How I Book Hotels In Thailand And Elsewhere
Having lived in Thailand since 2003, I have booked many hotels while travelling around the country. Occasionally, I have spent an enormous amount of time trying to find the best deal. However, I almost invariably end up booking through Agoda. Not only are Agoda rates almost always the lowest, but it is a company I have learnt to trust over the years. In 2023 there were stories about another large online hotel Booking company (whose name I won't mention) who failed to pay accommodation hosts and whose customers turned up at hotels to find that they did not have a reservation. I have never had any such problems with Agoda, and the few minor issues I've had have been dealt with efficiently by their customer service representatives.
Agoda is a company I trust and recommend. Use the following link to book your next hotel room!
www.agoda.com/partners/partne...
Disclaimer. I am an Agoda affiliate and will receive a small commission for any completed bookings that are made through my links. However, I only promote goods and services that I am happy with and use myself.
Are You Interested In Learning How To Read Basic Thai?
Being able to read enough basic Thai so that you can negotiate menus and read signs is incredibly useful, and it's not that difficult. It's not like Japanese or Chinese, where you have to remember thousands of characters. Like English, it's just consonants and vowels. Yes, there are more characters than English, but phonetically Thai is a lot more consistent. English vowels and vowel combinations change sound in different words (cough, rough, through, thought, bough, etc). In many ways, Thais is actually easier to learn than English. If you are interested, try the tutorials on my other RU-vid channel. With some effort and dedication, you will be able to read quite well after around six months.
/ learntoreadthai
Video Description
Thailand is maybe not as Buddhist as a lot of people think. The general belief system is a bit of a hotch-potch with lots of Animism and Brahmanism thrown in. Animism was the original belief system in this region before the introduction of Buddhism and the Thai version of Buddhism has been adapted to some extent to incorporate Animist beliefs.
If you read books about Buddhism you won't find anything about spirit houses, amulets or tattoos with magical, mystical powers. In Thailand you will see lots of spirit houses and also colourful ribbons wrapped around certain trees. These have nothing to do with Buddhism, but are there to placate the spirits who reside in those places.
Spirits can either be benevolent or malevolent, and no one wants to be in the same vicinity as a malevolent spirit. Conversely, if you take care of spirits they will then take care of you. Offerings of food and incense are made to local spirits on Buddhist observance days for this purpose and these rituals are taken very seriously by Thais.
11 апр 2022
