The holiday travelling season is over. So I'm sure many of my fellow Thais have a fresh experience of fak sue khong, which loosely translates to "asking someone to buy something for you".
The habit of having people — friends, family and even friends and family of friends (particularly those on overseas trips) — shop for those back home has, over the past decade, become the norm in Thailand.
This phenomenon doesn't just reflect an increasing number of Thais travelling abroad, but also the fact that the very Thai characteristic of kreng jai (to be considerate as not to bother someone) is being deliberately neglected.
During the past couple of months of witnessing many of my friends and colleagues organising their year-end trips — both for leisure and business — I couldn't help but feel that their plane tickets also served as a sort of advertisement that solicited all manner of interested clients.
It is quite common, upon announcement of travel plans, to hear reactions like "Let me think what I want you to buy for me from there"; "I will print you a list of all items I want"; and "How much weight does the airline allow you to carry?" almost as soon as one's travelling plans are finalised.
Online communication technology has enabled this trend to spread more easily, and also assisted in the travellers and shoppers executing it more systematically, and, well, "properly".
Travellers going abroad today therefore are often equipped with a number of shopping lists, complete with pictures of the requested merchandise to ensure accuracy.
I don't know if those asking ever realise, or have even considered, how problematic travelling in a foreign country can be.
Most of the time, you commute on public transportation or on foot, with difficult-to-read maps as a life-saving bible. Time, too, is limited and needs to be sensibly spent, otherwise your dream trip may very well turn into a nightmare. Also worth factoring in is the language barrier, physical competence of the traveller and perhaps most importantly, flight regulations involving the limitation of goods you are allowed to take on board.
Regardless of all this, people seem to believe that as long as a traveller herself doesn't complain, to have her shop for you always remains a perfectly legitimate request.
And in case you are wondering if the profound attitude of kreng jai between the help-seekers and the helpers has faded from our society, let me tell you it hasn't.
It's just switched sides.
One of the things I frequently hear from fellow travellers during my overseas work trips is something like "Does anyone know how to get to this shop? It's quite far from where we stay but I have to buy some bed linen sets for a friend."
As I consider myself rather pragmatic, I reply: "I don't think it's worth commuting across town to. And you can find exactly the same stuff in Bangkok."
Ever benevolent and naive, she may reply: "I know, but my friend said they are 500 baht more expensive back home, so I need to buy them for her since she's spent time printing all the details for me."
Since when are the helpers supposed to be more considerate toward the ones who ask for their help? They are living their normal lives at home, while people overseas are trying hard to figure out how to find and bring back the stuff they demand. I don't mind searching for and buying essential items for friends, such as dietary supplements to help relieve joint pain or a specific product for their hypoallergenic skin. But most of the listed items I've come across in my time are superfluous, from expensive designer bags to pet accessories, coffee-making machines, perishable foods, sizeable toys, trees and even a set of alloy wheels.
Worse yet, I have even witnessed people asking travellers to shop around for the cheapest price available. Some request that the travellers also claim the tax refund for them — a process that's incredibly time-consuming.
Returning home, it is not unheard of for some "clients" to refuse to accept the merchandise because it happened to cost a bit more than they expected. I know others who said their clients just forgot to pay and they felt too much kreng jai to remind them.
Call me downright cold-hearted if you wish, but as we are now living in an era when all kinds of merchandise from across the globe can be shipped to your home with just one click, I don't see the fak sue khong culture reflecting the spirit of friendship, as some might argue. For me, it's more a case of a friendly courtesy being taken for granted.
Vanniya Sriangura is a senior writer for the Life section of the Bangkok Post.