7 unusual things you will probably find in every Thai house

If you are not Thai, there are many things you will surely find unusual in Thailand. Some of them you will find them along the streets and roads. Others, inside the houses and apartments.

This list focuses in things which you wouldn’t normally find on other parts of the world. However, depending on where you are from,  some of them may not be weird for you at all.

Also, this does not only apply to Thai traditional houses but basically to anyone living in Thailand. If it is your case, how many of them do you have at your place?

1. A bag or drawer full of plastic bags

If you live in Thailand, you have a drawer like this

Thailand has some serious addiction for plastic bags. Whatever you buy, it will come to you in a plastic bag. As a result, everyone end up with a million plastic bags on their house, normally to be reused on other purposes like garbage bags.

Calculations from Bangkok Metropolitan Administration estimates every day 600,000 plastic bags are used only in Bangkok. There have been some initiatives to raise awareness about this problem before like the No Bag, No Baht program, but the progress is still very slow, if any.

2. Thousands of rubber bands

Another rubber band? Keep it, you might need it later

In some countries you have to go to the stationery shop to buy a pack of rubber bands. Not in Thailand, especially if you are an avid consumer of street food. As connected to the previous point, take away food is normally packed either in a plastic bag or foam food containers. Either way, they will be skillfully wrapped with a rubber band.

And what to do with it after you already ate your food? Keep it, of course, just in case you need it later. It doesn’t matter if you already have a thousand more.

3. Cable TV / Satellite

More channels!

Something which catches the attention of some foreigners is the amount of satellite dishes around, even in the poorest looking houses. The reason is that normal TV, recently updated to digital television, has very few channels, so it is better to opt for the cable / satellite one.

And it’s not expensive. Once you get the dish and the box, you don’t really need to pay any monthly fee to watch some of the channels. Of course, if you want to follow the latest Game of Thrones or sport matches, it will cost you some money.

4. A collection of tupperwares

Keep it… just in case

Everyone has to resort to food delivery once in a while. Maybe you are too lazy to cook, or it is raining outside or you just feel like eating from some franchise without going anywhere. Many of the main food franchises brings you the food on “good quality” tupperwares, so what can you do… but to keep them?

It just feels bad to throw them away, but also deep inside you know you don’t really need yet another duck-shaped tupperware from MK… In the end it’s likely that you will keep it.

5. Tons sauce sachets

Sauces, sauces everywhere

This is not so uncommon on other parts of the world. Once you get a sauce sachet with your order, you will normally keep it. No one likes to throw away food (or condiments). What differs here in Thailand is the sauces. Instead of ketchup, mustard and maybe mayonnaise, here you are more likely to get lot of chili sauce, ground chili and sugar.

6. Zam-buk (or other balms)

The remedy for everything

Maybe you don’t recognize the name, but you probably have seen it before. This medical ointment is very popular in Thailand. It can be used for to relieve minor bruises, itch, cuts, burns, mosquito bites. Basically for everything.

As Thailand is a tropical country, mosquitoes bites are a common issue. Sometimes they are terribly itchy, and in those cases zam-buk comes to the rescue relieving the itch temporarily.

7. A bum-gun

You will find the infamous hose on houses and some condos

We talked about it before. It is common for Thai people to use the bum-gun, or water hose to clean in the toilet, instead of using toilet paper. Therefore, most houses and some condos will come with this feature.

How many of them do you recognize? Which one we forgot?