Photo: Mekong river weed (khai pen) drying in the sunset on a plastic rice sack, Ban Xangthong, Laos.I never get tired of coincidental links between languages - they may not have any meaning, but it's enough that they are funny. When I was taking a massage course in Chiang Mai this past week, they were careful to impress upon us the reason why Thai massages might start out too strong for us, and then just get more and more painful.
It turns out that "ow" in Thai means "more"! So the more you exclaim over the pain, the more it will hurt you...
On a related note, aroy means delicious in Thai. There was a saamlaw (motorcycle trailer/sidecar thing) driving around the neighbourhood yesterday with a recording going "aroy aroy!" (I think it was selling ice cream - something tasty anyhow). I was walking with two Filipinos, who burst into laughter. It turns out that "aroy" is the Tagalog equivalent of "ouch!"
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