I Used To Be A Farang But Now I Am Kon Thai!

[canuckamuck]

Of all the expat types that show up here, the self loathing ones or farang hating ones are the most tedious. Sure western culture has a myriad of faults; anything humans get up to is racked with selfishness, arrogance, and greed. But to accept any other culture as being ‘the only way to go’ is just as dumb. I enjoy the good and avoid the bad. I make my own way and appreciate the sublime where it is found. I like street vendor food just fine, but I am not going to turn my nose up at a five star feast. Starbucks is stupid, of course, but I love a good cup of coffee in the morning (I brew my own). I buy my underwear in Canada and my shirts in Thailand. I wouldn’t trade my citizenship for anything, but I prefer to live here. My homeland’s political system is horribly flawed, but Thailand’s system is criminally insane.

I am happy for the subject of the OP: that he can live within his means in Thailand, and he perceives his quality of life to be higher than it would be back home. I could say the same about myself. But I am not about to hold Thailand up as some sort of Shangri la. Every time I pass a painted outline on the pavement or read half a page of a newspaper here, I know I live in a land full of pain.

The best culture is the one you create by resisting the mistakes of others.

Tuky said it well, why not live your own style?

[teacup]

What being described above in the OP, most are just common sense to me.

And nothing wrong with living on a shoestring budget, or trying to be thrifty,… broke or not.

Those who look down on him, are just too snooty to admit that they wish….....they too could live like that and be able tell all to public, ....instead of trying to be too pretentious of who you’re not.

[mikethevigoman]

I remembering commenting on this at the time. It paints an interesting picture of life as an illegal worker in Thailand and how the writer compensates for his low status by his belief that only he knows the real Thailand. He can rest assured that while he may not be on the top of the pile in Thailand he is certainly a cut above the ex-pats and tourists who are all sexually perverts who eat Marmite. Yes, this guy knows the real Thailand and knows that any Thai woman with a westerner is a prostitute. I certainly leaned a lot from him.

I take offence at your comment, i do not eat marmite !

[kmart]

What being described above in the OP, most are just common sense to me.

And nothing wrong with living on a shoestring budget, or trying to be thrifty,… broke or not.

Those who look down on him, are just too snooty to admit that they wish….....they too could live like that and be able tell all to public, ....instead of trying to be too pretentious of who you’re not.

The guy quoted in the OP was being the most pretentious person in this thread so far,...

I wouldn't wish to live like him at all. I have done when I was younger, but that was in Europe and out of necessity, not choice.

I certainly wouldn't want to brag about it. Unless as a warning to others, thanks.

[mikethevigoman]

QUOTE (tuky @ 2008-07-10 02:42:32)

QUOTE (tomuk76 @ 2008-07-10 09:36:22)

Please dont get me wrong! I try to live thai style as much as possible as of course im living in the kingdom of thailand so i should do.

Why?

Exactly, when was the last time you saw Thais in your home country (immigrants not their kids) abandoning Thai culture, food, customs etc, and taking up those of your home country? They don't, why should we? They set up their own restaurants, ghettos even, temples, festivals, community groups etc etc H*ll, they can even starft buying up land. We call it multiculturalism, mainstreaming....

I dont try to live like a thai, im much too generous and trusting,.im sure we could all learn to live like peasants if we needed to,it is easier to freewheel down hill then pedal up,. but for me i have a bit more ambition,to each his own,.

[Naam]

Please dont get me wrong! I try to live thai style as much as possible as of course im living in the kingdom of thailand so i should do. I eat thai food all day every day, and i have done for the last 5 years even in the UK where i lived before. I prefer thai life otherwise i wouldnt be here!!

please explain why living in Thailand makes it mandatory to live "thai style". i abhor (average) thai style life but accept if farangs prefer to live accordingly as that's their prerogative and none of my business. nevertheless i prefer to live in Thailand but living the style of MY personal choice.

[teacup]

The guy quoted in the OP was being the most pretentious person in this thread so far,...

How so?

[mikethevigoman]

Well for me it all seems a bit extreme written by a person that cant afford to live a "normal " ( for a westerner ) life style, personally when i see a westerner covered in buddhist tattoos and ornaments i feel there goes another one thats lost the plot,.i am not afraid to admit i like thai food and farang food on a 50/50 ratio,my wife after spending 2.5 years in the uk is the same, the thais in thailand eat thai food for 2 reasons cost and lack of experience with it,..that some of us have travelled and tried different things will give us preferances,nothing wrong with that,.but the idea of spending the rest of my life in burikoudon or wherever sends a shudder through me, 2 nights there is ample for me,.thailand seems to be a breeding ground for cheap charlies that originally come to thailand because its cheap then after a while can be heard at the roadside foodstands saying "peng "

Edited July 10, 2008 by mikethevigoman

[Naam]

What being described above in the OP, most are just common sense to me.

And nothing wrong with living on a shoestring budget, or trying to be thrifty,… broke or not.

Those who look down on him, are just too snooty to admit that they wish….....they too could live like that and be able tell all to public, ....instead of trying to be too pretentious of who you’re not.

of course there is nothing wrong with the life style of his choice. what's wrong is his high mighty hogwash and subtle derogatory remarks pointed at people who are not poor boys like him and prefer a different style of living

[mikethevigoman]

" If you have nothing for them to take then they cant take it off you" . You dont need to be broke, you just need to act it,.

[mikethevigoman]

What being described above in the OP, most are just common sense to me.

And nothing wrong with living on a shoestring budget, or trying to be thrifty,… broke or not.

Those who look down on him, are just too snooty to admit that they wish….....they too could live like that and be able tell all to public, ....instead of trying to be too pretentious of who you're not.

of course there is nothing wrong with the life style of his choice. what's wrong is his high mighty hogwash and subtle derogatory remarks pointed at people who are not poor boys like him and prefer a different style of living

Agreed, why is it that when some people adopt this lifestyle they seem to try to justify it by telling us what fools we are living our lives the waywe do and wasting money,.its all about your personal circumstances and goals, as such i havent given up yet and will leave the bus for buriram for a little longer,.

[Heng]

What being described above in the OP, most are just common sense to me.

And nothing wrong with living on a shoestring budget, or trying to be thrifty,… broke or not.

Those who look down on him, are just too snooty to admit that they wish….....they too could live like that and be able tell all to public, ....instead of trying to be too pretentious of who you're not.

of course there is nothing wrong with the life style of his choice. what's wrong is his high mighty hogwash and subtle derogatory remarks pointed at people who are not poor boys like him and prefer a different style of living

Agreed, why is it that when some people adopt this lifestyle they seem to try to justify it by telling us what fools we are living our lives the waywe do and wasting money,.its all about your personal circumstances and goals, as such i havent given up yet and will leave the bus for buriram for a little longer,.

It's all relative and one can hear those self rationalization type 'arguments' all across the spectrum.... how one "should only have" so much in terms of space in a home/property/etc., how cars over X price are a "stupid" purchase, how flying biz/first is a "waste" compared to coach, and so forth.

Some folks just can't help but look (and possibly covet) beyond what they have, instead of being satisfied with their own personal status.

[meom]

It's not about money, it's about ones ability to live, whatever, however, wherever!

Even your average Thai can afford to eat fresh fish, prawns and lots of other lovely stuff on a "Broke" budget.

...this is the only thing I would disagree with!

The OP's "broke" budget is 17000/month which is still more than an average Thai's budget I guess.

Not sure if the OP could survive on a Thai "broke" budget though which I guess would be in the range of 3000-4000 a month.

Edited July 10, 2008 by meom

[padfoot]

I don't live in Thailand, but I plan on making a six month practice run starting in September. I say more power to the guy. At the same time I don't believe I could live that way. I also believe that how one lives, no matter where it is, evolves over time. I would not want to stay the same all my life. The Thais that I have met here all maintain some of their culture, to varying degrees. Including those who are naturalized citizens. There is a huge Thai Buddhist temple here, it hosts many functions and all the monks are from Thailand.

[teacup]

Funny of how…

Some see the rest of fingers that are not pointing at them, but

For some….they seem to only see the one pointing at them.

[samuibeachcomber]

It's not about money, it's about ones ability to live, whatever, however, wherever!

Even your average Thai can afford to eat fresh fish, prawns and lots of other lovely stuff on a "Broke" budget.

...this is the only thing I would disagree with!

The OP's "broke" budget is 17000/month which is still more than an average Thai's budget I guess.

Not sure if the OP could survive on a Thai "broke" budget though which I guess would be in the range of 3000-4000 a month.

not much fun living off a budget like that..........would become depressing

[barky]

QUOTE (tuky @ 2008-07-10 02:42:32)

QUOTE (tomuk76 @ 2008-07-10 09:36:22)

Please dont get me wrong! I try to live thai style as much as possible as of course im living in the kingdom of thailand so i should do.

Why?

Exactly, when was the last time you saw Thais in your home country (immigrants not their kids) abandoning Thai culture, food, customs etc, and taking up those of your home country? They don't, why should we? They set up their own restaurants, ghettos even, temples, festivals, community groups etc etc H*ll, they can even starft buying up land. We call it multiculturalism, mainstreaming....

I'm with you guys.

Oh and RukjungTorlae, your're probably on of those xenophobe types

[tuky]

Funny of how…

Some see the rest of fingers that are not pointing at them, but

For some….they seem to only see the one pointing at them.

Sorry teacup, I am not quite sure what you are trying to say.

[teacup]

That will be your homework for today then.

Cuz I’m logging off, it’s almost midnight here, got to do the inspection tomorrow - don’t want to fall off the roof.

[garro]

I remembering commenting on this at the time. It paints an interesting picture of life as an illegal worker in Thailand and how the writer compensates for his low status by his belief that only he knows the real Thailand. He can rest assured that while he may not be on the top of the pile in Thailand he is certainly a cut above the ex-pats and tourists who are all sexually perverts who eat Marmite. Yes, this guy knows the real Thailand and knows that any Thai woman with a westerner is a prostitute. I certainly leaned a lot from him.

I take offence at your comment, i do not eat marmite !

Sorry, in your case vegimite.

[Samuian]

The guy quoted in the OP was being the most pretentious person in this thread so far,...

I wouldn't wish to live like him at all. I have done when I was younger, but that was in Europe and out of necessity, not choice.

Well, why "pretentious"?

Doesn't "not having a choice" make it a "necessity" - to live on what-and however is manageable?

How about Diogenes, a beggar/philosopher who made his home in the streets of Athens, he chose to live in a tub, made a virtue of extreme poverty. He taught contempt for human achievements; his was a relentless campaign to debunk social values and institutions.

His attitude was grounded in a great disdain for what he perceived as the folly, pretense, vanity, social climbing, self-deception, and artificiality of much human conduct.

Hasn't our today's society "achieved" exactly this ?

Has mankind really evolved this "far", that poverty or not being wealthy, not partaking in the rat race of senseless consumerism, is equaled with being "less worthy", stupid, lost, not having reached the "goal"?

I am afraid that the so much heralded "security" western cultural descendants are preaching, or trying much of their lives to establish, to claim and cling to is highly fictitious!

In some context Starbucks has been mentioned and that the OP has "a problem" with "Institutions" like this - well, even I would have established a security blanket for the next ten lives... well, I wouldn't buy my drinking water in a pharmacy at mega inflated prices!

Someone would have to replace my brain with a handful of pebbles first!

Not to mention that they, these "Brands" are trying to "give" their customers an image their customers obviously either have not time or no self esteem to develop themselves!

Edited July 10, 2008 by Samuian

[garro]

I would say that I live very simply and cheaply in Thailand. I eat Thai food most of the time and watch cheap Thai cable. I don't do this to be more like the Thais but because this is my budget. I don't think eating more expensive food would make me any less part of the Thai experience. I don't believe squatting when I shit makes me any more Thai.

I found the OPs post to be just too idealistic and removed from reality. I find that posts that deal in cliches and stereo-types to be the less interesting ones on ThaiVisa.

[Groongthep]

QUOTE (tuky @ 2008-07-10 02:42:32)

QUOTE (tomuk76 @ 2008-07-10 09:36:22)

Please dont get me wrong! I try to live thai style as much as possible as of course im living in the kingdom of thailand so i should do.

Why?

Exactly, when was the last time you saw Thais in your home country (immigrants not their kids) abandoning Thai culture, food, customs etc, and taking up those of your home country? They don't, why should we? They set up their own restaurants, ghettos even, temples, festivals, community groups etc etc H*ll, they can even starft buying up land. We call it multiculturalism, mainstreaming....

I don't know where you are from but most Thais in my hometown of Seattle have done a very good job of fitting into the mainstream, even the immigrants. I don't have exact census figures but I think it is a conservative estimate that the Thai community there is easily in the thousands. I'm certainly not saying that they have abandoned their culture but to say they have set up their own "ghettos" is absurd. hel_l, most of them make more more than I do and I make an above average salary. Practically every single thai restaurant in the area (and there are lots of them) are businesses set up to cater to farang tastes and are not intended to be extensions of Thai culture but simply businesses intended to make money. (Hence, lousy, bland "thai" food, but often big money makers) You seldom if ever see thais eating at these establishments. There are two Thai Wats, Wat Atammayatarama which is a forest monastery in Woodinville and Wat Washington Buddhavanaram Seattle Thai Wat which is a more mainstream temple but both welcome and have numerous local non Thai members. The law allows any foreigner who is in the country legally to buy land, so singling out Thais for "buying up land" is unfair. All in all, I thinks Thais in the US for the most part have done a much better job of adapting to the west than most Americans have adapted to Thailand. Notice I said "for the most part" there are certainly some exceptions on both sides.

[Tod Daniels]

Yep, the O/P certainly has something to brag about. I for one don't want to live "like a thai", EVER..

His budget (the whopping equivalent of about 500US a month) wouldn't buy him a cardboard box under a bridge in US so I'm glad he's living large here. Unless I am mistaken, that amount is at least twice what the 'average thai' makes in working in a factory or some other mindless job. So his grandiose plan of living live 'like' the native inhabitants in this country goes out the window.

I have lived in several pissant developing third world countries (this one being no exception). I lived in, co-existed with, and tolerated the natives' idiosyncratic behavior as well as any alleged oxymoronic cultural behavior simply because I was in their country. I can say without a doubt; not once was I tempted to 'live like the natives', morph or mutate into some pseudo-native or join any Borg-like 'herd mentality' collective of theirs.

Sadly, I think he is another mindless sock puppet 'wanna-b-thai' foreigner, wearing a color coordinated shirt with a matching bracelet (probably with his name tattooed in thai on his forearm) extolling the virtues and embracing the alleged culture of the ever smiling yet diminutive inhabitants which populate the glorious "Land 'O Thais".

Although it's a tough diagnosis with a grim prognosis; I second the opinion that he is most definitely ปัญญาอ่อน possibly with a dose of โง่ thrown in. I suggest immediate intensive in-patient treatment of Electroconvulsive therapy coupled with high doses of thorazine. I would recommend an intervention by his friends, IF he had any..

[PeaceBlondie]

The rant quoted in the OP is a mixture of several things. You want to live illegally in Thailand? Fine. You are not a whoremonger? Fine,. You can live on Thai food? Fine. You take some perverse pleasure out of having endless cable channels? Fine. Good for you, bless you, go in peace.

But boycotting Starbucks does not make either of us a saint (I just do not drink coffee). Being able to eat Thai food, likewise. KFC is chicken, without the feet. Oh, and you can trust Thais. You simply can never be a Thai. Check your passport.

[TheDon]

I used to be human, but now im a BEAST

[kmart]

^^Feel the love. Gave me a laugh anyway, as opposed to mickey mouse philosophical crap.

[garro]

I think the guy quoted also needs to realise that if he ever applies for Thai citizenship that none of the below can be used to support his application;

- his ability to live on 17,000 THB a month

- his distrust of bread and marmite and those who eat it

- his distrust of Starbucks

- his ability to waddle in a stream and steal fish

- his distrust of Thai women

- his distrust of Thai men and women who try and 'syphon' his 17,000THB

- his ability to afford prawn and lemon grass soup every day

Not only will none of the above support his application, but many will work against it.

[Neeranam]

Good luck to the bloke whom the OP quoted and the subsequent confirmations, but I would rather eat KFC than some of the mystery picks you find at a lot of street vendors.

You can't know much about KFC !

[poshthai]

Simple equatien for me.I left the uk on half the income i earned there and base that on how i live here.I adore thai food too so my budget gets enhanced some,because farang food is expensive by uk standards with many things.Also my stomach cannot take hardly any western food now.Before anyone makes a bad comment,i meant income as earnings,not savings,investments,etc etc,but its good for me to use this as a way of being humble and not get carried away with my spending potential.Also in los there could be some unexpected cost around the corner so one needs to take this into consideration.