BangkokReady

Trump the peacemaker. Looking forward to the Nobel Peace Prize.

Actually, I left it out as it is irrelevant (IMO), due to the fact that you can never be sure that you aren't going to offend someone. Even in a "localised discussion", talking with close Thai friends who you feel you know and trust, topics of this nature can completely transform people. It's just the way people are in countries such as Thailand. I thought you would know that, and the fact that you apparently don't prompted my comment. No obtuseness or intellectual dishonesty here. (Not my style.)

Because if you say the wrong thing to the wrong person, even if factually and morally completely right, you could end up seriously injured. You're likely to see a very different side of some Thais if you say anything that isn't very much pro-Thai and anti-Khmer.

More of a master-debater!

Tell her to call you "daddy" instead...

Indeed. It might "only" be $3, but it's about the impression it gives of the Thai attitude to foreigners, that they are there for the milking, and that makes Thailand come across as pretty hostile to tourists. They need to work on attracting tourists and making Thailand seem more welcoming to them, not that they wish to squeeze more money out of them.

They don't want budget tourists, but they forgot to do anything to attract any other kind. 🤷‍♂️

And outright racism.

Western expats should probably just keep their heads down and stay out of it. Not everything is about you.

Hardly surprising, given how many Thais behaved towards foreigners during covid (and now, occasionally).

In your world, enforcing the law is seen as cruel. And, perversely, putting women and children in danger is seen as a good thing! 🤡🌍

That seems to be the case. Thais know this so they absolutely hate Cambodia and try to reenforce the idea that everything is Thai whenever they can.

/Thread.

Definitely needs to click play.

Laptop.

Interesting surfing on the left and the right.

Why does its accuracy worry you?

I think it's more a case of making people think they can do things that they cannot, and probably failing to value things that they believe can be replaced by AI. One of the biggest dangers is that people suddenly feel that doing something like writing a book or painting a picture is meaningless, since AI can do it in 5 minutes. The phrase "AI generated slop" has luckily been coined, which I think will be really important in the coming years.

They need to go back to their roots and offer cheap tourism to backpackers. Vietnam is still very popular with backpackers. They're basically stealing Thailand's bread and butter tourists as they offer closer to what Thailand did in the past. There's nothing wrong with Thailand wanting to develop and leave the backpacker image behind, but they can't just shrug off the backpackers and expect everything else to follow. You have to get the demand for the new thing in before you move over from the old thing.

How about this new campaign: "Being nice to foreigners so that they will want to visit"? Stop the violence against foreigners, stop the scams against foreigners, and stop the antiforeigner propaganda. Then you might just see an uptick. Otherwise, it simply isn't going to return to pre-pandemic levels.

I'm calling BS on everything you are saying. Especially since you go on to actually agree that someone should be free to spend however they want. No one said anything about wanting to have something for free, least of all me. As I said, many Thais have a sense of entitlement to foreign people's money, no doubt based on being used to tourists visiting the country and spending freely. That entitlement then leads to feelings of resentment when "rich foreigners" aren't spending freely and enriching Thais. I believe that's basically what the phrase means. Hence they don't just use the Thai word for stingy or miserly. It's a special term for "bad foreigners" who don't spend like they're on holiday. So, if you prefer to save your money, not spend freely in Thai business, you may well deserve the title "farang kee nok".

I mean Thai people have a special name for foreign people who don't enrich Thai people. Which tells you that they feel entitled to foreign people's money, along with some underlying hostility. A lot of blah blah when I made it pretty clear what I was referring to.

Well, they have a special insult just for them if they don't willingly fork over their money to Thai people. That might tell you something.

Or...

How did they find them?