There are the sights and sounds of Thailand, and then there's the boozePrepared by Harold Stephens
Travel Correspondent for Thai Airways International
Rudyard Kipling once wrote about an elephant named Moti Guj “who was very fond of liquor.” He went on to say that arrack was Moti Guj’s favorite choice, though he would drink “palm-tree toddy” if nothing better was offered. That’s not saying much for Palm-tree toddy––the drink of tropical Southeast Asia. Contrary to what Moti Guj thought, palm-tree toddy isn’t that bad.
Palm-tree toddy is available almost everywhere in Southeast Asia and certainly in Thailand. There is also no shortage of other local booze for those who want to imbibe when travelling around Thailand and Southeast Asia. Then, of course, there’s all the Western influenced drinks too. Each Western power that made its presence in the area introduced its own brand of drinks and drinking habits. Take the British for example. In Conrad’s time down at the Oriental Hotel the drink was Gin Pahit, or Gin Bitter. The Dutch, who also came upriver to Bangkok, brought their Jenever, a grain alcohol that came in square bottles. Then there were the Germans; other than beer they introduced schnapps. The Chinese came with a hundred different rice wines. We know from records that when Zeng He sailed up the Chao Phraya in 1415—that’s almost 700 years ago—he carried many kinds of wines from China aboard his 300 ships.
But what none of these powers could do was to supplant old drinking habits among the locals. And the one drink that persisted, especially in modern Thailand, is toddy. It continues to be one of the best known “man's drink” around. You won’t find it for sale in any liquor stores, however, but you can find it in special grog shops up country.
Toddy, a bitter, sour drink, is made from fermented palm tree juice, which is obtained from the tops of the trees. The juice is collected early in the morning and one tapping can produce as much as one gallon of liquid. Tappers, who are called “coconut pilots,” are daring and skilled and climb coconut trees as high as 30 metres to fill their containers.
The juice is then set out in the sun for a few hours to ferment. It can reach 80 proof in a short time. It’s served at room temperature and without ice. A couple of cups and it can knock you right off your feet, or off you chair if you are seated. In Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines toddy shops are legalized and government controlled. In the Philippines it’s call tuba. Since the authorities can’t stamp it out, they have concluded why not then make money from it. These shops are highly taxed and are profitable to the government. In Singapore alone some 600 to 700 gallons are tapped daily and like everything else the price of toddy is rising. Two years ago the government netted 641,000 Singapore dollars in taxes in one 12-month period.
Toddy is even more popular in south India than in tropical Asia and in Thailand it’s pretty much on the open market.
In some remote parts of Thailand there’s a powerfully potent rice wine that the locals brew up. In Bali or in northern Borneo they call it “tuak.” There’s a rumour that Swiss artist Theo Meier, who lived on Bali for 22 years, brought the recipe for brewing tuak to the hill tribes when he moved to Chieng Mai.
Wherever it came from, it’s all the same—fermented rice wine and in some locales it goes by the name “brem.” It's left to ferment in bamboo containers and afterwards it’s transferred into bottles. Arrack is generally fermented longer then tuak.
Drinking tuak with the hill tribe people is straight forward with no ceremony attached. In Borneo it’s a ritual, especially in longhouses on the Rajang River in Sarawak. I was invited to spend the night in one longhouse and, having brought a 10-kilo sack of rice and a dozen tins of bully beef as gifts, the headman was generous—too generous in fact. He awarded me with tuak, all I could drink, and far more than I wanted to drink. In a longhouse you must follow the traditions. Iban tribes people sit on mats on the verandah in front of the headman’s apartment. The verandah may stretch hundreds of metres down the entire length of the longhouse. Tuak is brought out in a huge wooden bowl and dipped out into thin pottery cups. The irony is that as a guest you don’t hold your own cup. An Iban maiden is given that task, she sits cross-legged in front of you and, at a signal, places the cup to your lips and begins pouring. Even with your throat on fire and your eyes filling with tears, she does not stop until the cup is empty. It doesn’t stop here, not until the bowl is empty and everyone is drunk. There’s not much to worry about however. You sleep right where you sit.
With the Chinese, the harsher the taste, the better the drink. Chinese wines, unlike western wines, are fermented to taste like medicine. As a student in China many years ago, I well remember sitting with Chinese in restaurants and playing their game of rock-paper-scissors. You are challenged and must throw out your hand. If you do so with open fingers, they represent scissors, and scissors can cut paper. A closed fist stands for a rock, and scissors cannot cut rock, and so it goes. Losers must “ganbay,” or drink up.
When you meet Chinese people today, and if they happen to invite you to a wedding, be prepared. The Chinese at weddings serve the best brandy money can buy, but it isn’t taste that concerns them. Chinese drink not to get drunk; they drink to get the other guy drunk. They swill down tumblers of brandy, challenging other drinkers to do the same. They say that the highest per capita of Hennessy VO brandy consumed in the world is in Hong Kong; but I think Thailand is giving them a run for their money. When you go to a Chinese wedding, you will understand why.
Beer has been a standard drink in China ever since the Quin Dynasty some 2,000 years ago. But it reached its perfection before the First World War when Germany took sovereignty over Tsingtao on the Shantung Peninsula in north China. The Germans didn’t last long in China, but long enough to construct one of the finest breweries in the East, and they named it Tsingtao Beer. The People’s Republic of China changed the name of the city to Quandao but the name for the beer remains the same. It’s still manufactured in Tsingtao and is sold throughout Asia and around the world.
Each Asian country has developed its own brand of beer, and most of them are pretty good. Indonesia has its Bintang; Singapore and Malaysia have Tiger and Angkor Beer; and a well-known beer that comes from the Philippines is San Miguel. Thailand has its strong Singha Beer, plus a couple others that have crept into the market.
Any country that produces sugar is certain to make its own alcoholic beverage and Thailand produces sugar. Rum, for example, comes in dozens of brand names and dozens of flavors. But be it vodka, brandy, Scotch, Bourbon, gin, rye whiskey and all the varieties of schnapps and liquors, when it comes down to it, it’s just a matter of what flavouring you add to the bottle.
And what would Thailand be without its Mekong whiskey. As Theo Meier the artist once said, “Drinking Mekong is an art.” To watch him serve it, it is an art. When you hold up a bottle to the light, you can see right through the bottle and read the back of the label. Here you can read the date, usually about a month old. No 12-year stuff here. It’s almost by the hour. Then, as Theo demonstrated, you tap the screw-on cap with your elbow before opening. It’s ritual.
The secret with Mekong is to use fresh lime, lots of soda water and plenty of ice. And don’t make them strong. It doesn’t really matter, for they are so refreshing you drink more anyway.
Wines are difficult to produce in tropical Southeast Asia but in recent years Thailand is proving the opposite to be the case. A vineyard in the northeast is producing some very fine wine. The French may not agree but many wine tasters do.
And would you believe, they even make durian wine. Now that has to be something.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERSQ: Dear Mr. Stephens, Thank you very much for answering my question about how the Chao Phraya got its other name, River of Kings. It was very, very informative.
I hope you don't mind but here is another question for you. Why are some of the images of the Buddha swathed with a saffron colored textile while others are not? It was the same with the chedis.
Again, thank you for your help. Sincerely, Marlyn, Dumaguette, Philippines
A: Dear Marlyn,
I could reply to your question by saying with the hundreds of thousands of Buddha imagines around Thailand there probably is not enough cloth in all the land to cover them all. But, that’s not the reason. Robes placed on images of Buddha are donated by devotees who are seeking merit, asking for blessings or want to give thanks. The devotee selects the image he or she wants robed and gives a donation for purchasing the cloth to the monks at that temple. Usually chedis are robed by families who are descendants. I hope this answers your question. —HS
Harold Stephens
Bangkok
E-mail: ROH Weekly Travel (booking@inet.co.th)
Note: The article is the personal view of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the view of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited. | 
