Lizard0

Most young Thai men are equally as equally hard working and keen to do a good job, its just a matter opening our eyes to see the truth and have a possitive view of young people.

ie give them the chance to prove themselves and their own worth - like the chance most of us where given by older people when we where young.

I have not witnessed the Thai work ethic here in Pattaya. I'm buying a high rise condo and waiting for completion that's 6 months late. There are 2 average sized bathrooms in my new condo and it took 5 men working 7 days a week 4 weeks to complete the job. That same job in the USA would have been 2 days for 2 men. The female house keepers at the condo I live in now work several hours in the morning then sit on the stairs and comb each other's hair and play games on their cell phone until quitting time.

I am delighted to hear there are hard working Thais as I have great respect for anyone that does their best in life. But I think a hard working Thai is an anomaly not the norm,

The ladies have great work ethics. Most seem to be the ones responsible for their families.

My fiancee puts in 60-70 hour weeks at SCB, overtime at the malls on weekends, all to help support her 2 siblings. (and fill her own financial issues since Dad fell ill last year)

Hell I sent her money to have a day off and hit the salon, and she said 'Sorry money would need to go to family' .. selfless to the bitter end

Your quote above work and males ... ya I've witnessed that first hand. Also noticed 95% of the service industry has boobs. Toll booths, retail, restaurant/hotel, banks .. you name it

That work ethic was here a few generations ago (CAN), as others said about the UK. Same with the 'gentleman and ladies' era, which was still around when my Mom was a young girl.

Culture changed immensely in the west in 50 years, can't backfill one baby-boomer with even 2 genXers lol.

The men embraced that, and the women just embraced the iPhones, clothes etc that all costs more

Hmm, could very well be related to not trying to learn their language, or show the effort. Could also be that you live with her (for 5 years) but never married their daughter?

Falang means foreigner, could be anyone not from Thailand, not just whites

You could try and be less foreign via language, customs and repect

My GF's dad always seems amused when I say something new to him conversationally. He knows I am trying anyways lol. I also never dress like a tourist or fail to wai the elders etc. Little effort goes a long ways.

She also laughs pretty hard when I refer to myself as falang.

Christ almighty, all this to discuss about the Thai equivalent of "my darling"...

It’s not about the word itself. It’s about the frustration between the guys with BGGFs and their insecurities, and the guys with GGGFs who are terrified someone will mistake their GGGF for a BGGF.

Hope that’s clear.

LOL, well said. This thread was never about anything else

A phrase is jut that, and highly relative to who is saying it in what context.

Hard to understand the 'L' substitution all the time, certainly not relegated to the lower class. Find it humorous when I hear K. Llama lol!

In my relationship it is usually said at the end of a sentence, not typically as the first 'pronoun'. Fan dee nah kap tiirak <3

Its (very old) Thai tradition to have a parent present during dates

More often these days, she will just bring a good friend.

Who would show up at an airport alone, when all you had was a small amount of contact online with someone? Girl has to protect herself.

Its also an easy 'excuse' or buffer to keep any (potentially) unwanted physical contact.

I do feel sorry for all the people making comments in the thread lol. One's experience can be greatly different here when you are the same age and meeting a middle class girl who was taught to be a good girl

Sure, be smart and aware (like the FB comment). You do have to trust people at some point, or you will never find someone who is trustworthy.

.. and who said this was advice from him. 90% of the trolling relies on that to be fact. Dumbasses lol

^ LOL!

I watched the documentary called 'Big Trouble in Tourist Thailand' and I was like .... &lt;deleted&gt; is this where every bit of drunk and ignorant white trash ends up?

No wonder farang has a bad name to most Thai. Anyways I have yet to be in one of the 'tourist towns'. Avoiding the guilt by association

There are many good points in this thread. No one set of rules apply, because there are too many variables. Yes there are loose girls, who prob have many gik, and there are the ones that would never ever go against their parents.

Parents are not up for pregnant daughter before marriage lol. They loose face and the options for her get smaller and smaller.

I'm dating a middle-class girl. She works (too much imho) at a bank. Chinese dad, Thai mother.

Some comments about money are true, but only to the extent that all women look for security in choosing a mate. Not necessarily "hey I'm rich" but just to know that you can take care of shit. This is baked into their DNA.

She could easily be with any big wig that deals at the bank, because she knows what they are worth I make decent money back home, but I am far from rich.

Many will choose love and to be genuinely loved. To be treated fairly and not as a possession. I know 100% do not like the Mia Noi deal either, but they can't go against culture lol

I am a gentleman and promised to never put her through that humiliation that her mom had to ...

I also dress appropriately when I go out. Not as some tourist, and I honor their traditions. I do not want her to be seen as anything but a true lady. (although it seems 90% of girls have to dress somewhat slutty here lol) Maybe its just the temp. Seems a true Thai lady does keep her shoulders covered at all times ... even with a short skirt and a bit of cleavage

The book 'Thailand Fever' was right maybe half the time in my situation. Maybe it would be 100% if her parents were both Thai, or not middle class .. I dunno. But don't put full belief into it. ijs

you have to be a multi-millionaire here in the LOS for your kids to learn proper English. even those from so-called demonstration schools have average proficiency at best. don't even talk about comprehension. the fundamental problem i see here is how they teach English. one can never really learn a second language just by "translating". Chris Delivery, Andrew Biggs, etc along with countless Thais in their 1-minute English segments are guilty of this. programs on DLTV are much worse. this is evident by the way Thais pronounce English words - as if they were written in Thai. sad situation for the LOS but not surprising at all.

Yep, sounds like an English person pronouncing Thai phonetically. They never understand that either

Think most teachers are from UK and AUS though ... so the points regarding tests vs TOEFL are valid. (plus UK/AUS pronunciation is nothing like each other or North America lol).

The R / A endings on words for one very large example

It always makes sense to travel with currency. The amount between bank rates and a proper currency broker in a major city is phenomenal. Multiply by large amounts and its quite amazing the 'extra' money you have.

Got 35.5 BHT per CAD when coming here. Exchanged 5000 CAD. Still had 2k I couldn't exchange due to lack of bills at that broker location .... tried to exchange that in Thailand, and I got barely over 30B/CAD.

Tried to get my GF who works at a bank to exchange a the 'bank rate' and not the custy rate ... ended up just going to Super Rich lol. Was a better rate, but still only 30.8

If the family is so rich, why is the girl taking care of her brothers education costs?

Thanks for the link. I know 'probate law' can always get ugly, regardless of where you are.

Her family has what they need. 3 houses, few cars and motorbikes, and a papaya farm .. but they don't live like rich folk. Reminds me of well off farmers back in the prairies to be honest.

Not 100% sure why her dad doesn't take much interest in the youngest son, perhaps its because the kid is very lazy and doesn't complete anything lol. She is trying her best to get him on the right path.

Education costs are almost nothing in Thailand anyways. About 5% of what I pay for Univ in Canada.

BTW, she does work in BKK (which is why her cost of living is higher), but the bank pays crap salary and works them 10+ hours a day. There is a 'bonus' paid every quarter I think, directly proportional to how many MB of insurance they sell lol.

They stay for the free education & certification potential there, as they earn their salary still while training.

Still a crap deal, and I'm getting her to focus on language studies instead so she can work internationally. Think she can earn 5yrs salary in 6 months back home lol.

Lol I don't tip 1000, that's all in. Just saying that 2,000 isn't much.

Her family has money, so I won't get ripped by the Sin Sod.

She works and has a degree, it's just she gets paid 10% of what that job is back home at bank.

I know her expenses, and 12k is about how much her gasoline/iphone and food utilities etc costs per month. Its also exactly what her salary is, so part of the 'working poor'

She takes care of her brother's education costs too, so there's more Baht she absorbs. Not any of those silly comments are relevant ,or used by someone of status ... but maybe you haven't met one.

She is the only female, so maybe I have that info wrong about inheritance. All I know for sure is that they handle the finances. Looking things up, apparently they can get denied a land title claim with an alien spouse ... lol

I have never been directly told that inheritance info, just something from searching about Thai culture. Of course the Internet is not always a good source

Man I drop 1k Baht on pizza sometimes lol... 2k/mo is a joke.

I don't like how little the GF gets paid, for the insane hours she puts in (at nameless bank)

I have no problems taking care of my love's expenses. That's a man's duty, just like they have their sense of duty.

Depending on their family situation. They could be 'responsible' for younger siblings, as the eldest female ends up getting the family inheritance.

If you don't want the antiquated roles, then head back West

The nagging part .... watch out lol. I would not hitch myself to that personally.

OP,

I come from a family like your girlfriend's but I was born and raised in the US by my mother. Upon coming to Thailand to spend time with and get to know my father I experienced a major cultural clash with my Chinese-Thai family because their ultra conservative views didn't jive with my western free living ideals.

These are just some of the cultural ideals that my family has bestowed upon me since my arrival:

1. Cannot spend the night with a woman until marriage

2. Do not date below your social circle i.e. the woman has to be college educated Masters degree preferable, have a above average job (typical office girl is not good enough), come from a upper middle class or higher family

3. I live at home with parents until I marry.

4. Curfew of 2am

5. If I eventually find a woman that I want to be in a serious relationship with she must be approved by the entire family

6. The woman should a friend of the family

7. Highly preferred that she be also Chinese-Thai

I lived under these rules for about a year even though I had the means to get my own place right from the get go. I did it in order to try and become more ingrained in society and culture. I tired very hard to adapt to this new culture but found it too difficult and moved out. It caused a bit of a rift but things have settled now. I appreciate the family first ideals that Thai culture embodies so I've tried to meet it 1/2 way but this overbearing style also has a lot of negatives and can create a very nieve mentality especially towards sex, and relationships.

I have dated inside and outside of the limited range that my family set forth and I will say that no two thai women are alike. I have met women very much like your gf who were for a lack of a better term "prudish" but I have noticed that all you have to do is meet the mother to determine if this is the kind of girl you have. If the mother is very rigid and proper in her mannerisms then the daughter will more than likely be the same. But not all girls that come from these types of families are like this. If they have spent a decent amount of time in the west either travelling or studying or have financial independence then they may be a bit more open sexually. I have also found that the younger generations, women in their early to mid twenties are more sexually active. They still may live at home and may not be able to spend the night but they will still be eager whenever the opportunity presents itself. I believe that Thailand is starting to experience a sexual and cultural revolution much akin to what happened in the US in the 60's.

Like others have said, if you find that you really like this woman as a companion but the sex-life is less than desirable and it's not going to change you can always have another woman on the side. Most Thai men who are in your predicament may marry a woman because of here social status and background in order to appease the family but will have "giks" on the side to full fill their other needs. Or of course you could just find another woman who meets all of your needs, it's not too difficult.

This is exactly what I have experienced with my GF who is Chinese/Thai and from a upper-middle class family.

I think most Westerners don't end up meeting girls like this. I was lucky that she is a little modern with the Internet etc.

Also opposed to marrying a Thai since she did not like seeing her Mom have to deal with indiscretions, second wife in China etc etc etc

I'm a monogamous guy, even though its fighting my genes at every turn lol!

Girls like this are still ruled 100% by family, honor and the like. Its not really a matter of them not wanting to have sex, its having them chose you over their parents wishes for a pure bride on wedding day :/

Thought I would add my 2 satang lol

My experiences were from the notes I brought with me. Could only exchange $5000 out of my $7000 CAN in Vancouver to Baht.

Looked around at Thai bank rates online once I was in Hua Hin, and they were at 30.00 (back in Oct)

My rate at same time in Vancouver was over 35:1

http://www.vbce.ca/r...ajor-currencies

http://www.kasikornb...gnExchange.aspx

^ Today's rate: 29.55 Baht / CAN

http://corporate.visa.com/pd/consumer_services/consumer_ex_rates.jsp?src=ex_rez

30.640478 B / CAN from Visa lol

(added my bank's 2.5%)

have started to watch this series on the fall of america, quite interesting and in my view plausible as with so much national debt people holding USD will (are?) soon try to 'get rid' of them - I wonder in exchange for what... other currencies? (which ones?) land / businesses in Asia? (I'm still not sure about gold being the top/best investment)

https://www.youtube....h?v=-DHmgM2MmFo

Assuming the USD will fall significantly in value, how would such a scenario affect the THB? (and other SEA currencies such as kip which seems pegged to the USD?)

The Thai Baht 'floats' against the value of the USD. It used to be 'pegged' back in late 1990s and caused a big problem then. It is not a 'distinction without a difference' 'pegged' versus float' but I am not an expert. Just use google or whatever if you want definitions. As I have posted before - the USD is a world reserve currency (as is well known) and what happens to the Dollar has great potetntial effect on all other currencies. Those countries that hold large amounts of U.S. Debt in Treasury Bills can have a lot of influence of what happens to the Baht and other currencies - sort of the domino effect - depending upon world events in this year and coming years to make an understatement.... U.S. Dept has skyrocketed over the past 5-6 years and is continuing to do so at an unbridled pace.

http://www.treasury....cuments/mfh.txt

MAJOR FOREIGN HOLDERS OF TREASURY SECURITIES

Billions of dollars)

HOLDINGS 1/ AT END OF PERIOD

Nov Oct Sep Aug Jul Jun May Apr Mar Feb Jan Dec Nov

Country 2012 2012* 2012* 2012* 2012* 2012* 2012* 2012* 2012* 2012* 2012* 2011* 2011

------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------

China, Mainland 1170.1 1169.9 1153.6 1155.2 1160.0 1147.0 1164.0 1164.4 1144.0 1155.2 1166.2 1151.9 1254.6

Japan 1132.8 1131.9 1128.5 1120.9 1119.8 1108.4 1107.0 1087.7 1080.3 1088.4 1080.6 1058.4 1066.4

Carib Bnkng Ctrs 4/ 283.7 273.5 261.1 263.9 247.6 245.4 244.2 238.4 235.4 232.9 224.6 227.2 223.3

Oil Exporters 3/ 260.1 262.2 267.2 269.1 266.5 268.4 258.4 259.9 260.0 267.6 267.6 261.1 254.2

Brazil 257.0 254.1 251.2 259.8 256.5 244.3 245.8 245.9 238.1 228.4 228.2 226.9 226.6

Taiwan 193.1 197.2 201.7 199.5 194.4 196.4 190.0 187.3 190.1 183.7 178.4 177.3 166.9

Switzerland 186.9 187.8 193.5 191.7 184.8 172.3 155.1 150.3 150.7 145.4 146.5 142.4 126.2

Russia 164.1 171.1 163.5 162.9 156.2 163.8 156.3 155.4 151.1 144.8 145.7 149.5 145.1

United Kingdom 2/ 145.0 133.2 137.9 137.1 135.4 138.0 137.3 136.9 126.4 119.0 116.2 114.3 125.2

Luxembourg 144.8 144.7 147.6 138.9 135.1 137.9 130.6 129.7 139.7 140.6 139.6 147.6 127.2

Hong Kong 142.3 138.5 137.1 141.7 137.1 136.0 143.8 145.0 140.3 141.9 134.3 121.7 107.9

Belgium 135.4 136.4 133.2 130.2 141.3 144.5 132.0 132.3 141.7 125.2 131.5 135.2 133.2

Ireland 97.0 97.4 96.9 94.6 93.2 91.3 93.9 95.1 94.2 96.0 86.2 97.7 70.2

Singapore 91.6 97.5 94.4 96.9 96.4 86.9 83.1 82.5 84.7 84.6 74.8 75.1 70.0

Norway 75.8 75.5 73.9 71.4 68.2 68.6 67.9 64.8 61.0 59.4 57.3 56.7 40.3

Canada 66.4 58.3 60.6 61.3 61.3 52.7 55.8 63.8 54.2 53.9 48.0 45.1 48.7

Germany 66.0 64.0 65.5 66.2 66.5 64.0 65.1 62.7 64.6 60.7 60.9 60.7 67.8

France 65.5 58.7 59.3 52.9 55.2 49.1 50.6 49.8 45.9 39.7 42.5 44.7 59.4

Mexico 59.6 59.2 56.5 57.2 53.9 51.6 45.8 40.9 35.9 31.8 30.1 29.4 31.7

India 58.6 59.6 59.7 60.6 59.3 53.8 50.0 49.3 46.7 44.1 42.8 43.5 38.4

Thailand 57.0 58.6 64.3 58.7 53.0 53.1 53.5 52.2 54.7 54.3 54.5 51.6 56.0

Turkey 55.3 51.6 42.6 34.6 30.3 29.1 27.1 28.1 30.4 30.1 27.4 32.0 40.2

Korea 43.4 42.2 42.1 44.1 46.5 44.5 46.3 43.9 42.7 50.8 49.9 47.3 42.1

Philippines 37.2 36.9 37.0 37.1 36.9 35.4 36.5 36.8 37.1 37.1 35.7 32.7 31.7

Chile 33.1 30.9 30.3 30.1 29.7 26.7 26.4 24.5 21.9 22.5 22.3 23.0 24.9

Israel 31.0 28.9 25.8 25.0 23.1 24.6 24.8 23.7 22.8 23.0 22.7 19.3 19.4

Netherlands 30.4 30.7 27.0 27.4 25.8 26.2 26.2 24.7 23.4 25.0 25.2 21.7 24.1

Poland 29.5 30.4 30.0 29.4 28.8 29.9 28.4 28.4 27.5 27.3 28.7 28.5 27.9

Sweden 28.4 29.0 27.6 28.0 28.5 27.8 27.4 27.6 27.6 28.5 29.2 28.9 30.4

Colombia 28.3 29.9 29.3 27.9 27.6 27.1 26.5 26.9 26.7 25.1 25.2 23.5 20.0

Italy 28.0 28.0 27.6 27.5 27.7 27.5 27.1 26.5 24.1 23.3 22.7 22.8 21.2

Australia 27.4 26.7 25.7 27.6 26.7 25.3 29.7 25.8 22.6 23.5 22.2 21.8 24.1

Spain 25.2 25.3 25.5 24.2 24.5 26.6 21.7 21.2 21.1 21.3 23.7 24.0 16.3

Malaysia 19.5 19.5 19.4 19.6 20.1 20.3 20.3 20.1 20.5 20.9 20.6 20.6 18.5

Denmark 15.1 14.9 15.2 15.8 15.6 15.3 15.1 14.6 15.4 15.4 15.9 16.5 13.6

Peru 13.6 13.4 11.9 11.5 11.9 11.8 11.4 10.5 10.1 8.9 8.9 8.8 8.5

South Africa 13.0 12.8 13.0 12.8 13.0 13.2 12.6 12.3 12.2 12.9 12.9 12.1 11.3

All Other 245.7 246.2 238.5 233.4 221.7 227.6 227.4 225.2 222.2 217.2 214.0 205.9 195.3

Grand Total 5557.2 5526.2 5475.4 5446.5 5379.7 5312.4 5264.9 5215.3 5148.3 5110.6 5063.8 5007.4 5009.1

Wow some surprising countries on that list. RUS for one lol.

Never knew JPN was so over a trillion either

Guess its all cool as long as they never ask for their money back

Looks even cooler from space

I always liked Sam Neill

Its the plasma discharge (CME). It can also have different polarities, depending on where it originated from.

Sometimes it is allowed in when hitting an opposing charge's end of Earth's EM field.

Like I said, it averages over a billion tonnes of plasma per CME

And yes, it takes days for those to arrive. Its's not a wave, but actual ejected matter into space. Looking at the projected paths / what planets they hit is kinda neat

Poor Mercury gets it pretty bad. Also Mars since losing its magnetic field ~.o

That link to the EMP thread at top of page is kinda funny. Anything can be shielded from EMP/CME, its just a matter of having a container/field that absorbs/redirects the current.

While talking about EMP's and solar flares / storm.

EMP I can understand in basic level. It's typically caused by neutron bomb exploded in high altitude. This will cause a huge neutron flow which will interact with metals which will cause the atoms to excite and therefore emit electrons, which will cause extra surge, which can heat up the delicate electronic parts and therefore destroy the electronic devices. Please correct if I'm wrong as it has been a long time since I checked the facts.

If the sun's flare would come directly to the earth, what would come from there? All the electro magnetic radiation would reach the Earth in 8.5 minutes. For the particles it will take an average of 3 days.

So what causes the problems to the electric devices and grid. What, how and why?

The issue is all the charge particles. Basically anything unshielded will absorb them. Think of the power grid as a real big antennae. All those lines collecting charge. Its also how electronics blow. The circuit gets a higher amp than its wiring / transistors / capacitor can handle.

Most of the time the earth's field deflects all that to the poles creating Auroras for us northern latitude folks.

There are times the field tips and lets it all in, or gets compacted and if several CMEs are inbound ... can be an issue. There was one large scare in Quebec last solar maximum.

So ... its all about the billion-ish tons of ejected plasma, not the UV etc from the flare.

http://www.spaceweather.com

http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/

edit: looks like another posted got answer in first lol

The Canadian Dollar has been worth more than the U.S. lately, but before 1972 the Canadian Dollar was always worth more that the U.S. Lets hope that they do not devalue.

CDN has strengthened some. Our economy never tanked like the US, and they still were above 1.00 during the entire 'crisis'.

Honestly, I could never understand how a country with so much debt and nothing tied to their dollar to limit printing, could be at par with us.

The BHT increase seems at the same rate as either CDN/USD.

Guess these things are rarely logical though :/

Thailand has always had 2 currencies. Offshore Baht cannot be spent in Thailand. It's what is traded globally (like via XE)

'real Baht' will be from bank transfers, credit cards, money exchanges etc.

SuperRich has decent rates, but I traveled with currency on me. Pretty sure your bank will give the best rate. Thai banks have horrible rates from what I saw.