Musings On The Latest Suicide.

[Tarqin]

Thailand is a hard hard place.

There is the one who can not be mentioned there are the Hi So's and there is a sprawling mewling mass of poor people. Looking for their next meal looking for their kids next meal. No unemployment if you don't have a job. No free health care if your sick.

There is no Thai Buddhist spirituality here just a lot of Asians looking at us sucking down beers at a price per beer that would feed a family in Issan for a month.

So they created an illusion for us. Its a 3D 24/7 illusion you can live in but you need to keep in mind its just an illusion.

I knew the Kiwi builder whose girlfriend paid for the hit. All it was was he was using her bank account to channel funds and she saw 200,000 baht go in and just couldn't stand to see it go out again.

Don't get me wrong I like it here. I was born in a hard place, South Africa. And I spent my working life in hard places like Nigeria.

This place is still cheap, although that is changing, and I don't look too hard at the edges of the illusion, but I remember they are there.

But if your vulnerable. Maybe divorced, maybe estranged from your kids and that little cutie gives you that big big smile and you are a god for a week, month, year whatever time it takes for the money to run out or a better mark to come along. Well its dam_n hard once you've been a god to be mortal and broke again and contemplating heading back to say Scunthorpe with your tail between your legs.

Thats hard and some just don't make it.

Whoever you were I wish you the peace in death you never achieved in life.

Edited June 24, 2008 by Tarqin

[garro]

The big attraction to Pattaya, for a lot of people, is the prostitution and cheap, easily-available alcohol. This is not a winning combination, and so it comes as no surprise that so many people end up in a mess. Nothing to do with Thailand. I am sure that many of those who spend their time getting drunk while hanging around with prostitutes in other countries are likewise miserable. Haven't you seen 'Leaving Las Vegas'?

Edited June 24, 2008 by garro

[zzdocxx]

Interesting to see the difference in the threads about suicides and murders. The Thai lady at the University, nothing but sympathy. There have been a couple of others that started with several people ridiculing the deceased, but when relatives and friends logged in and posted, the tone changed. I suppose it made the victims more real. Then there are the threads where no one knows the victim, then it seems like anything goes.

[garro]

Interesting to see the difference in the threads about suicides and murders. The Thai lady at the University, nothing but sympathy. There have been a couple of others that started with several people ridiculing the deceased, but when relatives and friends logged in and posted, the tone changed. I suppose it made the victims more real. Then there are the threads where no one knows the victim, then it seems like anything goes.

Perhaps you should read the OP before replying. The OP made a general comment, and a general comment was returned. The case of the Thai lady was specific to a person and so is the other thread that is currently running in regards to the latest suicide in Pattaya.

If you wish to grandstand perhaps you should select a more relevant thread. Maybe the other thread which actually deals with a specific case.

[spike]

Thailand is a hard hard place.

There is no Thai Buddhist spirituality here just a lot of Asians looking at us sucking down beers at a price per beer that would feed a family in Issan for a month.

Eagle Bar Soi 7...Heineken 50b per....50b feeds a Issan family for a month?....sounds like a stretch....especially with the price of rice these daze.....50b doesn't even cover "bug sauce".

[0Mix1up]

I am sure that many of those who spend their time getting drunk while hanging around with prostitutes in other countries are likewise miserable.

Nothing wrong with drink and sex, just has to have a limit, which imo is the key.

With the OP, firstly you say "soft people" which I don't agree but then say "vulnerable" which I do.

I have a soft friend and all that happens to him is he spends more.

[zzdocxx]

Interesting to see the difference in the threads about suicides and murders. The Thai lady at the University, nothing but sympathy. There have been a couple of others that started with several people ridiculing the deceased, but when relatives and friends logged in and posted, the tone changed. I suppose it made the victims more real. Then there are the threads where no one knows the victim, then it seems like anything goes.

Perhaps you should read the OP before replying. The OP made a general comment, and a general comment was returned. The case of the Thai lady was specific to a person and so is the other thread that is currently running in regards to the latest suicide in Pattaya.

If you wish to grandstand perhaps you should select a more relevant thread. Maybe the other thread which actually deals with a specific case.

I don't really follow you but I am just going to leave it at that. No offense intended, just commenting on my observations.

Have a nice day!

[bratpack]

I agree to a certain degree.Pattaya Can BE A HARD PLACE,but that depends on the individual.Many of my frineds have got a brilliant life here and one or day would go crazy if they lived here full time.I dont see too many that are miserable,i think the reverse. Some have decided not to have a full timne relationship so that destroys the myth that when you come to live here you have to get a full time gf.

Me personaly have a brilliant life and the odd time i get ripped off with a check bin what the heck,does it matter.I am lucky thats the only rip off i have.

[Kerryd]

Pattaya can be a soft place for hard guys, and a hard place for soft guys.

Some can handle it, and obviously some can't.

It's kind of like working here. Some people can handle the heat, lack of freedoms, frequent rocket attacks and so on, some can't. Difference is here, people that can't handle it simply go home.

Maybe it's the result of having it too good in Pattaya. People can't handle the thought of going back to what they had before (i.e. the lifestyle they were leading before going to Pattaya). The thought that they could easily (in some cases) just start over again doesn't occur to them.

[saorsa]

I'm still quite new to being in Thailand and have not spent more than 3 weeks at a time there, but i didnt find it a particulary hard place. That said, I spent 9 months working onshore in Angola last year, now that IS a hard place, but I still had fun and some crazy nights out on the piss.

IMO, vulnerable people will get taken advantage of no matter where they are. Some people are just born victims.

Ref guys feeling like God for a month and then coming crashing back to reality, I'd rather be God for a month then never have that feeling.

[MisterFingers]

I reckon Pattaya is suffering from the "US Massacre" syndrome, where the media is serving as the full or partial motive for some or most these jumpers.

In the US, these guys who decide to conduct a shooting spree in a classroom or lecture hall for maximum body count know they're going to be remembered like Manson or Hitler.

So I think part of the motive in Pattaya is that these guys know that the women who they think drove them to this, are going to see a picture of their dead bodies in the paper, on TV, or the internet.

[kopite]

never really understood the "suicide squad" in pattaya. i feel sorry for them that they feel they have no option but to jump, overdose etc..

but if your feeling down, moneys running out, girlfriends left you then there always a point of escape. some choose to ignore that point and end their lives. some are manic depressives who are escaping something in their hometown.

that said, pattaya is a village. the scaremongering and rumours are repetitive and boring. dont open a bar, last high/low season was the worst, dangerous city etc..

yet i feel safer, happier and more secure in pattaya than i do in the uk. lower crime rate, better lifestyle, greater range of friends.

its all about the individual and how you handle day to day problems. started living here at the age of 23 and after the first 5 years, the best piece of advice i can give is choose your friends and lady carefully.

pattaya is by far the greatest city in the world. FACT!

BKK smells of rats piss!

[kopite]

and....

how many times do you walk into a bar in thailand and worry abar the group of lads in the corner. the pissed lad at the bar staring at yer, the group of womenless lads outside the club, waiting for a fight because they wont get laid.

pattaya is boss!

[Turnkey]

The problem with a lot of the farangs who come to thailand to stay for some time is:

1) they come here with insufficient funds, and/or,

2) have serious medical or mental problems, and/or

3) are unable to handle the bar scene due to emotional weakness etc. and are easily duped.

A well off healthy streeet smart person who enjoys and understands the nightlife and the scene here is not going to have any difficulties.

[tatt2dude]

The problem with a lot of the farangs who come to thailand to stay for some time is:

1) they come here with insufficient funds, and/or,

2) have serious medical or mental problems, and/or

3) are unable to handle the bar scene due to emotional weakness etc. and are easily duped.

A well off healthy streeet smart person who enjoys and understands the nightlife and the scene here is not going to have any difficulties.

Good post, however you left out number 4, which IMHO reads.... they are workshy, they were workshy at home and protected in a society that carries the burden, they come here with what they think is a "fortune" and are quickly seperated from it, or they trust their "fortune" to a young girl they dont know in order to circumnavigate the time consuming process of legally and without risk investing their money in the country.

I dont think you need to be hard to live here...it helps... but I do think you have to be honest, especially with yourself.

[Westerner]

never really understood the "suicide squad" in pattaya. i feel sorry for them that they feel they have no option but to jump, overdose etc..

but if your feeling down, moneys running out, girlfriends left you then there always a point of escape. some choose to ignore that point and end their lives. some are manic depressives who are escaping something in their hometown.

that said, pattaya is a village. the scaremongering and rumours are repetitive and boring. dont open a bar, last high/low season was the worst, dangerous city etc..

yet i feel safer, happier and more secure in pattaya than i do in the uk. lower crime rate, better lifestyle, greater range of friends.

its all about the individual and how you handle day to day problems. started living here at the age of 23 and after the first 5 years, the best piece of advice i can give is choose your friends and lady carefully.

pattaya is by far the greatest city in the world. FACT!

BKK smells of rats piss!

Source?

Edited July 15, 2008 by Westerner

[Shotime]

Do you really think a 35 year old Russian with ink all over him isn't tough enough for Pattaya? Actually, he isn't, but he's not jumping off a rooftop..

Pattaya smells of shit. The source. My nose.

[NotNew2You]

Pattaya can be a soft place for hard guys, and a hard place for soft guys.

Some can handle it, and obviously some can't.

That sums it up very nicely Kerry.

[britmaveric]

Least we forget - those that have problems in Pattaya, have problems wherever they go. I have a sneaking suspicion that if they didnt off themselves in Pattaya it would be somewhere else.

[suiging]

Least we forget - those that have problems in Pattaya, have problems wherever they go. I have a sneaking suspicion that if they didnt off themselves in Pattaya it would be somewhere else.

Point well made.

The quiet, middle aged family man with a wife, dog and two children does not live or spend several months of the year in downtown Patters. A good number of the world's "victims", sadly do.

You do not have to be "hard" to live in Pattaya, but being worldly wise and balanced enough to realise you are probably not a handsome man..........helps.

[Pattaya_Fox]

I think that this depressing subject has been well aired and it really shouldn`t be discussed here as the forum rules forbid discussion about this subject. Therefore I am closing it and hopefully we can move onto more cheerful subjects.

Closed