Thaiberius

The family weirdness thing is even more apparent when they do the same in their chosen country of residence/marriage. I have Thai friends in the UK whose family set-up gives me the jitters and none of it affects me directly. Outside Thailand it just seems plain weird.

Living in a Pattaya apartment years ago my tilac asked if her mother could come and stay the night as we had a spare room. I wasn't happy as knowing once it happened then the floodgates would open but I agreed. Over the next couple of days I detected a change, various names were mentioned and then a huge gang descended upon the apartment while I was having an afternoon snooze. My fridge was swiftly emptied along with anything else they could lay their hands on. They were out the door within an hour, never to be seen again. The tilac went shortly afterwards. Don't let the thin edge of the wedge take root - to mix metaphors.

doesnt sound like there was much rak on her part

Correct, I was just another farang to be taken advantage of until the money tap stopped.

Great Britain civilised the world over a couple of centuries. Just saying like.

Correct. Actually we stole most of the world as well...Unfortunately we have had to give most of it back. The only people who want to stay is the Falkland islands..

And the Gibraltarians ................ and the Indians but they'll never admit it.

Great Britain civilised the world over a couple of centuries. Just saying like.

This is so elementary I would think you would have acquired this knowledge at this point in your life. Skin color is only important to intellectual morons, people that need to make excuses for their failures.

Intelligent, motivated, resourceful people are successful no matter the color their skin, they adapt, they don't quit, they don't make excuses and they don't fail. They dont waste their time thinking about their skin color they are busy succeeding.

I can only assume by your posts that you spend your time making excuses and thinking like a failure.

that doesnt alter the fact that it matters to a great many of your countrymen and you trying to tell us it is rare in your country is simply not true. but keep ducking and dodging that fact pal, its entertaining.

it is a lot more about education than skin color. In fact, an educated person of color, who is a hard worker, has more opportunities than a white person in my country, simply because they are less numerous than educated whites.

Race issues are expressed differently in different countries.

Here is an interesting perspective from a very educated black American on his eye opening experiences as a temporary expat in Ukraine:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/01/02/a-cop-in-ukraine-said-he-was-detaining-me-because-i-was-black-i-appreciated-it/

Not having a dig but would you have explained the writer was "very educated" if he was white, Japanese or Chinese? Were you concerned that because somebody who was black had written an article it wouldn't be taken seriously unless it could be established he was "very educated"?

Fear not. In the midst of a global downturn, Thailand will be rescued by Chinese tourist hordes and massive new government debt (aka "economic stimulus"). Happiness and prosperity will abound. Next question?

I agree with you 100%

It's already happening bus loads of them, I used to drive tours in NZ the place swamped with them they direct all their people to Chinese owned business and shops no good for genuine Thai economy.

The tour guides rip their people off and lie to them about where to go for shopping and eating and backhanders are rife.

Hua Hin swamped some evenings with bus loads of them, I was eating on one of the Pier restaurant's wont go there again it's turned into overpriced bland horrible food and filthy toilets.

It's like reading the Daily Mail here. Is it complulsory to always type the word "hordes" when the Chinese are mentioned? I presume we are talking the same Chinese hordes who are going to unleash genocide on the West in 20 years or so?

I know one copper, the only one in the ban, who spends his days drinking and riding around on his bike. He appears to be answerable to nobody. I don't know his working hours but unless the ban needs a plain-clothes drunken policeman he is never on duty.

They will often talk openly in front of Thai friends/partners about the handsomeness of a man, or how beautiful a woman is, or how fat someone is, or how someone looks like a monkey....all sorts of stuff. And they'll also tell the person who is the subject of the discussion the same thing.

However, it sounds like the occasion the OP is referring to possibly (probably) involved working girls.

If the girl/s in question (working girls or otherwise) have nothing to hide or fear from their Falang partner/BF and are capable of speaking English, they would normally say the things in English.

My missus will go out of her way to point out an especially attractive girl to me, as well as refer in flattering terms to a particularly good looking or muscular (or funny, or happy, or stupid, or ugly, or well/badly dressed) Falang.

Thais like to gossip - enough said.

My wife always points out the ladies we rather large bums ,

If i get caught looking at a pretty Thai girl my gf always indicates that they are a lady boy. Don't know about others but it always destroys the fantasy .

I suppose it would if you were gullible.

Amazing really. Putin admits sending troops into the Ukraine yet people still say it did not happen. President of Ukraine is elected on a mandate for closer European ties, reneges just before signing up for it and in addition does a total U-turn. People immediately take to the streets to complain and the US is blamed.

Does the West expect Putin not to react as NATO and the EU expand ever closer to its borders? Just asking like.

there are some really nice pads in phuket that you would need to be famous in some capacity to afford. many listed in sotherbys international realty.

not sure who actually ends up living in these places though.

Is that the same Phuket where thousands have been ripped off in various timeshare and new development scams over the past few decades?

Plenty holiday, almost zero live. I don't understand why anybody would tie up a lot of capital in Thailand.

Don't the Russians generally gravitate to Pattaya? I haven't been there for years. Not many in Bangkok or Hua Hin which is quite a relief and with these projected visitor numbers it is unlikely they'll be there anytime soon. Just to prove I'm not picking on the little darlings I stopped visiting Phuket due to the fact the bars there resembled the cast of an antipodean Star Wars.

They wouldn't do it with a Thai boyfriend sat next to them because he would give her a good punching. Not exclusively but in general a farang won't punch a woman for such an indiscretion.

it's virtually impossible to travel any distance at all and not witness a serious or fatal accident.

Hmmmm . . . a little dramatic wouldn't you say?

I can see your point but for any journey lasting more than a couple of hours on a motorway you'll almost certainly see some type of shunt and with the speeds involved ...........

The time to worry is when they start slagging you off in front of you to their friends, that happens more than foreigners realise. Some of these women have no respect for us at all.

Yes, agreed. It happens more than many realise.

Buy one for £10 at your nearest second hand market and leave hers at home. Would you also like me to explain how to tie your shoelaces and put your socks on?

Owning a property anywhere in the world you would use a bank or an estate agent. Why ask an internet discussion forum? I think I know the answer.

If they know a farang doesn't understand of course they will. Women do it the world over. Just the same as a guy with his mates will gossip about females if they know their partners either aren't there or don't understand. The word naive comes to mind.

Is acknowledging the differences between race thought to be racist?

its not failed expats, its people who are failures before they arrive.

many more of these in thailand then other countries. it usually involves people with vices they cant control or lack of discipline in spending on women or partying and other things. your not going to be truly successful anywhere with personal problems, but they burn out faster here because the scene caters to these types.

What is wrong with spending money on women and partying? That is what success is all about. The more successful the more women and partying. Thailand is full of successful playboys on a pension and good for the old fellas having a last hurrah with hard earned cash.

The famous George Best quote as he lay on a bed with Miss World surrounded by cash and drinking champagne - "where did it all go wrong George?"

As others have written it is wholly dependent upon how you quantify success. If you term success in monetary terms then I doubt whether whether many ex-pats who live in Thailand actually make a decent financial living, certainly not those who live in the Kingdom. If you quantify success as a feeling of well-being then I would estimate the number of success stories will be much higher. From a personal point of view I work outside Thailand and spend the majority of my non-work time there. My stress levels are virtually zero and my enjoyment of life is better than my home country of UK by ten-fold. If you judge success as being in a relationship and blending into the Thai way of life in a non-obtrusive and simple way then you I would guess that state will be enjoyable but only temporary in the majority of cases.