Quotes from Botan

Why is it that every nation considers its own customs reasonable, and those of other nations amusing?

The Thai have a proverb, "Sweet sickens, bitter heals'.

Suddenly I realized that mosquitoes were clustering on my neck and arms. Even before I came up here, other boys were complaining about them. How could I not realize we must be near land? So, this is the first sign of Bangkok — mosquitoes, clouds of them. If they were organized, they could carry us to shore one by one.

I don't know if it's because they're protective of their daughters or not, but all the men eat together, boss and employees included, and the women eat whatever is left. I don't like it; I think a family should eat together.

Of course, we Chinese are not allowed to own land, but Thai landowners are always in need of money.

Ang Bui also told me that Thais cremate their dead instead of burying them. They believe that a man's spirit cannot be released and reborn unless the body is cremated. What do you think of that? I think it is more reasonable to respect other people's beliefs than to argue on behalf of one's own, which in any event can have no good result.

Marriage is an important step in a man's life, but I confess I don't understand why we have to spend'so much money in celebrating the perpetuation of our race. Ceremonies are only a show of wealth, at best a gesture of good will toward our friends, and I think perhaps it all goes too far. I wonder if you agree with me

A long time ago, daughter, we Chinese married strangers, because most of the people who lived near us were of the same sae. By the time a bride could visit her parents, perhaps two weeks had passed. And sometimes it was such a distance that the 'bride' arrived with one fat baby clingingtoher skirts and another in her arms. But it remains our tradition to honor a married daughter on her first visit home, even when her journey is from the shop next door.

I have never put a piece of ice into my mouth, or taken an iced drink. Cold liquid rushing down into a man's stomach is unnatural, as anyone with common sense must agree, and 1 have observed that old people who take iced drinks become stiff and move painfully. Thailand is very hot, and cold drinks only increase the heat within our bodies. I decided long ago to drink only hot tea, which cools the blood.

The newspapers continue to bring bad news from China. I do not trust news which comes indirectly, and from afar at that, but - Do you remember that old tale of the woman who gave birth to an elephant? When the truth was discovered, it appeared that the midwife had said the child's nose looked a bit long . . . still, I worry.

But why bother?" asked Weng Kim. "That is exactly the point, Weng Kim. We are Chinese, and Chinese people do bother. Thais were still eating rice with their fingers fifty years ago, and now they use whatever the foreigners use. We have used chopsticks since ancient times; they worked better for the purpose intended than fingers did then, and better than forks and spoons do now.

I read in a magazine the other day that Hindu Indians do not mourn their dead; instead they rejoice, believing that the loved one has gone to a better place. I cannot imagine that, myself, for how can the heart not ache with the sorrow of that terrible finality? Do these people have no feelings?

It is becoming quite irksome, this stubbornness of hers about marrying. Suitors do appear occasionally, men eager to marry her, but she will have nothing to do with any of them. I wouldn't be at all surprised if she picked the worst of the lot in the end; as an old Thai saying goes, she who has one chance to walk the length of the garden in search of the perfect rose may have to pick in haste from the last bush.

Tan Suang U," he said with a slow smile, "many a boy has strayed in the season of his youth and returned home to make his parents proud. I do not think that your Weng Kim is a bad boy.

I was of the opinion that a good heart was not money in the bank. You couldn't buy a bowl of rice with sympathy, I used to say. But two baht worth of rice with love at the supper table is a feast, and I know, because we starved on roast pork.