That Thai way of walking

[ChrisUK]

Have you noticed the way many Thai guys strut along the street, swinging their arms from side to back at about 45 degrees to their body, while walking with their feet pointing at about 45 degrees outwards rather than straight forward. I find it quite unique and endearing, but does anyone know why this manner of walking is popular?

[jinks]

They walk like Ballet Dancers, pointing the toes, or those that they still have.

They walk like Ballet Dancers, pointing the toes, or those that they still have.

Can't say that I have ever met a Thai with no toes jinks!

Oh I can answer this question DEFINITIVELY!!!

You will notice that this "gait" only affects boys who have coffin-dodging UK Expat "boyfriends".

Now these patrons are so elderly and decrepit that all they are capable of doing of an evening is to watch UK Gold on satellite TV for hours on end (UK Gold comprises endless re-runs of "Classic British Comedy") - in fact I have seen questions asked on this very forum as to how to access UK Gold in Thailand!

Their "boy special" obviously has to watch it every night with them as a condition of employment (and to empty the urine bag every so often, but that's another matter)

One of the top British TV performers in the 70's was called DICK EMERY and his shows are often shown on the aforementioned UK Gold.

Endless viewing of DICK EMERY by "boy specials" has resulted in them adopting this mincing walk (hereafter to be known as Mincegait) which is the subject of this Topic!

See it for yourself HERE!!!

http://tinyurl.com/ybd7stg

[fedssocr]

can't say I have noticed this. But I have noticed that there is no slower-walking creature in the world than a Thai woman. Getting stuck behind one on the sidewalk is torture until you can get past.

Oh! I notice this too...it is so sweet. The gait is nonchalant and unhurried, allowing the ability to concentrate on companions and laugh laugh laugh, like they love to do.

I think I know why the toes are pointed thusly. To point your feet is ingrained into the culture from very early on as rude. There's a natural aversion to ever having toes or soles showing at anyone, especially in temples and near Buddhas. Perhaps GF or Brad might chime in here, but I think they naturally avoid any kind of pointing with their feet.

[Beachlover]

Strange... I've never noticed this.

BL... why do I think that your next visit to the LOS you will be doomed to trip a lot as you spend all your time observing the walking habits of all the cute guys here?? lol

The asian gait, whether Chinese or Thai, is one of the things I've always noticed here. Deliberately not purposeful, very seductive in the 'I don't care how long it takes me to reach my destination' way, is one of the things that makes everyday enjoyable.

That and the incessant male hugging thai boy workers engage in on those construction trucks after work...sigh...

[Beachlover]

Asian gait? Bugger... maybe I'm doing it myself. Damnit... I don't have a full length mirror anywhere.

... I don't have a full length mirror anywhere.

Neither had Dracula.


:hello1: :hello1:

Asian gait? Bugger... maybe I'm doing it myself. Damnit... I don't have a full length mirror anywhere.

Beachlover



What do you think they invented youtube for, sweetie. Just post and I'll 'walk' you through it...

[TrongpaiExpat]

can't say I have noticed this. But I have noticed that there is no slower-walking creature in the world than a Thai woman. Getting stuck behind one on the sidewalk is torture until you can get past.

You try walking your average Thai sidewalk in high heals. Also, there's walking in tandem or groups and in no hurry to get back to work. Ever get behind one on a crowded escalator and the bitch stops at the very top to answer her cell phone leaving no room for those getting off the top of the escalator? Ever notice a lady stop dead in her tracks on a sidewalk to answer her cell phone? Once I was in an elevator and it stopped at a floor going down, this lady talking on a cell, wanted to get in but did not want to get her call dropped as can happen in an elevator, so she held her hand on the door to finish her conversation standing half in and half out holding up everyone. This would be the same lady that does not give a second though to standing up traffic a few meters from you when your on the street first trying to get a taxi--she hales the taxi like your not even there and never-never looks you in the eye.

Oh, but I digress, this topic is about Thai boys walking. I'm too busy looking at their asses to notice feet.

can't say I have noticed this. But I have noticed that there is no slower-walking creature in the world than a Thai woman. Getting stuck behind one on the sidewalk is torture until you can get past.

OMG... don't get me started .

Thai women who are out and about are the worst pedestrians; I sometime feel like giving them kick in the box. For me it's being under constant attack sometimes.
Some of them walk like they're kamikaze pilots and I'm the their target. They'll be walking in the other direction then all of a sudden, they'll just start walking right at me. I'm saying to myself "WFT??"
Following one down the street is equally frustrating. They stop or turn without any apparent reason or will even simply turn around and walk right into me or all of a sudden just stop in a doorway, on the stairs or in the middle of the f#*$*ing cross walk. If there's a pet peeve when I'm Thailand, this would be it.

[Beachlover]

I don't think it's just Thai women... but yeah... dimwit pedestrians that hold me up by standing on the wrong side of the escalator, stopping or blocking the way when the train doors open really piss me off.

[PeterUK]

True, all true, about Thai female pedestrians. :protest: But a lot of the Thai young men have a way of walking which I love. I'm sure you're all familiar with it. It's more of a glide than a walk, straight-backed, head held high as if balancing an invisible bowl of water (no drop of which is ever spilt). Looks so serene and graceful. Guys slipping evenly along the seashore at Jomtien like that have an ethereal, dreamlike quality to them. Love it.

[Smiles]

There has never been a time, on a sidewalk somewhere in Thailand, when I'm walking alone, whistling along, deep in thought, picking up laundry, heading to some beach chair, plying the cement like like a drunken captain searching for another rum ... that I have not approached a Thai lady (of indeterminate but varied age) from behind. Not of course to ogle her ass ~ that's left for the Other Gender ~ but simply to pass. Her ass.

Whichever side of her, left(?), right(?), I prepare to sashay ~ and the decision is highly strategic and long in the making ~ she will, just as the 'left' is about to be assaulted, move straight left (forcing me into oncoming vehicles) for no obvious reason: is there dog shit on the ground before you, Madame? Has your mobile gone off and taken you off stride, my dear? Did the gorgeous ass of that Thai guy in front of you that I'd seen first move from your line of sight, you slut?
A big fat 'No' to all of those. She just did it ... like a humming bird changing direction "en flit" in the blink of an eye as it spies a new unsipped open bloom.
The same event can happen on the right . . . but you'll never know when, or why: except for the niggling racist paranoia within that she's doing it only because she's fully aware that there's a farang right behind her and she's going to get that imperialist dirty bastard exploiter ... in the only way she knows how.

I say: treat it as a game and enjoy ... nay, revel in the tactical knowledge that you are in fact behind her (the same place where Napoleon or Alexander once were), you're on to her, you know already what she's going to do, you can do the opposite expected and slip by on the undefended flank with a big smile and a loud "sawatdee CRAP" (you old Bag).

[PeterUK]

The same event can happen on the right . . . but you'll never know when, or why: except for the niggling racist paranoia within that she's doing it only because she's fully aware that there's a farang right behind her and she's going to get that imperialist dirty bastard exploiter ... in the only way she knows how.


I guessed this subject would appeal to you, Smiles, and enjoyed your quirky, amusing take on it. The extract above reminds me of an incident that occurred long ago. I had hired a car to go and visit a boy's village near Udon Thani. On the way back I was driving, the boy (who shared the driving) was sitting next to me and his sister and her baby, along with assorted belongings, were on the back seat. We were going along a dual carriageway which stretched emptily ahead apart from one large, heavily-laden truck. I pulled out to overtake but as I drew level the truck veered across forcing me to slam on the brakes. Amid screams, wails and curses, sister, baby and belongings surged forward to join us in the front. We sorted ourselves out but it was some time before my anger subsided. It seemed obvious that the truck driver must have seen us approaching in his mirror, clocked that it was a farang driving and deliberately pulled out to obstruct me for the hell of it; there was no other car or living creature in sight. At the time, being a callow tourist, I put the incident down to an isolated act of delinquency, but subsequently I have come to realise, like many others, that behind all the smiling there is a pronounced streak of malice towards farangs running through Thai society generally.

[Shuee]

my take on this is that as the majority of them wear flipahslops in their villages, after a while you tend to walk in this manner, & sometimes the flipahflops tend to drift having no rear strap, so your feet end chasing them to fit right,
when i wear flipahflops in los, i tend to notice myself mimicking this thai guys walk, & was wondering strangely why i was beginning to walk differently? thats how i came up with thinking that this is where this swagger came from, when you see a real dramatized walk in this fashion, be sure to look at the flipahflops & you should see that they are not being worn properly.
you dont see the women walking much like this, my guess is this is due to their pelvis being a different shape

if i see you in los, i will show you how this is easily acheived wearing such footwear

my take on this is that as the majority of them wear flipahslops in their villages, after a while you tend to walk in this manner, & sometimes the flipahflops tend to drift having no rear strap, so your feet end chasing them to fit right,
when i wear flipahflops in los, i tend to notice myself mimicking this thai guys walk, & was wondering strangely why i was beginning to walk differently? thats how i came up with thinking that this is where this swagger came from, when you see a real dramatized walk in this fashion, be sure to look at the flipahflops & you should see that they are not being worn properly.
you dont see the women walking much like this, my guess is this is due to their pelvis being a different shape

if i see you in los, i will show you how this is easily acheived wearing such footwear

The guys that I know wear flip-flops which go "flip-flop" as you walk hence the name. I've never seen a pair of flipahslops but if they make that kind of noise as one walks in them then I can well understand why one wearing a pair would walk in a strange sloppy kind of manner......

My boyfriend wears flip-flops nearly all the time but somehow manages not to make a sound as he walks. It's a source of amusement to us both as we go down a hotel corridor to the sound of my flip-flops while he is silent.

I don't know if he has a special walk to achieve this or just a lifetime's practice. He grew up on a farm, by-the-way, but still has all his toes.

[HawaiiBoy]

I have another theory about the way they walk.

I was in the village at rice planting time and was amazed at the ability of the young boys to run around the paddy on the mud dikes between the rice paddies. How could they do that without falling off or slipping in the mud?

The answer, I observed, was they way they held their feet...sideways. If they had pointed their toes forward they would not have had a grip and would have slipped sideways. I determined to test my observation, and, sure enough, I could walk on the dikes as well as long as I pointed my toes sideways.

[TrongpaiExpat]

I could walk on the dikes as well as long as I pointed my toes sideways.

Speaking of dikes, that reminds me, anyone notice an increase in Thai dike couples in Bangkok, is it just Bangkok? Seems that often in the MRT, I am seated opposite a tomboy couple. Often one is quite masculine, sometimes very overweight and very butch and her GF is slim, feminine and not bad looking. In western countries I notice lesbian couples and they are pretty much interchangeable, both bull dikes or some lesser form of lesbianism. In Bangkok, though it seem more often than not there's this masculine/fem thing going on. Also, they are not shy and public displays of affection are common. One or twice I was really surprised at how far the masculine partner was going with the affection, I'll skip the details as not to upset the sensitive.

Oh dear, off topic again am I. Ok, anyone ever notice how a Thai tom boy walks? They don't do this toe to heel deal, flat footed with arms swinging.

Back when I was a young boy in Farangsville anyone that had the proclivity to walk like some Thai boys would get the bejesus beaten out of him to, at and after school. So you learned to walk like a masculine man or suffered the consequences. Maybe the more tolerant Thai culture has something to do with it.

[Beachlover]

I have another theory about the way they walk.

I was in the village at rice planting time and was amazed at the ability of the young boys to run around the paddy on the mud dikes between the rice paddies. How could they do that without falling off or slipping in the mud?

The answer, I observed, was they way they held their feet...sideways. If they had pointed their toes forward they would not have had a grip and would have slipped sideways. I determined to test my observation, and, sure enough, I could walk on the dikes as well as long as I pointed my toes sideways.

Yep... rice paddies are freaking slippery about the sides.

Yep... rice paddies are freaking slippery about the sides.

Yes and so are a lot of the Thai Rice Queens........................

Re: That Thai way of walking
Author: HawaiiBoy ┬╗ Mon 8 Feb, 2010 4:35 pm

I have another theory about the way they walk.

I was in the village at rice planting time and was amazed at the ability of the young boys to run around the paddy on the mud dikes between the rice paddies. How could they do that without falling off or slipping in the mud?

The answer, I observed, was they way they held their feet...sideways. If they had pointed their toes forward they would not have had a grip and would have slipped sideways. I determined to test my observation, and, sure enough, I could walk on the dikes as well as long as I pointed my toes sideways.


This explanation is not only logical, but incredibly cute! Sort of a snowshoe-like gait? It's amazing how so many of the skills that would never even be possible in the West are so simply pointed out in this wonderful village-oriented land. I wonder if the simplicities of the farming and village life aren't what really attract us to the Thai-Khmer charms. I'm always amused by the kids riding on the backs of bicycles, flip flops on the spoke axle as the older friend or sibling powers along by standing on the pedals. I spent a few months off my feet at an early age after my brother grinded up my foot while I rode on the back of a bike, so maybe I'm a little bit more fixated. I honestly don't know how those kids avoid the same fate with so little sway for footing mistakes.

I don't know if he has a special walk to achieve this or just a lifetime's practice.

Neither or both, depending on your point of view. You are walking with your toes down, as anyone does who has been brought up wearing "western" style (often tight fitting) footwear. He is walking with his toes up and relaxed, as anyone does who has been brought up wearing flip-flops, sandals or shoes which are loose or too big.

You are trying to keep them on by gripping them with your toes, while he is keeping them on by hanging them over his toes instead - look at any Thai or farang on a motor bike to see the difference.

Try it for yourself if it all sounds a bit far-fetched - you may never flip-ah-flop again!