Much ado about rains in Thailand after Prayut’s comment

His comment came during an official inspection trip to Phuket on June 6, when he told local officials to get the island province ready for foreign tourists now that the kingdom has been fully reopened to welcome them.

“I have sometimes asked foreign tourists why they come to Thailand during the rainy season. They replied that they come to recline in a chair to see the falling rain. They have never seen this kind of rain in their country, so we must sell this [as a type of soft power],” Prayut said.

His comment drew laughter from his opponents and critics, who doubted that rainfall could be a selling point.

But his supporters pointed out that showers in the country could indeed attract foreign tourists especially when “they come to know the various Thai terms which define different types of rain”.

"Fon" or rain in Thai has several terms, coined by people in the past after they perceived how rain fell and the consequences of heavy showers.

The terms were even taken up as glossaries with definitions by the Royal Society of Thailand and the Sirinath Rajini Centre for Mangrove Forest Studies.

Here are the terms:

- Fon lai chang (Rains that scare elephants) – Large raindrops that fall suddenly and hard and then stop.

- Fon cha chor mamuang (Rains that wash mango flowers) – Rains that fall in the three-month period before mangoes yield flowers. The rains are welcomed for helping mangoes grow abundantly.

- Fon tok pen yiew chakkachan (Rains that are like cicada “urine”) – Tiny raindrops.

- Fon tok jukjuk or fon tok yang fah rua (Rains that fall like the sky is “leaking”) – Heavy, lengthy downpours

- Fon sung fah (Parting rains) – Heavy rains at the end of the monsoon season

- Fon long ruedoo (Freak rains) – Unseasonal rains

- Fon ratchakarn (Government office-hour rains) – Rains that often fall at 3pm, when government offices are about to close for the day while the showers can last for many days.