Boo!

Thais are abnormally afraid of ghosts. To ask a Thai, "Do you believe in ghosts?" is like asking an American, "Do you believe the Mississippi River has water in it?" Ghosts are real, and that's that.

In every house, business, and building, on most roadways and even in the wilderness, Thais have erected ghost houses to appease the spirits. These are actual houses, albeit mini, and sometimes they are pretty damn fancy. Thais will leave offerings at these houses to placate the ghosts, so they will cause no trouble for the home, business, etc. The offerings are sometimes funny, at least to me, a Westerner. You can find anything from action figures to bottles of water with a straw in it to pieces of fruit to milk in a juice box. The ghosts love it all.

For example, a teacher at my school refuses to be home by herself, especially at night, because of the ghost which haunts her home. And this is a grown, eductaed, sane woman. She refuses to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. She refuses to go to the bathroom in the morning until her boyfriend goes, even if it means she must wait for hours. How her boyfriend scares the ghost and clears the way befuddles even me.

Ghosts are real. Fear the ghosts of Thailand. Enough said.