GinBoy2

Maybe I might tick a few folks off, but isn't it time to just admit the truth. Thailand isn't, and never will be St Tropez, Hawaii and just come to terms with the fact it's a mid level, at times scummy vacation destination and go for that. So who do you attract if that's the reality? Well it's going to be the Chinese, may not be what the Western members of this forum want to hear, but thats reality in a nutshell. The 'quality tourist' is some pie in the sky concept that looks great on a PowerPoint presentation, but so far from life on the street. So as far as I can seen, roll on the Chinese hoards

I totally get this. I'm mid 60's Mrs G mid 50's. Been together a long time over 20 years at this point and seen a lot. Neither of us are what we were 20 years ago, but here we are still together. There is a lot of focus on here about physical attraction. For most of us that have gone the distance, looks may fade but if you do actually care for someone that really doesn't matter and you become blind to it. Maybe we don't go at it like the rabbits that we were 20 years ago, but we are still into each other, which many on here just don't seem to get, that it is possible for older guys to actually sexually desire older women. I know we're all different, but I would have no desire to come home a partner young enough to be my daughter, just to bang her every night. I'm in that minority here, where sex aside, I just like to be with someone who I can watch TV with, share how our day went, and now enjoy the mutual joy of our grandkids. Boring I know to many, but hey, we are all different

What does this even mean, 'out socially' If it means engaging in normal age appropriate social activities well most of us are. If it means a 60 year old going a 'rave' with 20 somethings, well dude get a life and stop embarrassing yourself

Hmm, I have experience of this. Many years ago, not in Thailand but in San Jose CA, I was in a mall parking lot people were gathering to watch some guy beating the cra&&&p outta this girl. No one was doing anything, so idiot me decided it was time to pull him off. I'm not a big guy, but he lost his balance as I pulled him off and he fell to the ground. The next I know is the woman is wailing on ME, shouting "don't hurt him" Then the cops showed up, gave me a warning and sent me on my way. Lesson learned, never intervene!!!

I think you be also able to stock up on the gazillions of bottled water stashed away during the Y2K non-apocalypse. I'm sure there are many wanting to offload their unused 10,000 bottles stashed in their underground bunker!

As I said before, I lived in KKC a long, still have a house there, not a bad place. But it does suffer the fate of a lot of Thai cities. Blindfolded and dropped in the center of town, you could be in a hundred of other Thai cities, nothing really to distinguish between any of them. So again not a bad place, I like it, but I doubt the tourist hoards will be flocking

Friendship can be tricky. I'm a bit of an odd duck for my age and ethnicity. I'm an only child of an only child Hispanic parents. So I grew up pretty self reliant and over the decades I've had plenty of 'friends' but in reality nothing more than acquaintances, and when they were gone, never really thought about them again. In truth I can socialize with the best, but it's totally superficial. A have one real friend, a woman who started Kindergarden with me 60 years ago, God Mother to all my kids and a woman who I know would jump on a plane in a second if I needed her and vice versa

Indeed. My German friend lived through several years of this. Mom basically letting the kid run wild. It culminated one day when he hit his Mother. Torsten stepped in, trouble was a 60 year old man versus an 18 year old isn't a fair fight. Torsten was the guy in hospital with a broken jaw. He called it quits after that and left Went back to Germany, haven't spoke to him since. I think like a lot of guys when things go bad he just wanted to erase all memory of it, which I kinda get

I'm just stunned that such a low level National Guard even had access to this stuff. He's a guilty as Hell, but the folks that allowed him access to this stuff should be locked up as well

This is one of those of these way to typical stories of farangs in Isaan We have a German friend, married to a Thai with a teenage boy. Same as the OP kid totally outta control, Mom's response "You don't understand Thai" I tried talking to the kid since I speak Lao, friend doesn't, all I got back was a torrent of abuse. Never when back there again. The usual progression is it will ultimately end up bad. Drugs and the Monkey House, very common Motorcycle accident, also very common Drifting from job to job, sponging off Mom(OP) for cash to feed whatever habit he's into. It eventually gets to a point where it's time to 'cut bait' and run before it really gets ugly

Lot of the problem is how most Thai houses are built A single brick wall, so no insulated gap. On a brutal heat day I can feel my interior walls radiating heat, so AC is always going to struggle. I can contrast that to our US house where either brutally cold or brutally hot the AC or the heat isn't fighting the external walls

Apologies But you have to admit it's a small percentage of us that actually speak Thai and Lao. But you're still in for some rocky waters there, but only you can figure out how much the grief/pleasure equation works out for you. All I can say is if you tough that situation out, you're a braver man than me

To be honest, if the kid is feral by 15, it only goes down from here. Try to visualize what he will be like at 18+ I'm assuming that the OP doesn't speak Thai, so any communication with the kid is through Mom, and it's pretty clear she isn't going to do anything! Trouble is you're coming from different experiences. All teenage boys are 'messy' but for most of us I think leaving your clothes on the bedroom floor was enough to get a clip around the ear and told to 'pick up your mess'. This is way past that I have no idea how old the OP is, but if you get to the point of this kid being a feral young man, don't exclude some violence if you try to restrain his activities. Terrible situation but really not uncommon for a farang to encounter a feral male step child! I be outta there faster than I could drop a pair of dirty underwear

I kinda agree with @OneMoreFarang I travelled a lot for work, I've lived in multiple countries and spent more time away from home that I care to think about. I tried full time retirement, that didn't work for me, so I went back to work. But, I don't like to be away from home anymore. I have to go to Atlanta next week for a training course, and I hate it. I'm happy being at home with Mrs G and the cats, don't need much more nowadays

Very few of us look at 60 like we did at 30. Thai women are exactly the same as any farang woman in that respect. Love is a funny old thing. Obviously the first attraction is physical, but over time when love kicks in and really the 'looks' are secondary. If we are critiquing the picture, well Pierce isn't exactly the adonis he once was, but he has someone to grow old with. Renting may well suit many here. But don't expect anyone to hang around when you need support in your final years, that takes love not something you will get from a woman a third of your age and working on the clock

We lived in KKC for 10 years, and we still have a house there. Not a bad place, but 'tourist destination' I think not.

This is more of a question and idle musing. But is it normal to have language in travel policy that defines this scenario, in particular the helmet thing. For <deleted>z n giggles I did a quote from Allianz in the US for a fictitious trip. I read through all the T&C's and the closest I could come for an exclusion was 'activities against local regulations' Now I know thats a pretty broad exclusion, but thats a hard thing to prove in this case, I would have thought

I do exercise and for my age I'm in pretty good shape. But no matter much you exercise, eat good, you can't fight nature. Testosterone is on a decline and nothing you can do about that without drugs and that is a pretty major part of the male physique Joints will age, and just wear out, your jaw line will sag, and hair, well you don't lose it it simply 'relocates' So I'm all for keeping yourself in good shape, but you need to accept to age gracefully and lean into it

As a basic Margherita pizza kinda guy, that raised an eyebrow when I read that

Well you might be confusing Thai and 'Isaan Lao' or one of the other many variants. Focus on standardized Thai to begin with. I met my wife in Singapore, and she taught me standard Thai while we were living there, and once I'd mastered that she moved on to Lao. She only spoke Thai to me when I was first learning Thai, never Lao The problem you will have is to the ear they sound almost the same, so try to only hear only one to begin with.

It depends where you are coming from. Tonal languages are hard for most non tonal speakers to master. I learnt Mandarin over 30 years ago so I crossed that bridge a long time before I got to Thai and Lao. Once you have mastered one tonal language the rest come pretty easy. Reading Thai is easy, unlike Mandarin which I really struggled with. But you'll need to put in the work to overcome the tonal thing, won't say it's easy, but it'll just click one day

Grand Canyon Central Park Times Square Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island 911 Memorial Mount Rushmore Crazy Horse Memorial USS Arizona memorial Alcatraz Mt Rainier Yosemite ....the list is endless, but these are some of my top ones

Ditto Brother. The wrath of an Isaan woman is to be much feared, no smiling involved! Curiously I was visiting my son a few weeks ago, and the topic came up of 'keeping your head down' when Mom was on the warpath!

Years back I saw a documentary on PBS about this 50/60ish woman from the UK who went on vacation to Ghana. She got hooked up with a 20 year old guy, and she actually said on screen; "Once go go black you never go back" Long story short, when she got him into the UK, he failed the immigration interview and just disappeared, leaving her high and dry And as I was searching for the docu I watched, I came across this; https://nypost.com/2020/09/29/why-are-elderly-women-seeking-love-with-young-men-in-gambia/

Well thats the whole incel problem. If you just want sex, any man in any country can pay for sex, been that way forever. What the incel 'thinks' is why don't women fling themselves at me? As I said before if 'sex' was the only thing these guys wanted wanted, Thailand would be a paradise for them, but sex alone really isn't it for them