Why Is It So Dirty Everywhere In Thailand?

[Soutpeel]

hehe. i just might do that. .

btw, I realized just now i am mistaken. Thailand is clean, my wife is african and i love abba.

Africa …..ever been to Africa???? Now that's dirty, I have worked in many countries in Africa and currently in Egypt which is also very dirty, garbage tipped on the roadsides subsequently blows everywhere makes Thailand look like garden of Eden .

Becareful how you generalise about Africa, there are places/countries in Africa that do make Thailand look like the local rubbish dump, If you are taking about Nigeria etc I will agree, but you are comparing a whole continent to one country....not exactly comparing apples with apples are we ??

My input, I have worked in Indonesia, in areas which where suppose to be some real sh*t holes, and in reality found them to be a d*mnsight cleaner than your average Bangkok Soi, people cleaned up after themselves and didnt dump and leave sh*t everywhere as is the case in many places in Thailand

[chrgrims]

glad to see the thread improving.

and i hope u can appreciate i dont really see a half full glass when my wife is called a thai look alike.

I have been to tanzania many times, a very dirty place. Also visited singapore, indonesia and malaysia. I agree with most on the comments about these things. My point was to focus on culture-specific factors in thailand that could be relevant. Maybe they like to have spiders in the bathroom for some reason, i dont know. Of course many live in open houses, and the border inside/outside is blurred. So cleaning inside seems somewhat strange for this reason maybe. But they do like to keep the floors very clean.

[bikerman]

hehe. i just might do that. .

btw, I realized just now i am mistaken. Thailand is clean, my wife is african and i love abba.

Africa …..ever been to Africa???? Now that's dirty, I have worked in many countries in Africa and currently in Egypt which is also very dirty, garbage tipped on the roadsides subsequently blows everywhere makes Thailand look like garden of Eden .

Becareful how you generalise about Africa, there are places/countries in Africa that do make Thailand look like the local rubbish dump, If you are taking about Nigeria etc I will agree, but you are comparing a whole continent to one country....not exactly comparing apples with apples are we ??

My input, I have worked in Indonesia, in areas which where suppose to be some real sh*t holes, and in reality found them to be a d*mnsight cleaner than your average Bangkok Soi, people cleaned up after themselves and didnt dump and leave sh*t everywhere as is the case in many places in Thailand

Sudan, Nigeria, Tanzania, Libya, Senegal, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Egypt, etc think that qualifies as been in African countries and to give fair judgment.

Many holiday resorts look very beautiful though out Africa but go outside and streets littered with rubbish, plastic bottles soda cans never picked up for recycling as many people do in LOS I’ve even seen dead animals rotting on the streets .

In Thailand early morning many street cleaners out brush in hand and wheelie bin sweeping the roads which I have never seen on the Dark Continent. Thats my input

[Soutpeel]

Sudan, Nigeria, Tanzania, Libya, Senegal, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Egypt, etc think that qualifies as been in African countries and to give fair judgment.

All the real popular holiday spots in Africa then...

[bikerman]

Sudan, Nigeria, Tanzania, Libya, Senegal, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Egypt, etc think that qualifies as been in African countries and to give fair judgment.

All the real popular holiday spots in Africa then...

No all the real money spots

[oldsparrow]

glad to see the thread improving. and i hope u can appreciate i dont really see a half full glass when my wife is called a thai look alike. I have been to tanzania many times, a very dirty place. Also visited singapore, indonesia and malaysia. I agree with most on the comments about these things. My point was to focus on culture-specific factors in thailand that could be relevant. Maybe they like to have spiders in the bathroom for some reason, i dont know. Of course many live in open houses, and the border inside/outside is blurred. So cleaning inside seems somewhat strange for this reason maybe. But they do like to keep the floors very clean.

I am a Thai and there is nothing special about Thai look at all.

I post that for just in case you forget that you live with a Thai and a Thai living with you can be the best person who give you the answer what's wrong with her country.

It's your personal right to ask this question to your FELLOW FOREIGNERS behind the back of MY FELLOW COUNTRY PEOPLE who live with you. The answer can be easy to understand or satisfy your FOREIGN mentality that have very little to do with the NATIVE mentality in the province you live.

[chrgrims]

my wife is reading this thread also. stop making judgments when u dont have knowledge about what you are saying. its possible to both ask locals and farangs.

[Soutpeel]

Sudan, Nigeria, Tanzania, Libya, Senegal, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Egypt, etc think that qualifies as been in African countries and to give fair judgment.

All the real popular holiday spots in Africa then...

No all the real money spots

You missed out Angola....O&G boy ??

Done my time in plenty of sh*t holes like....make my real money a lot closer to home now

[oldsparrow]

What does she say for your curiosity on the dirty everywhere in TL?

[chrgrims]

we have talked mainly about the irony and sarcasm in the thread so far. Of course its hard for her to understand things like that. and we continually talk about things like hygiene, cleaning, hot water etc. she does think the knowledge of the usefulness of hot water is not well enough known. But i will let her answer more herself when she comes home from work.

[oldsparrow]

I think it's also about introduction of basic but effective device. Now in the situation of 2009 flu we have alcohol creme in some department store rest room, hope it will not disappear. The MOS burger has alcohol sprey for hands, other places should follow suit.

It's positive attitude that the highway petrol station advertise "Clean restroom" (although the quality depends). The the PTT bought the JET station many people worry that the JET's best rest room would drop to the poor quality of the PTT.

In the late 80s and early 90s there had been "Ta Viset", the magic eyes, anti literring campaign on TV. It was also the introduction of big black litter bag that many still call "Tung Ta Viset", Ta Viset Bag.

This kind of TV ad should be back along with anti HIV ad on TV. Cheaper and immidiate measure should be introduction of dust bin. Unfortunately after the bombs on 2008 new year night, a lot of dust bins disappeared from the public places.

Last month I saw group of teen picking rubbish in Siam Square. They should be glorified.

[bikerman]

Sudan, Nigeria, Tanzania, Libya, Senegal, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Egypt, etc think that qualifies as been in African countries and to give fair judgment.

All the real popular holiday spots in Africa then...

No all the real money spots

You missed out Angola....O&G boy ??

Done my time in plenty of sh*t holes like....make my real money a lot closer to home now

No only O&G On the bright side I sometime bring my Thai wife but make sure the accommodation is good. As you rightly say some place are s**t holes but the rewards finically suffice to allow us to have most of the nicer things in life….but that’s life and in my case nice quite life when I am home………love Issan. and not to dirty

[JR Texas]

why is it so dirty everywhere in Thailand? Some places they dont seem to clean ever, like many bathrooms. Whats up with this? Is the reason anything more than lack of knowledge about bacteria etc?

Perhaps it's something to do with poverty? Poor areas in most places in the world tend to be "dirty". Singapore was dirty in the old days until they became more affluent. Come to think of it, in pre-industrial Europe and the USA, when poverty was widespread, hygiene and cleanliness was not exactly top priority.

FINALLY........somebody came up with an intelligent answer to the OPs legitimate question. I think there is likely a strong correlation between poverty and cleanliness worldwide.

Thailand is a developing country.......lots of poverty here. It is not Singapore.........certainly not the USA which is extremely clean compared to Thailand. But the USA is far richer than Thailand.

One can also talk about "dirty air." It is horrendous in places like Bangkok and Chiang Mai......among other places in Thailand. Water.......forget about it.......scary.

[submaniac]

I think there is alot of overgeneralizing about the cleanliness of Thailand as a whole. And when I say that, I think people are forgetting a few things, and are speaking of Bangkok in particular and not taking account of the other parts of Thailand. One cannot say that Phuket is dirty. Similarly, Pattaya is a fairly clean place. Back in the 1990's I would never want to swim in the water there. But now they got signs saying "keep the beach clean for the king", and there really isn't alot of throwing garbage on the streets around there.

Bangkok is a major city, that is extremely crowded. So yes, some parts of it are going to be dirty. But of course there are similar areas of downtown Los Angeles, New York, or Compton that are just as dirty as the streets of Thailand. But even in Bangkok, there are alot of 'clean' areas. For example one cannot say that Paragon is dirty. Neither can I say that the skytrain/bts is dirty. I can say Thailand's trains are cleaner than the ones in Los Angeles. And anyone who has been in Thailand in the 1990's and before knows how bad it used to be. Give it time, and it will get better.

[sk1max]

why is it so dirty everywhere in Thailand? Some places they dont seem to clean ever, like many bathrooms. Whats up with this? Is the reason anything more than lack of knowledge about bacteria etc?

cheers,

Chr

You look pretty healthy & free from bacteria. What's up with that?

[longstebe]

Didn't we have this topic a few weeks back?

Keep placing your litter in the trash and hopefully people will follow suit.

[Soutpeel]

FINALLY........somebody came up with an intelligent answer to the OPs legitimate question. I think there is likely a strong correlation between poverty and cleanliness worldwide.

Thailand is a developing country.......lots of poverty here. It is not Singapore.........certainly not the USA which is extremely clean compared to Thailand. But the USA is far richer than Thailand.

One can also talk about "dirty air." It is horrendous in places like Bangkok and Chiang Mai......among other places in Thailand. Water.......forget about it.......scary.

Completely disagree, been to some of the poorest areas of Indonesia and they are far cleaner that the vast majority of places in BKK/Pattaya, and guess what ?? they dont even have the power cables hanging up in the air for the most part, per the whole of Thailand, and believe Indo on the whole is a lot poorer than Thailand....

submaniac....<deleted> with the photo of that pr*ck.???

[fred2007]

FINALLY........somebody came up with an intelligent answer to the OPs legitimate question. I think there is likely a strong correlation between poverty and cleanliness worldwide.

Thailand is a developing country.......lots of poverty here. It is not Singapore.........certainly not the USA which is extremely clean compared to Thailand. But the USA is far richer than Thailand.

One can also talk about "dirty air." It is horrendous in places like Bangkok and Chiang Mai......among other places in Thailand. Water.......forget about it.......scary.

Completely disagree, been to some of the poorest areas of Indonesia and they are far cleaner that the vast majority of places in BKK/Pattaya, and guess what ?? they dont even have the power cables hanging up in the air for the most part, per the whole of Thailand, and believe Indo on the whole is a lot poorer than Thailand....

submaniac....<deleted> with the photo of that pr*ck.???

The pic was for his G/F

[fred2007]

I must agree Thailand is dirty, not just talking about BKK or other big cities just adventure in some of the smaller towns and look around if I would be game and not worried about getting abused or shot I would take some pics in our soi to show you the rubbish piled up every where and nobody cares or give's a damm about it. Before I moved here my mate ask me " Why do you like to live in a pigs house" And he is a well travelled business man.

[remil]

Thailand is not that dirty at all. The streets might be dusty because of the amount of people and cars and the trash is because of lack of rubbish bins and garbage trucks. All in all I would rather go into a MC donalds or fast food here than back in Australia. They really implement sanitization and cleaning. For all other dirty toilets its probably the "MAI PEN RAI" attitude

[webfact]

Thailand is not that dirty at all. The streets might be dusty because of the amount of people and cars and the trash is because of lack of rubbish bins and garbage trucks. All in all I would rather go into a MC donalds or fast food here than back in Australia. They really implement sanitization and cleaning. For all other dirty toilets its probably the "MAI PEN RAI" attitude

Is Khun "Happy Toilet" still around? If not that might explain it...

[Datsun240Z]

Dirty? Thailand? Have you seen my room yet?

[fred2007]

Thailand is not that dirty at all. The streets might be dusty because of the amount of people and cars and the trash is because of lack of rubbish bins and garbage trucks. All in all I would rather go into a MC donalds or fast food here than back in Australia. They really implement sanitization and cleaning. For all other dirty toilets its probably the "MAI PEN RAI" attitude

What a load of bull we are not talking about being dusty we talk about about rubbish thrown every were

Well I prefer my burger in OZ because every body has to wear gloves while handling food.

You ever go to the local markets here? How do they prepeare the food? With bare hands no water to wash and a minute ago they picked theyr noses. Have you ever seen a health inspector checking on all the food stores along the roads? I guess not

[JR Texas]

I think there is alot of overgeneralizing about the cleanliness of Thailand as a whole. And when I say that, I think people are forgetting a few things, and are speaking of Bangkok in particular and not taking account of the other parts of Thailand. One cannot say that Phuket is dirty. Similarly, Pattaya is a fairly clean place. Back in the 1990's I would never want to swim in the water there. But now they got signs saying "keep the beach clean for the king", and there really isn't alot of throwing garbage on the streets around there.

Bangkok is a major city, that is extremely crowded. So yes, some parts of it are going to be dirty. But of course there are similar areas of downtown Los Angeles, New York, or Compton that are just as dirty as the streets of Thailand. But even in Bangkok, there are alot of 'clean' areas. For example one cannot say that Paragon is dirty. Neither can I say that the skytrain/bts is dirty. I can say Thailand's trains are cleaner than the ones in Los Angeles. And anyone who has been in Thailand in the 1990's and before knows how bad it used to be. Give it time, and it will get better.

The point you made about Phuket supports an earlier poster's point about economic development being connected to cleanliness.

Surely, if there is any place in Thailand that should be clean, it is Phuket (very rich area in comparison to other places in Thailand).

Of course, the other argument is that even in rich areas money is not necessarily being spent to make the area clean. Bangkok is the economic hub of Thailand, and look at the mess that it is in.....very unhealthy place to live.

Patttaya......I remember the water back in 1986 prior to the more advanced water cleaning system........very bad. But now, even though better than back in 1986, it is still bad compared to so many other beach areas on the planet.

Thailand's trains are cleaner than those in LA. I hope not. They are really dirty here. I find that statement very hard to believe, but having never been on a train in LA, I have to say I don't know.

Indonesia....one poster pointed out that poor Indonesia was cleaner than Thailand. Maybe in some places like Bali (again related to money).

The fit is likely not perfect, but it does seem that the more a society is developed.........the better its ability to create a "clean environment." That much seems obvious.

But whether officials actually use the money wisely is another matter.

[haybilly]

we have several comments here:

.asia is dirty, so why think about why thailand is dirty.

-my wife is a thai look alike that can say something about this.

-a song was made about a nite in bkk.

-stay at home, it solves the problem.

great thread.

Yes it is, it's someones very own perception!

As in: "Glass half full, half empty..."!

I just ha d an Indian Visitor, he stumbled all the time: "it's so clean, it's so clean, the waer, look evrerything is so clean! I think Thai people are very clean people!"

I suggest to get cured - got to India for therapy!

That's really what I was trying to say--just wandered off topic a bit.

[Datsun240Z]

@ JR Texas: Why you have to post that picture, just ruined my day

[fred2007]

@ JR Texas: Why you have to post that picture, just ruined my day

You can report it

[dave_boo]

glad to see the thread improving.

and i hope u can appreciate i dont really see a half full glass when my wife is called a thai look alike.

I have been to tanzania many times, a very dirty place. Also visited singapore, indonesia and malaysia. I agree with most on the comments about these things. My point was to focus on culture-specific factors in thailand that could be relevant. Maybe they like to have spiders in the bathroom for some reason, i dont know. Of course many live in open houses, and the border inside/outside is blurred. So cleaning inside seems somewhat strange for this reason maybe. But they do like to keep the floors very clean.

Wife was b!tching to me that there were spiders in the bedroom(if she'd listen and get some door screening for the outside of the exhaust fan it wouldn't be an issue)...so maybe over-generalisations aren't kosher?

[garyh]

I think a lot boils down to education and funding. Believe it or not there is ongoing education programs run by the health ministry. At the same time there are other problems like the eradication of dengue and malaria taking up a lot of funding and time as well.

Look around and you'll see the clean food, wash your hands stickers along with other education programs.

Nothing will happen overnight but at least they're trying to do something.

Exactly. And the further away from the source (less education, less exposure to clean environments) the less evident, in general, is the effect of these programs.

As has been said it is all relative and there are a multitude of places on this earth that are a lot less clean than Thailand. As it is now, travellers with average immune systems can handle eating food from many Thai street kitchens without getting food poisoning or a stomach flu - this despite the tropical climate that will exacerbate bacterial growth.

So my conclusion is it could be a lot dirtier than it is - it could also be cleaner of course, Singapore would be one example of a clean tropical country. But the main difference there is education level, government intervention pervasiveness and ultimately, more funding.

Singapore could be cleaner than Thailand, but is a quasi-dictatorship.

And for Thailand dirty, the first OP should see Bangkok 20 years ago... Now is cleaner than some european town.

I'll second that. It s more than 1000% true. In the 80s and early 90s Bangkok was like a garbage dump

As was Chiang mai with the moat full of garbage too, maybe another 20 years and the Op will be comfortable with Thailands cleanliness. It has been proven that exposure to bacteria is good for your immune system, so be thankful you may live longer.

[garyh]

Thailand is not that dirty at all. The streets might be dusty because of the amount of people and cars and the trash is because of lack of rubbish bins and garbage trucks. All in all I would rather go into a MC donalds or fast food here than back in Australia. They really implement sanitization and cleaning. For all other dirty toilets its probably the "MAI PEN RAI" attitude

What a load of bull we are not talking about being dusty we talk about about rubbish thrown every were

Well I prefer my burger in OZ because every body has to wear gloves while handling food.

You ever go to the local markets here? How do they prepeare the food? With bare hands no water to wash and a minute ago they picked theyr noses. Have you ever seen a health inspector checking on all the food stores along the roads? I guess not

How often do people here get sick from food? Not often, worse case of food poisoning I know of personally in Thailand was my sister who got sick while staying at the Sheraton BKK, she said she would not eat out side the hotel as it was not clean but she got as sick as dog.