Why Is Everything So Slow?

[eljeque]

A friend of mine sent me a letter via FedEx from Angeles City, Philippines to Pattya. He sent it in the early evening and I received it the next morning.

[otton]

My condolences to you, you poor bugger, for thinking that everyone in the worlds exists only for monetary profit.

Here are the answers to your questions/inferences:

1] I am genuinely here for the previous reason that I stated - quality over quantity/money.

2] Please check my personal details. You'll see a photo & other info is available. To save you the time, I'm 46 & not retired. Never have been retired. Never want to retire.

3] In Australia, I was making about 5 times more money than I make here. I receive no other income from anything else. I don't get paid a lot here (in Thailand).

While I may not deny being a bugger, I'm a rich one and I am about 15 years younger than you so keep your condolences to you since it's clear you are the poor one...

BTW, I can afford healthy and clean food everywhere, even where it's available at a premium (3rd world countries).

4] To me, a higher quality life is about eating good food, which hasn't been processed to the max. In the west, food is mostly controlled by money (big corporations) & 'poor' farmers, which means that it's full of hormones (to make things bigger), full of preservatives (to make things last longer), full of pesticides & the like (to stop the bugs etc), full of fat/sugar (to make it taste better).

Here in Thailand, I can buy fruit & vegetables that actually taste like the ones my family grew on the farm when I was a kid (no additives at all).

What exactly does make you think that the food is healthier and "cleaner" in Thailand? More rigorous laws regarding chemical addictives and treatments? More rigorous laws regarding preparation, processing and conservation of food? More rigorous enforcement of said laws?

Outside of the elkangorito's world (in the real world) Thai food destined to export must be specially prepared and monitored to insure passing Western checks and standards of safeness and cleanliness (and still it sometimes doesn't). "Normal" Thai food as it's treated, prepared, processed and conserved domestically wouldn't pass.

For a start, go over to the Isaan, North or South forums and ask some of the guys (with some kind of minimal specific knowledge) living with farmers/raisers what's going on there...

No such thing as tasty fruit & vegetables in the west, unless you can afford the ones that are grown the 'good old fashioned way'.

Does this mean that you couldn't afford the food you liked at home and you came here for exactly the reason I talked about to you twice and you have denied twice: getting more bang for your (admittedly few) bucks?

5] To me, a higher quality life is about going to work (as an engineer) & being able to do some engineering as opposed to being subject to the power playing politicians, whose main interest is to make your life as miserable as possible. Consequently, one spends most of the time dodging & weaving the attacks of these time wasting plebeians.

Although I do not do engineering here in Thailand, I go to work with a smile on my face & leave work the same way. Nobody wants to waste time playing games with me. Nothing is hurried. There is always time to be social with your fellow man.

The physical & mental strain placed on humans by ruthless companies (in the west) who try to squeeze every cent out of everybody, only increases the national health bill & ruins the quality of your life.

Are you really trying to say that in Thailand working hours are less and working conditions (rights, protections etc) are better than in the West?

Maybe if you told us what your fantastic job and its relaxed working hours (and rights, protections etc) are we could confront with the equivalent in the West (BTW my mother retired from teaching last year so in case you are a teacher I am very well prepared for the comparison...). We will keep wages out of the equation.

On the other hand, there are some people that equate happiness with material possession. Usually, it's all too late before they realise that this pursuit achieves nothing. What's that old saying? Ah yes, "You can't take it with you".

Living in Thailand having to work to be able to stay there, like you have to do, would be pure hel_l for me. And it has NOTHING to do with "material posessions" or wages...

"Thailand: workers' paradise."

[meemiathai]

..........which adds to the already alarming rates of Heart Disease, Diabetes, Cancer etc.<br /><br />Keep it simple, keep it slow, give up the western worrying.

Very funnily, "organized" and "efficent" countries have a much higher life expectancy than "relaxed" and "mai pen rai" Thailand...

Also very funnily people come to live in thailand to have their lives shortened. Is that called suicidal in English?

[otton]

Also very funnily people come to live in thailand to have their lives shortened. Is that called suicidal in English?

Most don't even realize that and they wouldn't care anyway. All they see and all they are interested in is: getting more bangs for their bucks

I think exactly the same but if I were very rich I would stay home and enjoy the same things (actually much better!) which I do in Thailand.

[qualtrough]

This thread is a classic. The OP posts a simple lament about waiting for a package and we now have insults flying back and forth on a topic that really has nothing to do with the original subject.

[Andrew Hicks]

This thread is a classic. The OP posts a simple lament about waiting for a package and we now have insults flying back and forth on a topic that really has nothing to do with the original subject.

Agreed with knobs on, but then if you've got so much time on your hands and you've got nothing better to do than sit around waiting for parcels, then trading a few insults keeps you busy.

[TexasRanger]

This thread is a classic. The OP posts a simple lament about waiting for a package and we now have insults flying back and forth on a topic that really has nothing to do with the original subject.

Agreed with knobs on, but then if you've got so much time on your hands and you've got nothing better to do than sit around waiting for parcels, then trading a few insults keeps you busy.

How much time I have on my hands is none of your concern boy. I don't trade insults, I was waiting for a very important document to arrive here and mentioned the problems I was having. Get back in your box!

[tijnebijn]

Everybody seems so happy

[dob310870]

Well it has turned up at last. The lying toad who delivered it said I wasn't in when he tried to deliver it which is crap because I have been sitting here waiting for it all day, haven't been anywhere. When I took them to task on it they said he knocked my door, I asked how he got in the building because he doesn't have a swipe card or the combination, no answer.

They offered to deliver it again tomorrow to which they got a negative answer so they brought it this afternoon. Just laziness on the part of the driver really and lying about it doesn't impress me much. It is a shame the system performs well in all the other countries only to be let down by the (sadly expected) Thai attitude to service.

I live in Liverpool and buy quite a few things on the internet. If it is a large package it comes via a courier. If it is a smaller package it comes via the post office. If it is too large to go through my letterbox I know for a fact that the postoffice don't even bother bringing it from the depot. Don't forget; it's NOT large enough to arrive by courier, just too large to go in the letterbox. I am always in when the postman/woman arrives but 99% of the time they post a card through the door saying that I was out. Now that is laziness!!! On top of that, the post people in our area are so lazy they use their own cars to do the deliveries. I have actually made official compliants but I think that I have only made it worse for myself.

[Canadianvisitor]

Ok, it's time to stop crying about it, be nice to someone,

have a cool drink, get off the guy's back,

there seems to be a bit of culture shock.

Getting mad at people is no way to live.

That is why this is such a marvelous culture.

[AndyCherry]

Forget UPS, DHL and FedEx. They only deliver to offices in Bangkok. Every other address goes in the post, EMS if you are lucky. I have used all over the past 10 years and have found out that the only company that delivers Nationally is TNT. I have even had UPS packages delivered by TNT. I live outside of Kanchanaburi. About 3 hours drive from Bangkok.

A few years ago DHL delivered my 2nd passport, with onward visa for Libya, 12 hours after my flight departed.

[TexasRanger]

Getting mad at people is no way to live.

That is why this is such a marvelous culture.

???????????????

[brahmburgers]

hundreds of land owners within 2 Km of downtown Chiang Rai still don't have title deeds (chanod).

The municipal Land Department keeps saying "don't worry, you'll all get chanod - we're working on it."

It's been over a decade and nothing's changed, though there are still dozens of seemingly-diligent workers in the cavernous Land Dept. HQ (Thai gov't can never lay-off or fire a gov't worker). I think our Land Dept is one of the many depositories of Inactive Posts around Thailand.

I've always known that the definition of a gov't worker is someone who does as little as possible in order to get their paycheck every month - but in Thailand they've taken such skills of ineptitude to ever higher levels.

[Tod Daniels]

Some very interesting yet off-topic rants about the virtues of the incredibly healthy food available here (NOT!!), added to the usual grandstanding about the plight of the uneducated, poor, oppressed thai people from the "we-b-thai" faction.

In other somewhat more on topic news;

I had to go to the main Post Office here in Bangkok last week to get a package. After watching them dump bags of letters on the floor, use snow shovels to scoop them into trash barrels and then trundle them off to some undisclosed location for sorting, I am amazed ANY letters or packages get delivered here in the glorious "Land 'O Thais".

When I went to the counter to pick up my box, I was told in maimed mangled english there was an import fee. I knew already books were exempt from import fees if they are for education. I stated this in coherent thai to the guy behind the counter and he immediately lost the smile worn by most natives in this country. I have found once they don't have the language barrier to hide behind they lose a LOT of their holier than thou attitude. I then asked if he wanted a problem I could talk to his superior, which made him relent and give me my box of books. He then tried to hit up the Japanese girl behind me in line for a 'fee' as well. Seeing as I was still standing about a foot away checking my book order, I intervened on her behalf and she got her box sans 'customs fee', which I am sure was just like the extortion attempt he tried on me.

My advice to anyone wanting to live here with these ever smiling mindless sock puppets with anything resembling a trouble free existence is;

Learn to speak more than two-word-thai, speak direct, don't use polite, softening or hypothetical particles at the end of sentences, try to ask questions that make the person you're speaking to have to give an answer, and always use direct eye contact. They are much more accommodating, albeit still surly and with the undercurrent of resentment so prevalent here towards foreigners.

As to the ever present "We-B-Thai" faction who extol the culture and the endless virtues of this country like its “Paradise Lost”; take off your rose colored glasses, see this place for what it really is, and these people for who they really are.

[Bjorn]

There is no efficiency here and they just don't care if you get your mail a week too late! Well, that how they do business here in general, no wonder they stay relatively poor. I fully agree, it's very annoyingm especially when you are waiting for some important mail.

Nevertheless, I decided to stay in Thailand. There are pros and cons in every country.

Apart from that, when the thais is performing lousy business, the will not earn a lot. This will in turn keep prices low which should suit all foreigners living here. (I don't believe if anyone saying that they want the thais to get "rich" as people in the western world. This would drive the price level up dramatically)

[allenberg]

Why is everything so fast where ever it is you come from??? Why don't you just relax...the package will get to you when it gets to you and not a moment sooner. Nothing you do will make it arrive a minute faster...no matter how many times you check the little packages whereabouts on the internet.

The only things that really need to move fast are police, fire-trucks, and ambulances as far as I'm concerned

WELL PUT.....

[siamamerican]

They may live longer with all that efficiency...but are they happier???

Would you be happier living the life of a dirt poor Thai farmer or factory worker (these two socio-economic classes make up the VAST MAJORITY of the Thai population, they are the average Thai) or the average Westerner?

I know which one I and the average Thai would choose... Not sure about you.

Why are record numbers of people fleeing these organized and efficient societies for the many "slow" counties around the world.

To try to get more bang for their buck, can't you see it?

Those "slow" countries are much less developed and much less "wealthy" countries (guess why) and those "fleeing" folks (mostly males, we might add...) are going to take advantage of that. What most of them don't know is that they are also going to have to make a lot of compromises.

I think quality of your years on mother earth are more important than the quantity.

You mean dirt poor Thai farmers' families and dirt poor Thai factory workers' families have a better quality of life (besides shorter) than the middle and working classes back at home?

Get a clue about Thailand and Thai society and then come back here posting about these arguments...

You obviously came here for money reasons. I didn't. I came here to achieve a higher quality, which I now have...IN ABUNDANCE!!

You brought your heart attacks with you.

I frankly couldn't give a toss if it took a month to get a package from Woop Woop to Thailand. I've now got the time & the energy to enjoy myself while I'm waiting. Time & energy was something I was a bit short on in western slavery, plus those whip marks were embarrassing in public.

One more thing...I'm far from being monetarily rich.

Are you not saying the same thing as the person you're disagreeing with?

How did you achieve this higher quality of life in LOS?

Could you have accomplished this in your home country with the money you currently have accumulated?

Life in Thailand , in many cases, is much more enjoyable for a financially challenged farang than it would be living paycheck to paycheck back home. It might not end well, but it can be fun until the shit hits the fan.

[siamamerican]

This thread is a classic. The OP posts a simple lament about waiting for a package and we now have insults flying back and forth on a topic that really has nothing to do with the original subject.

Agreed with knobs on, but then if you've got so much time on your hands and you've got nothing better to do than sit around waiting for parcels, then trading a few insults keeps you busy.

And Elkangorito is sure making it easy. A nice man, but a very young 46 year old.