On 5/4/2024 at 8:31 AM, marin said:

 

It seems you have little to no interaction with Thai's unless they are serving you. Telling.

 

All fine on my end with Thai's other than the fact we are all sick of the relentless heat. 

There is a difference between Thais and Thai’s….

On 5/4/2024 at 9:29 AM, bkk6060 said:

Yes location. I am in Hua hin and people are much friendlier then Pattaya.  Even Bangkok is better then Pattaya.

 

I always find people friendly in Pattaya... Your ST girl in Pattaya charged you too much last time that you make this statement?

On 5/4/2024 at 9:15 AM, bob smith said:

used to sleep on a wooden floor with no furniture when i first moved here.

Now I am rolling in it.

That is quite an accomplishment... how do you roll in a wooden floor?

44 minutes ago, kaneko86 said:

 

I always find people friendly in Pattaya... Your ST girl in Pattaya charged you too much last time that you make this statement?

People in Pattaya have to be friendly, that is their job!!

9 minutes ago, Sticky Rice Balls said:

ive worked retail and recently....its soul crushing..7-11 emp do everything..cook your food,,pay bills..fix your sim..stock,,clean,,inventory etc,,,,now mix in ppl from all over coming in there..demanding a beer at 2pm etc

 

i gotta give a hats off to those folks at 7-11   and i know they get paid sh*t to put up with all the drama...long hrs on feet

I would agree with you completely. Knew a girl in CNX who worked at a 7=11 for a year and she said it was the hardest job she ever had.  But she said it taught her to toughen up and deal with all kinds of people. 

On 5/4/2024 at 8:26 AM, scubascuba3 said:

Depends where probably, i noticed Rayong much friendlier than Pattaya, maybe they are fed up with farang, many unsavoury characters here who tarnish all of us

Scubascuba, everyone knows your talking about B*b Sm*th!!  Be nice, he can't help it!

😂😂😂

1 hour ago, donmuang37 said:

Scubascuba, everyone knows your talking about B*b Sm*th!!  Be nice, he can't help it!

😂😂😂

Who in their right mind wants to talk about B*b Sm*th!!

4 hours ago, Sticky Rice Balls said:

ok

 

i bike daily and did so yest in this heat....noticed how many strangers smiled at me as i have a tiny folding bike so i look like a russian bear riding it and thais love it....so if i catch them looking i give em a honk of my horn.....worked many times yest with randos....many thais smiles..tourists scowled as usual

What is this word "yest"?

I don't know it, but you use it a lot !!

On 5/4/2024 at 1:49 PM, ignore it said:

Whew!

 

I thought it was just me because I've grown a beard 🧔. 

Yes fillets are 869 a four pack 

On 5/4/2024 at 10:56 AM, andux said:

Not too many years ago, whenever I interacted with a stranger at a 7-11, pharmacy, or similar, people were almost always friendly, smiled a lot, etc. I remember that sometimes I left my house in a bad mood, but a quick stop to buy something at any store put me in a great mood almost instantly because store clerks were happy, smiling, friendly, etc.

 

Nowadays, I don't get too many smiles from strangers anymore, especially from store clerks, even if I'm being friendly and smiling myself. Most don't reciprocate anymore and work silently and without showing any expression. Many don't even bother to talk at all and don't tell me the price anymore (I'm supposed to read it on the screen, I guess). I speak Thai, by the way, so it's not a language issue.

 

This doesn't apply to everyone, of course, but I noticed that I don't receive even basic politeness in at least half of my interactions.

 

The land of smiles seem to be a thing of the past in my experience, except from those who are trying to sell me something. Now, when someone approaches with a smile, I know they are coming to sell me insurance or are looking for donations.

 

I don't seem to have changed much myself. I dress the same, I weigh the same. But maybe I'm just a few years older and uglier and people want to avoid me? But the thing is that I was in Europe recently and people seemed much happier and polite, when in the past I always perceived this as being the other way around (Thai people being more friendly and polite).

 

Could it be that people in Thailand nowadays are generally less happy than before? Inflation, low salaries, debt, the political situation... I wonder if these things have erased the smiles from a lot of people's faces.

 

Anyways, interested to know about others' experiences.

 

 

 

Your observations are valid and consistent with what I've been observing over a 20 year period: at a minimum, there is a decline in manners. Some of the comments here are valid but others are out of line and accuse those who have legitimate feedback as "Thai haters". Someone who wants to talk about their experiences on an online forum is not automatically disgruntled or a Thai hater; and no, foreigners don't have to accept rude behaviour by locals. It appears that as soon as a foreigner gives negative feedback, they are either ridiculed by overzealous people who think they must protect Thai-ness, even if it is wrong. There is no reason to put legitimate commentators in their place because they don't ga-ga all over Thailand and don't accept every bit of nonsense in this country.

In my view, foreigners used to be exotic and somewhat of an attraction. When I first came to Thailand with my Thai wife and 6 month old son, my wife stopped at a fast food place in Bangkok. As soon as we sat down, a group of female employees ran excitedly from behind the counter to our table, smiling and talking. They were solely fixated on my 6 month old son. After briefly addressing my wife, one of the women grabbed my son and held him up in the air as if he was Jesus. The woman and her entourage whisked my son away behind the counter. When I asked my wife whether they were friends of hers, she just smiled and said: "No". She loved the attention because 20 years ago, a half-Thai-farang child was a novelty. When they vanished into the back room, I got concerned. I saw one of the women dangle my son, similar to what Michael Jackson did to his son in 2002, above the boiling hot-oil vat where they were frying chicken and fries. The other Thai females tried to grab him while he was in the air - not because they were concerned he'd fall into the boiling oil but because everyone wanted a turn at holding him. I therefore ran into the kitchen area and retrieved my son. Their mind-blowingly dumb behaviour was putting my son in mortal danger. When I returned to the table, my wife was still smiling but let me know afterwards that I had embarrassed her. Really? What if he had slipped through the woman's hands and into the boiling oil? Would she still be smiling? Absolutely, no brains!

There are two extreme sides to this experience: ONE. it happened quite often back then that a complete stranger (female) would approach my wife and ask to hold our son and ask for tips how to meet a farang. In one bizarre case, a Thai friend of my wife asked her for permission to conceive a child with me. Her much older farang husband was too old to conceive children (or maybe he didn't want one - I never asked). Either way, I declined in disgust. My then wife tried to convince me that it was "OK" and "normal". She was proud that someone wanted me to father a child with their friend ☹️. If that wasn't bizarre enough, the old farang husband wouldn't have minded had I impregnated his wife. Yuck! Whether Hua Hin, Pattaya or Bangkok, as soon as our infant son was with us, we were the center of attention. Only 20 years ago, we / he was the epitome of a Thai-farang union. TWO. The scenarios above (holding an infant above boiling oil and my own wife encouraging me to be a sperm donor) shows a clear lack of rational thinking without contemplating the consequences of their actions, desires and whatever nonsense goes through peoples' heads. These two extremes above no longer occur. Mainly because Thais have moved on from the farang-craze they used to experience. They probably realised that many farangs are not the gods we were once thought to be. I just have to look at the 5 bald and overweight Brits in torn muscle shirts that I see on a regular basis having a beer on the main road when I drive past. They seem to be wearing the same shirt since 2025 🐽.

Thai people rarely smile nowadays. Hardly anyone does the wai greeting to me and I'm constantly interrupted and talked over. Just yesterday, a stranger came onto my property uninvited and sat down in my garden. My wife asked him whether he was here to collect the dogs. The man just ignored my wife and stared at me - so I stared back. This wouldn't have happened 20 years ago. We bought this property recently and the caretaker who overstayed had problems rounding up her dogs. So, she brought a vet along to tranquilize the animals. But he just sat there staring at me. Was it jealousy or did he have a stroke? I don't know. My Thai wasn't sufficient to ask. When I walked closer to speak to the former caretaker, he still just kept on staring at me. No wai, no hello, just rude staring. Being the oldest guy there, according to Thai customs, younger people should initiate the wai. According to Thai customs, the wai is not conditional upon me being a Thai citizen. In contrast, a few weeks ago a Thai woman in her mid-seventies introduced herself to my wife and I as she knew the previous owners of the property before they passed away. She smiled, maintained eye contact with my wife and I, and although I'm not a Thai speaker, her behaviour encouraged calm and smiles in return. Because she'd done the correct thing, I invited her to come around anytime once we've settled in.

As I've written in numerous posts before, the "land of smiles" is fake, it's over and even 20 years ago, most smiles were linked to making money or getting something in return from the recipient of the smile. My previous and my current wife truly believe in the "smile" thing and they really want to avoid confrontation (kreng jai). They go to extremes to play a role that most Thais were indoctrinated with: happy, wealthy, healthy...but they no longer believe in. Thailand is subjected to more and more reality and liberal thinking from tourists and media as well as from Thai citizens who have lived overseas and have shed their Thai values. For example, when I asked my former Thai wife something about Thai culture, she barked at me: "How would I know. I left Thailand when I was 18". My two adult Thai children live overseas and want nothing to do with Thailand, and my current wife's children, who have never left Thailand, don't act like traditional Thais from 20 years ago. My step daughter recently engaged in criticizing the builder who built a new bathroom in our house with never-ending sewage smell. Instead of engaging with her own daughter and agreeing with her (because she was right), my wife and my step-daughter's husband went silent and looked away in shame.

While kreng jai had a purpose to keep the population in check, I see more and more Thais thinking liberally and possibly questioning their existence and daily lives. My children do that and so do my step-children. I'm not upset if a 7-Eleven low-wage worker doesn't smile at me. But often, when I do smile first, they smile back. What I don't like is when a shmuck comes onto my property and ignores my wife and incessantly stares at me. Thailand is moving forward and change is coming. Hopefully good change.