Lost in translation: Foreign women turn Thai rice steamers into hilarious hats

Thai netizens expressed their admiration and laughed at two foreign women who mistook Thai-style bamboo sticky rice steamers for hats. They bought them from a local vendor who could not communicate very well due to the language barrier.

A Thai man named Surat Seehabut shared pictures of the two European women wearing hats which looked like weaving baskets. The caption said…

“At a local grocery shop, the foreign customers inquired, “What is this?” and pointed at the sticky rice steamer. The vendor informed them, “This is a หวด (Huad which means sticky rice steamers).” They might have misheard “huad” as “hat” so they bought them.”

The post quickly gained over 4,700 reactions and 5,000 shares from Thai netizens. Many of them expressed their admiration for the foreigners but several could not help but chuckle at their adorable fashion choice in the comments section…

“That is a great idea. It can protect them from the sun! Multipurpose haud!”

“Cool!”

“This will become a fashion item of world luxury brand just like our colourful big bag which was previously adapted by Balenciaga.”

“That is funny!”

“Vietnamese-style hat?”

“They are not wrong, they just did not know. It is cute this way though.”

“I like this so much! Haha!”

See the pictures here.

The sticky rice steamer is a basket made from bamboo strips. Thai people, especially locals in the northeastern provinces, use it to cook steamed sticky rice. The sticky rice is generally wrapped in a cloth before being placed inside the streamer. Then, the steamer is placed over an aluminium pot with water and boiled similar to the cooking process of Chinese dim-sum dishes.

This recent incident brings to mind a similar story reported on May 5 of last year. Thai netizens could not help but laugh when a foreign woman mistakenly treated a table in front of a spirit house as a resting spot. She was seen in the video sitting on a red stool and taking a table full of offerings as armrests.

Rather than taking offence, the Thai community found the incident amusing and entertaining. They recognised that the foreign woman was unaware of the cultural norms surrounding spirit houses and the respect shown to them through offerings and incense.