Ga-gai

Poor old danish fellow. This story about his greedy wife really sucks.

I don't know the details in his case, where he found his wife in the first place etc. But it is really amzing how many farangs that actually do marries prostitutes and the lowest class women in this country. (not to mention what the officials at the immigration in BKK are thinking when they see those kind of couples) The average middle class thai really believes that farangs actually are crazy by marrying these kind of women. A decent thai male would NEVER marry a hooker. Would anyone of us actually marry a prostitute back in our own country? Never! But here in Thailand, it happens every day. Why?

As someone posted here earlier: -Stay away from the bargirls!

For many old, ugly, 3 broken marriages and hard-to-live-with male westerners coming here, the-easy-to-get prostituted women somehow seems to fullfill that dream of a young beautiful (and sexy) woman that they never would be able to have back in their own country. But it all comes with a price. She DO NOT love him! He will only end up with a private prostitute.

The womans mind here, is not very different from a womans mind anywhere in the world. What a nice young good looking woman really wants, is a nice and young good looking man (or husband). Just like back in our own countries. If she is very poor, she have to take the next step. Marry a not so young and nice man that at least are able to help up her living.

And for living here in Thailand? Well I've been living here for over 6 years now. I really love this country and it's people. Some of them are good, some are bad. Just because you one day happened to meet someone that's bad, it doesn't mean that the rest of the country is bad. But that is the way it is, in whatever country you live in.

In my opinion, Thailand is probably one of the nicest and friendliest country to live in, around this part of the world. I've been doing travels to South Korea, and believe me... You really wouldn't want to move there. The Koreans are more or less open rascists. A korean father would never like to see his daughter to marry a westerner. They are also rough, unpolite and have no problems with bursting out yelling at you, if they got tired of not understanding you. Wherever you go, you won't see a single friendly smile looking at you. Not even from the women. Taking the Seoul subway, is more or less like being on a funeral. And I'm not sure if the Korean police is less corrupted than the thai. They are probably only better on hiding it.

And they are very bad on english. The thais are better by far on speaking english.

I really can't describe the enormous joy and happiness I felt evertime, coming back to Thailand from the Korean journeys.

The most important key thing to feel comfortable here in Thailand, is to learn to speak the Thai language. Being able to speak fluent thai, you will also earn more respect. You will also get more friends. I've also noticed how goverment officials turns from being stiff and authorian, to being nice and friendly as they discover that you actually are able to conversate with them in their own language.

Living in this country without being able to speak the language, will always put you in the position of an alien being from another planet (or even a vegetable). It the same back in our own countries, living close to neighbours that doesn't speak our language. Hard to understand, respect or make friends with. They will always become aliens or other low class beings to you.

/Ga-gai

Some time ago, I made a posting about a young western girl who was begging for money on the walking bridge between Pantip Plaza and Pratu Nam. At that time, there were not many posters here that took a serious attention to that posting. One even believed that the girl must be mentally ill, or something. But, but...

Probably it is a thing that we will see more of, in the future to come.

My posting:

Young female farang beggar

The Bus was registered in 1971, probably made in 1970.

It is 2007 now.

Doesn't that ring a bell...?

So much for the "wreckless driver" theory then, as other posters were keen on their far to hasty conclusions. The driver did what he could, but the bus were going downhill and there where no chance in h*ll to stop it.

As I mentioned before. It is often the companies that are to blame for the accidents, stressing their employees to just don't bother about safety or maintenance. This bus would probably do better in a scrap yard, than transporting people on the roads.

You guys really have lived here too long haven't ya?

Coup supporters too?

Well, I agree that the busdriver got the fully responsibility for the incident as it happened. He should have stopped sooner than ASAP.

But why do a driver choose to drive on when the bus clearly got problems, instead of reporting to the office that the bus is unrelieble and needs a replacement? His job is only to drive the bus and take it from A to B. Probably because there isn't room for either time or understanding from the management. If the engine can start, the bus is ready to go! If the driver doesn't do so, he probably lose his day payment or maybe even his work. What else would make I driver to risk his life? In my country, the bus would be put aside even for a faulty windscreen viper on a clear summers day. If the driver doesn't do that, he could be held responsible for neglect regarding safety.

But in this country, a driver will be held responsible for the companies loss of income if he doesn't take the vehicle from A to B as he was told to do. No matter what. A broken engine, is the only understanding he would get.

To much corruption, to few rules, no safety thinking among companies and management (which costs money), to few of everything...!

And the coup? Good to get rid of a corrupt leader. Bad we still don't know the outcome of this yet.

What can we do about it? -Nothing! Just bide our time and see what happens next!

If you don't like it, you should probably go back to where you came from.

The reason we can stay and live here, is just because they let us.

You have no rights to stay here. You only got the priviledge.

It is not our country, and that's the way it is.

Love it or drop it!

The more you complain about the Thais, the less the reason for them to have you here will be.

Just a simple fact...

It seems that maybe, just maybe, this tragedey could have been avoided. Why on earth didn't the driver stop when asked to? What goes through the minds of these people?

Maybe he were afraid of arriving late, resulting in losing his pay or even losing his work. I beleive there are very tough rules put on both busdrivers and truckdrivers. They have to deliver on time, or else...

And whom is to blame? Well, the driver should have stopped of course. But in the end, it is problably the employer and the bad working conditions that is the source of wreckless bus/truck driving. It is far to easy to narrow it down and just put all the blame on the driver.

From a biological point of view your are talking utter rubbish. Biology does not recognize the concept of human "race" there is one and only one human species, that of Homo Sapiens sapiens, which is not divided further. The definition of race is subjective, often unreliable, but always leading to prejudices.

Now there are mnany way of classiffying human beings, your use of anthropomorphic criteria is highly debatable because it does not take into account the diversity of peole within each group you mentionned. One could use blood type or more seriously genetic markers but still there owuld be exception.

But I am not going to lecture you on the subject. Do your homework, starting by The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen J. Gould. Accessible to the the lay audience.

[sandy]

Tell that to a Dog or a Horse breeder... There are NO rases! -Only species, namely Dogs and Horses!

Anyway... What I wrote about rases in my earlier posting, were Not something I've found out myself. It was from a book. If you think it seems wrong to you, don't blame me. I only cited...

Regards,

Ga-gai

Corruption yes...

I beleive that a lot of the corruption problems among the police, is that the goverment just doesn't pay the average policman a decent salory. How can a lower ranked policeman support his whole family on 5000-7000 baht? While at the same time, a guy at the side of the road earn more by selling flowers? In Pattaya there are lots of big money changing hands, and there is no wonder why it is temting for even the law enforcement guys to take part of that. Who is to trust, when even the former PM, who's among the already richest guys in the country, couldn't lay his hands off from money that he wouldn't even need to have? I don't think that any of us here would take the risk of getting shot everyday, for a comparable low payment back in our own countries.

And yes... Something have to be done in the tourist ares. The tourist money is the blood of this country. Even if the russian ladies were prostitutes or not (or whatever), it send bad signals to the tourist industry. Back in my own country, the news headlines on this killing are saying "tourists got shot" which will make the arerage seasonal vacation spender to give it a few taughts before ordering tickets for the next Thailand vacation. If this country will lose the tourist money, it will be a bad ekonomical situation. Even for many of us farangs that are running a decent business here. Probably will the corruption get even worse, since there will be less money around than it used to be.

/Ga-gai

how about bigot? maybe too close to religious intolerance there.

or xenophobia maybe? yes, yes, that's much better!

best regards,

xenophile

I remember from one of the Alien movies that one guy didn't call that thing for "Alien". He called it "Xenomorph" instead. I don't know if that guy tryed to be political correct or what... Anyway, those movies are full of pure Xenophobia! Don't judge all Aliens the same, because one or a few are behaving bad!

Ehh.... It's getting late here....

Back to the topic!

Regards,

Ga-gai

Regarding Pattaya...

During my six years here in Thailand, I've probably been to Pattaya six or seven times. This place doesn't interrest me at all. The main reason for me to go there, is to either shop with my wife or to meet some of my friends, when they are coming to "Thailand" for a holiday. I did bring two guys over to where I live, but they couldn't stand one night in this country without the bars and the chrome-poles. So I had to bring them back to the "Adult Nursery" (Pattaya) again, the very next morning.

Call Pattaya whatever you want:

-Dick's Heaven

-The "Pit"

-The "Dump"

-Ghetto

-Theme Park

-Nursery

-Pole Position

-Meat Market

-Swiss Army Resort

-Heavens Door

And... Only for men? No... Lots of Bi-sexual and Lesbian western women goes to places like this as well. Eveything for everyone!

One thing for sure... It is NOT Thailand!

It's like that baby in the family, where the parents say: -Go and get money! I don't care how you get it!

Just to calrify the "rascist" issue here...

As I understand the underlying meaning from some of the posters here, I would like to clarify the word "rascist" some.

The human kind is roughly divided into 3 main branches:

1. The Caucasian, with roots from the European continent ("Farang" in thai language)
   
2. The Mongolian, which goes for east asian people plus eskimoes and native Americans (Indians)
   
3. The Negroid, which represent people with roots from Africa
   

For example...

If I (a Caucasian) said that "I don't like black people" (Negroes). Would that be rascism? -Yes

Reason: No matter what country/region they may come from, I don't like people that look black / look like Africans.

If I said that "I don't like people from Russia". Would that be rascism? -No

Reason: Many! 1) Russians are mostly Caucasians (as myself) 2) Russia is a country, not a rase

With that said, I feel that the word "Rascist" is misused in many places, including this forum.

The phrase "I don't like Russians" is pointed as: -I don't like people coming from Russia, because they are often practising a bad side of their culture wherever they are or may go. They just don't behave as nice or "civilised" like people from the region where I come from.

Rascist? No

Culturecist? More likely (whatever that word means)

Would I be a rascist if I said: "I don't like New Yorkers" ? No

I would then probably be a "Culturecist" !

/Ga-gai

...

I still fail to understand what the fuss is all about; hoards of dirty foreigners, prowling around the country unsupervised, doing gawd knows what, corrupting the local population, getting into all sorts of mischief no doubt! But, then again, there is lots of stuff I don't understand, and we have been over and over and over it in these threads! Sigh!

Aloha,

Rex

Yea, that's right...!

I couldn't believe my eyes last year, when I was walking the roadbridge at Pantip Plaza to get to the other side of the busy road. In the middle of that walking bridge, there are usually some beggars that beg the bypassers for a small contribution. Some blind people, some without a leg or two.

But... One day I saw a young farang female that sat on the ground and begged as well. She looked like she was around 20 years old or so. Her hairstyle and clothes were telling that she were one of those "trash-packers" (cheaper than the back-packers) with trashy hair and velour-colored shirts, that you can find hanging around in Laos and just smoking weed. I couldn't believe my eyes! Her appearence made me thinking of the movie "The Beach".

She just sat there and begged for money. Many thais that looked at her, while they walked by. As a farang myself, I felt very intimidated by her appearence. I just stopped and looked into her eyes. She looked back, without a word. I then continued walking, thinking to myself... -My god! What a shame for all of us farangs that actually are living here in Thailand, doing a decent living.

Now I have fully sympathy for the thai goverment, introducing those new visa rules for tourists!

.

Teen sex...

here is a true story(sure to be repeated all over Thailand)told to me by a very good Thai lady friend of mine,

when she was sixteen she was already working in a factory,was very chaste,and completely ignorant about sex,and ignored any"come on's" or advances from men,

that Xmas their Chinese bosses threw them a party(with lots of free booze),as a result,she and four of her friends fell alseep in a room at the factory after drinking copious amounts of wine,all four woke up in the morning deflowered,covered in blood from the legs down,in tremendous pain, and with their new "Husbands" asleep beside them.When the men/boys woke up,they were completely calm and showed absolutely no guilt in revealing the set up.

"Well,we've done it now,we had sex last night,so you have to stay with me" explained my friends Rapist/new love...and so she did,and of course being completely ignorant of contraception she became pregnant within months...

I have heard this story,or variations on the theme many,many,many times from many Thai ladies over the last two years.

The results in a westernised,1st world country would have been a rape charge,prison term,and pariah status for the boy's/men involved...in The land of smiles,the girls feel guilty,dirty,and submit to a relationship that they had no clue about,and were forced into...

So as far as I'm concerned the"shocked",hypocritical people bitching about the tiny minority of Thai teens that actually have ACCESS to computers/porn/gambling can shut the ###### up,and address the real issues.

My wife's older sister was also raped but without the aid of alcohol. It happened in the forest while she was picking vegetables and she married the guy to save face. Now he is living off of her wages and won't even be bothered to take their kid to school.

My wife's cousin was raped by a male many years ago, when she was around 18 of age. And the strange thing was that the womans mother was happy as he_ll about it, since that man came from a rich family. My wife actually told me that the mother seemed to be wishing this to happen for a long time. I'll guess that mother were looking forward to upgrading her own financial situation by forcing that man to marry her daughter. Maybe she had the same expectation as a mother would have when their daughter is getting married to a farang (if you guys excuse me).

As I mentioned in another posting here... Being a woman and sister in this country, could be very hard. All while the boys and brothers are getting totally spoiled at the same time. I'll guess that there is lot of women here that suffers from psycic traumas, neglection or bad treatment from the childhood. Maybe thats why many thai-farang marriages doesn't hold that long, especially when the woman is moving abroad. If a family or parent in my country would treat their daughter like this, the authorities would most certainly get in and place that child in a safer environment. I often find that many parents here doesn't have any concept at all, on how to raise children. Some better families do, but far many poorer and lower status families doesn't...

.

The crime of Thaksin is becoming more and more aware among thais, I've noticed.

I was visiting a temple last week and was walking around in its garden at the back. There were statues that symbolized budhist teachings. I stepped by one statues, which eas a human figure with a pigs head. The sign beside it said:

-If you pratice curruption and cheating others, you are condemned to the spirit of the pig!

Okay...(!)

While I was walking to the next statue in row, there were som young thai females that just got in front to the one I just left. They started to talk with each other. Could not hear eveything they said, but I did catch the word "Thaksin" from their conversation a couple of times.

Well, well...

Well...

It is actually a fact that lots young teenage schoolgirls these days are selling sexual services to whom ever pays. It happens in Bangkok and it happens in the small town where I live as well. So what do they need money for? New fashion clothes, new mobile phones, fill up their phone accounts, makeup, petrol for motorbikes (small towns), cafe socializing (Bangkok), partying, etc.

All just for the poorer girls to stay as cool as the girls from richer families, which easially can afford all this from her parents bank account. There are lots of parents that just don't know anything what their daughter is doing and where she gets money from, to buy all this stuff.

Another effect of this, is that the AIDS/HIV is on the rise among teenagers. Many older males particulary choose younger teenagers for sex (for payment) since they do belive that those young ones don't have any sexual decieses of any kind (including AIDS/HIV). They don't see the use of having any kind of protection for this matter, which will end up transfer decieses to the young ones instead. Which in turn will forward this to the next sex partner, and so on. There are also young teenage boys that are selling sexual services for the same reason as the girls.

My wife have been telling that all this fixation about money, fashion and expensive gadgets and living, has been on the rise since Taksin became priminister. Before that, people waren't that greedy as they are now... She says.

And yes... It's true. The young kids today doesn't have any ideals och proper role models to look up to. Young boys often discover that their very own father is having mea-nois or paying for sex at the local karaoke's. So what will then become of that young boy them?

Remember the old song "Cats in the Cradle"... -I'm gonna be like you dad!

Sadly but true. The thai society really lacks of people that cares about other ones. Especially the young ones. I don't mean lack of people that just putting up new rules. But lack of people that really cares at ground level.

That was not the case when my wife was young, she often tells me.

On the contrary, I would like to place the following question:

-What Do Thai Girls Expect From A Farang?

If there's any thai ladies here, I would like you to share your thoughts with the rest of us!

Another personal opinion is: leave thai women in Thailand! Many of them are very unhappy in farang land as they left their family and country. Thai women are best in their own country, so come to LOS and enjoy paradise...

That is true, of course!

But everyone is not able to live in Thailand. Most of the guys do have to work in their homecountry.

I've been maried for 10 years now with my thai wife. She was 22 and I just got 30. We stayed 4 years in my own country and later moved to Thailand. Have been living here in LOS för 6 years now. Never regret that decision. Love this country and the thai people. Strange at it may seem... My wife wasn't 100% sure if she wanted to get back to Thailand. She found herself enjoying my countery a lot. We had some plans to move to Thailand when we got older, but was suddenly changed after I managed to sell my own company just before the big IT-crash. So I was lycky on that part. It was a decision of either stay in my country and try to find another business opportunity, or just take the money and go to Thailand before they were spent and gone.

But for most guys... Living in Thailand is not a reality until you get retired. Or being lucky to have a seat here, at a multinational company from your country. So that is somewhat a difficult situation.

And dating websites? I'm not sure about that...

In order to meet a nice respectable thai lady, you must stay in Thailand for att least 1 year or so. Her family would like to know you well, before you're even allowed to hold her hand in public. Very hard to just be boyfriend/girlfriend with someone here, due to respect for her family. You must also have a respectable job or income. It's all about keeping her family's face. Can't just hang around like a hippie either...!

Everyone is different.

At least something we agree on. Your essay above strikes me as quite simplistic.

Most farang men with Thai wives I know did not marry prostitutes from Pattaya, and of those that did, many have far more harmonic lives than your example makes out.

Simplistic and narrow minded it is, I totally agree.

The story is A possibillity, not the average story of farang/thai woman relationship. It might happen to farangs who think after 2 weeks holiday that they should marry the woman they met. More sensible guys take the time to get to know the woman they met better, come back, come back again and visit her family. That's how relationships are build up, slowly but steady.

As for daughters work for family. My wife's parents are hard working farmers who are able to earn enough to live from. They have 4 children, all married, all work and earn their own money. Yes, if something has to be renewed in the parents house all the children contribute. That is not daughters working and sons doing nothing.....

Joe

Sorry for the inconvenience...

It was just ONE example on how life can be. I'm sure that you fine guys have done things in another and better way. But what I just describred, was an real life example that sadly repeats itself far to often. Fastfood marriage... It is hard for someone that doesn't live in this country for a longer period of time, to meet one of the more normal life ladies. Where should he go? Far to many westerners ends up in the bar-streets, where the thai women are just as easy going as farang women on a saturday night at the local nightclub or pub. Few realize that this is not how a thai woman really acts or behave. You just can't have a one night stand or sex on the first date, with a respectable woman here.

As I'm one of the few farangs that actually lives around my area here, I sometimes have to help with translation to many both younger and middleaged women here, that one way or another have relationsship with foreigners. Many are happy, some are not. I do see a lot and I sometimes place thoughts on all the desperate men that just do anything to bring a woman abroad.

The message in my posting, was about how to live the life together in the best way. How to understand and respect each other, coming from different cultures. So it was just an EXAMPLE. Was not aimed to make anyone feel unfomfortable. If anyone would like to describe their own relation and how you got together, please make a posting!

Sincerely,

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?ac...f=2&t=87985

Well...

Thai girl? The question should be as: -What do you expect from a Woman?

Woman:

1. Love me, as I love her.

2. Respect me, as I respect her.

2. Loyal to our relation. If she doesn’t love me anymore, I want her to bail out instead of cheating on me.

3. Find pleasure in the person I really am, as I would find in her.

4. Come from a stable childhood, where she is a secure person that knows what she really wants in her life.

5. Don't expect things or behavior from me that she cannot deliver herself.

In Thailand, there are curtain issues:

For many Thai women... Marry someone because of LOVE, is a luxury that many just can't afford.

The whole family has big expectations on their daughter, in form of monthly economical support for the rest of the family. There are many cases where the girl from a poor family is forced to get out there and find money somehow(!), while her brothers and the rest of the family are just laying on the floor and drinking booze. The boys are often totally spoiled and don't have to bother about anything, meanwhile there are huge expectations on the poor little sister that she must serve the rest of the family in order to be "loved". I've noticed that it is actually the mother that is spoiling her sons, raising them to become a man that she never would like to marry herself.

As if that wasn't enough, she probably already got a kid with a jerk (spoiled by his mother in turn) that just left after she went pregnant. No intention of taking responsibly, as his mother didn't teach him that. Using condoms, is not what a Thai male just do. He wants it for "real", all the way. The schools are also not teaching the kids properly what could happen when people is having sex. The girl just did not know what happened to her stomach, after a while.

So what to do then? Working on factory for 4500 Baht a month, supporting the whole family and her kid? No... Impossible! Many of them end up in karaoke’s or the bars at the tourist areas, where farangs pay half a monthly salary for just one night. Hey! Not bad! (I would probably do the same in this situation)

One day... One of her farang "customers" falls in love with her (hard to not, with these cute girls), asking her to marry him. (Strange, marrying a hooker from the street. Would not just happen in his country) Often with a promise on taking her abroad. She give it some thoughts. This farang, with pockets loaded with money, wants to take her to live in his country... How great! Finally she don't have to worry about raising money for her family. This man got emptyless money pockets! Lets go!

-Do I love him? What is love? (Love is what you get from your family, when you take care of those!) This man seemed nice... Why not? He's not young, not top good looking... (Hey! If you didn't know it... Thai women can actually tell good look from bad, even if they don't show it!) But... He is nice! He says that he loves me, which is good. Then he will take care of me. I will be nice to him too!

She comes abroad and moves in with this guy, only to find that he doesn't have the economy that he looked like having back in Pattaya. He must pay rent or loans, bills and food. In many cases he don't even have money to give her, for sending to her family. He didn't know that he actually is married to her family as well. And people in the family do help each other. Blood is thicker than water! Especially regarding being the sister in the family. He only thought he had found that cute or sexy girl in his dreams, to start a normal relationship with. Just like he would do with a woman in his country. He didn't know anything about culture and stuff. It seemed to work fine back in Pattaya, having fun in the daytime and great sex in the night. Culture?

After a while, the problems arise. She can't send money to her family. The family starts calling her a "farang-prostitute" and they threatens to kick her out of the family, if she don't help them economically. Everyone in the village knows that their daughter is married to a farang and that should have significant impact on the family’s economic situation. All while the rest of the family doesn't bother to do a thing even to get a job or other way of income. One of her brothers also want her to buy a pickup truck for him (so he looks good while chasing local girls, and to transport all the bottles of Beer Chang).

Respect...? She was the one who was working in the bar, not him. Her face is already gone, by thai standards. She feels solely dependent on his good will, which will create a beggars situation out of her. She really doesn’t know why a man could respect a woman like that. Maybe that is why he don't give money to her, to send to her family?

The woman is starting to lose her mind. She doesn’t know what to do. Everyone is treating her bad, including her family. Her farang husband is calling her bad things, as he suspects the she only loves his money. She's about to loose her sanity, because she doesn’t know what to do. In her culture, people don't talk about deeper feelings or problems. Things just happen as they are. Today is today. Yesterday was yesterday.

She's about to lose it...

So...

What's it all about? Understanding! A woman is a woman, whatever country she comes from. Some cultures put a heavy load on their women, others don't. As a man would expect his woman to love and respect him, he would on the other hand respect her and her cultural situation as well. Just because both is having good sex, it doesn't mean that you fully understand each other. Don't make a women from a cultural country believe that you have more money that you got, just in order to “catch” her. If she's not very fixated about the money situation herself, you can be ###### sure that her family is. Make no mistake about that! Either way, it puts a big strain on the relation. If everyone puts their cards on the table from the beginning, the chance of getting forever happily married...is greater!

But that goes for any woman, from any country. If she didn't fall in love with you right from the beginning, she may do that after a while. (Just like us men) But that depends on understanding and respect. Taking care of a woman’s family, is another way of earning respect. It will cost some, but many times it will pay off. She feels that you respect her, and she will respect you back. Her family got the respect among the other villagers as well.

And...

Women are not "made" from one single factory. Everyone is different, like we men are different as hel_l. Some women are good, some bad. Some are thieves. Some are angels. And there are lots of them in between. Even if we wouldn't think that cute face could be bad…

It still amazes me how some men are more careful when buying a used car, than choosing a wife for life.

Well...

Corruption in big portions is probably not good for the country itself. The airport is one good example of that. Things just don't work. A 90 degree corner is not 90 degrees is this country, because nobody cares of doing it 90 degrees. The mentality is, just do something, get paid and get away from there.

But Thailand is Thailand, and that's why most of us love this country and its people. What would be the joy of coming/living here, if everything was controlled and ordered like in Europe or America. No brand copies, no illegal CD's, no "helpful" policemen if you drive 95 on a 90 road, no "special -not-so-legal-services" by paying someone a few bucks extra and... no Bar Girls!

Lots of countries do have nice beaches, nice hotels, good food. Why would I go to Thailand for this, when I could go to Florida instead? There aren't that many countries in the world that offer all the "extras" as Thailand do. That's why lots of us westerners love this country. We like to get amazed of all the "positive" sides of this coin, but at the same time don't like to get frustrated about the "negative" side of it. What kind of idea is this?

What we (who lives here) can try to do, is simply just showing the people that doing a job properly, really pays of. The customers loves getting what they've paid for. Beleive me. People in every country do! I've been living here in the LOS for six years now. Having a proper 1 year visa, I've been running a store together with my wife during this time. My store is very popular, because we deliver exactly with we promize our customers. The other shops around the area have been forced to shape up and being quality minded (real horrors for some of them, I've noticed). Things can't be changed over night. It's a slow process that goes one step at a time.

And yes... I've buildt a house here. That was a really painstaking process where I had to take the role of being the supervisor of the workers, when their own supervisor should have been doing it instead. But what a great feeling, when it finally was done!

Being or moving here, one must be a part of the "system". Not against it. Let them have it their way, but meanwhile try to influence the people in small steps and slowly show them the benefits of doing things right. Its all about keeping the face. Do not try to tell them what to do or how to live. You can't change a whole culture over a night. Influence is the right way! Finally Thailand will get there, even if it's very slow in the rural areas.

LOS... Love it or lose it!

And the Airport? Well, its a shame of course. Probably they will learn something from it. Corruption on all levels doesn't pay! Even if it sometimes can take time for a thai to rethink and do things in a better way next time. It is still their money and their country. If I can influence the ordinary thai on the street somehow, to make him or her se the benefits of doing things right and properly... I'm satisfied from my part. I just love this country and its people. If there is anything I can do to help, I will sure do. But it must be in their own way!

Good News - bringing things into line with the developed world

Wonder if it'll last beyond the launch period though?

(Cop to suspected drunk driver) Please breathe into the crash hat you're not wearing so I can sniff it ..... Sir

No, no, no...!

It will be like this:

(Cop to suspected drunk driver) -Please breathe into this equipment....Sir!

(Suspected drunk driver) -No I won't!

(Cop to suspected drunk driver) -Well...(hick) Then I'll breathe instead, and you will get caught anyway!

Thai citizens must learn that it is their solem duty to report incidents such the one you mention

I want to go one step further and state that a citizen has a duty to report misdeeds that are caused by people, like the strange ones, mentioned by Ga-gai. This is part of patriotism. The inherent risk of one for the better of the whole village, town, nation or in this case the entire Kingdom.

I think that there is a big will for the average thai to do such. I know that my wife's relative surely would like to do the same. The problem is, by doing so, he is probably risking his life, if someone founds out that he made a complaint regarding the situation mentioned above. Even polititians here have killed each other, due to some argument or simply winning power. So that is easier than said. All things for changes, must come from above. A priminster must show the people that honesty is the right way for the society. Thaksin really put a shame on that. Today, meaning of becoming polititian is equal to becoming richer. Local guys that invest 2 miljon Baht during an election, are counting on having at least the triple back if they are elcted. How can an honest, but poorer person, ever get elected among villagers, when these only see the money they can earn by selling their votes...? Villagers also does seem to go for the guy who already has the most money and power before. Like if they are scared of that guy, or something.

My wife, 32 years old, have told me that there is lots of thing that have changed to worse during the Thaksin era. People have started to get greedier. The teachers at the local schools doesn't take their work seriously any more, almost leaving the students to make their own sessions at school. Some teachers also sells copies of students homework, to other students.

To become a local chief in a village, doesn't mean that someone is interrested in helping the village. He/she is just doing it in order to make money from deals/bribes.

My wife told me that when she was a child, the teachers really cared and took big responsibility. Some teachers even helped poorer students with their own money, if the child one day couldn't eat or pay the bus ticket when the class were visiting museums etc. The local village cheifs regulary gathered the village people and having meeting, to discuss things that had to be done or solve problems of any kind.

It seems like that time is mostly gone today. The reason is that there have grown a greedy mentality during the last years. What can one expect though, when villagers are getting paid up to 500 Baht per person for voting on the "right" guy...

I think that thai people somehow have to go back to the roots and start thinking about how they can contribute to the society, like they did in the past. Doing this without scaring of foreign investors and industry, requires a gentle touch and understanding. And of course, get rid of corruption.

Yes!

Corruption stinks! It's only those who already are rich, that is getting richer.

Some years ago a relative of my wife, who is running a small computer shop here in town, tryed to sell some computers to the local goverment. They needed to buy new computers for the local goverment office.

The local goverment annonced that they were taking proposals during a limited period of time and everyone was free to enter into the competition. So my wife's relation put together a fairly good proposal and went away to the goverments office.

When he arrived at the goverment, there were a strange guy blocking the entrance. The guy asked my wife's relative what his bussiness was at the goverment building. He answered that he was going inside and give the goverment a proposal. Then the strange guy just replied that it is already settled, regarding the computer purchase. There is no need to go inside! My wife's realtive then tryed to walk beside the strange guy, but he couldn't. The guy was totally blocking the entrance. He was also backed up by two other guys with dark sunglasses. My wife's relative then felt very uncomfortable and decided to forget the whole thing, since he felt that he could risk his life if he continued to argue with the strange guys.

He told my wife about what happened. My wife then decided to call one of the higher guys, which she knew a little bit from before, in the goverment and ask him what was going on there. The freind at the goverment answered that made made excuses regarding the incident, but these guys at the entrance had paid bribes and wouldn't let anyone else to enter the competition with proposals.

He also mentioned that him and some other guys at the office were having a problems right now, since it have turned out that there actually is two different guys that both have paid bribes to different people at the office. The biggest issue then was how solve that situation.

Anyway... Corruption stinks!

There is no chance for a normal average guy to make business and one day hope for a breakthrough by being lucky on a customer. The incident above is just a tiny small thing. There are more and bigger stuff going all the time, in the society. But if even the Priminister is corrupted, what can the average small people hope for from the rest of the society?

become a lover instead, to a rich and wealthy older thai lady

Some of us have a price which is non-negotiable. If I was wanting to be the toy boy of a wealthy "but older" woman I would have stayed at home

I'm sure that the poor girls from Issarn doesn't agree on that...!

If they had your way of pride, I'll wonder how many farangs there actually would be here...

(toy girl of a wealthy "but older" man)

Well, I think everything has its price. I'm pretty sure that even you would give Bill Gates a "nice time" for a smaller fortune. I probably would myself... Hey! It's only business!! He can buy my service for sure, but not my soul.

Funny... There are lots of guys married to Bar-girls, but keeps on wondering why they don't act like a real married woman in love...