Stereotyping

[LoveDaBlues]

I want to make it clear that I am not a defender of all things Thai. I posted this because I think there are a lot of forum members who have such a negative view of Thailand and/or Thai people that they seize on any chance to slag them off. My point is that there are bad, rude, evil people all over the world. If you think we don't have boatloads of them back in the West you are mistaken. Does that excuse Thais who do bad things? No. But just because some Thais do doesn't mean that they all do, or even that most do.

BTW, I first came here in 1980 and have lived here 17 years since then, including the present. I don't think it is paradise, but I also don't think it is the living hel_l that a lot of forum members seem to think it is--that's all.

I think some members vision is skewed by the people they hang with the places they habituate, for example:

1. They spend most of their time in bars or nightlife areas.

2. They marry into families that are the Thai equivalent of the kind of guests you would see on the Jerry Springer show. If you have seen the show you know what I mean. And then they make broad statements on Thailand and Thais based on their unfortunate experience.

To the poster who asked about the puppies. Someone tried to steal some rare puppies last week in Oz. A witness tried to stop the car, and was stabbed and seriously hurt. To add insult to injury, he was also pelted with the puppies. I will never visit that country, those evil B@#%%$ds!

I to your most excellent post. Agree with 1 & 2 above.

[LoveDaBlues]

why are you so sure my opinion will change to the negative once i move here. ?

I'm not sure your attitude will change. You might be one of the minority that can still enjoy living here as much as they did holidaying here. I hope so, for your sake. Best of luck.

My first year living in LOS was spent in BKK. I loved it. I had plenty of money and spent most of my time partying and playing nud_e leap-frog with the local girls. But it soon got a bit boring (as it will for anyone) so I started a small business for an interest and that's gave me a whole new insight into the Thai mentality.

When you've had enough of doing nothing and decide on a small biz/hobby then you'll see Thailand and the Thais in reality. Your competitors will be jealous and envious and try devious tricks and underhanded tactics to destroy you, your lazy and often disappearing staff will not be happy about accepting orders from "a Falang" (no matter how charming you are when making your simple requests), your suppliers will constantly let you down, your customer base will be fickle and disloyal, the BiB will want their ever-increasing tea money, the phone service and internet are from the last century, so forget about simple things such as online banking (took me 3 hours yesterday to pay a bill, should have been 3 minutes) the double pricing will eventually wear you down because you know you can't do it yourself........................... and on it goes.

Good luck mate.

I'm out of here soon, and will only be a holidayer again in the future, and wouldn't even bother if my gf wasn't here.

PS, Thailand is not the same now as KoPangyang was 20 years ago.

Thailand is not for everyone. Sounds like you are a go-getter with a lot of energy. Pour your talents and hard work into a biz somewhere else. I'm retired and don't have the need to constantly stay busy; Thailand suits me fine.

[qwertz]

Why don't we open a forum purely for those who need to get a good moan of their chests. There are many that do, me included. However there are those that do not wish to hear others put down any aspect of Thailand. With a specific Thai related moan forum the two need not come into contact.

What do you think?

Excellent suggestion, Rich. Will you start a whinger's corner or shall I? I feel like a good moan because I feel like sh1t right now although (or because) I'm not in LOS so I can't think of anything to bash about it at the minute.

P.S. Just occurred to me, I started a whinge thread recently but it didn't run for long because most of the whingers prefer to offload in other threads.

Edited March 2, 2007 by qwertz