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| Short Introduction to Thai Mattress Culture - 08.19.03 |
| submitter: | Frank Compernolle |
| location: | On the road between Pai and Mae Hong Son, Thailand |
To understand Thai (and South East Asian) streetmattresses and my next submissions, you have to know a bit about the country and the Thai way of life and sleeping.
First, everything happens on the street: it's so hot and so humid that closing windows and houses just makes you unhappy. As almost any activity, sleeping often is a public and communitary activity. What a relief from our competitive individualism, hidden between doors and curtains.
Second: Thai people usually sleep on mats or on hammocks, not on mattresses. A woollen western mattress is a nonsense: it works like a sponge and never dries: the relative humidity is close to 100% and temperature between 27°C and 35°C. A mat on a tablebed, outside often in the open basement of the many pile dwellings, makes it possible to take advantage of the smallest breeze to cool down. This, and the fact that people live on the streets, makes it rather easy to find streetmatts. The only thing is to stay discrete and respect people. Making you, tourist (frasang in Thai), happy, makes them happy, so you can take pics and get a real smile, incomparable with the plastic McDonald's smile.
Third: Thai don't have sofabeds, but “tablebeds”: the same and often unique piece of furniture is good for sleeping, for eating, for working, for sitting and chatting.
Fourth: western bad influence introduced classical mattresses rather recently. To be able to sleep on such a sponge, you need air conditioning. A total non sense. So I found a couple of classical western style streetmattress. But those aren't the real thing.
Fifth: in Thailand, a streetsleepingmat is a mat, and not and abbreviation of mattress.
Sixth: and what about streethammocks?
Finally: I am in love with Thailand. Sawadeekrap (i.e.: hello, bye bye, see your etc…). |
| category: | *Mattress de Milo* |
| comments: | 4 |
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| ChristineLarsen commented on 08.20.03 | | Thank you for sharing all your Thai mattress knowledge. Gives me something to ponder. |
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| Frank commented on 08.20.03 | | Thai are Buddhist people, so killing somebody (for any reason) is very bad and gives you bad “karma”. Seeing an ant walking on our table, our guide took it very carefully away and she put it on a plant. The hanging thins are drying garlic. I could tell you hours about thai street gastronomy, but that's not the topic of this site… |
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| wim commented on 08.20.03 | | Rebecca,it must be touristscalps |
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| Rebecca commented on 08.20.03 | | *gasp* I am so, so in awe of your Thai adventures, I have always wanted to go there! What are the things hanging from the entryway? |
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