The small details that don’t count in Thailand

Attention to detail in Thailand often comes in quite different forms. Thais are obsessed with presentation, from clothing to food and gardens, but it’s all a little superficial. It all looks good from far, but close up it’s far from good.

In fact Thailand could possibly be described as a short cut nation. Looking good is always important to Thais – whether you are going shopping, or mountain biking, it’s important to look the part and this affords you some measure of respect.  But looking good can be costly and it’s surprising how much quality is compromised simply to make something look fantastic with very little expense.

Ex-pats who’ve been here awhile know better, and though they appreciate how good local people are at making something look impressive, such as a house, they’ve learn’t to take the trouble and check the finer details and close up workmanship.

Recently I had a house built and find this out for myself. The house turned out well and the construction company were quite competent at putting it up – but I did take the trouble to visit the site once a day and keep an eye on things, during which time I realised that behind the nicely painted walls, the actually brick work is practically slapped together.

But when it came to the finishing I wasn’t at all impressed. I realise the workmanship is relative to what you pay people and the cheap building labour in Thailand is an advantage though fairly unskilled. However, some of their habits really surprised me.

Paint was applied with brushes made from grass (even though decent brushes here cost less than a few dollars), never once did they bother putting down any canvass or newspaper so that although the managed to get the paint onto the wall successfully they also managed to get paint everywhere else and fir weeks after I was discovering speckles on everything.

Edges weren’t tapped so that the colour borders were all messy, the varnishing on the wood was full of ‘spots’ and runs, they would happily be varnishing while metres away someone else was sanding beams and creating lots of dust.

Of course some things come with correct training, but many of the faults were just common sense and you start believing that they must know but just don’t care. The consequences of poor word of mouth and loss of face doesn’t occur to them. A carpenter who has been fitting doors for years puts the hinges on the wrong side so that it obsctructs the light switches when you open it, fitting are mounted in the most bizarre places and quite the most impractical height in the bathroom, no one asks, they just go ahead without any real thought, eager to get the job done!

Some of the faults really are astonishing and though you’ll end up with a nice looking house, closer inspection reveals skewed fittings, cracks, big ugly holes accidentally drilled in the wrong places, dirt left everywhere, mismatching colours painted on the roof, afterthought adjustments and more. A lot of effort sometimes goes into the most meaningless superficial appearances while the important structural and practical details are hopelessly inadequate. That’s the difference between priorities of one culture and another.