Fricken Thais And Their Planning Skills

[chuchok]

If Thais would (or could) apply those skills to more useful purposes, this country would become a true regional power.  I'm not sure what it takes to motivate such performance in this country.

Cheers!

Steve

Indo-Siam

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Money/greed/power..the same thing that motivates 90% of the world.

[moebius]

Well before this topic goes the way of the "Why do you stay" thread I'll poke in here a bit.

While i'm not big on McD's pies I'll note that many westerners coming to SE Asia (myself included) find adjustments to be made in the 'time and scheduling' department.

It's just a matter of priorities really. I experienced 'lack of planning' and 'last minute notification' perhaps hundreds on times in my first year in China. When things 'have to be done on time' you really have to ride just about every angle to make sure it gets done. Sometimes to my own benefit. I didn't have give marked oral english exams to my non-test-year classes because first the school said 'no need' then 'must do' then 'no need' to 'we'll inform you' right up to the weekend before test week. (mei wenti - no problem)

In Thailand I've seen the same, but because I make allowance for it now (my own mindset - mai pen rai - no problem).

Sure I get a little panicky when my favorite bbQ guy runs out of chicken before I get to him and I have to settle for less. Sure I hate Morning Glory as a vegetable because I can't remember the words for 'something else.' Sure I'm a little offset that I have to make multiple visits to some businesses and institutions or wait 'longer than usual' for some things I'm used to having on time or in shorter waiting periods...etc etc ad nauseum....

But the positive thing is it really has lowered my blood pressure overall, I'm not as driven as I was before and I think I'm healthier for it. I still get things done, but not at 200km per hour, and multi-tasking takes on a whole new meaning. (No biggee...)

Y'know, a lot of it is just about letting go...

(...okay, now back to Iraq I imagine)

[itsme]

Some peoplee just don't realsie that things happen diffrently in many countries:

for example:

Bukkara Inshalla,

Mai Pen Rai,

More than my jobs worth mate,

Que Cera,

Another day another dollar,

Get the drift and find some patience friend or find a new life.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well said, in the end TIT.....and I'll be back

[jackr]

There comes a point where one has to stop and think what the ###### is going on. Some people have a greater tolerance to things that are not presented in a clear and logical aspect, and then there are people who get upset at the slightest thing. Somewhere in-between these two extremes – I find myself. Many times a day, I am blinded by sheer incompetence when it comes to when a Thai person or company has to make a plan or forecast for a particular need or project.

It is completely beyond the capabilities for most Thais to make a plan about anything in advance. Their tendency to live only for the day has wide ranging implications. First it impacts business done in Thailand.

Many, yes not all, western based businesses have rejected Thailand as a hub for the businesses because of the failure of Thais to carryout task specific deadlines. A deadline to the majority of Thais is a concept beyond them. They simply do not think before they act. They never consult with a focus group to try to predict problems before they arise.

For example, the Thai Elite Card. How many times has that program changed over the last 2 years. The first major selling point was the ability to actually own some land. Then later, they renege on that point – leaving those that had purchased it without an explanation. Then over the next 18 months the card proceeds to become nothing more than a glorified golfing card.

Another example. DTAC and AIS. These two very competitive companies started having network problems because of the influx of traffic they created with promotional calling rates. It was easy for them to think … “Oh lets offer .01 a minute calling for all our 50 million customers to try to beat our competition!” They neglected to think… “Ok, how are we going to adjust our network infrastructure and routing to handle the 20 million more calls the promotion will cause each day..”  It is only after the fact that some idiot realizes that their network can’t handle the traffic. Then is the Thai sprit of not “losing face” they try to blame TOT/CAT for bottlenecking the network and a classic “It’s not our fault” is issued.

The country’s infrastructure is crippled by the Thais failure to forecast and to deploy predictive modeling for developing everything from the BTS to the MTR. To the stupid pedestrian overpass at the Mall Bangkae. That project has been going on for more than a year, and has changed plans at least 5 times over the year from mistakes they have made in their planning. At one point, the construction stopped altogether for about 4 months because it became too complicated for them and they reached a point where they couldn’t figure out how to complete it. Evidentially someone finally came a long and gave them some insight. 

The BTS thing really bothers me.  If you look at the Japanese subway/train station there are significant areas for parking both bicycles/cars at nearly every station – not so much the major metro (Shinjuku etc) ones, but definitely the rural stations. People simply ride their bike the station and then park their bike and take the subway into the city.

The concept of a mass transit system is not just to move people around once they are already in the city center. It is to meant to provide a means for entry and departure from the center as well. The Thais do not understand this. There is absolutely no place to leave a motorcycle (the Thai equivalent to the Japanese bicycle) at any BTS station.

Now, they are building a BTS all the way to Bangkae. YEAH! It is about time, even though it will be done nowhere near the August 2005 projection released when the extension started. My money is on that there will be NO parking spaces for either cars or motorcycles.  Even that the Bangkae station will be a major transit artery for outlying areas on the other side of the Chao Phyra, there will be no accommodations for “park and ride.”

I tried one time to take my motorcycle into the city and leave it around the Surasak BTS station. Then I wanted to take the BTS into MBK. However, there is absolutely no parking around this area. So I went down the next street (the one with the Myanmar Embassy) and I parked my motorcycle on the street about 200meters down from the embassy in front of a office building. I walked about 10 minutes back to the BTS and returned about 6 hours later.

I returned to find that my motorcycle had a BIG YELLOW lock on the front of its wheel. There was also a ticket my motorcycle for 700 baht. So, to try to do what the BTS should have been intended to do – ended up costing me an additional 700 baht. Absolutely fricken crazy!

  

Over the many years that I have been quite of few “instances” that I recall.  Here are just a few of them:

---Restaurants---

A Thai restaurant running-out of rice by 6:30 in the evening;

Dairy Queen runs out of both Chocolate and Vanilla ice-cream by 1:00 on a Saturday (only strawberry left);

MacDonald’s out of fries on a Sunday evening “no have fry. Want pie?”;

Street Side stalls constantly running out of food “not have. Not have.”;

Fuji running out of Chopsticks “sorry not have, have fork today”;

Pizza Hut runs out of lettuce for the salads on a Wednesday night “salad? Cannot. Not have salad”;

Fitness First running out of Banana, Mango, and Watermelon for juice shakes – (can only have strawberry) “want coffee?”

The list can go on and on from Thais not being able to make a travel plan until the night before they are supposed to leave, to fricken Home Pro selling paint but not having any paint Rollers.

I will leave some for you to post. I would be interested in reading your take on this situation!

If its all so bad piss off back to your own country! I could tell you just as many annoying things about the Uk Deal with it!

Oops, I think that's done it. Where's Wolfie

At the end of the day, I'd rather have to deal with all this inefficiency etc, etc than good ol' Muang Thai getting all clever and turning into some boring sterile Western abomination...Belgium springs to mind

[DJ Pat]

All the contents of the first post are absolutely true. No more Thai bashing needed.

[Darknight]

At the end of the day, I'd rather have to deal with all this inefficiency etc, etc than good ol' Muang Thai getting all clever and turning into some boring sterile Western abomination...Belgium springs to mind 

Hear hear

But at least our sandwiches taste good

Although the efficiency was nice when i first came back , at least somebody in ashop that knew what they were selling

Edited May 30, 2005 by Darknight

[majush]

You know what... any of you finding troubles with Thai people and the country, you should really go and live in my country - India. You order orange juice, you will get coffee and if you question them for that, you will never forget that day in your whole life. I am finding this place a lot better. Atleast they hire an American to design BTS or get Japanese help. In my country they hire people from US, and when he explains his plans our people get a strange feeling that they are smarter than the hired foreigner. Then they will send the guy back and try to do what he planned. If you go to any major company in India. you will find a group working that way for years and years still without any output.

[alex100]

/edit unnessecary quotes

Not off topic nor political at all - just an observation on the human condition and how some segements of world society can't see beyond the end of their big noses - that when stuck in others business often get burnt.

Another 9/11 will unfortuately happen it is only a matter of time. The forces that drive the terror are focused by a unreasonable belief that they are correct and that what they are doing is justified. This is not off topic - it is an example of how someone from a percieved developed nation spouts of about conditions in another country crtitsing them very much in line with the original post.

The situation in Iraq is very much connected as an example where a so called devloped country can also make a complete hash of things through bad planning and a lack of realisation about the consequnces of their actions. Not Yank bashing. Just a observation on the reality of things.

Edited May 30, 2005 by Darknight

[jackr]

At the end of the day, I'd rather have to deal with all this inefficiency etc, etc than good ol' Muang Thai getting all clever and turning into some boring sterile Western abomination...Belgium springs to mind 

Hear hear

But at least our sandwiches taste good

Although the efficiency was nice when i first came back , at least somebody in ashop that knew what they were selling

Beer's good as well isn't it?

Sorry DK, just a shot in the dark and one of those nasty generalisations, but you know what I'm getting at? Some days can be &lt;deleted&gt; infuriating here but Muang Thai's best left as she is...

ps- Where's Adriana Lima?

[peder.klockmann]

[RDN]

Well, I have seen at least one example of quite world class planning and exection by Thais - on par with the best I have ever seen or heard of - anywhere.

That being the pre-dawn demolition of the old beer bar area on the south side of Sukhumvit, in between Soi 10 and Soi 8, on the morning of Sunday, January 20-something, a couple of years back.

Thinking back to my days as a US Army Ranger rehearsing military raids, and looking at the details of exactly what was accomplished over about a two-hour period by several hundred people, I was simply dumbstruck.  From the interdiction team that "neutralized" Lumpini police staion at the outset, to the cranes that erected the floodlight system, to the heavy transporters that brought in the bulldozers, to the erection and welding of the pre-fab wall around the place - and even to the detail of sparing the "spirit house" even amidst the general destruction - this was an awesome feat of planning and execution.  Absolutely brilliant - albeit to an incredibly pointless and misery-inducing end result.

Just managing the traffic flow, and heavy vehicle loading an unloading - in pre-dawn hours - and getting all that they accomplished completed in about two hours - that must have taken at least five or six full scale rehearsals.

If Thais would (or could) apply those skills to more useful purposes, this country would become a true regional power.  I'm not sure what it takes to motivate such performance in this country.

Cheers!

Steve

Indo-Siam

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Did you vote for him?

[Darknight]

At the end of the day, I'd rather have to deal with all this inefficiency etc, etc than good ol' Muang Thai getting all clever and turning into some boring sterile Western abomination...Belgium springs to mind 

Hear hear

But at least our sandwiches taste good

Although the efficiency was nice when i first came back , at least somebody in ashop that knew what they were selling

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Beer's good as well isn't it?

Sorry DK, just a shot in the dark and one of those nasty generalisations, but you know what I'm getting at? Some days can be &lt;deleted&gt; infuriating here but Muang Thai's best left as she is...

ps- Where's Adriana Lima?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

All 682 kinds of them jackr

adriana is lying under the palms now, somebody mistook her for a katoey. She's rather upset

[Tornado]

wormdrive wrote: Fuji running out of Chopsticks “sorry not have, have fork today”;

I dont know why, it just sounded funny with a Thai accent

[thymode91]

all of you guys lot of bad/good comments in here. I can't help my self laughing alone for you people suffering those circumstances encountered day by day.

If you are really hate and suffering for what you had in here during your stay then, Please go back to your own country and don't come back here anymore. Since you are not happy and it seems Thailand or any asian country are the worse in the world then, please stay in the wonderful country you've claimed.

What is the reason for you people to stay here if most of the time something is bothering you. Like "Chonwa" said try to live in Singapore if you are not comfortable here in Thailand or maybe in Iraq, Sudan, Uganda, or some other country

They said: "You better clean your own backyard first before cleaning others". Why we don't try to ask our self "How perfect we are" before discriminating others.

I am agree for those handicap third world got but they are trying their best to overcome those circumstances. You people are very lucky for having a great country, honor and wealth but you are not still perfect. Areyou?

[george]

Great summary! I am closing this thread now.

We are guests in this country. If you don't like Thailand, stay home.

Thanks!