How Thais See Farang

[Neeranam]

One thing which has baffled me for over 10 years, is why all Thais think that I am loaded. They generalise, I suppose, and because they see lots of tourists here throwing their money around assume all farang are rich. Many farang where I live own very nice houses and new cars, and don't have to work.

Ok, maybe I am a bit stingy, and am lucky that I can get a holiday abroad every few years, and generally don't worry about money. Still it gets on my tits sometimes, when waiting for a songtaew and the somtam lady asking me if I have any money for her.

Funny how the good things in life become 'commonplace' and we always want 'more' or 'less'!.

I watched the movie trainspotting last night, for the umpteenth time, and saw a scene which reminded me that in my native Scotland we are just as guilty of the same things towards other nationalities.

An American tourist with a camera walks into a bar in Edinburgh, asks if he can use the toilet. The local guys all look at each other and follow him, whence they beat himup and steal all his money.

It is easy to forget how bad many of my own countrymen behave towards certain tourists/expats. Easy for me to think that I am being targetted here and it is only a Thai thing. It definately is not.

I have to remember that Thailand is a great place to live, and thankful that I can do so. Thai people are generally wonderful and some of the best people in the world. I am not saying this about Bangkok, but even there too there are many great people.

Thank God for Isaan and Thailand!

[Shola]

For me, I find it easy to dress/look like I'm loaded here when I go out! Even if I've only got 200B in my ahem 'blorm' Tods bag!

I indulge in that becuase I couldn't look as good in the Uk for same amount of cash!

Yeah I do think most Thai's make the assumption farang are loaded, if they look smart, but I think they forget how cheap it is here to look smart here, perhaps they don't think we go to the markets for bargains too, and that the handbag really did cost 25,000 Baht!

[pedro01]

One thing which has baffled me for over 10 years, is why all Thais think that I am loaded. They generalise, I suppose, and because they see lots of tourists here throwing their money around assume all farang are rich. Many farang where I live own very nice houses and new cars, and don't have to work.

Ok, maybe I am a bit stingy, and am lucky that I can get a holiday abroad every few years, and generally don't worry about money. Still it gets on my tits sometimes, when waiting for a songtaew and the somtam lady asking me if I have any money for her.

Funny how the good things in life become 'commonplace' and we always want 'more' or 'less'!.

I watched the movie trainspotting last night, for the umpteenth time, and saw a scene which reminded me that in my native Scotland we are just as guilty of the same things towards other nationalities.

An American tourist with a camera walks into a bar in Edinburgh, asks if he can use the toilet. The local guys all look at each other and follow him, whence they beat himup and steal all his money.

It is easy to forget how bad many of my own countrymen behave towards certain tourists/expats. Easy for me to think that I am being targetted here and it is only a Thai thing. It definately is not.

I have to remember that Thailand is a great place to live, and thankful that I can do so. Thai people are generally wonderful and some of the best people in the world. I am not saying this about Bangkok, but even there too there are many great people.

Thank God for Isaan and Thailand!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't beleive that all 60 million Thais beleive that all Farangs are millionaires.

By millionaires, I presume you mean $$ not Baht, right ?

Perhaps this is more your perception than theirs.

I know probably about 100 Thai people - and for those 100, they all seem like individuals who have different opinions on a range of issues. I presume some of them think I'm an arse....

I can see that a number of Isaan people in a village may see you as wealthier than they & it is probably true.

Being loaded is all relative, isn't it. I know quite a few Thais who think I'm poor...

[devildog683]

One thing which has baffled me for over 10 years, is why all Thais think that I am loaded. They generalise, I suppose, and because they see lots of tourists here throwing their money around assume all farang are rich. Many farang where I live own very nice houses and new cars, and don't have to work.

Ok, maybe I am a bit stingy, and am lucky that I can get a holiday abroad every few years, and generally don't worry about money. Still it gets on my tits sometimes, when waiting for a songtaew and the somtam lady asking me if I have any money for her.

Funny how the good things in life become 'commonplace' and we always want 'more' or 'less'!.

I watched the movie trainspotting last night, for the umpteenth time, and saw a scene which reminded me that in my native Scotland we are just as guilty of the same things towards other nationalities.

An American tourist with a camera walks into a bar in Edinburgh, asks if he can use the toilet. The local guys all look at each other and follow him, whence they beat himup and steal all his money.

It is easy to forget how bad many of my own countrymen behave towards certain tourists/expats. Easy for me to think that I am being targetted here and it is only a Thai thing. It definately is not.

I have to remember that Thailand is a great place to live, and thankful that I can do so. Thai people are generally wonderful and some of the best people in the world. I am not saying this about Bangkok, but even there too there are many great people.

Thank God for Isaan and Thailand!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't beleive that all 60 million Thais beleive that all Farangs are millionaires.

By millionaires, I presume you mean $$ not Baht, right ?

Perhaps this is more your perception than theirs.

I know probably about 100 Thai people - and for those 100, they all seem like individuals who have different opinions on a range of issues. I presume some of them think I'm an arse....

I can see that a number of Isaan people in a village may see you as wealthier than they & it is probably true.

Being loaded is all relative, isn't it. I know quite a few Thais who think I'm poor...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i would have to echo this post, my wifes family in Isaan thinks i am loaded, always wonder why we have money problems from time to time

then again my wifes friend who she went to college with has wealthy parents and she knows i am not loaded

[Ajarn]

Maybe, in many of their views, anyone must be fairly well-off to be be able to travel and live in a foreign country... Many of your own countrymen might make similar assumptions about international tourists.

How many farangs don't live in nice homes? How many farangs show signs of being poor that might not be perceived as 'kii nio'? Not many, I dare say. They see us drinking beer, eating relatively- expensive farang food, traveling around...

In my experience, the educated and more-experienced Thai middle and upper-classes often have a more balanced and realistic view of farangs, outside of the racists and bigots and other such trash among Thais, just as there are among the farangs here, or in any other place in the world...

Many of the 'baan nawks' often look at us like we are rich and powerful, don't they? And, relative to many of their positions, they are absolutely right, aren't they?

Our views are often naturally relative to our own position because that's what we understand best, and we use that as a comparison... It should only be annoying if that turns into jealousy or resentment which then gets turned towards you. Or in the case of the 'richer' considering themselves better/smarter than the 'baan nawks'. A whole lot of that attitude can witnessed in these forums...

Each Thai treats me differently, so there's really no reason to suggest they all think the same about me, either. They're always going to be individuals in my mind. Makes it a lot easier for me to deal with each of them

Edited March 4, 2005 by Ajarn

[SiamJai]

Wow.. I could only second the above post....

...if I only knew what 'baan nawk' means! It must be something really simple, but somehow it escaped my Thai vocab.

[Ajarn]

sorry.. Less educated maybe, more rural likely, less experience in the world maybe....you get the idea...

[Thaiboxer]

The funny thing about a lot of Thai people thinking us farang are rich is that a lot of Thais we know spend money is if THEY were rich and yet they make decent but not high salaries. When I got my first teaching job, I made what is considered a good salary by Thai standards but we spent only 2/3 of it each month and saved the rest. As time went on and I got another job with a higher salary we saved even more. Unlike many people we know we drive an old car, eat relatively cheap food, use a cheap cell phone and wear local brand clothes. For so many people, regardless of how much they earn, they will find a way to spend it and end up broke till the next payday. As anyone who teaches here knows, teaching salaries are nothing compared to what a lot of Thai business people earn. There are plenty of Thais in our moobaan who would make us look poor!

[SiamJai]

Thank you Larry.

Thaiboxer, I think that Thais spending it all could also have something to do with their culture, not only with carelessness and shortsightedness (but that too, in some cases, of course).

Take for instance, the custom of one person paying for the entire group after dinner. Also, many Thais are very generous, sometimes too much IMO. I think it's still easy to find people in LOS for whom money is less of a priority - which makes it such a good place to live here, IMO.

[Ajarn]

Take for instance, the custom of one person paying for the entire group after dinner. Also, many Thais are very generous, sometimes too much IMO.  I think it's still easy to find people in LOS for whom money is less of a priority - which makes it such a good place to live here, IMO.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

SJ, Sometimes I get the sense that it's not necessarily money for many, but more like parity. They want their piece of the pie. Politely and cooperatively, but determined, - and at all consequences for some, in my experience. Face has more value than common money in many situations if you come to down to it...

And everyone knows their role in the kriangjai circle, for even the puu yai being 'honored' must show he deserves the public respect by remembering 'his friends'... What comes around, goes around, na'?

If not, wow, the wind sure can change fast here!!

[SiamJai]

Face has more value than common money in many situations if you come to down to it...

... yes, so true!!

What comes around, goes around, na'? 

If not, wow, the wind sure can change fast here!! 

I wish I knew this when I came here. I had to learn the hard way, lol. You know, when one does a favor to me, I return it in one way or another, and then the matter is forgotten - in FarangLand, but not in LOS! Well, like I said, it was a lesson for me.

[Abandon]

Yes, I find many Thai's are suprised when I tell them there are poor people in England too. I remember squatting in a house in London one winter and none of us had any money for the meter - at least the poor here don't have frozen nuts to contend with too. We went round getting bits of wood from building sites to burn for a bit of warmth.

Still always managed to find a few bob for a bottle of plonk at night though

[Simbo]

One thing which has baffled me for over 10 years, is why all Thais think that I am loaded. They generalise, I suppose, and because they see lots of tourists here throwing their money around assume all farang are rich. Many farang where I live own very nice houses and new cars, and don't have to work.

Ok, maybe I am a bit stingy, and am lucky that I can get a holiday abroad every few years, and generally don't worry about money. Still it gets on my tits sometimes, when waiting for a songtaew and the somtam lady asking me if I have any money for her.

Funny how the good things in life become 'commonplace' and we always want 'more' or 'less'!.

I watched the movie trainspotting last night, for the umpteenth time, and saw a scene which reminded me that in my native Scotland we are just as guilty of the same things towards other nationalities.

An American tourist with a camera walks into a bar in Edinburgh, asks if he can use the toilet. The local guys all look at each other and follow him, whence they beat himup and steal all his money.

It is easy to forget how bad many of my own countrymen behave towards certain tourists/expats. Easy for me to think that I am being targetted here and it is only a Thai thing. It definately is not.

I have to remember that Thailand is a great place to live, and thankful that I can do so. Thai people are generally wonderful and some of the best people in the world. I am not saying this about Bangkok, but even there too there are many great people.

Thank God for Isaan and Thailand!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Try a couple of years in Pattaya and tell me how ' wonderful ' the Thai people are.

[DJ Pat]

Try a couple of years in Pattaya and tell me how ' wonderful ' the Thai people are.

A city where much of the wealth has been made by people who have slept with someone to get money.

[Rinrada]

If you use the benchmark of the national minimum wage (not exact science... just for example..) in the Smoke it works out at @ £5-30 a hour for basic skivvy work (a ba hair short of 400 bt /hour) and if you compare it to Bangkoks (NMW) at @ bt 20 /hour. ????

So yer man who mops up in the public kludges over here gets 40 times what his equal would earn in Sunny LOS....so.....

If YOu are the dunny sweeper on as above and your friendly counterpart in say "City of Loads of dosh" was on 40 times what you got ...eg...£212 /hour...what would you think..?

[Rinrada]

Arrgggggg...done it againnn....its the soda water.

Not ...40 times what his equal gets .......20 times and using the same equa.it is still not insignificant.....is it?

[britmaveric]

If you could let avg Thai travel to the West I dare say they would know you arent rich. Its all education - most thai(s) won't know the costs of living in 1st world countries so its understandable they see you as rich by their standards.

[Pattaya_Fox]

If you use the benchmark of the national minimum wage (not exact science... just for example..) in the Smoke it works out at @ £5-30 a hour for basic skivvy work (a ba hair short of 400 bt /hour) and if you compare it to Bangkoks (NMW) at @ bt 20 /hour. ????

So yer man who mops up in the public kludges over here gets 40 times what his equal would earn in Sunny LOS....so.....

If YOu are the dunny sweeper on as above and your friendly  counterpart in say  "City of Loads of dosh" was on 40 times what you got ...eg...£212 /hour...what would you think..?  

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I assume that you meant £212 per week not per hour.

Yes but this is only one side of the argument. As Brit says the majority of Thais have not been educated to the fact that in the Uk the price of petrol for example is almost four times the price that it is in LOS and the cost of basic human necessities such as water and heating for the home are very high...then there are house rates and all the other costs associated with staying alive.

So to compare a person earning near to the minimum wage in the Uk without cosidering the cost of living is only one half of the story.

Anybody in the Uk earning this amount £5.30 per hour if he/she has the normal everyday bills to pay will themselves feel as poor as a church mouse...

[Bryan in Isaan]

I have seen other strange behavior related to this. When my wife and I were having our house built, the neighbors kept coming by asking us why we don't build a swimming pool. We found that we were being compared with another American man living in a village nearby who had a very nice house and swimming pool. It was almost as if the neighbors were taunting us - trying to appeal to our concern over "face". Fact is, unlike the locals, we couldn't care less if our American friend is richer than us. We are happy for him. We have heard that this is common - the richest farang in the area "raises the bar" so to speak for the other farangs. The locals think that every farang is or should be as rich as the richest one.

Bryan

Edited March 4, 2005 by Bryan in Isaan

[Vit42]

It's not a farang thing or particular to thailand. I'm thai, born and bred but grew up in the states. Whenever i'm back, most of my relatives assume i'm loaded cause i'm from the u.s. So it's more about if you're from a "developed" country visiting a "developing" country. Farangs, japanese, or whoever comes on visit thailand are assumed to be well-off since they have money to travel. It's the same when i go to some countries in s. america. Remember, even a dishwasher in america making 6 bucks an hour is a heck of a lot more than in thailand for many people. So just shrug it off with a smile and don't worry so much about what other people think. Rich or poor, it's your personality that will win people over, hopefully.

[Lars]

"Ordinary people" in their "ordinary countries" dream of having a nice vacation, they read the travel magazines, read about Thailand, paradise beaches and so on.

"We wanna go" they say, save up what they can(maybe for a long while)in advance.

They arrive here, exchange their money and get lots of baht in their pockets.

This money isn't in their everyday budget, they can spend it the way they always wanted to spend money. And of course they do(I did too).

Where do they go? Phuket, Pattaya, Hua Hin and so on.

What's the result? Thais see the tourists spending money like there was no tomorrow-

"All farangs are rich, they know how to spend money".

Of course people in places like the above mentioned think that farangs are rich..

But as someone mentioned - "That's not unique for Thailand".

Surely ain't.

[Bryan in Isaan]

That is true Lars. The tourists work all year and save money for their three week vacation. They come here to have fun and spend money like crazy, tossing around 1000B notes like candy. Some locals confuse them with those of us who live here long term. Most of us who live here are not as flush with cash as the tourists.

[Peewee]

I don't beleive that all 60 million Thais beleive that all Farangs are millionaires.

By millionaires, I presume you mean $$ not Baht, right ?

Perhaps this is more your perception than theirs.

US $ - Thai Baht, 1million is a million and to many thais it would not make much difference in terms of how you would be percieved - its still a lot of money

[johnnyk]

Many of those who live outside the developed western countries have no idea how many poor there are in the "rich" countries.

They see the 2-week millionaires but don't realize that many of them are factory workers who live in crappy neighbourhoods.

They see imported TV dramas or sitcoms in which the characters live in huge $10,000/month New York apartments and don't seem to work.

They don't see or know about council estates, trailer parks or homeless people living in cardboard cartons under bridges.

They just know we have enough money to travel to their country but they don't have enough money to go to ours.

[penelope]

There are also lots of Thais/Thai familys who are US dollar millionaires many times over. Trust me, they dont think as the OP suggested.

[snoophound]

Tis true

my ladies family are convinced we she and her sister are incredibily wealthy because they live in sydney!

I have seen other strange behavior related to this.  When my wife and I were having our house built, the neighbors kept coming by asking us why we don't build a swimming pool.  We found that we were being compared with another American man living in a village nearby who had a very nice house and swimming pool.  It was almost as if the neighbors were taunting us - trying to appeal to our concern over "face".  Fact is, unlike the locals, we couldn't care less if our American friend is richer than us.  We are happy for him.  We have heard that this is common - the richest farang in the area "raises the bar" so to speak for the other farangs.  The locals think that every farang is or should be as rich as the richest one.

Bryan

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Gary A]

I'm retired and spend a lot of time living in Loei province. I'm not rich by any means and couldn't afford to live in the USA above the bare minimums. Here I am rich. My satellite UBC dish on one side of the house and my IPSTAR satellite Internet dish on the other side cost much more than the majority of Thais up here make. Why wouldn't they think we are rich? That said they all treat me well and I don't have people trying to beg or beat me out of anything.

If you use the benchmark of the national minimum wage (not exact science... just for example..) in the Smoke it works out at @ £5-30 a hour for basic skivvy work (a ba hair short of 400 bt /hour) and if you compare it to Bangkoks (NMW) at @ bt 20 /hour. ????

So yer man who mops up in the public kludges over here gets 40 times what his equal would earn in Sunny LOS....so.....

If YOu are the dunny sweeper on as above and your friendly  counterpart in say  "City of Loads of dosh" was on 40 times what you got ...eg...£212 /hour...what would you think..?  

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[dclaryjr]

That is true Lars.  The tourists work all year and save money for their three week vacation.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Or they do like me and max out a credit card and are still paying for the trip years later!

[chonabot]

Wow.. I could only second the above post....

...if I only knew what 'baan nawk' means!   It must be something really simple, but somehow it escaped my Thai vocab.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ban Nok = Kon Ban Nok = Chonabot= Hillbilly

[Diggerbasher]

Been here long enough for all the locals to realise how mean i am.