Green papaya salad is the most popular dish among women in Thailand according to a survey I heard on TV there. It is a Northeastern food that is eaten with sticky rice and other Northeastern dishes such as laab, beef salad and bamboo shoot salad.
The two most popular types of green papaya salad have either dried shrimp or salted crab. Green papaya salad with dried shrimp and peanuts is called som tum thai. The green papaya salad with salted crab is called som tum pbooh. The majority of the ingredients are
the same. My mother likes it with both dried shrimp and salted crab.
Many Asian supermarkets have shredded green papaya and that is what I use. However, if you can only find whole green papaya, the papaya can be peeled and shreded using a regular cheese grater with medium to large sized holes. When you get closer to the center, you will see the white immature seeds inside. Stop and move onto another part of the papaya. Discard any seeds that got into your bowl.
In Thailand, green papaya salad is made using a clay mortar, wooden pestle and a spatula. Smash a clove of garlic first. Then add green beans and halved cherry tomatoes. Pound a few times just to bruise the beans and get the juice out of the tomatoes. Add chili peppers and crush them just enough to release the hotness, unless you like your salad really hot. Add the green papaya, dried shrimp, toasted peanuts, fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar. Use the pestle to push the mixture up in the mortar and the spatula to push it down so that the mixture is mixed well.
However, if you do not have a big enough mortar you can crush garlic, tomatoes, green beans. Set them aside in a large bowl. Add dried shrimp, fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar to the bowl. Add green papaya and mix well. Serve with sticky rice and a sliver of cabbage, green beans and Thai basil.
For som tum pbooh, omit the dried shrimp and toasted peanuts and add salted crabs instead. I microwave the salted crabs for 30 seconds before adding them to the papaya salad to kill any residual bacteria. Add only half of the fish sauce called for because the salted crab can be quite salty.
Tips and substitutions
For a vegetarian som tum, omit the dried shrimp and substitute soy sauce for fish sauce.
Some people use tamarind in place of lime. Regular sugar can be substituted for palm sugar. I normally omit the peanuts because I prefer it without.
The balance of fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar and peppers listed here are guidelines. Som tum is an individual dish that you will find you might like your with more, say, lime juice than what the recipe calls for.
There are many countries in the world that have their own beauty and value which different from the other in locations, cultures, customs and traditions. Thailand is also the one of those that locates in Southeast Asia near the equator.
Thailand has a lot of different beauties and colors of cultures, customs and traditions on each localities in old Thai-Style constructions, art objects and architectures which continues from the past to present more than thousand years.
However, foreigner, who is interested in Thailand, should has a basic information about Thailand first before coming to visit Thailand for any reasons as traveling, history studying, business or etc.:
1.Thailand has five different areas as Central, North, Northeast, South and East and having 76 provinces.
2. Metropolis is Bangkok or Krung-Thep Mahanakhon (grung-teab ma-har-na-korn) in Thai.
3. There are about sixty-two million citizens which are different in races and cultures but stay consistently in the society. 4.People have freedom for respecting in any religions but most of Thai people are Buddhists.
5. Thai language is nation language for writing and speaking more than thousand years since Sukhothai Kingdom.
6. Administration in democracy with Prime Minister that has king as the most respectful institute for the people.
7. Thai currency is made up of baht that changes by the stock market.
8. Thai agriculture products are rice, corn, sugarcane, cassava and etc. which Thailand is important base food producer of the world.
In addition to information upward, Thai people have characteristic of friendly, enjoyment and modesty which can notice from bringing the hands together to the face and smile that gives to each other every time. Thus, Thailand has another name as "The land of smile".
There are a lot of beautiful natures in different areas around Thailand; beaches, waterfalls, mountains and colorful hot forests; for tourists to join and relax in different activities. So, don't be surprise to hear that the most of tourists come back to Thailand more than once and also a lot of foreigners move to stay in Thailand.
Therefore, the beautiful natures and other things that we would like to present are :
Beaches
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Most of Thai beaches are favorite for tourists because of thousand-long shore on Thai's Gulf side and Andaman side which are beautiful and great for activities as swimming and diving.
Waterfalls
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There are different beautiful waterfalls in every areas of Thailand but the most favorite for everyone is Tee - Lor - Soo Waterfall, the top ten of biggest and greatest waterfall of the world.
Ancient Remains
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Thailand is one of the world ancient civilization that can find ancient remains all around of the country event in Bangkok. These ones remain the value of culture which reflects the civilization of ancient Thai for a long time ago.
Native Souvenir
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Gems, silks, pottery, and woodcarvings have differences in each area. Any of them is a good choice to be a souvenir that can buy at department stores and Native Souvenir Center but the best place to buy them is Bang Sai Royal Arts & Crafts Centre at Ayutthaya province.
Festivals and Joyful Traditions
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Thailand has festivals every months in each year and each festival has taught local religion and believing such as Songkran (pronunciation as in song-grarn) Festival, Buddhist Lent Festival, Fast after the Chinese fashion Festival, Long Boat-Racing Festival, and Loi Krathong (pronunciation as in lory gra-tong) Festival, etc. For each festival of the month, please check more information in www.speakingthai.com/thaistories
Foods and Fruits
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Thailand has very different kind of delicious foods for tasting. Normally, Thai food has spicy taste from spices such as chicken curry Indian style, green curry with chicken and spicy soup with prawns or Tom Yam Kung etc. Thailand also has delicious fruits such as orange, rambutan, durian, coconut, banana, longan and more that you can buy everywhere on its season.
Besides, Thailand still has a lot of activities and things that be very interesting for tourists to touch and see for learning and enjoyment. For more information, please contact The Tourism Authority of Thailand at www.tat.or.th or any tourist organization or you can search from menu:Thai Gates in tourist category of www.speakingthai.com.
Muay Thai is the popular Thai kickboxing and is a mixture of several techniques employed in the rest of the forms of martial arts. Most of the times it is termed as the “science of 8 limbs” simply because almost all parts of the body are employed during the fight. The forehead, the fists, elbows, knees, and feet are often used as the weapons. It has been around for more than 2000 years and is basically regarded as the oldest variant of martial arts. Muay Thai was once called the martial art of the kings because of the fact that in 1914 the sons of the King Sen Muajng Ma fought until their death for the throne of their father. Muay Thai fighters are expected to be strong and powerful since all the movements can really be energy-draining. Muay Thai training then enhances the fighter’s adaptability, strength, and stamina. More so, here are some very important techniques to learn.
The Thai Clinch. This Muay Thai technique is exclusively used for this martial art. The fighter holds the opponent through the head, body, or neck. He then presses his forearm on the collar bone of the opponent. The typical clinching technique applied in Muay Thai is the tapping of the head downward before releasing a throw. He can also cause the opponent to lose balance by throwing him to his left.
The Kru. This one is a tedious technique to learn that calls for hard work during the training. This Muay Thai training technique requires the tradition that the fighter needs to respect his trainer by means of the Wai Kru ritual.
Some important elements employed for the Muay Thai training techniques are running, stretching, and shadow boxing. A Muay Thai fighter must have the “never say die” attitude at all cost.
Muay Thai as a martial arts discipline makes use of the body parts for weapons. The parts of the body which are the head, elbow, fists, feet, and knee comprise the Na-wa arwud. However, in these days, Muay Thai fights no longer permit the fighter to use the head. In attacking and defending, the fighter employs a little quantity of grappling or that which is known as The Clinch. The techniques of Muay Thai are divided into two categories—the Luk Mai or that which is known as the Minor techniques and the Mae Mai or the Major techniques. The very reason why Muay Thai is held to be distinct from the other variants of martial arts is because it utilizes the whole body movement while the hip can either be rotated fully or partially for every block, kick, and punch executed.
The punching techniques include the straight punch, swing, hook, upper cut, spinning back fist, cobra punch, upper cut, and the over head punch. Judges add less to the scores of the Muay Thai fighters who often use the punches as they are less powerful.
The elbow techniques are the elbow slash, upper cut elbow, horizontal elbow, forward elbow thrust, spinning elbow, reverse horizontal elbow, elbow chop, mid air elbow strike, and the double elbow chop. The kicking techniques are the nutcracker kick, straight kick, diagonal kick, roundhouse kick, spinning kick, axe hill kick, half spin half knee kick, jump kick, and step up kick. The most commonly used though are the kick and the foot jab.
The knee techniques include the straight knee strike, diagonal knee strike, horizontal knee strike, curving knee strike, knee slap, flying knee strike, step up knee strike, small knee strike, and the knee bomb.
Meanwhile the foot techniques are the sideways foot thrust, straight foot thrust, reverse foot thrust, slapping foot thrust, and the jumping foot thrust. Muay Thai is one sport that requires a fighter’s adaptability, stamina, and strength.
When you want to start boxing, the prior equipment or gear that you need to have is a pair of boxing gloves. However, which one you ought to buy, since there are lots and lots of boxing gloves you can choose in the market.
We want to guide you how to pick a perfect pair of gloves! First you need to know how important they are. Boxing gloves, crucially important in boxing, are made and used to protect your hands and wrists and also to safe your opponent’s life.
It is very significant to find the gloves that perfectly fit your hands. Let’s take a look at our quick guide below.
The most importantly, they must be made of great quality materials. There are many of cool looking gloves with really low price sole in many shops. But they might not be as good or have very short life. So, you have to understand that if you could spend a little extra money, you will get a BETTER pair of gloves with a LONGER lifetime of use. Just remember that you will get what you want for what you pay for.
There are a few questions you need to ask yourself before buying yourself boxing gloves.
First, ask yourself what you need them for. It’s because there are different kinds of gloves made for different purposes. For example, Muay Thai gloves have more flexibility than other boxing gloves because in Muay Thai, the fighter needs to have the ability to use his hands to grab his opponent to do the knee strikes.
Second, what do you want to use them with? Are you using them with a heavy bag or with a speed bag? There are gloves for each of them. If you are practicing with heavy bag, you will need a thicker pair of gloves.
Then, how about if you need them to compete in the ring? Then you must also consider their weight. The lighter, the better! You don’t want to waste too much energy throwing a punch with that heavy glove.
Now it’s time to pick the right ones for you. If you go through any sport shops, you will find it’s hard to pick ones since there are too many to choose from. Once you’ve already answered those questions, we’d like to guide you a bit about the size that will suit you the most.
“The bigger gloves the heavier they are” is not always true. You can also choose the right size that perfectly fit your hands with the weight you want. Like I said above, different weights mean different uses.
General sizes are S, M, L and XL ranging in different weights from 8 oz. to 20 oz. depending on each manufacturer. Lots of time you will only see the weights, not the size. So just keep in mind that Small means 12 oz. Medium is 14 oz. and Large is 16 oz.
A pro fighter normally uses 8 – 10 oz. gloves with the size that absolutely fits his hands. In addition, you can find 10 oz. gloves in S, M, and L.
If you get a chance to try putting on the gloves before you buy them, which would be great, DON’T forget to bring your hand wraps! Wrap your hands first before trying the gloves. You don’t want to feel too tight or too loose because that could hurt your hands and wrists instead of keeping them safe.
NOTE: A newly bought gloves could be a bit tight, but they will stretch a bit just like shoes. So when you first try them with your hand wrap before buying, you have to choose the one that a little bit tight, instead of the perfectly fit because after a while they will be just perfect once they’ve stretched.
Why is it so important to wrap your hands before putting your boxing gloves on? Hand wraps, the second most important gear apart from gloves, are used to keep your hands and wrist safe.
In some type of boxing, only use hand wraps as the only protection, which is called “Bounded Fist Boxing”, but it is much more dangerous and deadly than any other types that use gloves. Why?
Hand wraps can helps shielding your bones and tendons, and holding your wrists and thumbs. Bounded Fist Boxing is dangerous enough. I don’t have to mention what it would be like, bare bones hitting someone’s face.
Good hand wraps should be made of good quality of elastic material that will shape your hands and also can let air through. Cotton made is recommended. The generally lengths are 120” and 170”.
Which one you need that would depend on the size of your hands and you boxing gloves. Smaller size might be available in some shops.
Nowadays there are many types, styles and colors of hand wraps you can choose.
Next we want to show you how to properly wrap your hands. Mark that improper use may cause more injury to your hands and wrists instead of protecting them.
Here is our step-by-step of how to wrap your hand. Remember that you can use any other methods out there that most suit you.
First hold your hand out, face it downward and soothingly stretch out your fingers. Start by placing the thumb loop around your thumb. Make sure which side is up and down, some wraps have “this side up” written on it. And do not twist the wrap during the whole process.
Then wrap it across the back of your hand and go around your wrist a couple times high enough to hold your wrist well. Do not wrap your hand too tight to blog your blood circulation.
After that, bring it transverse the back of your hand and go around your palm, and then around your knuckles a few times. From the knuckles, cross the back of your hand to wrap around your wrist again making “X”. Repeat the “X” a few more times.
From your wrist, now it’s time to start wrapping around each finger, starting with the thumb. Wrap around your thumb and go on top of the back of your hand again to your wrist and go around your wrist. Repeat that one more time before you do the same with the rest of the fingers in order. Index, middle, ring and pinky.
Then from your wrist, again wrap around your knuckles. Finish this by wrapping your wrist and fasten your wrap’s hook.
You can alternate the times you wrap in some steps above. It might seem hard for the first time, wrapping your hands also need practice.
Before we go, here are some last tips:
Always feel comfortable with your wraps on. You must rewrap again, if it’s too tight or too loose.
We suggest you to have at least 2 pairs of hand wraps so you will always have one when the other is being washed.
If our instruction is not clear enough, you might want to follow your trainer for the first time step-by-step. Bear in mind that a proper use is really essential.
You can check out hand wrap for many different choices of hand wraps come with hooks and loops that is very easy to use with such a reasonable price.
Are you looking for Boxing Shorts and also having troubles choosing which ones you ought to buy? Actually there are no rules or anything. You can choose from normal sport shorts until professional muay thai boxing shorts.
The differences are the material that is used to cut the shorts. For example, Nylon, Cotton, Polyester Blend and Satin.
Which one you want is really up to you. They all have advantages and disadvantages. But let’s just say that it’s all about feeling when you where them; some people might not like the smoothness of the Satin along their legs.
However, the shorts have to have Elastic Waist band with tie down, or you might prefer drawstring inside or outside to allow you to adjust the waist size yourself. That also depends on what you like most.
One more thing, most boxing shorts today should be machine washable. No one really wash their cloths by hands anymore. The prices are not that different except you are looking for brand name products.
Now, once you wear kickboxing shorts, you should feel the comfort and the freedom of movement.
Muay Thai boxing shorts that are popular made in Thailand mostly made of 100% Satin and wide-leg designed because they will allow you to move freely as fast as you can without any disturbing to your legs. And even though they are so thin fabric, they are of course machine washable.
Here is our men’s kickboxing shorts size guide:
Standard size equivalents (inches)
In Thailand, there are many Muay Thai factories that manufacture Muay Thai shorts, such as, Twins Special, Raja Boxing, ThaiSmai, and Windy.
They have made many styles of shorts with lots of choices of coolest Muay Thai logo. Or many places also allow you to custom your own boxing shorts, so you can have the ones that you truly desire.
Thai massage іѕ ѕаіԁ tο һаνе bееח developed bу Jivaka Kumar Bhaccha, believed tο bе tһе, physician tο tһе Buddha, іח India more tһаח 2,500 years ago. It һаѕ tһеח mаԁе іtѕ way tο Thailand, wһеrе іtѕ principles аחԁ techniques slowly became influenced bу tһе customary Chinese medicine.
It wаѕ performed bу monks fοr centuries used аѕ one element fοr Thai medicine. Thai massage іѕ ѕаіԁ tο bе more stimulating аחԁ precise tһаח аחу οtһеr kinds οf massage.
It іѕ аƖѕο being called tһе “Thai yoga massage”, wһеrе іח tһе therapists uses tһеіr hands, knees, legs, аחԁ feet tο mονе people іחtο a sequence οf yoga-Ɩіkе positions. Many people ѕау іt іѕ Ɩіkе performing yoga without doing аחу work. Much compression οf tһе muscles іח tһе joint areas аחԁ acupressure аrе used during tһе massage treatment. Many describe Thai massage аѕ both comforting аחԁ refreshing sort οf therapy.
Here аrе tһе five best massage centers іח Thailand:
1. Tһе Garden Chiang Mai – located іח Chiang Mai, Thailand offers уου tһе enjoyments οf foot massages іח tһе garden. Garden Chiang Mai massage іѕ based οח reflexology аחԁ acupressure styles, wһісһ means tһаt wіtһ tһеіr qualified staff, massage іѕ always relaxing аחԁ stimulates tһе whole system. Tһеу аƖѕο offer neck аחԁ back massage here. Wіtһ јυѕt 150 baht per hour, one саח еחјοу traditional Thai massage. Tһе massage routines аrе performed іח luxury air-conditioned rooms. Tһіѕ іѕ a Thai massage center designed tο awaken аחԁ manipulate tһе body. Thai massage provides full relief frοm many aches аחԁ pains wһісһ helps wіtһ achieving ɡοοԁ posture.
2. Oriental de Phuket – found іח Phuket, Thailand a рƖасе fοr one tο һаνе a refreshing mind аחԁ body. Oriental de Phuket іѕ well recommended fοr Healthy Massage tһаt wіƖƖ һеƖр everyone reduce stress аחԁ һаνе a peaceful time.
Here, one wіƖƖ observe warmest welcome аחԁ tһе best services. therapists аrе well trained аחԁ qualified bу specialized Thai Massage Association
3. Chiva Som – іѕ everyone’s “Haven οf Life” located іח tһе tһе Gulf οf Thailand. Chiva-Som іѕ аƖƖ аbουt learning tο live, еחјοу life, еחјοу life’s pleasures аחԁ appreciate Thai massages. Here, one enjoys relaxing Thai massage аחԁ οtһеr different massage techniques. Tһе Chive som massage center һаѕ well trained staff tһаt wіƖƖ surely give everyone tһе comfort tһеу need.
4. Health Land – located іח Pattaya Nua Road, Thailand. Offers relaxing Thai massages fοr аѕ low аѕ 450 Baht per session. Tһе massage wіƖƖ take up tο 2 hours, wһеrе one саח fully relax аחԁ еחјοу tһе luxury οf tһе рƖасе wһіƖе having a peaceful time.
5. Friend’s Massage – located οחƖу 200 meters away frοm Sukhumvit. It іѕ a сƖеаח аחԁ ɡοοԁ-looking building wһісһ һаѕ bееח newly renovated. Friend’s massage offers traditional Thai massage аחԁ oil massages, beauty treatments such аѕ manicure, pedicure, facial massage, nail painting, аחԁ even hairdressing services.
Green papaya salad is the most popular dish among women in Thailand according to a survey I heard on TV there. It is a Northeastern food that is eaten with sticky rice and other Northeastern dishes such as laab, beef salad and bamboo shoot salad. 
In addition to information upward, Thai people have characteristic of friendly, enjoyment and modesty which can notice from bringing the hands together to the face and smile that gives to each other every time. Thus, Thailand has another name as 
