Positives and Negatives of Thailand (from Western perspective)

[Rampant Rabbit]

6 minutes ago, CM Dad said:

Why are you here?  You sound like a miserable person.  I am grateful not to know you.

why bother  posting rubbish such as  this.......you dont know me

[bert bloggs]

On 10/3/2021 at 9:32 AM, Kwasaki said:

Bya have nice time. 

Your just another who lives in a place like Phuket and knows everything about Thailand. ????????

Had a friend who lived in Phuket,he left as well as he did not like it after a year or so ,now lives in Pattaya ,8 yrs and loves it even in lockdown

[robin hood]

Your over thinking it my friend, chill out 

[Octpob]

On 10/3/2021 at 12:22 PM, SEAsia Traveler said:

18.  Feudal practices (groveling, inwardness, xenophobia, heavy-handed treatment of foreigners, patronage system, nationalism, censorship, bloated civil service and military, profligate spending, protection of elite class, disregard for vulnerable populations)

19.  Lack of modernity (intellectual curiosity, innovation, product expertise, city planning, skilled workforce, economic opportunity, rising incomes, transparency, free speech, talented and representative leadership)

28.  Thai vices (gambling, loan sharking, lottery, consumer debt, corrupt monks)

Yes, negative 18 drives me nuts...especially the groveling that my wife feels obliged to do with her "betters" aka HISO.

Negative 19 seems to be widespread but surprisingly very much evident even among the university educated Thais.

The negative 28...oh my, where to start? The constant play of "money games", ever increasing debt in order to buy c*ap...

[Thingamabob]

A good effort, especially after only 1 year on the ground.

 

Two negative points with which I particularly agree:-

 

1. Concern for animal welfare.

2. Presence of way too many 

    low class foreigners.

 

    ATB.

  

[Troy Tempest]

I think you are a "Winker", but I'll leave it open to mass debate! 

[thaibeachlovers]

Yes to positives

5/

6/

9/

12/

13/

14/.

 

Negatives agree with

4/

5/

8/.

 

[thaibeachlovers]

2 hours ago, bert bloggs said:

Had a friend who lived in Phuket,he left as well as he did not like it after a year or so ,now lives in Pattaya ,8 yrs and loves it even in lockdown

I have no idea why any farang likes Phuket. I stopped going there after the tsunami, as they just rebuilt the same <deleted><deleted>.

[thaibeachlovers]

On 10/3/2021 at 2:22 PM, SEAsia Traveler said:

I’m leaving Thailand after nearly a year in Phuket as a trial retirement. My reasons for leaving, in descending order of significance.

Given your reasons, I fail to understand why you lived in LOS at all.

[VocalNeal]

A lot of the OP's list, both pos. and neg.) could be said for Indonesia. 

 

Maybe the secret to being mostly content with Thailand is travelling within or living in other countries in Asia and comparing Thailand to them instead of the USA. Generally speaking in my experience Americans don't travel well.

[1FinickyOne]

3 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I have no idea why any farang likes Phuket

I agree entirely - and my first visits go back to the 1980s and I didn't care for it then.. I did have a nice stay at a Marriott timeshare given by a friend in the north of the island - but that was secluded and inclusive - - lovely place w/no reason to venture out..

 

But on another subject, unrelated - since we have had some back and forth... when you got married - - did you pay sin sod? 

[Boarn]

Positives;

 

1. It's not England.

2. It's not PC.

3. It has no woke culture.

4. Feel more free in some cases, eg I can drive my car how I want to drive it, I can say what i want

 

Negatives;

 

1. Food

2. Heat

3. People, making noise with no regard to neighbors 

4. People, burning everything 

5. Burning season

6. Immigration

7. Over development

8. Moving goalposts

9. Thailand is cheap is a lie, only cheap if you want to live like a Thai and not enjoy proper food, drink and entertainment

10. Ever changing landscape

11. All my favorite venues are no longer there

12. The Chinese

13. Nice cars are too expensive

14. The Indians

15. Imbecilic government schemes

16. Developing country means how you find it won't be how you experience it a few years later

17. Prices of fun

 

To name but a few.

[thaibeachlovers]

14 minutes ago, VocalNeal said:

A lot of the OP's list, both pos. and neg.) could be said for Indonesia. 

 

Maybe the secret to being mostly content with Thailand is travelling within or living in other countries in Asia and comparing Thailand to them instead of the USA. Generally speaking in my experience Americans don't travel well.

A mistake holiday in Sri Lanka convinced me to always visit Thailand.

[jazzdog32095]

On 10/3/2021 at 8:30 AM, Mutt Daeng said:

One year is not a long time in Thailand or maybe it is if you live in Phuket (I don't know cos I've never been). Why not try somewhere else? Perhaps some of your issues will not be (as) prevalent at a different location.

 

 

 

He stole my list with exception of Covid. The Government certainly was late rolling out vaccines but made the difficult calls on severe restrictions and by the most important stat deaths have been extremely low in the 25 per 100,000 range compared to 175-220 per 100,000 in most western nations. 

 

Edited October 4, 2021 by jazzdog32095
cant spell

[Stupooey]

21 minutes ago, Boarn said:

Positives;

 

1. It's not England.

2. It's not PC.

3. It has no woke culture.

4. Feel more free in some cases, eg I can drive my car how I want to drive it, I can say what i want

 

Negatives;

 

1. Food

2. Heat

3. People, making noise with no regard to neighbors 

4. People, burning everything 

5. Burning season

6. Immigration

7. Over development

8. Moving goalposts

9. Thailand is cheap is a lie, only cheap if you want to live like a Thai and not enjoy proper food, drink and entertainment

10. Ever changing landscape

11. All my favorite venues are no longer there

12. The Chinese

13. Nice cars are too expensive

14. The Indians

15. Imbecilic government schemes

16. Developing country means how you find it won't be how you experience it a few years later

17. Prices of fun

 

To name but a few.

You could probably find 100 countries in the World with all of your positives and few of the negatives. Why choose Thailand?

[Boarn]

4 minutes ago, Stupooey said:

You could probably find 100 countries in the World with all of your positives and few of the negatives. Why choose Thailand?

When I moved here in 2005 the list of positives would be so much longer, I am in too deep here now.

[Stupooey]

16 minutes ago, Boarn said:

When I moved here in 2005 the list of positives would be so much longer, I am in too deep here now.

I may have only been here since 2009, but in my experience very little has changed that is not Covid-related. Apart from the imbecilic government of course, we can agree on that one.

[BobinBKK]

Please add "Social construct of monkeys" to the negatives section.

[malibukid]

2 hours ago, Thingamabob said:

A good effort, especially after only 1 year on the ground.

 

Two negative points with which I particularly agree:-

 

1. Concern for animal welfare.

2. Presence of way too many 

    low class foreigners.

 

    ATB.

  

animal welfare is a big problem here and some of us expats here have organized and are helping out of pocket to address this.  

Edited October 4, 2021 by malibukid

[malibukid]

1 hour ago, Stupooey said:

You could probably find 100 countries in the World with all of your positives and few of the negatives. Why choose Thailand?

please expand, what countries with better year round weather that are interesting?

[FalangJaiDee]

On 10/3/2021 at 8:22 AM, SEAsia Traveler said:

18.  Feudal practices (groveling, inwardness, xenophobia, heavy-handed treatment of foreigners, patronage system, nationalism, censorship, bloated civil service and military, profligate spending, protection of elite class, disregard for vulnerable populations)

19.  Lack of modernity (intellectual curiosity, innovation, product expertise, city planning, skilled workforce, economic opportunity, rising incomes, transparency, free speech, talented and representative leadership)

20.  Severe defamation laws, adjudication, and penalties

21.  Familial burdens placed on young women

22.  Cultural expectations and misunderstandings (saving face, family obligations, raising children, relationship problems, workplace conflicts, collective vs. individual values)

23.  Opportunistic treatment of foreigners (rip-offs, scams, shameless use of cunning and guile, aggressive ladyboys)

24.  Fear, suspicion, and avoidance of foreigners

25.  Apathy of Thai men towards foreigners

These personally are the worst for me and make me cringe deeply but at the end of the day it’s a small price to pay. The social-cultural schizophrenia of the west, it’s endless striving for the vague and unattainable goalposts of equality and “””progress”” are worse IMO. As a foreigner, you’re not really subjected to the externalities of these mentioned negatives. 
 

speaking thai and showing deference to their cultural mannerism and disposition can counteract and allay a lot of these concerns 

[zzaa09]

5 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

A lot of the OP's list, both pos. and neg.) could be said for Indonesia. 

 

Maybe the secret to being mostly content with Thailand is travelling within or living in other countries in Asia and comparing Thailand to them instead of the USA. Generally speaking in my experience Americans don't travel well.

This might certainly apply to all brethren English-speaking cultures and their world.

The kinship and character is one and the same. 

Not an endearing or developed bunch.

[OneMoreFarang]

 

Let's concentrate on the important things in life. 

 

[NoshowJones]

The positives do outweigh the negatives compared with the UK, but the worst thing is since 1932 the majority of the time the country has been ruled by the military, and you never know what might happen next. Imagine the UK if the country was ruled by soldiers with only a Military Academy education.

[BritManToo]

50 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

The positives do outweigh the negatives compared with the UK, but the worst thing is since 1932 the majority of the time the country has been ruled by the military, and you never know what might happen next. Imagine the UK if the country was ruled by soldiers with only a Military Academy education.

Can't see how the Army could be worse than the last half dozen UK leaders.

[zzaa09]

6 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Can't see how the Army could be worse than the last half dozen UK leaders.

Or any leaders, for that matter.

An affliction that can be found worldwide. 

 

And some might cringe as to why we refer to these charlatans as leaders, much less to be admired.

[NoshowJones]

7 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Can't see how the Army could be worse than the last half dozen UK leaders.

Depends on how you look at it, there are refugees, asylum seekers or whatever you call them, been arriving in the UK in boats from France after passing through other countries on their way to the UK, then getting put in hotels, given food and money provided by the taxpayers.

This unelected PM, or any other previous PM would never have allowed  that to happen in Thailand.

On the other hand, look at the damage this unelected PM has done to Thailand and it's people through their greed, I can't be bothered going through it all again just now, but it has been well documented by AN members on this forum.

[zzaa09]

10 hours ago, robin hood said:

Your over thinking it my friend, chill out 

Written in their DNA.

It is what it is.

[OneMoreFarang]

2 hours ago, possum1931 said:

The positives do outweigh the negatives compared with the UK, but the worst thing is since 1932 the majority of the time the country has been ruled by the military, and you never know what might happen next. Imagine the UK if the country was ruled by soldiers with only a Military Academy education.

Imagine for a moment you wouldn't hear and see any news and nobody would tell you which government is in charge. Would you know? I have my doubts.

 

Personally I get upset about politicians when I read about them in the news. But in my daily life I didn't notice much difference about who was in charge in the last 20 years. It seems they are all to some degree incompetent and corrupt in Thailand. But only in Thailand? Many millions voted for Boris, Donald and other idiots. If people continue to vote for people like that then nobody should be surprised if some people doubt if democracy is such a good idea.

 

[Stupooey]

7 hours ago, malibukid said:

please expand, what countries with better year round weather that are interesting?

Looking at the post I was replying to, the only reference to weather is 'heat' being shown as a negative. I could easily find 100 countries that are not as hot as Thailand. There is also no reference to Thailand being interesting or not, and anyway interest is in the eye of the beholder. Judging by some of the replies on this thread, the most interesting thing about Thailand would appear to be the availability of prostitutes, but I suppose if you like that sort of thing, then that's the sort of thing you like!