Thailand Road Signs by Johnny

Sawadi-kap – Greetings & Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Americans. Chicken and duck are popular in many dishes here, but turkey is unknown, unless you’re in a popular expat, “farang” tourist, areas. In these destinations, restaurants out-due themselves putting on a traditional holiday food-spreads. Expats as well as Thais enjoy partaking in any countries cultural food feasts.

Amusing road & warning signs from around the world are seen on online. Here are a few of what I see as interesting & amusing signs seen posted on the roads here in the always friendly Kingdom of Thailand.

I’ve not seen the “Beware of Smartphone Zombies” sign anywhere in Thailand, yet. But if ever a warning sign was needed, it’s this one. Is this now a problem everywhere?

I’ve always enjoyed seeing and being around elephants. They’ve been banned from Bangkok for some years now. But at one time, while drinking in an outdoor area an elephant’s trunk could suddenly appear. The handler, known as a mahout would take the elephant around loaded with bananas and sugar cane for sale that you could then feed the elephant.

My best interaction with elephants was years back when the Darts Thailand crew did an elephant playing darts production with Florida darts writer/player Paul “Dartoid” Seigel. Keiran shot the video, I shot the photos and Jayke did the narration. If you’ve never seen it, check it out. Here’s the link.
Dartoid Vs Omzin the Elephant Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMptHYlLFio

Monkeys are amusing but can also be a nuisance or outright dangerous. See photo from city of Lopburi. During covid, tourism was near zero and also gone all the monkey feeding tourists.

Monkeys can also develop human habits like cigarette smoking. My favorite story was of a retired working monkey – a what? Working monkeys are trained to climb coconut trees, pick the coconuts and carefully throw them down avoiding buildings and their handlers. Coconut trees on Koh Samui are the tallest and a falling coconut is like a bowling ball falling from way above and crashing through a tile roof.

Working monkeys with their handlers stay busy especially in resort areas. Now spending all day and after work hours together a monkey will pick up on the handler’s habits, like smoking and drinking. But like for all of us, there comes a time for retirement.

One retired working monkey gained some fame in a Buddhist temple where the monks cared for him. But they didn’t supply him with cigarettes. So, when the retired monkey spotted a cigarette smoker, he’d go over to the person and tug on their clothing to bum a smoke. He actually became quite a celebrity for a while.

Last but not least is my all-time favorite – “Drunken Person Crossing” sign. No surprise, these signs are found in Pattaya. And yes, I’ve actually seen them.

Hope you’ve enjoyed your Thanksgiving feast and a long weekend. Until my next report, stay well. – Johnny


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