HUGS THAILAND

There is a word in Thai that always makes me smile. It is 'rot fai fah tai din'.

I first heard it in the run up to the opening of the MRT subway in Bangkok, I laughed and said to Karn, "did I hear that right? They just called it the 'underground skytrain!" ' (the BTS skytrain is called the 'rot fai fah').

To be totally accurate the full name for a train in Thai is 'rot fai fah' but this is seldom used, in the same way that 'motor car' is shortened to 'car' in English. Usually the Thai's call a train 'rot fai'. the 'fah' part is spelt and spoken in exactly the same way to mean both 'sky' and 'electric' - as the last part of 'fai fah' to mean electric.

To avoid this problem in recent times I have noticed that the subway is more frequently referred to as the 'rot fai tai din', but I still hear 'rot fai fah tai din' too, most recently yesterday on the news.

So, it really is 'Amazing Thailand' the only country in the world with an underground skytrain!

Take care.

Andy