Top 5 Reasons You Won’t Like Thailand

OPINION

Top 5 Reasons You Won’t Like Thailand

By Dan Cheeseman 

 

 

For some reason we all like a list, a top 5 or 10 of this and that, I guess it is the curiosity of discovering what made the list getting the better of you – you have no choice but to take a peek. In my case curiosity got the better of me to see if I could put a list together. My challenge therefore to could come up with a top 5 list of reasons for why you won’t like Thailand.

 

Now I like Thailand, of course I do I have lived here over a decade now, but I would be lying if I said things didn’t annoy me about living here. Importantly, none are enough to make me up sticks and leave, but I have certainly thought about bailing out many times now.

 

However, I don’t want to list why you won’t like living in Thailand; I want to list the reasons you won’t like Thailand. It is slightly different. It was an interesting task as I have become far more tolerant and accepting of what goes on here, casing point was when I started to write something down I would instantly have an excuse or defense as to why that particular thing happened . This blog was going to be more challenging than I thought.

 

This was not going to be a quick 30 minute blog, I needed to ask others what they didn’t like about Thailand.

 

So when I popped back home from my office for lunch, the first person I asked was my wife (she is Russian by the way). She had just come home from an International School with our two kids and I could not have teed the question up any better for she was a little aggrieved, to say the least, from what she saw at the school. “You know just about every teacher there was male and looked like they were half cut from the night before. You could clearly see they had all been drinking the night before” she explained.

 

We all hear about many teachers that come to teach in Thailand who have not grown tired of the neon lights of the beer bars – it is the case of lifestyle first and job a very supporting second. For a parent these kind of stories quite frankly make me very angry, especially with the high fees that come from International Schools.

 

Now I am not suggesting every school or indeed teacher is the same, but it still a very real problem. I used to do some consultancy for a large International School and the principle always moaned about the drinking epidemic among his teachers.

 

Now, I need to get this list started so the Drinking Problem from Some International Teachers is my number five. I am bending my earlier conditions outlined that the top five reasons cannot come from living here, this one makes the list!

 

My number four, and by the way the reasons are in no particular order, is the inconsistency and corruption from some of the police. On all the main tourist Sois in Pattaya you will more often or not see a couple of police officers looking to pull people on motorbikes over. Checking if they have valid driving licences, for not wearing helmets and alcohol breathalyzer checks. All excellent things for ensuring the safety of the roads, but that is only half the story. You can still pay many of these officers off directly on the scene – even if you are intoxicated.

 

Full story: https://danaboutthailand.com/2018/03/06/top-5-reasons-wont-like-thailand/

 

-- DAN ABOUT THAILAND 2018-03-07

Number one for me is very, very simple;

 

Thai state employees. Cops. Immigration people. Any Thai person who is considered a state employee.

 

They are all bad.

9 minutes ago, Samui Bodoh said:

Number one for me is very, very simple;

 

Thai state employees. Cops. Immigration people. Any Thai person who is considered a state employee.

 

They are all bad.

bad ? nah; just overlook their rudeness, ineptitude, corruption,non-sensical excuses

The author forgot to list Russian wives to his list.

Smug, miserable and think they are better than the Thais.  Maybe his next fascinating article will include that.

13 minutes ago, YetAnother said:

bad ? nah; just overlook their rudeness, ineptitude, corruption,non-sensical excuses

Funny, I get treated just fine by all the above-mentioned. Maybe a quick look in the mirror would explain why the complainers get treated the way they do?

thais lack of genuine respect for their own country..

1- the selfishness/lazyness and bad manners of the people.

 

2- the no pricing of goods

 

3- dangerous traffic

 

4- low standards/quality/servicelevels 

 

5 lack of speaking english

No.1 visa run hassle, if i could go back in time, i wouldnt have been arsed with asia,

i would have been living in caribbean.

No.2 corruption.

No.3 traffic jam in pattaya is tedious

>>>  lots of noise, lots of barking dogs

>>>  crappy, mega-selfish drivers

>>>  trash nearly everywhere

>>>  giant chasm between rich and poor

>>>  justice system which pampers rich and scapegoats poor 

 

 

 

Definitely sounds dogs. I got bitten before and my cousin got bitten just this week. They said he needs 5 different shots whereas I only needed one. Overcharging hospital exaggerating?

 

Can't believe bad drivers didn't make the list or taxi and tuk tuk scammers

16 minutes ago, mok199 said:

thais lack of genuine respect for their own country..

I tend to agree, though it's hard to gauge respect.

Lots of Thais do admire and respect their country - and it's natural for people to have that sort of provincial allegiance, no matter where they're brought up. 

 

A Thai women friend in her 60's mentioned hiking long distances across Thailand with her kids and grandkids.  She said it with a twinkle in her eye, as if Thailand was quaint villages, wildlife, farmers singing in their fields, etc.  That's a Thailand which (partly) existed many decades ago.  The harsh reality is: Thailand is fast changing toward US/Europe/China type modernity, and that runaway growth isn't quaint or pretty.   

 

That's why, when I take a break, I go to parts of Burma, which still have a modicum of quaintness - no shopping malls, and people actually mill around in the evenings and talk/mingle/gossip with each other.   On the Thai side of the border in a Town the same size, the streets are nearly empty in the evenings. Thais are sitting alone staring at screens; handheld devices or TVs/computers.

 

There are practically no wild mammals other than rats or bats in Thailand - outside of a rare few in one or two small protected parks.  Thais want a wholesome landscape with some parks and wildlife, but moneyed interests are scraping rural areas at frantic speeds.    Parks and and natural spaces, for Thais, are way down on their list of priorities.

 

My adopted town of Chiang Rai is doubling in size every 7 years or so.  If you were to look from 5 miles above, you'd see a thick brown ring around the city (used to be a town) which is getting wider each year.  That brown is exposed clay from earth moving machines.  Same is happening in nearly every town/city in Thailand.  

Troll posts removed.  

 

"Chinese tourists, they are everywhere and there are thousands of them in Pattaya. "

Not so. The guy needs to get out more.

 

He's talking about the tourist trap places.

the visa run hassle has crippled me too far, i got too much pain to travel across the world

and then try to walk around and find all the stuff i need to find.

that is why i said: if i had known this, i would not have come here in the first instance, i'd been in caribbean

Some off topic, troll and 'if you dont like it here go home' posts have been removed.

Topic title is plain, please discuss, thank you.

 

Top 5 Reasons You Won’t Like Thailand

 

 

heat

 

Humidity

 

Mad drivers

 

Trotty botty you get from unclean foods in all kinds of restaurants.

 

not been able to own ones house except for a 30 year lease 

Inability to admit they are wrong due to Face.

3 hours ago, boomerangutang said:

I tend to agree, though it's hard to gauge respect.

Lots of Thais do admire and respect their country - and it's natural for people to have that sort of provincial allegiance, no matter where they're brought up. 

 

A Thai women friend in her 60's mentioned hiking long distances across Thailand with her kids and grandkids.  She said it with a twinkle in her eye, as if Thailand was quaint villages, wildlife, farmers singing in their fields, etc.  That's a Thailand which (partly) existed many decades ago.  The harsh reality is: Thailand is fast changing toward US/Europe/China type modernity, and that runaway growth isn't quaint or pretty.   

 

That's why, when I take a break, I go to parts of Burma, which still have a modicum of quaintness - no shopping malls, and people actually mill around in the evenings and talk/mingle/gossip with each other.   On the Thai side of the border in a Town the same size, the streets are nearly empty in the evenings. Thais are sitting alone staring at screens; handheld devices or TVs/computers.

 

There are practically no wild mammals other than rats or bats in Thailand - outside of a rare few in one or two small protected parks.  Thais want a wholesome landscape with some parks and wildlife, but moneyed interests are scraping rural areas at frantic speeds.    Parks and and natural spaces, for Thais, are way down on their list of priorities.

 

My adopted town of Chiang Rai is doubling in size every 7 years or so.  If you were to look from 5 miles above, you'd see a thick brown ring around the city (used to be a town) which is getting wider each year.  That brown is exposed clay from earth moving machines.  Same is happening in nearly every town/city in Thailand.  

That's good cause Rai was quiet and boring before.

 

And towns have to increase in size as the population goes up unless people live in smaller spaces which is worse.

 

 

1 to 5.  Whiny farang.

The locals are only friendly towards you, if they want something or they think thats theres a possibility of them getting something .

   The more they want or expect, the nicer and friendlier they re .

Being "friendly" is their currency and the goods they are selling

1 minute ago, sanemax said:

The locals are only friendly towards you, if they want something or they think thats theres a possibility of them getting something .

   The more they want or expect, the nicer and friendlier they re .

Being "friendly" is their currency and the goods they are selling

Which locals?

I have lived here for almost 30 years, put two stepchildren through University, kept myself legal at all times and have never been stopped by the police. I find your blog to be totally inconsistent with real life whether you are resident or a visitor.

6 minutes ago, rossd said:

I have lived here for almost 30 years, put two stepchildren through University, kept myself legal at all times and have never been stopped by the police. I find your blog to be totally inconsistent with real life whether you are resident or a visitor.

I think you were very lucky, that you never been stopped by police.

I was till now stopped 1 time in about a total of 4 years living in Thailand. The police officer only looked in the car and then I can drive again (this was in bangkok).

 

I think mostly it also depends how you react to the others. But of course there are always some bad cops because cops are person and as we know there are always good and bad. This not only count to Thailand.

4 hours ago, Justfine said:

"Chinese tourists, they are everywhere and there are thousands of them in Pattaya. "

Not so. The guy needs to get out more.

 

He's talking about the tourist trap places.

Maybe a bit over generalising but unfortunately he is not far off - north end of 3rd Road is not what I would call a "tourist trap" but I see coach loads and individual groups there all the time. 

1 minute ago, topt said:

Maybe a bit over generalising but unfortunately he is not far off - north end of 3rd Road is not what I would call a "tourist trap" but I see coach loads and individual groups there all the time. 

Pattaya is a tourist trap imo

 

Crap beaches and Bangkok has better nightlife.

 

 

 

6 hours ago, Thian said:

1- the selfishness/lazyness and bad manners of the people.

 

2- the no pricing of goods

 

3- dangerous traffic

 

4- low standards/quality/servicelevels 

 

5 lack of speaking english

The top four yes

6 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

Number one for me is very, very simple;

 

Thai state employees. Cops. Immigration people. Any Thai person who is considered a state employee.

 

They are all bad.

Really, are we going there? I hope you never get into an accident, people like my wife save many lives every day on the operating table, and yes she is a government official. please do not tar with the same brush!

52 minutes ago, Justfine said:

Which locals?

The Russians.?

1 hour ago, sanemax said:

The locals are only friendly towards you, if they want something or they think thats theres a possibility of them getting something .

   The more they want or expect, the nicer and friendlier they re .

Being "friendly" is their currency and the goods they are selling

Did you ever see the same if the other side is also Thai?

Because I did.

being treated by a doctor that’s gone through a “no fail” education system


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