Where Has The Excitement Gone?

[garro]

I just got back from a six week holiday in Ireland.

My wife and I had a nice time and our new baby liked the attention of a whole new group of admirers.

It is good to be back in Thailand, but I noticed that the usual excitement at coming back in LOS wasn't there this time.

I previously would be like a child on Christmas eve, waiting on Santa, on my trip back

This time it was just a trip to get out of the way.

I suppose after living here for a few years this is to be expected.

What about you guys?

Do you still get excited returning to Thailand?

[bingobongo]

I just got back from a six week holiday in Ireland.

My wife and I had a nice time and our new baby liked the attention of a whole new group of admirers.

It is good to be back in Thailand, but I noticed that the usual excitement at coming back in LOS wasn't there this time.

I previously would be like a child on Christmas eve, waiting on Santa, on my trip back

This time it was just a trip to get out of the way.

I suppose after living here for a few years this is to be expected.

What about you guys?

Do you still get excited returning to Thailand?

the average midlife crisis lasts 5 years and occurs between the ages of 35 and 45 and maybe yours is ending, welcome to adulthood

[garro]

I just got back from a six week holiday in Ireland.

My wife and I had a nice time and our new baby liked the attention of a whole new group of admirers.

It is good to be back in Thailand, but I noticed that the usual excitement at coming back in LOS wasn't there this time.

I previously would be like a child on Christmas eve, waiting on Santa, on my trip back

This time it was just a trip to get out of the way.

I suppose after living here for a few years this is to be expected.

What about you guys?

Do you still get excited returning to Thailand?

the average midlife crisis lasts 5 years and occurs between the ages of 35 and 45 and maybe yours is ending, welcome to adulthood

Well if that's what it is and your calculations are correct then I still have a couple of years to go, as I am only 38

[mikethevigoman]

I just got back from a six week holiday in Ireland.

My wife and I had a nice time and our new baby liked the attention of a whole new group of admirers.

It is good to be back in Thailand, but I noticed that the usual excitement at coming back in LOS wasn't there this time.

I previously would be like a child on Christmas eve, waiting on Santa, on my trip back

This time it was just a trip to get out of the way.

I suppose after living here for a few years this is to be expected.

What about you guys?

Do you still get excited returning to Thailand?

I think we all become complacent after a while, its not new anymore, we are not looking forward to the same things we were when we were single ,i remember coming over when i was single and as soon as i got off the plane i would feel 25 years younger and would almost run to the carousel,now its just another shitty day in paradise

[samran]

just means you 'live' here now. Thailand is home. I always feel miserable when I go home. Had the same feeling as you leaving OZ after 4 weeks down in OZ over Christmas. Holiday over...back to work!!

[Heng]

It's what you make of it.

[peter991]

You can pick them out so easily: the Tourist and the Expat. One is wide-eyed with wonder, the latter has the been-there-done-that cynical expression.

Peter

[TEFLMike]

Hmmmm 56 and so ecstatically wonderous as ever. Mid Life Crisis? What is that? Heheh

[Lilawadee]

What about you guys? Do you still get excited returning to Thailand?

YES!

[PeaceBlondie]

But garro, you took your wife and child with you, so you were only coming back to a home and a job. And as samran said, Thailand is home now. Home is not half as 'exciting' as some new, strange place.

[lazeeboy]

I just got back from a six week holiday in Ireland.

My wife and I had a nice time and our new baby liked the attention of a whole new group of admirers.

It is good to be back in Thailand, but I noticed that the usual excitement at coming back in LOS wasn't there this time.

I previously would be like a child on Christmas eve, waiting on Santa, on my trip back

This time it was just a trip to get out of the way.

I suppose after living here for a few years this is to be expected.

What about you guys?

Do you still get excited returning to Thailand?

hav'nt left thailand in 12 years ,going to the uk in march ,will let you know when i get back

[KhaoNiaw]

hav'nt left thailand in 12 years ,going to the uk in march ,will let you know when i get back

Went back for 10 days last year, first time in 13 years. In truth, I wasn't looking forward to going back to the UK but I actually quite enjoyed it.

I can confirm it was good to come back to Thailand though.

[meadish_sweetball]

I just got back from a six week holiday in Ireland.

My wife and I had a nice time and our new baby liked the attention of a whole new group of admirers.

It is good to be back in Thailand, but I noticed that the usual excitement at coming back in LOS wasn't there this time.

I previously would be like a child on Christmas eve, waiting on Santa, on my trip back

This time it was just a trip to get out of the way.

I suppose after living here for a few years this is to be expected.

What about you guys?

Do you still get excited returning to Thailand?

Good to see you back, garro.

I've been through the same stages as you describe, and agree with those above who say it is because you feel you are returning home to 'normal' as opposed to going to some new and exciting place.

[Scott]

I am always happy to return......until I get off the plane and see the grumpy immigration officer and stare into his silly little camera (hoping I don't appear on the nightly news), but once that's over my excitement returns....a little. Then I get caught in the usual traffic if I am being picked up by a friend, or the hassle of a taxi driver who really knows a much better place for me to go than home. By the time I get home, it's 'Oh sh*t, I am back.' But then the dog starts barking and wagging his tail and she's so happy to see me she almost pees on the floor and then I am happy, at least someone is glad!

[thaihome]

I am never excited at going home after a good vacation, why would it matter what country it is?

Having been on overseas assignments in several different countires for the past 10 years, to me, home is wherever we are together and it certainly helps that the company is paying the rent. To worry that just because your legal status is considered year to year, is no reason to not think where you live is home.

Even if [when] I was to retire to Thailand and have to pay my own way, I would still think of it as home as long we are living together.

TH

[PhilHarries]

I remember my first trip back to UK after living in Thailand a year. The UK was good mainly because I was just visiting but I found people hadn't really moved on and were still concerned with the same trifles as when I left. Next return was some ten years later and again the same feelings but even more so, nothing changes. Both trips my return to Thailand was not marked by the same exitement as my first. I put it down to a feeling of familiarity but once I was back in the routine I just used to remind myself "what would you prefer, the 07:05 Farnborough to Reading rail service or a quick drive up the road to Ao Udom?" No matter what your situation nor where you live in the world we are creatures of habit and routine.

I'm not in Thailand right now but even on my frequent return visits there's no exitement as such. I know where I am going, I know roughly who I'll meet, I know the sort of things we'll discuss and I know what I'll be doing. I still enjoy it but have long lost the wide eyed first timer feeling. In a way that is a good thing as I can see through the first layers ET refers to.

[PeaceBlondie]

Agreed, technically non-immigrant status is not permanent residence. But home is where the heart is, home is whatever place you've been living for a long time. Thailand is home even if you're not a Thai.

[Neeranam]

Garro, I don't know how long you've lived in Thailand but I see most people falling off their 'pink cloud' at between 1 and 3 years here. Many get some kind of weird feelings around 5 years, which is mostly a feeling of missing home and not knowing where home is. Personally I got pissed off with this country at 3 years, had a great experience at 5 then a few years later got a bit fed up again, had a trip home and got things into perspective.

As for mid life crises, I don't know.

Thing occur in 7 year intervals/cycles. I'm just starting 42-49 which is very different from the others.

[esprit]

Pattaya - oops sorry, mis-read the word "excitement"

[garro]

Garro, I don't know how long you've lived in Thailand but I see most people falling off their 'pink cloud' at between 1 and 3 years here. Many get some kind of weird feelings around 5 years, which is mostly a feeling of missing home and not knowing where home is. Personally I got pissed off with this country at 3 years, had a great experience at 5 then a few years later got a bit fed up again, had a trip home and got things into perspective.

As for mid life crises, I don't know.

Thing occur in 7 year intervals/cycles. I'm just starting 42-49 which is very different from the others.

Well I have lived here for six years now. Although I probably need to be careful as use of the word 'lived' may upset the same posters who object to the word 'home' by those of us without Thai citizenship. I have been here on non-immigrant 'O' visa so I am probably still considered a tourist. Anyway, I don't really feel the need to debate the use of words. I don't care what I'm called. Although I have never had a Thai object to my using the term.

[jazzbo]

Don't worry, Garro, about excitement or 7 year cycles: the REAL trouble comes when you have been a TV forum member for multiple years and you AVERAGE more than 5 posts per day...

[mellow1]

It might also have something to do with raising a child is such an unpredictable place and situation. Children tend to change some previous points of view.

[Lilawadee]

The world is my home.

Now how did that temptations song go..

[camerata]

Regardless of the legal implications, one feels what one feels.

I couldn't agree more. The curmudgeons can say what they like, but it's the experience that counts. Over a decade before I got PR I passed a point where I just knew Thailand was my home, that I would do whatever it took to stay and I'd do whatever it took to come back if they kicked me out. The fact that I wasn't legally secure didn't alter my feeling that Thailand was home - in fact it was a major factor in making me determined to stay, no matter what happens.

[Samuian]

Welcome to the grinding mill!

make a change, do different tasks, go for a walk, explore new things, do something interesting!

Get off the hook, the loop, name it!

if you think the skies fall on to your head, walk on your hands!

[GuestHouse]

I’m of the opinion that the earlier 'excitement' I felt on moving to Thailand and those early trips back to Thailand after home R&R has been replaced by 'understanding and a rather comforting familiarity'.

And I don't consider that a bad thing.

There's plenty of evidence that others move form 'excitement' to 'entrenched ignorance' - blissful as that may seem, it’s not a state of existence I regard as desirable.

[camerata]

What about you guys?

Do you still get excited returning to Thailand?

I think the excitement on returning disappeared after I got my first 9-5 job here. Prior to that I felt like a tourist or a world traveller and it was always exciting arriving at Don Muang. My first 9-5 job took a lot of the excitement out of hitting the bars too. I mean, who wants to hit the bars at 7pm and be in bed by 10pm? Ugh!

[meemiathai]

What about you guys?

Do you still get excited returning to Thailand?

I think the excitement on returning disappeared after I got my first 9-5 job here. Prior to that I felt like a tourist or a world traveller and it was always exciting arriving at Don Muang. My first 9-5 job took a lot of the excitement out of hitting the bars too. I mean, who wants to hit the bars at 7pm and be in bed by 10pm? Ugh!

I have never lived here. I have only been here on holiday for about 10 times. It was exciting at first. But now it is the other way round. I feel very relaxed and am much calmer than I am here in HK when I am there.

Edited January 15, 2008 by meemiathai

[garro]

Regardless of the legal implications, one feels what one feels.

I couldn't agree more. The curmudgeons can say what they like, but it's the experience that counts. Over a decade before I got PR I passed a point where I just knew Thailand was my home, that I would do whatever it took to stay and I'd do whatever it took to come back if they kicked me out. The fact that I wasn't legally secure didn't alter my feeling that Thailand was home - in fact it was a major factor in making me determined to stay, no matter what happens.

Well said. I enjoyed the trip back home to my country of birth, but I don't plan on living anywhere other than Thailand. I have been allowed to stay here up until this time and a Thai national has never complained to me calling it 'home'. It is only the occasional westerner who seems to object to the use of this term.

[Ulysses G.]

I still get excited every time I'm on my way to Bangkok or Pattaya.

I'm too lazy to go hunting very far in Chiang Mai.