SenorTashi

Most of them are digital 'content creators' these days, which roughly translates to 'bad lip synching'

Never liked coke. A little ganja helps me sleep but I just took 6 months off doing that too.

Very true. I'd be no fun at all in a bar these days. But I've been a piss head for 40 years and I fancied a change.

Username checks out, lol. Yeah I cycle everywhere. Always have

Yeah I did something similar in France but here I'm in a condo so I just see whoever's outside when I get there. Normally it's the same guy every morning who says 'Hello' then laughs.. every time. I think most of them are just making ends meet and don't have much time for anything else. Learning more Thai would definitely help but I spend my time between several different countries and my brain seems very reluctant to learn thousands of new words.

I was eating just now so didn't want to type much but nearly all my neighbours seem to work every day. They all get up between 5-7, work all day, come home, get pissed (or not) then go to bed early. They have a lot of drinking sessions around here and years ago, I'd have walked in there with a bottle and made friends with them all, but being a reformed alcoholic means that I don't want to do that and basically I just can't hang around with drinkers anymore because I'll probably start again.

I've lived in Pattaya a few times and it always ends up doing my head in. I'm alright where I am really. Was just commenting on my observations from different perspectives.

Bit of both tbh but also, I haven't been here the whole time. I moved in a year ago but I've been coming and going a lot

Since moving to an area with almost zero farang, I noticed that Thais are not particularly friendly here, even if I smile, say hello and bow. But when I go to touristy places, everyone says good morning Sir, how are you? etc etc. That made me realise why tourists always go away with such a positive opinion of the country. So to answer OP, basically the only Thai 'friends' I have are people whose services I've used when I revisit tourist areas. I've been living alone in a non touristy area for a year and only one guy ever speaks to me... and that's just to take the piss.

Yeah because that definitely happened

Good. I'm happy for you.

I mentioned 35 years of conversations with guys who've lived all over Asia since the 60s and 70s. And the French woman worked in Asia for years and made friends with dozens of local women. So I've heard dozens of stories of failed relationships but if you prefer to think of it as one story, so be it. I spoke to an old guy in 1990, who had been married, had kids and grand children and when he got to his 80s, had the rug pulled out from under him and suddenly had nothing. But hey, if you're living your fantasy life, good luck to you.

Sounds like you live in a somewhat wealthy community. That describes the neighbourhood I live in, which is probably more than 99% Thai

Now that you've described yourself, what are the other blokes like?

I started buying weed in Thailand in 1991. Even though I've use cannabis in various forms for various reasons I don't think a free-for-all approach is great. Most hybrid weed is too strong and can cause mental problems with vulnerable people. I definitely approve of using good quality CBD oil for sleep, pain, epilepsy, etc though. And obviously, using hemp for construction and fabric and paper etc is fantastic.

I've been travelling all over Asia for 35 years and I have a lot of old friends here who've told me every story under the sun. Two years ago I finally met a country girl who I really trusted in Chiang Rai. After a long and very sweet courtship, her dad started pressuring us to get married. As soon as I agreed, her and her whole family became obsessed with draining my bank account. After a few months of that, I walked away. Since then I've got no interest in Thai women at all because now I've seen closeup how dishonest they can be. I have a female friend in France who worked with women in Singapore for years. She once told me that without fail, every single woman in Asia is only interested in our money and if you believe anything else, you're a fool.

It must be really depressing focusing on death on all the time.

It's impossible to have rational conversations with people who refuse to accept that they injected an unknown substance into themselves. I didn't get vaxxed and never wore a mask. Nobody I'm friends with did either. I still haven't heard of anyone in the very large anti vax groups who's died or been very ill since 2021. I do know an 85 year old friend of the family who laughed at me when I said I haven't had a shot. He said 'I've had two and look at me, I'm fine" Soon after that, he had two heart attacks and a stroke, then he spent over a year in hospital and on a ventilator and now he's developed some brain problem, the name of which I've forgotten. Probably would have been worse if he hadn't had the covid vax though right?

I'll just go with what you said.. 'Not going to waste my time'. I very rarely bother with covid conversations because all you guys think you know it all and the rest of us know you don't and it's always just a boring stalemate

Don't knock it til you've tried it

Only if you choose to frame it like that.

Trans women in the West get very offended if you call them ladyboys because in their mind, they are real women and ladyboys are just guys dressing up. Make sense of that logic if you can.

The land of smiles is finished forever in my opinion. Now it's just the land of the crazy eyes. People glare at me with their faraway stare and I can't tell if they're angry, happy or just insane, so I just ignore them.

I've lost count of how many times the vaccinated have wished death and disease on me so to hear someone say 'each to their own' is quite refreshing.

Hallelujah!. I've waited 3 years for a vaxxed person to say that.