Thai Language Blog

North East, or Isaan ภาคอีสาร paak3 ee1saan5

The north east of Thailand, which is the most populous in the country, is generally referred to as Isaan. The people of Isaan share a 50/50 heritage with Thailand and Laos, and the language, food, and culture are representative of that. The land here is the most arid, dry and hot. That’s why the region specializes in mainly farming. Cough.

Economically, the region lags behind the rest of the country. Partly it’s because the environment is not conducive to farming, but also because of many socio-economic reasons I’d rather not go in to. The latter is why the majority of the Red Shirts come from this region. The quality of education in this region is very poor, and unfortunately it negatively affects life for Issaners.

As many of the inhabitants are poor farmers, it results in plenty of thin tan women – popular among foreigners tired of the lazy fat pale women back home (I guess I’m tired of them too, haha). If a foreigner asks a Thai what’s there in Isaan to see, the Thai will answer with a grin, ‘women’. But Thai’s of other regions generally look down on Isaaners as dumb water buffalo, and they think tan skin is ugly. They don’t understand why foreigners have interest in them. It’s like wealthy Chinese men coming to America and snatching up all the ugly poor white women, and taking them back to China for marriage. I honestly wouldn’t mind, but I wouldn’t understand it either . . .

Anyway, Isaan is famous for its yummy sticky rice and grilled meats (which IMHO goes great together). It’s entirely okay to eat with your hands here, as they’ll be pleasantly surprised that you ‘eat like a real Thai’. The kaen (แคน, kaen1) instrument and the music style mor lum (หมอลำ ,maw5 lum2) comes from this region. Most of your taxi drivers also come from Isaan.

image credit: thai-blogs.com

In the next few posts, we’ll take a break from vocabulary words and focus on Thai geography a bit. In terms of understanding culture and language, knowing Thai geography is very important.

Thailand generally consists of four main regions: North, South, Central, and North East. There is also West and East, but since they are located in Nakorn Nowhere, neither ever comes up in conversation.

image credit: http://thethailandexpert.com

Before we start, I encourage you to read my previous blogs on Thai dialects. Also to note, the word ภาค paak3 means ‘region’.

North ภาคเหนือ paak3 neua5

The north is about a 2 hour flight or half a day train ride from Bangkok. The hub of the north is <a href= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiang_mai>Chiang Mai</a>, which means ‘New City’. You’d think after 700 years of being founded they’d change the name . . . Next to Bangkok, Chiang Mai is the second most important city in the country. The north is a mountainous region of Thailand, where farmers often grow rice on steep hills. This region is also the ‘coldest’, where you will actually need a jacket and hat during winter nights to stay warm. Songkran, the three day water festival, can feel cold here in April when you’re soaking wet. It’s also a popular place for people who prefer more mild climates. Possibly the most famous tourist spot in the north is Doi Suthep, basically a big mountain overlooking Chiang Mai.

The north has its own dialect of Thai. The current Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, and her controversial brother and previous Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, both come from Chiang Mai. While traveling Chiang Mai, you might see the word Lanna written everywhere. It’s a reference to the old Lanna Kingdom which was later assimilated by Thailand. Lanna is spelled ล้านนา (laan4 naa1), which means ‘a million farms’.

While Chiang Mai is the ‘New City’, Chiang Rai is the ‘Old City’. Not much is left of that city, but you can find many hill tribes in this area. The mountains here are quite beautiful to me.

For the remainder of our time in the Thai jungle, we visited a Karen hill tribe village, hiked across makeshift bridges, rode elephants, and jumped off a small cliff near a waterfall.