Chee Wit Dee

Growing up in Bangkok

Hi everyone,

Bangkok is a great city to visit. It has a lot of history and beautiful architecture, but Bangkok is just like any large cities in the world. It has a dark side also. When I was a little kid, I had to get along with the neighborhood kids and had to join their gangs. That was for  good protection. If you were not part of your neighborhood group, who was going to protect you from the gang in the next block? They would  harass you or beat you up when you walked by. They cut up clothes hangars and bent them in a u-shape for their ammunitions. The rubber band was our weapon and was shot with u-shaped wire by putting the rubber band between two fingers. I tell you what.  It hurt so bad when you got hit. I am very lucky to still have both of my eyes. When I was about 10 yrs.old, I decided not to take any part of my neighborhood gang. I got harassed all the time both in my neighborhood and in the school. They slapped me on the back of my head. Thai people don’t like anyone to touch their head. I got so mad when they kept bullying me like that. I decided to do something about it. I asked my dad for some money to buy a punching bag. I told him that I needed to do some exercise. He gave me the money for the punching bag. After I bought the bag, I started practicing Thai kick boxing on my own. I punched and kicked the punching bag everyday after school for about four months. One day at school, one of the bad boys that liked to slap my head came to me to slap me as usual. I told him to stop. He said that he was not going to stop and what am I going to do about it. I told him to find out on Wednesday movie night at the school auditorium. I told him to fight one on one and not to bring anybody else. We both agreed to it. On Wednesday night, I showed up for my school movie night. I had been looking for him and asking many students about him. The word did spread that he and I were going to have a fight that night. To my surprise, he  chickened out. There was no fight on that night.  The next day he showed up for school, and he was nice to me and never bullied me again.  I did fight a few times to defend myself during that age. What I am trying to tell you is that every country  has some bad sections of town somewhere so always be aware of the places you visit.

Bangkok is the best place to eat. The city never sleeps. There is always good food to eat even at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning. Have you ever  heard about hawker places in Singapore. In Bangkok, they have hawkers in the shopping center on the penthouse of the Mall.  The Thai government is trying to make the city looking better and also  make sure it is clean and healthy for the consumer. Thai food is gaining popularity around the world right now. It is a lot different from the Chinese or American  or European food. Thai food  consists of herbs, spices and curry. Some Thai foods are very spicy and some are not. When you order Thai food, you need to let them know how spicy you want it. They will prepare according to your taste. Most people know Pad Thai very well. It is a traditional dish in most  Thai restaurants around the world. My Papa’ (Dad) always bought Pad Thai for Mama’ and me on the way home from work. Sometimes he bought Lad Na. Lad Na is another well known dish. It is like the Beef and Broccoli stir fry in soy sauce and poured on top of stir fried noodles.  Papa’ bought Thai deserts sometimes like Ka Nom Jeeb, Foi Tong, Kawneeo Sangkaya, etc.

I grew up with my loving parents.  Especially my Mama was always kind and sincerely gave warm love to everybody.  I have been touched by her and I came up with these three phrases :  Doing good deeds, Speaking good words, Showing goodwill.  I told my children about these words.  They love it and will teach their future generations.  I would like all my visitors to pass my good words to the people you know and practice with it.  It is getting to be a long article now.  I will write some more next time.  Bye for now

Mana