Friends Visiting For First Time From Overseas

[PeaceBlondie]

Okay, let's stop the insulting statements on all sides.

[chanchao]

I had an old Army buddy visit me about two years ago. I set him up at the Pinnacle since it was close to our condo. Needless to say, he was like a cub bear with his first hardon. And then I brought him over to my place for dinner and he met my partner, who is a Thai ladyboy. The poor bastard didn't know whether to shit or go blind.

Well, that IS pushing it a little bit.. Many newbie farangs don't handle ladyboys very well; treating them as every other person is really something that comes with more time in Thailand. And then especially as a shock surprise.. You're not joking right?

[parmi]

I find that when old friends or family come to visit .they all seem to have this idea that thailand is all about girlie bars and hookers,and that i must be a total sex freak to even stay here,but i am happy to see that after a few days in bkk then a trip to either the north-east or the southern islands,they start to see that thailand has so much more than just bars and hookers,(sorry girls)the word hooker is an awfull word when desribing the girls in the entertainment field,but it is the word most used by americans or brits,anyway, after only a few days of beach and boat trips,their views start to change and that is when the comment comes,MAYBE I WILL COME AND STAY HERE, please god NO, go home and leave me alone until next year.Thailand is where we that have been here for a while,in my case 8 yrs, have made new friends and have new ways of living to fit in with the thai way,and i just dont want to go back 8 yrs and start over with newbies,

The brit government is now starting to make thai girls(wives) of brit citizens take coarses to make sure they speak english and god knows what else they have to learn to get uk visas.

I think that anyone wanting or planning to become an expat in thailand from uk usa or anywhere else for that matter, take coarses in how to respect and behave in this or any other country.

So if you want to go on holiday and get s--t face drunk,act like a total animal and treat people like you do at home.PLEASE go to tenerife or costa del brit.NOT THAILAND. Thanks for listening to my rant,but i just want to be left alone and not be a tour guide twice a yr,

[gosompoi]

Save your self the grief, send all visitors to Phuket or Koh Samui and take the hotel room next theirs.

[jberwick]

I don't "live" in Thailand (I don't live anywhere really, just travel around constantly), but I spend a lot of time in Thailand as it is my favorite country. My dad, who has lived his whole life in Canada (much of it in the Yukon and other like places) decided that he wanted to come visit me while I was in Thailand last year.

He has barely travelled anywhere, and has only lived in sparsely populated, remote areas of Canada where the average temp is -30c for most of the year. He has never visited a city larger than Vancouver (2 million people) and found that to be hard to handle. When he goes shopping in his remote part of the world, he goes to the shopping mall at 9:30am on Sunday morning (30 minutes before it opens) because he hates the "crowds".

SO, you can imagine the shenanigans when he visited Bangkok!!!!!!!!! I've never seen someone in a constant state of shock for days on end!

A family of 5, with an infant being carried on the shoulders of the mom, passed us on their scooter on the highway while we were in a taxi. My dad was speechless.

We later traversed some side streets in Bangkok, where there appeared to be a lot of small businesses with seamstresses, all in cramped quarters. My dad shouted out, "sweat shop! someone should do something about this!"... lol... typical Canadian. I'm sure he wants the government to enact all sorts of rules and regulations, of which the end result will be that all those businesses will have to be shut down due to inadherence to the regulations!

Anyway.. he left about a week earlier than scheduled and I thought for sure he had a terrible time... but about a month later he told me that the trip was fascinating and he really wants to go back again some time. Go figure!

But, other than my dad, everyone of my friends who has visited has loved Thailand from the get-go... but they are all world-travellers, so the usual culture shock was easy for them.

Cheers

[bkkbill]

Personally I love when people come to visit, and to see things through their eyes. It's sometimes challenging, but always rewarding.

Thanks for your post. Normally after reading about one page of pessimism, negativity, doom and gloom it's time to move on.

I also enjoy having guests visiting. We have a good time and end up seeing some of the interesting things Thailand has to offer.

[chicowoodduck]

Personally I love when people come to visit, and to see things through their eyes. It's sometimes challenging, but always rewarding.

Thanks for your post. Normally after reading about one page of pessimism, negativity, doom and gloom it's time to move on.

I also enjoy having guests visiting. We have a good time and end up seeing some of the interesting things Thailand has to offer.

Nice attitude, never go wrong with that outlook on life.....good for you!

[Martin]

Long, long, long ago, I had a schoolmaster who , every day, set as homework some old-fashioned 'Preparation'.

That is, he set us to read something that would prepare us for what he was going to discuss with us in his lesson the next day.

If he discovered that we hadn't done our Preparation, he sent us out of the class to do it in the Library (which meant missing one of his memorable lessons) and gave us a Saturday Morning Attendance punishment. (That was a particularly hard punishment, as it meant confessing at home that we had got into trouble at school, so our parents piled it on, too.)

I operate on his principle with our potential visitors.

Tell them what they should 'read' to prepare. (Mostly its pix and video on the Net, nowadays---or reading threads on TV, like this one, which I'll be adding to the list!!!).

Those who respond positively, do their Prep, come, and are good to show around. Win.

Those who respond negatively, don't come. Win.

I am all for 'getting the best of both worlds', and 'win-win' arrangements.

[Eureka]

Long, long, long ago, I had a schoolmaster who , every day, set as homework some old-fashioned 'Preparation'.

That is, he set us to read something that would prepare us for what he was going to discuss with us in his lesson the next day.

If he discovered that we hadn't done our Preparation, he sent us out of the class to do it in the Library (which meant missing one of his memorable lessons) and gave us a Saturday Morning Attendance punishment. (That was a particularly hard punishment, as it meant confessing at home that we had got into trouble at school, so our parents piled it on, too.)

I operate on his principle with our potential visitors.

Tell them what they should 'read' to prepare. (Mostly its pix and video on the Net, nowadays---or reading threads on TV, like this one, which I'll be adding to the list!!!).

Those who respond positively, do their Prep, come, and are good to show around. Win.

Those who respond negatively, don't come. Win.

I am all for 'getting the best of both worlds', and 'win-win' arrangements.

I didn't think that Johnnie Howard came up with the Aussie Values Test on his own.

Maybe someone could put together a "Traveller Abroad" test so passports can be refused to those who should not be allowed to travel.

[aussiecollin]

yes i love watching my 30 year old daughter walk around the garden with my 26 year old girl friend.

I LOVE this post....terrific!!! Oh dear, yes yes yes!!!

[Johpa]

yes i love watching my 30 year old daughter walk around the garden with my 26 year old girl friend.

I LOVE this post....terrific!!! Oh dear, yes yes yes!!!

Yea, I enjoy thinking about what the daughter really thinks about her father and what she actually tells the old codger to his face to further amuse him.