Saturday, October 10, 2009

Signs, signs, everywhere signs

 I am always on the lookout for signs that I find amusing.  For example, this one:



...or this one.


(For the record, both of those were from Eureka, California in 1993 when I was a missionary, if that wasn't already obvious.)

Thailand has it's own share of amazing, fabulous signs.  I don't have a camera with me as often as I would like so that I can capture these amazing signs, but this last week I got a couple.

For example, did you know that the New England Patriots are huge fans of the Thai postal system?  Yup, it's true, as evidenced by this:






Sure, the Pats moved the colors around a little bit to throw off any investigators, but it’s pretty obvious to me that the New England Patriots have very little respect for intellectual property rights.*
*LEGAL DISCLAIMER: That last comment was obviously made in jest and was in no way an attempt to actually impune the good name of the Patriots organization, and I hope I never hear from their lawyers.

Okay, how about this one?



Do you see the common symbol on the bike baskets?  Just in case you don't see it, here it is magnified a little bit:

And just in case there is any doubt:


This symbol is very popular in Thailand.  You can get a Playboy license plate for your car in Bangkok, but not the other provinces.  I'll go out on a limb and say that I don't think the Thais think it means what they think it means.

This last one appears at the rest stops along the highways in Thailand's northeastern region, right next to the ubiquitous 7-Elevens.  All of the toilets at the rest stops are squatters--all, that is, but the one designated by this sign (faithful readers will note that this makes two consecutive blog posts referencing squat toilets--I'll make no promises that it will not become an enduring theme):



I mentioned to the two Thais with whom I was traveling that the sign actually was missing a fourth component.  Starting at the top and going counterclockwise, the sit-toilets are for the elderly, pregnant women, and the disabled, but needs to also include farangs (Westerners).  The problem is, exactly how do you display a farang in graphic form?

1 comment:

  1. I'm so loving the elderly man taking a dump on the handicapped guy who is chasing a pregnant woman. At least at first glance I thought the elderly guy was trying to sit on the other dude's head.

    ReplyDelete