. I quickly ventured into the drawer that time had forgotten, where all my woolly jumpers are safely stowed, and reached for a fleece. Even Chris ‘I’m hot’ Clowes had to get his Wasps training top out of storage.

I’d been enjoying the weather recently; the humidity had really dropped so even though the temperature had been in the high 20s, it had felt very pleasant. This latest ‘cold snap’ was by all accounts some sort of record for Bangkok. I know it doesn’t really compare to the arctic conditions in the UK, but it has felt chilly. Even though, as I explained to my disbelieving Thai colleagues, a day with a high of 24°C and low of 17°C would be considered a lovely summers day in the UK, I was joining the Thais in working out how to keep warm during the big freeze.

Things seemed to have returned to normal for now but the fleece has been promoted to one of my 'regular wear' drawers just in case.

Feeling Festive?

One downside of the beautiful weather here is that it just doesn’t make you feel very Christmassy. It’s not like there is no evidence of Christmas here, far from it, the shopping malls have some of the most extravagant Christmas decorations I’ve ever seen, Starbucks has been playing Christmas music since mid-November and even local Thai shops and restaurants have put up Christmas trees. It just all feels a bit token and we’ve just not got into the Christmas spirit.

There was an article on the BBC website recently that said that according to Google, Brits make more online searches relating to Christmas than any other nation and are basically obsessed with Christmas. My Facebook Newsfeed will back that up; all my UK friends’ recent posts seemed to have started with ‘it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas’ or ‘driving home for Christmas’ or have been just generally revelling in the fact that Christmas is a great excuse to drink wine every day in December. But this has all just fuelled my lack of Christmas spirit, particularly the absence of daily wine as it’s so expensive here in Thailand.

Cultural Immersion

One of the advantages that Chris and I have over other expats is that our jobs really help us to integrate with Thai people rather than living in an expat bubble. We have no need to go looking for authentic Thai experiences to post on Twitter and Instagram at the weekend, we just turn up to work. I’d say this is even more apparent for me as I spend most of my time working outside of Bangkok where life isn’t quite so easy to navigate for a Farang. If my work colleagues didn’t take me for lunch every day as part of my Thai food development programme, I don’t think I’d be eating anything. I’ve genuinely eaten some of the most delicious food I’ve ever tasted in restaurants and shophouses that I could never find my way to solo, let alone order anything. Even though I can still only say four things in Thai and am generally a bit of a cultural disaster, my colleagues are really looking after to me. I’d had horrible visions of sitting alone at my desk eating a granola bar whilst everyone else enjoyed lunch together.

When I’m at work I tend to be quite busy and don’t really have time to overthink situations. In meetings, I’m typically the only non-Thai speaker and as the level of English ability can really vary, it is sometimes better to let the conversation go back into Thai, so everyone is able to get their point across. Weirdly, despite not understanding the words I can often grasp the sense of the discussion and will even chip in at certain points. They do say communication is only 7% verbal which means the language barrier should not be an obstacle.

Clueless Again!

There are still plenty of times though where I have almost no idea what’s going on. This was recently apparent during our New Year celebrations at work. Although Thais don’t typically celebrate Christmas, it is customary to give gifts at New Year and our work celebration involved participation in some sort of hybrid Secret Santa/lucky dip activity. I’d only been made aware of this event 2 days before, which by Thai standards is actually quite a lot of notice! I’d been instructed to buy a gift worth at least 1500 TBH and that it was very important I attend as, for some people, this would be the highlight of their year. Not having a clue what to buy, I took advantage of the good nature of my colleague and made him come shopping with me. He recommended that I should buy something useful such as a kitchen appliance or fan, so I selected a pretty impressive looking tower fan with its own remote control.

Hello Santa..?

The day of the celebration arrived and as I walked in I was surprised to see a fully decorated Christmas tree surrounded by gifts and ‘Sleigh Ride’ blaring out of a little stereo. Everyone also seemed to be sporting Santa hats and reindeer antlers. I felt a bit out of place in my uniform; I should have brought out the Christmas jumper! Not celebrating Christmas doesn’t stop Thais from taking all the fun elements such as Santa, snow, reindeers etc. and just blending it in with the New Year theme. Why not have a Christmas tree to mark New Year? I think it’s origins are pagan rather than Christian anyway.

Just before the ‘lucky draw’ began, I was told that, as the person in charge, (yes, really) I had to stand up and say a few words – thanks for the warning! I don’t really know what’s happening and you want me to make out as if I have some sort of authority over these proceedings! Great! Anyway, I managed to wish people a Happy New Year, thank them for their hard work etc. and indicate that the ‘lucky draw’ could start.

Lucky Draw

I’m not exactly sure of the rules of this ‘lucky draw’ game, but I think it had been deliberately over-complicated with other special prizes which were probably aimed at confusing me. I went with the approach of just doing as I was told which involved drawing numbers out of a hat which were then checked against a sheet and then somebody got a gift or a special prize. What it did also entail was me being photographed more times than on my wedding day. My face was aching from holding a permanent ‘Wallace and Gromit’ smile.

When my turn came, I somehow ended up with a mini vacuum cleaner. I probably should have put it back in the draw as this was one of the good gifts, but I panicked that this would make me look ungrateful so just took it! I think next year I will have to orchestrate it so I get nothing or a very small gift as I probably have deprived someone of something quite useful.

As the ‘lucky draw’ progressed, excitement about who would get the big gifts was growing, people were losing their minds! When one of the girls picked out the ticket for my gift it was like she’d won the lottery. I don’t know whether she really wanted the tower fan or was excited by the prospect of picking the top gift, but she was ecstatic.

The best thing about this was that I told Chris the story and as he was yet to have his work New Year celebration he was spurred on to get a gift that would provoke the same reaction. Unfortunately, the girl that got his gift was so underwhelmed that he spent the rest of the evening trying to tell her how great it was!

Christmas Day

As Thailand is a predominately Buddhist country, Christmas Day is obviously not a public holiday, so Chris and I just decided to work. Although people were at work, the focus seemed to be sending cool Christmas GIFs and videos to everyone’s phones rather than doing anything work-related. I am starting to think Thailand might love Christmas more than the UK!