Host ve studiu TV Odra Studénka - 3. února 2012

Welcome, our today's guest is Lukas Mech student of Tomas Bata University in Zlin who has returned from Thailand last September. Welcome here. Thank you. How long have you been in Thailand? The longest visa you can apply for are 90 days, in case you don't renew it. So I was there for 89 days which is about 3 months. Is it difficult to get a visa? No, not at all. I was suprised when I applied for it on Wednesday at the Embassy and went there on Friday again for the visa already. Where exactly you were in Thailand? Well, when I say Bangkok, it is much bigger issue than if I said Prague but I was on the very side of Bangkok which means totally out of the tourist areas with the local Thais. So, what is the difference between Thais in the downtown and outside? Those in the downtown are more used to 2-meter-long Caucasians. Those outside the downtown don't get to meet them very often so it happened to me that they wanted to take a picture with me etc. How did you get there? Did you go for an internship? Yes, there is a student organization AIESEC, which I am a member of, that organizes internships. And I went there for such internship which didn't work out exactly the way it should have but that was the original plan. What did attracted you on Thailand? Did you just decided "tomorrow I'll go to Thailand"? Well, I did decide that "tomorrow I will go to Thailand" but that was about 2 years earlier... it was for my girlfriend who is from Thailand and returned back home about a year ago so this time I wanted to go to meet her since she was in Czech Rep., I decided it would be just fair if I go to Thailand now. How was the journey? Long...very long. The way there was worse because it was my first time flying but the way back was not that back. Anyways, it was very easy. Traveling to the airport here, in the Czech Rep was the worst. In Thailand, mainly when I was in Bangkok, it was just a question of half an hour to get anywhere from the airport. How are Thais different from Europeans? Apart from the fact that they are smaller and darker, they care more about politeness. So it happened to me that they were expecting some kind of politeness from me. It is not very usual for tourists, foreigners, but since I was at my girlfriend's family, I was a "half-Thai" and I was supposed to behave the way it is usual. Can you tell us something about the culture and the way they live? The main difference is that the majority of Thais are budhist which can be seen everywhere. Sometimes it happened to me that I went to a work or a Mall in the morning and met monks who were walking through streests and Thais were giving them food which is normal there. That might be the biggest difference between our Christianity and our system and Budhism because Buddhists wish and do the best for others because it will return to them through their believe. Did you work there or studied? Half-Half. When the internship didn't work out, I joined the local committee of AIESEC in Bangkok University that is formed by students about the same age as I am and worked with them on their regular stuff. Which means that I was helping them to run interviews with new members or organize other internships. What about the work ethic? Are they hard working as we think? Well, it is true about Japanese, Koreans...I saw it in Singapore too, but the rest of Asian countries is not that much hard working as we might imagine. It happened to me, that I got a call at 10 pm to be at the University at 8 am next morning which wouldn't be a big problem if the journey itself didn't take 2,5 hours. Moreover, I didn't know what would happen, how it would happen and what should be the result. So, I wouldn't say they are exactly "hard woking" but they do everything from the bottom of their heart and so they don't always have everything prepared but they can manage it in a way that everyone is satisfied. How do they treat the foreigners? Definitely, good. Thailand is a country that takes advantage of tourism mainly from the money that come with tourists so if I skip that they imagine money once they see a tourist, they definitely try to do everything what the tourist wants and serve him all he asks for. I experienced that when I was meeting people at the market who gave me their products they were cooking mainly to catch my attention hoping that I will by it myself next day. And I did. Do you have a funny story from Thailand? Well, there are many of those. I do have one on my mind. It is connected to the way they saw me as something different. It happened to me that Thais were stopping me at the street and checking my 2 meters. ...that happens to me here too but it was more often there. From time to time there was a student asking for a picture with me - holding a camera and wanting to take a pic. It happened to me once, that a neighbor of mine stopped me at the street and asked me not only about how tall I am but asked me also about the length of other parts of my body that are important for men. He wanted to know the cross-cultural difference. What did surprise you the most? The way how friendly they can be. I am not very used to it from Czechs. It happens here that you enter a shop and the shop assistant is unkind to you but that didn't happen to me anywhere in Thailand not in 7/11 nor in big Malls. What should a person going to Thailand pack and prepare for? He should pack light clothes that would breath because you really can't wear our long sleeves and jackets there. And what to prepare for? He should prepare for the fact that is really a different country. The culture is different but that isn't a big deal. The problem is, or the problem might be the political situation and the way that people response to it. That means that you, wearing red shirt, might be associated with one group of people because red is color of one political party used very often during some demonstrations. And what I said to everyone who is planning to go to Thailand - don't talk to any Thai citizen about the King. We are not capable of understanding the relationship that Thais have towards their King and I, myself, experienced that the relationship is very warm and if somebody - even unintentionally - says something negative he can get into some serious troubles. Would you recommend a holiday in Thiland? And why? Definitelly!! The country is wonderful. The foreigners I met there had a great reason for living there. A person can live and work in Bangkok and when he gets tired of it and wants a change, he can take a car or a bus and get to the sea in 2 hours or driving 2 hours in other way and he gets to the jungle, or 2 hours in other direction and he gets to a park, where elephants and tigers live freely. So there are plenty of choices. The advantage is the costs. Most of the nominal prices are the same as here but the thai Baht - their currency is worth about a half of the Czech Crown That means that even I as a poor student could live a nice life mainly thanks to this exchange rates. Great, thanks for coming here today. Thank you for inviting me. I am looking forward to meeting you again next week.