After we bought our new car last fall, my wife kept insisting I check the coolant level. I said not to worry, its a new car and the "water" is ok. I told her I've worked on many car repairs over the years and I know what I am talking about. Yeah, sure, right. A year later I am still checking the water often per her insistence. I just do it. I give up. I've given up on a lot of things.

. Uneducated, unemployed.....but still smarter than me.

I've actually become offended with this attitude from her and it has caused problems. Now, when I stand my ground with real science or logic backing me up, I'm a stubborn fool.

What is it exactly that makes Thais like this? Even intelligent, educated Thais.
The water in the radiator thing...I can relate totally.

As for air in the tyres!!! She bought a new car recently and so clucks over it alot....refills the tyres every week, etc. The tyres have the recommended pressures printed on them so I fill them to that amount....not good enough: the kitchen hand at a friend's Thai restaurant (KITCHEN HAND, with no education and no English language!!!!) told her something else...so I am wrong, and the tyre manufacturer is wrong.

Filling up the petrol, I always selct "fill" and the bowser pumps untill some back-pressure stops it.
GF says, don't selct "fill", but select an amount ($70, say) because you lose all the petrol in the hose.
?????
I tried to reason with her that either way, there is always some petrol left in the hose and I pay for whatever I get. No, her sister's BF told her that selecting a specific amount means you lose nothing. Sister's BF is a scientist or mathematician or something? No. Uneducated, unemployed.....but still smarter than me.

I've actually become offended with this attitude from her and it has caused problems. Now, when I stand my ground with real science or logic backing me up, I'm a stubborn fool.

Earlier this year I went to Hua Hin for the weekend with a friend of mine. She is early thirties, educated, etc, etc. We are getting ready for bed and she comes out of the bathroom after brushing her teeth and proceeds to kneel on the bed and pray! I am sitting there thinking WTF, she's never done this before? When she finishes, I ask her what that was all about, and she tells me there are ghosts around here! Then she has me check that all the windows and doors are locked and insists that we have to sleep with all the lights on. This happened both nights we were there! I do get a laugh out of it now but was not too amused at the time.

BTW mate neverdie, I woke up pissed off about the grandfather being so bloody stupid as to believe a rotating washer would cause a twisting baby! Your post has, once again my friend, made it into my subconscious!

I have a frustrating story that happened to me last January. I was in the town of Kanchanaburi with some of the Thai family I look after: the mother and the two younger kids (10 and 8 yrs old). The kids love to swim and hike so I wanted to take them to the Mt Erawan waterfalls for a day. The children were really looking forward to it, as was I. I had set up a good deal with a local driver to take us to the falls and bring us back later in the afternoon for 1000 baht. Then the mother of the children got the bright idea that her sister should drive us.

I thought okay, it's keeping the money in the family, so no problem. I don't mind spending a little more and offered to pay the sister 2000 baht. What I didn't count on was the brother, sister in law and little baby were coming along as well. And, instead of arriving at 9 in the morning like we had planned, they arrived at noon because they came from Luk Kae (40 km closer to Bangkok). That meant the children had to be fed before we left. Then, because it is a National park I had to pay for everyone. No big deal. I also paid for a big lunch for everyone. Again, no big deal. But, it meant instead of hiking up to the top of the falls, everyone but the kids and I stayed down at the bottom. I took the kids on a short hike instead of a long one like we first intended. Then, the other adults (?) decided they wanted to see a certain temple. I was the odd man out and went along with the other's decision because I had no idea where the temple was. I thought is was some place nearby. That was my mistake.

We all piled back into the truck and started driving, and driving, and driving, and passed right through Kanchanaburi where my hotel was located. But, we didn't stop there. We kept right on driving, and driving, and driving, and right through the little Thai village where the family lives. We finally found the temple they were looking for... a few kilometers outside of Bangkok. It was dark out, it was cold, and 4 of us were huddled in the back of the little pickup truck on the metal frame. We did about a 15 minute tour of the temple and then had to head back to Kanchanaburi. I was so pissed off I said just let me out and I'd take a bus back to Kanchanaburi. I got back to my hotel at 11 at night and the family still had to take the children back to Luk Kae. It completely ruined my day with the kids. We sat for 5 hours in the back of a pickup truck for a 15 minute stop at some temple I've seen a few times before.

After that I vowed NEVER to allow Thais to make any plans that included me.

Talking about superstition ,my wife comes from a quite well to do familly,yet we have to have a small turtle in the bedroom also the bedroom door has to be kept closed when we are not in there ,so its not just Isaan familys,however my wife says its feng shui. all b-llocks to me.