bob smith

so do you!! keep them replies comin, dolfy. have you opened the curtains yet?? bob.

I want one!! 😄 bob.

do you work for the pattaya tourism board by any chance? bob.

so much to learn, so little time, eh Dolfy? bob.

maybe one day Dolfy will also come round.. I wouldn’t bet on it though! bob.

oh Dolfy, boy do you have a lot to learn!! bob.

I have been asking myself this for a while. Still no definitive answers.. bob.

…..there you go, I’ve given you the laughing emoji that you so crave now trot along will you. I’m sure there are other, less terrible threads that you can be spending your time on. What’s Ralf001 posting about today? bob.

….I thought about as much mate. bob.

I could pick this comment apart but I can’t be bothered to be honest. You just aren’t worth it. bob.

and you know that for a fact, do you? bob.

It’s OK mate. Like I have said before, I actually feel quite sorry for many here. If they can’t take my own personal experiences with a pinch of salt then they are obviously way too sensitive or are still in the rose tinted glasses stage of their Thailand journey. either way it is THEIR problem! bob.

let’s hear some of your stories then? bob.

finally someone who gets what I am talking about!… cheers mate, you have already brightened up my day! bob.

again, just my honest observations. what can I do if it’s the truth? bob.

well I suppose that is subjective. when I go out I am a paying customer so I guess there is that. I always tip well if the service is up to standard, but who is the arbiter of service standards? shouldn’t it be the customer? bob.

Ok, thanks for your input mate! bob.

they match my reality quite well, funnily enough. bob.

how does one act like an entitled jerk by just walking into a restaurant? is it the body language? dress sense? or can they smell it on me? bob.

why are you commenting then? bob.

indeed, I do assume quite a lot. and I also tend to see the best in people, another flaw of mine. bob.

No. it isn’t did you even read it? bob.

It’s strange. Because a regular customer over years of frequenting the place will be worth a lot more than a short term one who only visits once. bob.

I've started to notice a pattern emerging. I usually go out to eat and drink quite a lot in various places around Thailand. Whenever I go somewhere new for the first time they are always all smiles, greeting me and lavishing me with their service. However, I have noticed that once I return to the same establishment and they recognize my face the servers arent nearly as friendly. Now if i get chatting with them and I have had a few I will sometimes let my guard down and start speaking with them in Thai. This is when things become critical. They either warm to this, or as is in the case of the woman the other day - they get offended by it. I am a pretty well dressed guy and I usually dine alone. So naturally the girls/waitresses want to get to know me a bit more. sometimes they even sit at my table. they ask questions like ‘how long you stay here?’ ‘you have thai girlfriend?’.. sometimes I give them a cover story, depending on how I gauge the atmosphere in the place (are they scammy, etc) but other times I let my guard down and tell all. I have definitely noticed a pattern emerging: The places were I play the dumb farang on holiday welcome me with open arms every time, the places that know the real me start to become more aloof and even (i think) dislike me after my 4 or 5th visit. The truth is, I am a wealthy farang who has done good here, I think many of them don’t like that and are envious of me. or is it just a classic case of familiarity breeding contempt? do I just need to find a new place to eat? This has happened on multiple occasions in different parts of the country. I decided to start this a while back as kind of a social experiment. What I found was the dumb farang fresh off the boat gets more respect and better service than the average Thai speaking expat does. Make of that what you will. bob.

I know. We just gotta live with it.. But the temperature has certainly been cranked up a notch since Swiss David. I could draw parallels with a particularly dark period in western Europe during the first half of the 20th Century, but I better not. For now… bob.