Boy Talk

[bao-bao]

or whether they need a good shower

This comes up again again amongst Thais when talking about Farang. One guy I first met in Pattaya when "Thai Boys" had just opened (it's gone now) reckoned he could tell one nationality from another just by smell. There was even one nationality that he avoided if at all possible as he said they smelt the worst of the lot. I met up with him recently and we had to leave a shop in The Royal Garden Mall because he'd smelt a group of his least favourite nationality as soon as he entered.

My Thai boyfriend has just moved into a new rented room. He's had to clean the whole place twice because, as he says "Farang, stinky" had been there before him.

More a difference of cultures, I guess. Europeans don't bathe as often as the Thai (or, sadly enough far too many in the US) and are less likely to use a deoderant. Cologne can disguise the stink, but people still smell if they don't bathe enough. I'm sure farangs DO smell to the Thai.

I read somewhere before I made my first trip to LOS that it was a good idea to stop eating red meat a couple of weeks before traveling there if one wanted to lessen their overall body odor, and avoid it while there. It worked for me. That's not scientific research, I admit -- but on my second trip I began eating beef after I was there a week or so, and my friend noticed. Him being polite it took some prying to get him to admit it, but he noticed.

Normally I'd say "I do NOT 'sweat,' I glisten!" but let's face it -- while moving about in the LOS, some of us (my hand is up) are rarely wearing dry clothes for more than a few minutes!

Sorry, a bit off topic here, but if it helps anyone with their BS there...

[TrongpaiExpat]

Thai can smell bad but it's generally only the homeless/crazy people living on the street.

I passed a family of Euro-somethings yesterday at Chatuchak that were parting the crowd with their stench. They all looked clean, must have a hotel room with water and free soap, what gives, don't they smell themselves?

I have found that Sure solid sport works well on me but I have not found it in Thailand. I bought a supply on my last US trip but I am down to my last one. Anyone ever see Sure deodorant in Thailand?

[catawampuscat]

Fatman, I like your style and enjoy your postings.. You have a different take on things and have both feet on the ground..

We have to be careful with generalizing (I know as I am sometimes guilty myself) and break things down a bit..

Straight boys (men) talk about pussy and/or lady boys.. If they talk about us, it is about how much baht.. One straight regular
would bottom like the best of them but I had to promise not to tell..I am sure he told his buddies how he topped me but maybe
he would say we didn't have sex, so he would look butcher.. Straight boys talk sports, especially football but pussy is #1..

Gay boys talk about boys/men and of course about the money.. some talk about us like we are boyfriends/lovers and some
talk about endowments and abilities... Hair styles is another big topic as well as best face creams and how does my butt look in
these pants? ...

Lady boys talk about beauty, men, boys , clothes, shoes, makeup, hormones, shoes, their straight boyfriends (how a straight boy/man
can believe he is straight when he makes love to a feminine boy is a cultural wonder), shoes, and how much money and how do I look?...

Most of the ones i know gossip about and bad mouth their neighbours lol

[piston10]

bao-bao is a bit hesitant in the way he puts forward his suggestion about red meat, but, though I have no scientific research to prove the matter, I think he's on to an important point. Doubtless, the major hygiene problem for a westerner in Thailand is the perspiration caused by the heat, which we are not used to; but, since perspiration is a waste-disposal function of the body, what exactly our sweat smells like is going to be heavily influenced by what we eat and drink. There's plenty of empirical evidence that it increases in pungency with a meat diet.

(Anecdote - NOT scientific. Years ago I read an interview with Nureyev in which he said that, for energy reasons, he lived almost entirely on steaks - enormous quantities, if I remember rightly. Some time later I was talking to someone who had been introduced to Nureyev - at a social occasion, I understood, not as he came off stage from a performance - and he said he gave off a strong animal scent - "Like the lion house at the zoo".)

Frequent showering will help, but I don't think we should kid ourselves that, even after a good shower, we are not going to smell like a farang to a Thai who is very close to us. Inevitably, our bodies are going to smell to some extent of what went into their making.

To take the point further. Because of the difference in diet, there is a considerable difference in smell between the urine and faeces of a Thai and those of a westerner - if you have doubts about the cause of this difference in smell, think 'asparagus'! The faeces of meat-eaters are much stronger and more pungent than those of people who eat a largely vegetable and cereal diet. I also think cheese and dairy products intensify faecal smells. In other words, a western evacuation can pollute the place for hours for a Thai, especially in a small condo or a hotel room where the bathroom leads straight into the living room/bedroom. The only answer has to be care with ventilation, scrupulous cleaning of the toilet basin with bleach or disinfectant, perhaps a squirt or two of those wretched sprays that smell fouler than your farts, and a determination to move around the world with a bottom as polished and hygienic as their own are. It's a bit of a hassle, but I'll do anything not be a "stinky farang"!

Additional point: we should also take our cue from the near-obsessive concern most Thais have for foreskin hygiene.

Well, if that isn't calling a spade a spade, what is? And, by the way, I am NOT a surreptitiously campaigning vegetarian.

[bao-bao]

I was really just putting my two satang in on the body odor thing, but have already learned not to try to lecture THIS crowd - HA! If you Google "body odor and red meat" you'll get a screenfull.

I agree with you, piston10 - sweat is just the body's way of cooling and dumping waste, so it makes sense. I'm not a vegetarian, either, although in the interest of perhaps a few more years I'm eating very little red meat. As an added bonus, my body odor is next to nil.

My friends there eat healthier than I do, as a rule, and certainly have less body odor than many of the farang I pass by there. There must be SOMEthing to the logic.

Until I figure it out, it's frequent showers there for me. It's a nice custom.

[cottmann]

It is not only diet that affects perspiration (sweating/glistening/glowing or whatever you like to call it) and thus body odor but also the number of apocrine glands a person has. When sweat, etc, first evaporates on the skin there is very little smell on a normal healthy person but it is the build up of stale sweat that smells bad! The smell occurs when bacteria that live on the skin act on the sweat produced by the apocrine glands - the glands that cause the bad smell.
Certain racial groups smell less than others because they have fewer apocrine glands. Asians sweat just as much as other races but have fewer apocrine glands. Roughly 50% of Korean people have no apocrine glands at all and only about 10% of Japanese people have any underarm odor at all. I believe that in the past, Japanese men with body odor were exempt from military service!
Recently, Japanese geneticists have identified the link between ear-wax and sweating. Apparently, Africans and Europeans have wet earwax and thus sweat a lot, while Asians have dry earwax and don't sweat as much. See http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/scien ... yt&emc=rss

Ummm, ok, here goes. There ARE racial differences in SMELL. It has got to be more than diet. Anyone who has hot sweaty sex black guys knows what I am talking about. I believe we do smell to Thais, but lets face it, Thais are smell phobic about body smells, but don't seem to give a damn about air pollution. In any case, do take showers ..

[Smiles]

" ...To take the point further. Because of the difference in diet, there is a considerable difference in smell between the urine and faeces of a Thai and those of a westerner ... and a determination to move around the world with a bottom as polished and hygienic as their own are ... "

Well, to let everyone on to a little secret . . . he cleans mine!. Saves water as well.
And after Piston's faecal tome above, thank god he does.

I always lovingly remember PeterUK's long and 'moving' story about Thais and farting, but I cannot find it anywhere, unfortunately. I hunker back into the back stage on this uncomfortable topic, basking in the glory of my guy's statement once that one of the things he likes best about me is that I am " ... velly clean ... " and " ... smell good ... " ( for a farang :compress: )

Cheers ...

[PeterUK]

And, by the way, I am NOT a surreptitiously campaigning vegetarian.

Because of my almost-lapse-free vegetarian diet I exude a smell which is a tantalising combination of cabbage and broccoli. It drives the boys crazy. The last one was able to return to normal life after only a few sessions with a psychiatrist.