Andrew Hicks

Aren't most single blokes up for sex where ever they are? Can't just single Thailand out & make it out to be the red light destination of SE Asia. If I was single and took a trip to Paris or Havana or Timbuktoo, I'd spend just as much time thinking about &/or trying to get some as I would in Thailand.

You like the women in Timbuktoo?

Of course Thailand has so many attractions... the temples, the weather, the fine city architecture, the beautiful parks and civic places, the delightful markets, the subtle cuisine.

So who wouldn't want to come here!

Personally I like tall, statuesque blondes.

one thing good bout bagrils is that you bound to find a good one sooner or later. theres just so many of them!

Yah! If you keep coming back to the bar often enough and don't die of old age before you find the bagril with the golden heart.

Not that I don't know nuffin 'bout this, mind!

Yea right.. the leading euro think tank got it wrong, and YOU'RE right. Absolutely. Have another beer.

[/quote

Think tank speak with forked tongue.

There 'may' be a coup? There definitely will be some further upset. It's just the matter of the form it takes.

Certainly it's become more complex than a cycle of military coups. Try civilian ones instead.

Wonder if you can help?

My Thai is quite limited, but I want to post a warning on my gate to prevent unwanted intruders....been getting thieved a bit of late!

How would you (In Thai script) write - "Intruders will be exterminated" I don't want to use words like Kamoy, as I don't mean it specifically for theives...what is the Thai for "intruder"

And I don't want to use the words "will be shot" or that would advertise I have a gun, simply "exterminated" if there is an equivalent! Cheers.

Well Brian, congratulations for being one of the few Thaivisa geezers who's got the courage to post this sort of provocative stuff under his real name. I hand it to you.

I'm sure your notice will be fully effective in warding off evils and I wish you all the best.

Andrew na Ayuttaya

I'm not a he. Does that mean I must leave now?

You're a he?

What's a 'he' in Thai?

Ha!

Where are all the Thai apologists that beat down even the hint of any criticism of anything Thai on this board?

This intelligent piece of commentary must have them very conflicted. Imagine if a foreigner had written a similar article. Strangely but blessedly quiet.

Yes, I too thought this an excellent article and emailed Khun Voranai to say so.

This weekend there was a further column by him, also extremely well written and thought provoking. I should re-read it to summarise it properly but what sticks in my mind was his explanation of the current chaos, namely that Thai democracy is in its infancy and so should not be unduly criticised. In the West democracy has matured over many generations but here it is only a few decades old and was held back by the authoritarian governments that were necessary while the communist threat was being dealt with.

Finally let nobody therefore be unduly critical, he says... for foreigners to do so is particularly offensive.

Interestingly in a recent excellent interview by Erika Fry in the Bangkok Post the British ambassador was quite frank in saying that Thai politics have hardly matured in the thirty years since he was first posted here at the beginning of his career. Even some of the same faces are still jockeying for power.

Uncomfortable truths do need to be faced.

It often amazes me how well Thailand has done despite its leadership. That success though has hardly been equitably shared with all the poor chao naa that I see around me in Surin.

East or West, face is the same, in my experience. Only the individuals are different. Feelings are the same.

I'm not so sure about this Ajarn. I think Farangs tend to 'shrug off' a mistake or a 'difference of opinion,' but a Thai will often let their emotions take over. Often times this emotion leads to irrational behavior that could have been avoided with

a simple exchange of ideas. Often hired help just disappears because they did something silly that is inconsequential to the employer, and the employer lets them know there is no harm done. The next day the worker is gone; unable to face the employer. The last thing the employer wanted was the employee to leave.

Oh well.

Interesting!

My observation while my house in Surin was being built and at other times is that Thai workers don't like to be told what to do at all... and that includes builders doing difficult work who are just rice farmers working in the dry season.

There seems to be no foreman and nobody to plan things and they all just get to work by some sort of unspoken consensus. This has its advantages in a cohesive team but also disadvantages in repeated cock ups and inefficiencies.

As for me, even though I was paying the piper, trying to call the tune... forget it. Serious hurt could be caused by opening my mouth.

I kept it shut, but I did include a chapter about it in a book I wrote about living in Isaan.

Is this true with any other people ?

Seldom do I eat western food anymore but when I do it just seems very bland and wonder if my taste buds have just been burned out.

Yesterday my lovely placed upon my tongue a tiny morsel of som tam whereupon I ran out screamimg into the street.

Thai food is sometimes not just hot. It's volcanic!

And with an afterburn of ten on the rictus scale!

If you walk daily barefoot on burning coals you tend to get callouses on your soles. Likewise I'm sure that if you can manage to ingest the hotter of Thai foods, then you won't be able to taste much else. All other food becomes mai arroy.

I'm sure that the Thais around me here in Surin can hardly taste anything unless it's nuclear.

It is indeed correct that at this moment in time UK Pensioners in Thailand do not receive cost of living increases.

If I'm correct isn't this being challenged in the European Courts at the present time ?

The 100pounds per week desertexile mentioned is actualy 'Per month' if you live outside of the UK ...

Where do you get your "facts" from? Maybe your nickname says it all.

If you live in Thailand and some other countries ("non-uprated"), your pension won't rise each year as, hopefully, it will do for UK residents and UK pensioners in "uprated" countries.

This means that the pension you get on day one is what you will get for the rest of your life unless you go back to the UK (or another "uprated" country). But if you come back to Thailand, your pension will revert back to the original, day one level.

I believe the current full UK state pension is just under 100 GBP per week.

Hopefully the UK govt. will one day stop this unfair discrimination against pensioners in so-called "non-uprated" countries. There is no logic in it. They do it merely because they can. No other European govt. does it.

http://www.britishpensions.org.au/internat..._consortium.htm

Thanks JetSet for that information which confirms my understanding.

I too would be very interested to hear where you get your "facts" from Mr. Dumball. Please tell.

The current pension for fully paid contributions is £90.70 per week As stated you can claim it anywhere in the world but will only attract increases if you live in the EU............ Not Thailand.

<a href="http://" target="_blank"></a>Can my UK pension be paid to me while I am in another country?

You can be paid a UK State Pension anywhere in the world, but you will only get annual increases if you live in any other EEA country, a country with which the UK has a social security agreement that allows increases, the Isle of Man or Sark.

http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/state-pension/home.asp

Better quit the LOS and move to Sark then... help pay for my Zimmer.

Though what are the short time girls there like?

No mention of Herm?

Pardon for asking, but why is there left hand driving in Thailand?

Probably based on some good sales talk by a Japanese Car Maker. Or maybe a righthand drive car was given as a gift to 'someone' so it made sense that every other car follow his royal lead.

You know why Burma changed from driving on the left hand side of the road to the right?

(Despite cars being right hand drive.)

At the beginning of the twentieth centure there were no Japanese car makers. But yes, it was surely based on the first cars imported, presumably from Britain.

No I don't. Why did Burma cross to the other side of the road? To spite the British?

Another big issue is the type of electrical sockets etc!

I have often heard that much of the unique culture and attraction of Thailand is partly due to it not having had a colonial history. But is this really the case? Would 100 years or so of European domination have changed the way Thailand now operates or the attitudes and way of life of Thais?

There are so many points to be made on this one.

British colony Burma... should now be the wealthiest in SE Asia. On independence took the Burmese Way to Socialism and shut itself off from the world and modernisation.

British colony Malaysia... substantially shaped by the colonial experience as Chinese and Indian labour was brought in to exploit resources of tin and rubber. Now in the agony of its first political change since independence but otherwise a success story.

British colony Singapore... a unique success story. One admirable feature now is the fact that they accept the colonial era as part of their history and not a hideous interregnum. Sir Stamford Raffles, invader and arch colonialist is respected by them as their founder.

Former French Indo-China... total disaster because France refused to let go of her empire and the issue of Vietnam's struggle for independence became confused with the capitalist West's violent resistence to communist expansionism. Continued post-colonial interference then created long term instability.

Thailand was politically independent and (after cosying up to Japan during orld war II) sided with the West and did very well thank you.

Thailand was as good as colonised by the US during the Vietnam War but came out of it okay. Had she been a British colony things might not have been much different at this point.

The British successfully won the 'Confrontation' struggle against communism in Malaysia in the fifties and sixties and no doubt would have used the same effective tactics in Thailand to contain the rural drift towards comunism. (Which was of course merely a way for the rural poor to identify their need for proper development and to count for something in society, a struggle that continues on the streets of Bangkok today).

The two big things the British leave behind permanently are the English language and a legal system, perhaps with some sort of constitutional structure. These things do help a country to modernise and be part of the nternational community.

Perhaps Thailand's volatile politics would now be more 'advanced' had teher been colonisation... but who knows.

Thinking of the Philippines whose culture was decimated and devalued by centuries of Spanish and then American colonisation, its absence in Thailand has left Thailand's individual culture and self-respect much more intact.

And that has to be a good thing!

Big issues indeed.

Thanks for so many interesting points on this thread. The kibbutz experience is particularly valuable.

I opened the thread because social and family breakdown in the countryside interests me and I often wonder about the impact on childern of absent parents. Until now I have never noticed any evidence of children being disturbed by this as they always have some other permanent parent substitute to rely on.

However, I've observed a three year old girl who seems disturbed by her parents coming and going to work away in Bangkok. Granny is always there but is not in good health and various individuals are brought in for a time to help out. The child seems to bond closely to these helpers more than with the grandmother and she has become clingy and erratic, often asking for the helper and crying for her.

Perhaps I've answered my own question, but I wondered what individual cases other Thai residents had seen.

Generally it amazes me how resilient village society is... I live on the rice plains of Surin. But certainly it is under threat with urban migration and lack of jobs.

Why can't they bring small industry to the provinces and ease pressure on Bangkok and the Eastern seaboard.

But that's another question.

The hotel I stay in when in Bangkok has a sign outside saying, 'Sex Tourists Not Welcome'. It's not far from soi 4 and despite the sign the occasional jock tries to bring his short time lady in.

The owner decided years ago that the hotel was his home and that he should be able to choose the sort of guests he wanted to have around him. Friends in the hotel business told him it was commercial suicide but he's carved himself a niche and even in low season the place is always full.

Shi*e hotel anyway Andrew - doubt most would want to stay there anyways. (old/decrepit)

Which hotel are you thinking about? It must be a different one.

The one I'm talking about has nice gardens and a swimming pool, an attractive old style lobby and restaurant with perhaps the most extensive menu of Thai food in Bangkok, including a huge vegetarian range. There's wi-fi, computers available, a reading room, gymn, a map selection, free book shelf and subscriptions to a wide range of international magazines. In fact it offers a special welcome to writers.

The rooms are spartan but otherwise it's a gem of a place.

And, yes, it's excellent value, but that I think is a good thing.

I think reading or reading the “right books/ literatures” is being waaay overrated in their importance to our intellectual mind.

i disagree completely. reading is much like travelling in that it exposes you to new ideas and perceptions, expands your vocaulary, and stimulates your imagination.

i think people who don't like to read (or travel) are somehow devoid of intellectual curiousity.

I'm enjoying reading this discussion!

So Thais don't read for pleasure then? True or false?

On the Skytrain you do see some reading and if you go to the annual book fair at the Queen Sirikit Convention Center you can hardly move for the thousands of people looking for books at the hundreds of trade stands. Very impressive and encouraging.

But! There is research on this and the wild generalisation that Thais don't read much is true. The Vietnamese whose economy has developed later than here read ten times more than the Thais.

Yes, you are conditioned to read because there were books in the house when you were growing up. But it has to start somewhere. Why therefore have the Vietnamese overtaken the Thais as avid readers? I have no idea.

Now does it matter? If an individual misses out that's up to them... their choice.

But reading, and I include the internet, is also the source of all knowlege. Does it matter if a nation of individuals regard reading as work, prefer a hammock and tv soaps and so remain relatively ignorant.

Thailand has been trying to promote reading and they are right to do so, but it'll take time.

All parents should read stories to their children.

A new populist policy for the new PM... a Trillion Books perhaps.

Well that's my take on it, right or wrong, based on my observations. The Thai education system does turn out many bright young people in spite of it's best efforts to do otherwise. Will it ever change? Not all the time Thailand has this, almost feudal, system of patronage that passes for government.

The talented young people in Thailand who are bright enough will often go overseas and excel where they are appreciated and rewarded for their intellect and skills. The vast majority of my Thai friends either studied abroad and/or work for multinationals. There is another layer to this problem and that is brain drain.

Singapore recognized this early on and gave full ride scholarships to intelligent but poor students in various SE asian nations to encourage them to immigrate and contribute to Singapore. This was a brilliant move and some of those students became leaders in their respective fields or went back home and became leaders who opened up various doors to Singaporean investment later on.

Judging by the Singapore PM's recent presentation of upcoming policy developments, a big part of the reason for their scholarship scheme (as well as obviously wanting to enlarge their skillset pool in short order) is that the currently declining SG birth rate is leading to a declining working population. My guess is that Thailand doesn't have the birth rate problem.

As others have mentioned, the hi-so elite will readily send their darling offspring overseas for what they regard as a 'head start" education (plus face etc), but I have yet to hear of any scholarships offered to less well-off Thai youth - whether for overseas study or at the top tier of Thai universities. Are there any? Would a less well-off but bright Thai student get a look-in anyway - with the excuse that their bog-standard early education just didn't equip them to qualify for it?

I agree with those that say that the present situation suits the elite just fine: the goodies for them and theirs - and a self-perpetuating system for the remainder of the population that produces plenty of worker ants.

Sad........

Singapore is by its nature a society of immigrants and is very good at bringing in outsiders to top up on technology and the work force generally. Indeed they employed me in their very nice university for five years!

Education has a very high priority, a spin off from Chinese culture, but ther are sharp enough to know that they have to move on from the Asian tradition of rote learning and develop critical thinkng and creativity. In Singapore there are real opportunities for the poor but clever kid.

In Thailand there is none. there are no opportunities. Birth determines everything. Money, contacts, corruption determines who can move comfortably up the ladder.

This is a tragedy for the able but poor individual. It's also a disaster for the country as the absence of a true meritocracy is utterly wasteful of talent.

In consequence the top people are drawn from a narrow gene pool. At the very top one wonders why there is so much mediocrity.

I think this explains it.

Not every city in Asia is equal on a resume. Working a few years in Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong and now Shanghai or Beijing is a major plus for an international career. A post in Bangkok says you're laidback, not very focus on your professional career, maybe even a pervert.

Is it really what professionals think?

Just don't stay too long, that's all!

"Woman" unsure.gif

that's what i was thinking.

what an accomplishment. thailand should be proud.

Yeah, but she learned how to do it in London!

Clorets are for bad breath, aren't they?

So often children in Thailand are raised without their parents. It's easily accepted that Mamapapa have to go away to earn the cash to keep the family alive and they only return briefly for a few days a year.

Of course supportive grandparents are there but I often wonder to what extent the children suffer emotional or other damage from this situation.

Does it make children confused or clingy? Do they become insecure and have difficulty with other relationships?

In the West it's thought that absent parents can lead to severe disturbance.

Any thoughts or experience?

While not perfect, the Thai education system seems to produce adults who are far more pleasant to live amongst than bestial-mannered populace of England, Australia and the United States.

It is not the education system that produces those adults but all aspects of society.

The English speaking world is not as you describe, bestial mannered.

The big challenge is the breakdown of village society and the extended family (as is now happening in Thailand and happened in the West perhaps centuries ago) and its replacement by a mainly urban society. All traditional values may then evaporate and it is hard to preserve or replace them. In this respect the West has not done too badly and education has a major role in this.

The school in our village in Surin teaches the kids basic literacy and numeracy and is a warm and pleasant environment which also importantly teaches civic values and warns against drug use and other modern enticements. What is its precise purpose though when most of the children will struggle to be anything other than mothers or rice farmers. If the school is highly successful academicallly it will be educating the kids to leave the village and so contribute to social decline.

It still makes me mad though, the snobbish regard for low grade 'academic' degrees that you need to be a check out girl or receptionist or to have anything but the lowest of the low jobs.

I once saw an advert published by a resort in Phuket... "wanted beach boy. Must be male and have a degree from a good university." Bizarre!

I have been living with my wife's family for months now in our house. I am able to tolerate the frustrating language problem for the most part, but I can't help but wonder what the heck they are saying amongst themselves. In a previous lengthly relationship with a Thai woman, I later found out she would openly be criticizing and bad-mouthing me, while I was sitting there politely smiling like a stupid fool. I have picked up some of the language but not much yet, so I don't have a clue about what's being said. Any similar experiences?

So you got rid of the other girl friend?!

Where would it ever be easy living with your wife's family?

Learning the language would only make sure they don't actually talk about you in front of you.

It's all a matter of slowly building up mutual trust and that takes time. At some point you simply have to decide if they're nice people and that it's all worth the effort.

I've done it here in Thailand for a long time and I've even written a book about it!

At first I was living with them and now they're living with me!

Andrew

a lot of people on tv (perhaps rightly) complain about the poor education system in thailand.

it's easy to see how a poor education system would leave people not knowing or - even worse - not wanting to know about other countries, languages, or anything that could give them better life chances.

the poor quality of schooling (alongside free media coverage) has also been cited as a reason for the ongoing political problems. thai education is crap. yes, we know.

but can anyone give us some actual examples, or perhaps some ajarn out there could recount some personal experiences. i.e. what kind of material do they teach from text books, what kinds of exercises are students asked to do, what experiences have people had teaching students new things, what do teachers say about farangs, do parents ever hassle for the principal etc, etc.

would be good to read some reports, or if someone could post a link to a website that would be cool too.

A fundamental issue is that the general approach to education in Asia (wild generalisation but true) is rote learning of information rather than developing critical thinking and a skills based approach. I have lectured at two Asian universities for a total of 12 years and a major aspect of our work was supplying this inadequacy in the students' earlier education.

Two more specific issues I've observed in Thailand.

1. In teaching English in schools the teacher charges on through the curriculum in the course book without regard to the children's actual attainment. Thus he/she is teaching at a level that is years in advance of of what they (or for that matter the teacher!) actually can understand.

2. In further education, a degree or other course is loaded with hundreds of peripheral subjects that the student has to study in addition to their major. I fear this may be primarily to support unpopular subjects and to keep classrooms full, but the result is not quality of education but quantity. Superficiality rules.

The overall problems go to the very root of Thai society I fear.

Jai yen yen. Mai pen rai. Sod it all!

Go back to your hammock or watch telly.

Once I saw a sign saying "no Thai people" pasted on the door leading to the staircase in a Bangkok guesthouse. Obviously this sign was directed at would be joiners. It left me wondering how reactions would be at a sign saying "no British people allowed" in a London guesthouse.

Yes, that is extraordinarily offensive and inept.

I've read that Khao San Road guesthouses have a policy of rejecting tourists with ladies of the night but of course it's very difficult for the girl at reception to apply the policy. Every now and then an Asian American woman for example has been more than affronted. What she says is simply that the hotel is full but that's not very convincing when they're checking in other guests with pallid skins.

A country that encourages a huge sex trade however invites such conflicts.

The hotel I stay in when in Bangkok has a sign outside saying, 'Sex Tourists Not Welcome'. It's not far from soi 4 and despite the sign the occasional jock tries to bring his short time lady in.

The owner decided years ago that the hotel was his home and that he should be able to choose the sort of guests he wanted to have around him. Friends in the hotel business told him it was commercial suicide but he's carved himself a niche and even in low season the place is always full.

My wife, Cat is half my age (as you may already have read somewhere) and we stay there comfortably, though after many years they all know I've led a blameless life. Come in off the street with a young Thai wife and you might put the dog among the pigeons.

The government the protest seeks to bring down, whatever its faults, was democratically elected with a huge majority.

It's amazing how the foreign press keeps on repeating this. How exactly is 36% of the vote a huge majority? It's almost like they're being deliberately misleading.

Agreed. I found the article somewhat naive and uninformed.

Honestly, the press all over the world more or less agrees with this analysis.

Naive ? Uninformed ? It's not because you really want something that it will become a reality. Otherwise I would be Warren Buffett and happily married with Marilyn Monroe.

By the way, the coalition (will it last, that's an other question) in power got the majority of the votes. If you don't agree, please read above paragraph.

The PAD has been short on policies but has recently come clean and said that it wants an appointed government, not one elected by the rural masses. They are vulnerable to vote buying and so elect representatives who are only interested in recovering the money spent on votes and not promoting the interests of the poor farmers.

The PAD do think the people should have some votes though and suggest they should elect 30% of MPs.

In other words they are ducking the issue of reforming elective democracy and abolishing it instead, thus returning power to the old urban power interests.

That is the broad picture the foreign press has to describe in a few paragraphs.

Thaksin and Samak were hardly fine proponents of popular democracy but at least they were chosen by an electoral majority.

I too have written about all this on my blog but cannot of course give you the URL.

Andrew Hicks

In my modest British opinion there are far too many silly american expressions used here... such as "chilling out".... what a ridiculous expression!! But worst of all, in my modest opinion, is the (incorrect) usage of the expression "enjoy". If I´m not mistaken, the verb "to enjoy" requires an object...i.e. you enjoy something. It is incorrect to wish that someone "enjoy". Any other opinions on this totally insignificant topic?????

Chilling out in Thailand! Yeah right!

Hey man I'm a Brit too but like crazy man, the US of A has kinda spiced up our lingo which is cool but I guess it's richer for the infinite number of varieties that add to its constant metamorphosis.

It's a living organism and immensely rich for that.

Enjoy!

(Reflexive verb, imperative mood. Can take an object but not necessarily. Cf 'go', 'run', 'stop', 'finish', 'vomit'.)

Why should they know anything? Is it important to them now? What do you know of the geography of Equador or Senegal. Knowledge of other countries geography is about as useful as knowledge of nuclear fission to the average person, Thai or otherwise.

For most people even in Senegal and Ecuador, sheer curiosity drives an interest in knowing a bit about the world.

Thailand continues to surprise me.