Things I still don't understand about Thailand

1. Why this has to be the land of the disposable. Thai people are incredibly resourceful, so why can't they figure out a way to stop making crappy things that break down or short circuit in a week? Seriously, the quality of items is substantially lower than most places I've lived; yet they have an abundance of these crappy things, so they simply buy another, and another, and another until the landfills are overflowing with discarded, crappy one-use-only things. Thais do remarkable things with recycled paper and plastics, yet instead of having marked bins for plastic and paper recycling for people to sort in the first place, they simply wait for everyone to throw their garbage away and then sift through each and every bag on Saturday. Why go through the extra work?

2. The "no-return" policy in each and every store -- reputable or not. I tried returning the wrong size curtain the very next day after buying it, and they refused to give me a refund or a gift card with the amount of the purchase. This happened the first month I moved here, so I have since learned my lesson, but it still irks me to think about it. If something doesn't work, why won't the store take responsibility for it?

3. Toilet seat lids on public toilets. Come on girls, you know how it is -- for us to be able to flush the toilet, we would have to put the lid down just to reach the flusher handle. What's the point of this useless toilet seat lid if the lid will never be down in any normal setting?? That's just an extra step we need to take to flush the darn thing.












4. While we're on the pot, I might as well mention the absurdity of squatty pottys. I really see no use for these things. I've been forced to use them before, and they are not convenient, are messy, and take longer to get business done. So what's the point??

5. Paying to use the highway when it neither saves time or money to get to the desired destination. Okay, sometimes it does get us there faster (if time is of the essence), but going to church....it takes exactly the same amount of time, but costs us 45 extra baht.

6. Putting a guard at every conceivable entrance to something, yet these 'guards' are little more than traffic directors. They are there to blow their whistle at you, point you in the right direction, and open a gate from time to time (if there even is a gate). It just blows my mind that our school has three gates guarded 24/7, yet the guards are asleep at their post every night. Do they make me feel safe? Well, let me ask you -- would you feel safe with a guard asleep at his post? I rest my case.

7. Taxi drivers that don't want to take you where you want to go. It's not as though I'm asking for a free ride; I am willing and able to pay, but for some reason taxi drivers reserve the right (that they use quite liberally) to refuse to take you someplace if they don't want to go there. 'What do you mean, you aren't headed to Bangna? You're headed to wherever the customer is going, fool.' It still astounds me that people can outright refuse to do their job. I mean, it's their job. In a country full of rich and poor, one would think that they're not in any position to turn down money. But they do. Every weekend. Whenever they don't want to drive my way.