NaRangsit

Today is my seventh year anniversary of residing in this fine country; off for a slap up meal with the family and a nice local Thai eatery. Now, I've been mulling this thought for a while. To expats in other countries share the overwhelmingly negative attitude of expats in Thailand? I have a little bit of experience with this. Before Thailand I worked in Honduras; a country that arguably has greater social and political woes than Thailand. Despite not being so developed and downright dangerous the expats seemed to have a more positive outlook on life. Also worked in Prague and folks were really happy their despite the meager salary. So, what's the deal with expats in Thailand?

I have some thoughts:

1. Burnt Bridges back home.

2. Alcohol abuse: Sorry if this is out of line, I'm just calling it as I see it. A lot of expats seem to hammer the booze night after night.

3. Abusive marriages: It's rarely just the Thai girl. Cultural differences and values can be a toxic mix for some.

4: Not being open minded about Thai culture and the Thai way of doing things

Thoughts?

haha, my uncle had a guard goose and it would fly aside cars as they drove up and down his driveway. Evil creatures!

I'm up on the farm; having issues.

My two once-friendly, loving male ducks have just recently started to attack and bite me ferociously - I think they're being protective of the female who has just started laying. I've been very close to them so they may view me as a personal threat to the female, who often 'presents' herself to me. The ducks don't seem to chase other people as much.

My questions:

1. How do you effectively train ducks not to attack and bite? I have tried water guns, water hose, tapping their beak, holding beak closed for a second, saying "no", putting them in their cage. I also do positive reinforcement when on the rare occasion they don't bite me.

2. Is this a phase they'll grow out of when they're not 'teenagers' anymore? If this is a phase I can get through it. If it's going to be permanent I don't think I can keep them - I can barely go in my backyard anymore.

3. If I do have to say goodbye to the male ducks, is there a place they can go where they can live happily and not be eaten? Has anyone else had to do this? What did you do?

Thank you in advance for your help! I'm sick over this as I raised these ducks from chicks and held them every day so they would grow up and be friendly.

It looked a bit like one of those 'bath' houses on Rachada, My mistake.

I always thought it was the airing cupboard but apparently it means something else here. Is it some kind of gay sauna in Silom? I hear they are quite popular.

I am not a boiler room idiot. Whatever that is!? I hope you never become homeless, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy

. But why did your wife storm off, NaRangsit? Did she blame you for the rats?

I think she does. I use one of the spare rooms as my study. I feel a shade guilty about letting all those Pizza Company and Big Mac containers stack up; I believe this may have attracted the rodents.

The house was made of precast cement. Apparently it was filled with flammable materials,too. Thainess...

I am currently typing from a so so hotel in Bangkok, effectively I am homeless. Last night my house was burned to the ground. I am wondering how to muster of the courage to make peace with the wife. She went of in a storm to the farm. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined but I have suspicions on a rodent gnawing through the wiring. You see I have been having a problem with rats and I suspect one did something to the wiring of the rice cooker which was prone to sparking already. The main worry now is the wife, I think this may be the straw that breaks the camels back.

I have a freshly slaughtered duck that needs to be cooked, I am at a loss of the best way to cook it without access to an oven.I'm thinking of making a duck curry. Any tips on this? Will the way the duck met it's demise effect the quality of meat? I killed it with a blunt instrument due to it's incessant quacking late at night. The joys of farm life? My concern is that its violent death may have made the meat dull, stringy and unpalatable. This is why a think I curry would be best.

I teach on italki. Well worth signing up for. You set the rate and hours so that is a massive plus

I finally got the daughter in law <troll comment deleted>

I decided to sign up to another forum; the one with the wooden door. I must say, I was shocked to the very core. Some of the threads are unspeakable! I was also immediately verbally harassed by a very grumpy poster who seemed a shade angry about my suggestion of changing the color scheme. The whole forum seemed to be full of bitter balcony jumpers arguing among each-other. Talk about giving expats a bad name!

Anyone else had any experience like me?

Now, as some of you know I saw a bodybuilder in Cambo. I'm still thinking about him and his impressive frame. In fact, I'm thinking of him in a number of ways, let's just say I don't want to talk about them with the wife 555. Now as I look at my tiny frame in the mirror I have decided that I need more mass. I am clueless. Are there any bodybuilders that could proffer some advice? I wanna get vascular and lift some heavy weights!

Nice OP, this could be interesting.

For me, what goes under the definition of " Thainess " is, more or less, the sides of Thai culture which we cannot understand.

For example, i am very gracious and accomodating, until you make me so angry that i kill you.

( that's an exaggeration of course, most Thais i deal with, are people who can have a reasonable discussion without getting ballistic )

Yup, I think the 'Thai Smile' can be where that notion is clearly seen. The smile can mean so many things; as it can in my own culture. I can also give a condescending and mocking smile rather than one that simply means happy.

Thainess for me is sometimes going above and beyond when it comes to hospitality. Had a wonderful meal last night, the bill was 800 baht for two, hardly HiSo. But the service was . The tom yum was too spicy, they could see this from my face. They took it away and made another for free. A taxi was called at the same time we asked for the bill. Try finding that service back in Blighty!

Grace and beauty? Like it! I am also a fan of the whole Mai Pen Rai thing. It's nice to live life at a less than hectic pace.

We are always told we'll never understand Thainess, but let's give it ago. Thainess for me is a welcoming culture where you are not judged for what you wear or where you come from. Where I live, the Thais are very accommodating. Thainess is also freedom for me as I don't have to get involved as I am outside the culture. Thoughts?

Maestro is correct. I'm off to bed. A couple of beers have only made be a trifle paranoid about the bodybuilder who is now shouting incoherently in his room. This is one sketchy town, I'll be on the first bus out.

You know all that news about the borders being closed to visa runners? Well, it's very much true as I have found out today. I went for my usual visa run which is usually without event. Today was different. No point rambling but I was turned away from the border. So here I am, sat in a rather gloomy but not awful hotel. Tomorrow I will try my luck in the capital. Never been so I'm looking forward to have a poke about PP. Any recommendations? This border town is a but scary to be honest. Some bodybuilder type has been walking up and down the corridor grunting. I presume he's a shade unbalanced. Anyway, just a heads up, the Thais at the border are being very picky about visas. I miss the wife. Not in the best of moods. Will have a couple of local beers and get an early one. I am beginning to think that I cannot cope with Thailand anymore. They no longer seem to be smiling and welcoming. Dark times.

Sadly learning anything in Thai schools is wrong from the start. Classes are too big and there is on overly heavy reliance on rote learning and teacher centered classrooms.

There will be more scrutiny until the lose interest in it.

How will the over weight step daughter feel about this I ask ?

Lucky for me Berthaporn is a bit dim. She's spent 3 days trying to solve my task of finding a word that rhymes with purple.

I think I'll have to sell the Fortuna...

I'm starting to grown weary of showing the same flashcards all the time. I have decided that I will be taking a years sabbatical to become a sexpat for a bit. To be honest most of it comes from jealousy. I want money and wimin like a 2 week Pattaya king. How does one become the very best sexpat that they can? I haven't told the wife yet. I hope she does not take it the wrong way.

Hello all. Firstly,good news! The wife has forgiven me and doesn't mind if her relative prefers the tradesman's entrance . Whoop Whoop! I also had a lovely time to a point of the form. What ruined it was the local farrang drunk, and it's not the first time I have had to endure such a person. He went on and on about how bad everything was in Thailand. Thais can't do this, Thai's can't do that and so on. Tedious stuff. He then regaled the times when he shouted at the locals in Big C to speak English because ASEAN is coming. I made my excuses when he started complaining about thais cooking Toast wrong. Why don't these people just go home. I hate it when people label to locals as stupid. They aren't. They're lovely.