cdnmatt

I'm almost beginning to believe they get pregnant, just so they have an excuse to be pigs. Before pregnancy, they can only eat normal amounts because they need to keep themselves healthy, slim, and beautiful. Once pregnant though? Apparently, all bets are off. I understand you're eating for two now, but whew, I could almost feed an entire village with what you put down.

Too bad I can't get pregnant. I'd like to eat that like too, but everyone would look at me funny if I did.

I paid 500,000 Baht, its normal for a quality guy marrying a quality girl.

Many here won't have had that opportunity, so they pay nothing, then again, the girls they meet are just happy to get anyone, and thats a fact, anyone will do, and I mean anyone, just take a look around any Isaan Tesco Lotus, you'll see what I mean, hardly matches made in heaven are they ?

If you marry into a good Family, Sinsot will be shown, its all about show, I've been to Thai weddings and up to 2 million Baht has been shown, again its quality with quality, and its normal and I don't know anyone who has never shown it.

Most Farangs are never in the position of marrying quality, they'll marry a girl who they feel they are rescuing from a bar, hence why should they pay, I understand that, then again, when you have lived here for a couple of decades you'll leave that up to the tourists and no hopers.

If your wife acts anything like you, I wouldn't advise coming around my neighborhood anytime for fear that my mother-in-law might kick the shit out of your classy wife.

Geez, what a pompous, arrogant attitude to have...

Aussie 'shocked' at Bali jail term

Why would he be shocked? There's huge posters in basically every airport in Indonesia saying drug trafficking carries the death penalty.

Just a dumbass looking for sympathy...

What do you mean? You're in the UK, and she's a Thai citizen. Buy her a plane ticket, and tell her good riddance.

Assuming she has a Thai passport, she doesn't need a VISA to return to her home country.

Yeah, I've been getting bugged about this whole marriage thing lately. I always just reply, "what makes you think I want to live with you forever?", which is usually quite effective at ending that conversation.

Maybe this is just an Issan trait, and I don't think it applies to Chinese-Thais as much. Have you ever noticed Thais simply don't have forward thinking abilities though? Maybe I just know the wrong Thais, but there doesn't seem to be much of this, "I want to do this, but if I do, this will probably happen" type of thought. Instead, it's "I want to do this", and that seems to be where the thought process usually ends.

Before, when it came to household or life decisions I used to ask for everyone's opinions, and try to get a consensus so everyone was happy and comfortable. I've now unfortunately realized that's totally useless though, because they don't think things through, then proceed to change their minds every 12 - 24 hours. So hell with it, I'll just make the important decisions, and tell you how it's going to happen. Easier that way.

Here's one of many examples. Needed to move a wardrobe from a house down the street to our house. There was four of us young, healthy males around, and the wardrobe was small enough to fit down the stairs, so we could have moved it in one go within 10 minutes. But, no, no... have to take it apart. Once they got it about 30% apart, I mentioned again, "guys, it's in three large pieces now, and we can easily move this to the house as is now".

No, no... on a mission, and have to take every last screw out. I figured alright, up to you, and I helped take all the pieces over to the house. After that, I decided hell with ya, you took it apart for no reason, so you can put it back together, and I'm going for a beer. So they screw around for probably 4 hours trying to piece this thing back together, and they finally get it.

Whoo hoo! Everyone's all happy, and proud they got it back together, and showing it off to me. Then I mention the realization that they put the wardrobe together downstairs, when the bedroom it's going in, is actually upstairs. Sure enough, this brings about the standard "mai bpen rai", and the wardrobe continues to reside in our living room to this day.

heh, living with Thais. Talk about a good adventure.

Thai employers are generally quite controlling, to the point of being militaristic, especially with menial labor. Beginning of the shift, everyone gets a pep talk, and look over. "Tuck in your shirt!", "Why haven't you cut your fingernails?!?!", etc.

Us farangs aren't brought up to treat staff like that, so you're probably in a lose-lose situation.

Usually it goes something like:

Him: "Who you talking to? Looking for new boyfriend."

Me: "fuc_k off, I'm working"

Him: "Nah, you're not working. You're talking with new boyfriend."

Me: "Do you like eating food everyday?"

Him: "Yeah...."

Me: "Then go away, and let me work"

I remember when the BFs little sister starting having sex. The entire family was in an uproar with constant phone calls between each other, and everyone enraged with her. I remember scratching my head in confusion, and asking, "Well, why are you guys getting so angry at her? Do you really believe if you yell loud enough, she's going to stop having sex, or something?". Then I gave the suggestion of just realizing she's growing up, and instead of getting pissed off, sit down and make sure she knows about neat things like STDs, safe sex, the pill, pregnancy, etc. But nope, nobody was having any of that. Apparently, it's better to just get angry, and yell like an idiot.

I remember months ago the kids stayed here for a couple weeks, and I told the BF to take his little sister to the doctor, and get her on the pill. If papa doesn't have the money or doesn't want to do it, no worries, we will. No, no... can't do that... uncomfortable, taboo, blah, blah. Sure enough, now she's pregnant, and actually going to have the kid. Leaves me shaking my head, because this teenager is hardly ready to be a mom, but whatever...

These days, nope... if I ask a question to anyone within the family, I get a straight answer, because they know that's what I expect. Same as if anyone asks me a question, I give them a straight answer.

The family does it to be respectful, and the boyfriend does it because he knows otherwise, I'll probably be angry. And he knows when I get angry, I'll usually just head into town by myself, spend loads of money on myself, have the time of my life, and show up again around 2am usually drunk out of my skull and happier than a pig in shit. He doesn't like it when I do that though, so he usually just provides a straight answer now.

Just wait until some stranger comes wandering by your house, and tells you you owe him 300 baht for "street cleaning". That's always fun.

I have a pregnant 15yo (maybe 16 by now?) living here, who's too scared to walk to the market 500m away by herself (very safe area), and can't rub 50 baht together. Husband and soon-to-be dad is a conscript. I'd say that's too young, but hey, what do I know?

I guess we've only been together for 2 years, but yes, and too bloody much. I love you too, but leave me alone, and I don't want sex 3 times a day. 3 times per-week is good for me, not per-day.

I'm curious, how many of us Thailand dwellers rent and own? And if you don't mind, also put what region in Thailand you live in.

Building a house obviously has its benefits, and compared to Canada, it's obviously dirt cheap here too. For say 3 million baht, I could have a nice piece of land, with a new house built on it. Considering how cheap rent here is though, I just wouldn't be able to justify it. We're renting a nice, large 2 storey, 4 bdrm, 2 bathroom house in a nice neighborhood for 4500/month. Even up the rent to 10,000/month, and that's still 25 years of rent, or with the current house, that's over 50 years of rent.

So for you guys who decided to buy / build, what was the justification? Old, retired, and large bank account with nothing to spend it on? The GF pushed you into it? You like the piece of mind? Or what?

I have the boyfriend's mama and little sister living here, and that seems to be all I need. I can't remember the last time I did laundry, cleaned a single dish, cooked food, or did anything. They'll even wait for me to go into town, then rush up, and clean my office for me.

And best part is, it's free. Call it rent payment, I guess. I never asked them to do any of this, but I'm definitely not going to tell them not to, lol

geriatrickid, thank you. That was probably the best reply I could have hoped for. Thanks for taking the time to write it!

is their job to provide directions to the nearest ATM?

Yep, seems like it. It's one big club, and we're not in it.

In my time here, I've known several "soldiers", and even have one 20yo solider living with me now. It leaves me scratching my head, what's the point of having conscription in Thailand? Sure, every morning at 5am this guys' wife takes him to the military base, and picks him up at 8pm every night. I've inquired as to what he does everyday, and apparently it's not much. Gets 5000 baht/month to do it though. Thing is, I'm gay, and he's probably a softer and gentler guy than I am. He's definitely not some hardened soldier ready for battle.

I keep thinking, what would happen if an actual war would happen in Thailand? For example, what happens if China decides to roll in? The entire Thai military would probably be mowed over within 36 hours, with soldiers like the ones I've met. In contrast, I know several soldiers in Canada, and you can generally tell these guys are capable of war and combat situations, have been to Afghanistan, etc.

We were having a Thai BBQ tonight, and talking about this. I asked what a soldier does in Thailand, and its apparently not much of anything. They were quite dismayed when I said if you're a soldier in Canada right now, more than likely you're going to end up in a desert somewhere in Afghanistan, killing the Taliban. There'd be none of this coming home to eat BBQ, watch TV, and goto the odd karaoke every night.

Gotta say, I just don't think the Thai military is very combat ready. Which begs the question, what's the point of having conscription? It seems totally pointless. Even if Thai military was ever needed for combat, I don't think they'd be much use.

As with any country, Thailand has its pros and cons. When I weigh things out though, I'm perfectly happy here in Khon Kaen. Of course there's things that make me want to put my head through a wall, but on the flip side, there's many things I absolutely love about the country. If there's one major downside, it's the fact that I'm 29, and I'm missing out on loads of business opportunities. Sure, I make deals online, but that's not the same as living in the heart of Vancouver, Canada, and walking into meeting rooms all the time.

But no, I'm old enough to realize that when it comes to life, the times you can sit back and say, "life is good", are usually far and in between. Right now, I can say life is good.

One of the easiest things one can do to tolerate any neighbor is not live so close that you can hear what goes on inside their house.

That's actually one of the things I love about living in my neighborhood, and in Thailand. Then again, maybe because I'm up in Issan, and not in Bangkok. Nonetheless, I love actually knowing my neighbors, even if I can hear them taking a loud shit, or arguing. Back in Vancouver, Canada, during the entire year i stayed there, I think I nodded to one pair of neighbors once, and that was it. Here, I somewhat live with them, see them many times a day, talk to each other all the time, help each other out where we can, etc. I like that.

How much Thai do you know? If not much, than that was probably the crux of your problem. Well, that and you're in Pattaya.

If you can speak enough Thai to joke around a little with the cops, these problems usually resolve themselves, with the ending being a simple smile and wave goodbye.

heh, the better half's dad does that every morning when he stays here. Goes on for about 10 - 15 minutes straight. Honestly, I think that would be one of the smallest things to tolerate if you live around Thai people. Then again, I live with 6 of them.

The one thing that gets me is the sheer laziness. For example, we have the whole family living here now -- mama, little sister, her husband, and little brother and papa about 50% of the time. I said I understand mama hit a bad run of luck, so it's fine if she lives with us, but only under the condition that she works. I'll pay rent and utilities, but other than that you're on your own, and don't expect a free ride in life off my hard work. So everyone's in agreement, and sounds good!

Since little sister recently got married, mama had some sinsot money, invested into a guau-tiao stall, and setup shop on the street corner about 50 feet away. Great, I thought, and she was out there all day working hard. Obviously too hard though, because that only lasted a week. Now she setup the front of the house with the table & chairs, and the stall just outside of the gate She just hangs out inside all day now, watches TV, plays with the neighbors baby, and waits for someone to pop their head in our house saying they're hungry. Oh, for fuc_k sakes... that's not quite what I meant by work, but whatever.

And that's just one example, but that type of mentality tends to drive me somewhat insane. And if you bitch, you'll just get a "mai bpen rai" in return. And speaking of that, the whole "mai bpen rai" thing is a pain to tolerate sometimes too.

"Honey, dog got hit by a car" -- "mai bpen rai"

"Honey, there's maggots in the kitchen" -- "mai bpen rai"

heh... I think the hawking sounds aren't much of a worry.

If you're going to be skipping in and out of Thailand, and it's only for a few months, I wouldn't even bother with a VISA at all. Just stick with the VISA exempt stamps, and if possible, enter Thailand by air each time. That gives you 30 days each entry, whereas coming in by land will only give you 15 days.

If you decide to settle down in Thailand for 2+ months, then while out country hopping, just stop at a Thai embassy somewhere along the way, and apply for a double entry tourist VISA.

For a more permanent stay, from what I see, you pretty much have four options:

• Register a 2 million baht company, and hire 4 Thais.
• Find a company willing to sponsor you for a work permit.
• Learn Thai at school, and get an ED VISA
• Marry a Thai girl.

BTW... where abouts in Thailand are you planning to stay?

Just a simple double entry tourist VISA will give you about 6 months. When you hit Thailand, you're stamped in for 60 days. Then at any immigration office, you can extend that by 30 more days. After 90 days, make a border run, and use the second entry on your tourist VISA. Stamped in for another 60 days, then extend for another 30 days at any immigration office in Thailand. Voila, you got your 180 days.

Shouldn't even have a problem doing that every year, if you stay outside of Thailand for 6 months at a time. As for working at home, don't worry about it. Again, just don't flaunt it, and go telling everyone you meet on the street. There are alot of cun_ts around who will call the cops on you, because the cops will give them say 3000 baht for the tip. Well, it's not that bad, but better safe than sorry.