Family Festivities
Story by Jim Algie
In Thailand, where friends and even waitresses are referred to as phi and nong (meaning, an older or younger sibling), every day is kind of like family day, and every potential ally becomes part of your extended family. Even if your synapses aren’t shooting off sparks over some of the TAT’s family-oriented activities planned for August, such as caravans, cycling competitions, and a Fireworks Festival on Phuket, it’s still a good time to visit because low-season prices appeal to the Scrooge in all of us, and because the tourist hordes are significantly depleted, giving you a bit more elbow room at the more popular attractions. Here are just a few reasons why so many families find Thailand such a physically and mentally stimulating place to visit:
1. Compared to Disneyland, where you will be continually accosted by overly friendly people wearing Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck costumes while waiting in hour-long queues to go on vomit-inducing rides, Thailand is very inexpensive. What’s more, places like Bangkok and Phuket have enough in the way of zoos, amusement parks, sports facilities, and go-kart tracks, to keep the most hyperactive child, and even older kids, like fathers, amused and entertained. In Bangkok alone, there’s the ultra-fun Siam Park, which has a bunch of dare-devil water-slides, and Dream World, which has some impressively steep roller-coasters, and an Arctic fantasy land called “Snow Town” (parkas and boots provided), if the kids need to chill out and go Eskimo for a while. Also on the outskirts of town, Safari World is the place where you can have an out-of-Africa experience by driving in a tour bus through jungles, and alongside lakes, with giraffes, zebras, rhinos, and lions, just outside your window. They also have a marine park with dolphin shows, a bird spectacular, and a Wild West cowboy stunt show.
2. Western mothers will be pleased to know that even though they were just celebrated back in May, and blackmailed with gifts, cards, and praise into another year of selfless behaviour, they can milk one more Mother’s Day out of 2002 because the Thai equivalent falls on August 12, which is also the birthday of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit. So let the rest of the family know well in advance that you expect similarly regal treatment, and that an afternoon at a Paintball Park is not going to suffice.
3. Kids have a sweet tooth for desserts, and there are few countries that can satisfy such cravings like Thailand. Coconut-cream jellies wrapped in banana leaves, deep-fried banana fritters, mango and sticky rice, and banana pancakes shellacked with sweetened milk and palm sugar are just a few of the cheap treats found all over the Land of Tooth Decay. But if you’re looking for healthier desserts, there’s no shortage of fruits like rambutans, mangosteens, pineapples, and watermelon, which are sweet, but don’t supply the “sugar kick” that makes the young bounce off the walls like bumper cars.
4. Buddhism, the nation’s predominant religion, teaches us that everything and everyone is inter-connected. The Dalai Lama, in his autobiography Freedom in Exile, and during many of his lectures, preaches that there will not be peace on earth until the human race realises that we’re all brothers and sisters, dependent on each other and nature for our survival. All the other major and minor faiths are freely practised in tolerant Thailand, but, on a global level, they are not growing nearly as quickly as Buddhism. And many Thai temples – particularly in rural areas – serve as community centres for the whole family.
5. Finally, and most importantly, if travel is the best teacher, then Thailand is an enormous classroom with many important lessons to impart. Exposing your children to this country’s melting pot of Thai, Chinese, and Indian cultures at an early age is an excellent way to ensure that they understand all of the rich possibilities life has to offer – unless of course you really want them to be prematurely brain-damaged by overexposure to computer games and cartoons, and grow up to become racist, narrow-minded gangsters, or fork-lift operators. In fact, having such a cosmopolitan worldview is absolutely crucial to their future success in this day and age of cross-pollinating cultures and globe-spanning business interests.
