All Thailand's BIGGEST Culture Shocks (as a foreigner)

So I've been living in Thailand for nearly

a year now, and I want to talk about the

biggest culture shocks I've experienced so

far. If you couldn't tell, I'm from the

UK, and I also spent a few years in Japan,

so I'll be primarily comparing the culture

shocks I've experienced here to culture

back home in the UK and also in Japan.

Number 1, the driving here and the traffic

is pretty insane. So before I arrived in

Thailand, I was actually doing intensive

driving lessons in the UK, and the UK is

kind of strict when it comes driving.

Even if you speed over the speed limit 1

mile per hour, you'll get a fine. Or if

you're on your phone and the police catch

you, you could have your license removed.

It's very strict when it comes to driving

in the UK, and people do take a lot of

pride in their driving in the UK. And in

Japan, the driving is also very robotic,

and no one really speeds or does dangerous

things. So going from that to coming to

Thailand and then seeing what the driving

is like here was pretty shocking.

Culture shocking. So when I got here on

day 1, I kind of got a girlfriend and

she's Thai, obviously, and she has a car

and she drives. And we did a lot of

traveling together when I first arrived.

She took me all around Thailand, we

traveled to different places. So I got a

firsthand experience of what it's like to

be in the passenger seat of someone who is

Thai who is driving a car. And oh my God,

it was pretty scary because It's like all

the things I learned during my UK driving

lessons, none of them were used or applied

in Thailand. So it's very strict in the UK

when it comes to things like changing

lanes. You've got to use your indicators,

you've got to check your mirrors and then

indicate and then maneuver. But here in

Thailand, it's like no one uses the

mirrors and people very rarely use the

indicators. So for example, we'll be on

the motorway or the highway, and if we

want to overtake another car, it's kind of

risky because you never know when they

might suddenly decide to change lanes

without kind of warning. It's happened a

few times when we were coming up to a car

and we want to overtake them, and they

look like they're about to change lanes

because they're kind of swerving towards

the edge of their lane. And then we had to

give them like a little beep to give them

a warning to, you know, check your damn

mirrors maybe, because then you would have

seen us coming straight up your backside.

For some reason, when people here want to

change lanes on the motorways, they kind

of do it very suddenly and they don't

indicate, or they might indicate a split

second before they actually perform the

maneuver, which is kind of useless because

there's no time to react to that

indicator. And they kind of swerve side to

side within their lane. They don't stay in

the center of their lane. They kind of,

well, they're very opportunistic drivers,

always looking for an opportunity to

overtake the person in front of them. So

instead of staying in the center of their

lane, they're always kind of swerving to

the right of their lane or the left of

their lane. Sometimes you see a lot of

people just driving in the middle of 2

lanes, which my girlfriend does quite a

lot. Traffic jams are pretty bad here as

well. Especially in the capital city. I

think that's mainly because instead of

just waiting in your queue of traffic,

people here keep trying to overtake and

change lanes to try and get ahead a few

seconds. And I think because so many

people are doing this, it actually makes

the traffic jam worse than if they just

waited in their lane and then all the

traffic could move along altogether. I

feel like it's kind of pointless to keep

changing lanes whilst you're in a traffic

jam because all of the traffic is going in

the same direction at the same pace. What

happens is you leave your lane of traffic

to get into another lane which you you

think is moving faster, and then you get

into it, and then the lane you just left

starts moving and overtakes you. It's also

very strange seeing so many people just

riding motorbikes without a helmet, or 3

to 4 people riding on the same motorbike

all bunched up on the seats, or people

just carrying these massive suitcases on

the moped, on the back of the moped, or

behind them on the seats. It's so

dangerous. And I've seen a lot of

dangerous kind of loading of cargo onto

the back of mopeds or onto the back of

pickup trucks on the roads here, and it's

kind of shocking to see that coming the UK

and Japan. Also, parking here is kind of

weird. So when you go into like a big

multi-level car park, and it's usually

very full up, what they do is they'll park

their cars in front of other parked cars.

And you might be thinking, if they do

that, how does the other person drive out

when they want to come out of the car

park? Well, what you do is you park your

car in front of someone else's car, and

then you leave the handbrake off so other

people can push your car out of the way.

And you just have like a queue of cars in

the car park with the handbrakes off. And

when you want to move someone else's car

out of the way, you just push it, or you

ask the car park attendant person to help

you push the car out of the way. It's

really weird. I've never seen people just

leave their car with the handbrake off.

As someone who doesn't really like spicy

food, I haven't really been able to find

any kind of Thai food that I really like.

I've tried a few dishes, but they're

either way too sweet or way too spicy.

They really love putting syrupy honey kind

of sweet sauce on everything, or they

really like to put loads of chili. So it's

either really sweet or really spicy. And

the weirdest thing I've seen or noticed

when it comes to food is fruit being

dipped into salt. So they usually sell

fruits in slices, like some kind of— I

don't know what it's called. It's kind of

like a mixture between an apple and a

pear, but they'll sell it with a little

sachet of salt. And you're supposed to dip

this sweet fruit into salt,

and it's supposed to have like a nice

sweet and salty flavor. But it's just

really weird. I like my fruit to be sweet,

not salty. I've even seen strawberries

being dipped into salt, and that's

supposed to be delicious. If you go to a

food market here in Thailand, you'll see

some pretty weird stuff being sold as food

that's supposed to be eaten by humans,

like insects such as scorpions,

centipedes, crickets, all kind of weird

insects that just look very strange and

unappetizing. I try to look away whenever

I go to a market. I try not to look at it

because it kind of grosses me out. I don't

know if anyone's actually eating these

insects. I see like a big mountain of

grass and stuff piled up in these market

stalls. And I just wonder, is anyone

actually buying this stuff? I noticed when

I go to school sometimes and the train

station's really packed full of people, I

noticed a lot of people taking photos on

their phone of the queues of people and

the trains. And I wondered why they're

taking photos or what they're taking

photos of. And I think they're taking

photos to send to their boss to prove that

they're gonna be late to work because the

train station's packed full of people.

I've never seen this in any other country.

I used to work in Japan and I used to live

in Tokyo and I had to commute to work in

Tokyo, and the trains used to get fully

packed in the mornings there as well, but

no one was standing around taking photos

of the queues of people. I find customer

service here to be kind of bad,

especially coming from living in Japan

where customer service there is very good.

So my customer service experience here in

Thailand usually involves being ignored

when I try and say something like Oh, can

I have plastic bag? Or can I put this

plant in my fish tank with my betta fish?

And then I just kind of get ignored

because I don't know, they probably don't

understand what I'm saying, or they don't

even notice that I'm asking something

because they're too busy chatting and

laughing with each other. It's like a very

laid-back attitude and atmosphere when it

comes to the work environment here in

Thailand. So instead of taking their jobs

very seriously, which is what the Japanese

people do, here it's like they're just

chatting and having a good time and

laughing. And then paying attention to

what work or what customers they have to

serve. I find it kind of frustrating

actually, because I just want to buy my

item and get it over and done with and

leave as quickly as possible. And then

they're just so slow because they're not

paying attention and not focusing on just

getting the job done. They're too busy

looking on the phone. I've seen so many

people just working and also looking at

the phone and chatting on the phone at the

same time as beeping my items and getting

my change. It's just a very annoying

experience. And sometimes they don't even

say anything. Like, I went to a food court

and at the food court, for some reason,

you can't pay in cash. You've got to pay

using a little plastic card and you've got

to put money on the card by going to a

counter and giving a lady cash. And then

she'll give you a card. And she just

didn't even look at me, didn't say

anything. She just sat there looking kind

of miserable whilst watching some kind of

video, probably TikTok, on her phone. So I

had to give her the money and she gave me

the card back without even looking at me

or saying thank you. I don't think anyone

has said thank you to me when I, when I

give them my money or I take my change or

take my receipt. They never say thank you.