Expats In Thailand, Would You Be Here If The Internet Didn'T Exist?

[Jingthing]

By internet not existing, I mean that literally. Like not invented, never happened, not anywhere. That is not the same question as if there was no internet in Thailand but it did EXIST in other countries.

Myself, I can't imagine life before the internet anymore and I really don't feel I would have managed to be an expat anywhere if the internet didn't exist.

Image added to be silly.

[WarpSpeed]

Good thread JingThing.....No way.. It had too much to do with my entire plan including evaluating the future market for my career and my current mate.

Also likely why I never came here earlier at some point which isn't good thing as I could have easily been a professional goal keeper here in my younger days..

[Artamus]

Yes. Came here first a long long time before the Internet existed, and still rated it as the place to be.

[gotlost]

Came her when the Internet was just a gleam in someones eyes. Did not have a cell tell 2003.

[krading]

Yes, and I would probably be able to speak Thai better than I do now.

[villagefarang]

I found Thailand the old fashioned way, long before internet or cell phones or all the westerns amenities we take for granted today. Things are different now but it is still home and the place I choose to live.

[sbk]

Same the last few posters, when I arrived on Koh Phangan the island didn't even have telephones. I used the radio phone at the post office in town to tell my parents I had met a really nice guy and was going to stay for awhile

[Ulysses G.]

I found Thailand the old fashioned way, long before internet or cell phones or all the westerns amenities we take for granted today. Things are different now but it is still home and the place I choose to live.

Me too.

[jazzbo]

When I first started working in PR China in the late 80s everything had to be done by TELEX ... I later started coming to Thailand as a travel hub and buying tickets at the Thai Airways ticket office which was at the Royal Cliff Hotel in Pattaya ... and used the central telephone exchange building for faxes.

Whether I would be here or not I don't know but the Internet allows me to run a USA-based NGO and send stuff all over the world from rice & Sugar land in NE Thailand.

[ksamuiguy]

When I first started working in PR China in the late 80s everything had to be done by TELEX ... I later started coming to Thailand as a travel hub and buying tickets at the Thai Airways ticket office which was at the Royal Cliff Hotel in Pattaya ... and used the central telephone exchange building for faxes.

Whether I would be here or not I don't know but the Internet allows me to run a USA-based NGO and send stuff all over the world from rice & Sugar land in NE Thailand.

I first came to Thailand in 1962 and have lived here for the last 35 years. No Phones, no hand phones, no TV, some radio.

Yes, no worries or problems, it was a simple and easy life back then.

[mallyrd]

I first came to Thailand in 1985/6 (South East) and in those days even telephones were about as rare as "rocking horse sh-t". The company I worked for managed to get a house rental for me that was close to the American consulate and therefore easier to have phone line installed. The only way to communicate in those days was either by fax or telex.

[krading]

A (farung) mate in the village told me there was one public phone in the main street and if he wanted to talk to his GF he would ring that phone and hope a passerby would answer it, then try and convince whoever it was to run and get her for him.

Primitive but it worked.

[CHIEFOFFICER]

Yes. Came here first a long long time before the Internet existed, and still rated it as the place to be.

I say the same as ARTAMUS, came here 22years ago, and I'm not leaving.:jap:

Holyday greetings from.CO . chaiyaphum

[CHIEFOFFICER]

Yes. Came here first a long long time before the Internet existed, and still rated it as the place to be.

I say the same as ARTAMUS, came here 22years ago, and I'm not leaving.:jap:

Holyday greetings from.CO . chaiyaphum

[CheGuava]

Heh, when I came here, Internet was only for the military and universities. Very little in or about Thailand.

Don't assume everyone is a newbie.

[canuckamuck]

Apparently the title of this thread should have been did you get here before the internet?

back on topic, yes I would be here if there was no internet, and i might get a lot more things done in a day too.

I would not miss meals to get internet, If the price of internet was so high that I couldn't eat in Thailand, than I would not have it.

[IMA_FARANG]

Good question. I hadn't thought about it...the internet is a large part of my life now.

But I originally came to Thailand in July 1977....LBI (Long Before Internet), and I managed to exist here then.

So I guess I'll have to give it a qualified Yes I would.

P.S. On the 2nd question...food versus internet...I voted the Nul Vote/Grumpy Expat option.

[Travel2003]

Anyone been out at sea, in the mountains, rural areas, etc, for a many weeks due to work, after the Internet came along, know it is actually not that difficult to be without e-mails, web forums (yes TV included), news papers, etc.

I dont know how to make these polls, but would be interesting to see what the members would do without mobile phones.

[sbk]

OK, to answer, yes I would but its nice and its here so there you go, would i leave if it disappeared? well if the internet disappeared I suspect the entire world would be screwed so where to go eh?

[StreetCowboy]

Would I be here were it not for the ball-point pen?

Prior to the internet, it revolutionised communication and bureaucracy...

Seriously, the internet (specifically, email) enabled the globalisation of small consultancies and remote working; were it not for email, my employer would not have had an office in Glasgow, or London, or Hong Kong... and hence subsequently through many years' meandering progress, Bangkok.

But I don't think that the www is a big part of that; I could live with buying flights at the travel agent, and booking hotels through the travel agent, and frittering my time away reading old books instead of irrelevant ephemeral chit chat. THough without the internet, it would be much harder for the travel agent to book flights and hotels.

So the internet was essential to my job, but not the rest of my life. THough having said that, maybe we'd have found a way round that as well, and in fact, maybe the internet militated against my moving overseas, since arguably it made it easier to provide my services from the UK rather than living locally...

SC

[Tonto21]

Hi jungthing, With the amount of posts you've made, I can see why you would take the point of view you do.

I use the Internet, but to be honest if it stopped working and disappearance tomorrow we would all find something else to get all wound-up about. Dose it make my life any richer, more fulfilled, It feels like it.......But I think we all are actually poorer for it in terms of human social development. Technology! It's got to be good for us right? As individuals, sure in some cases, medical advancement among other things, but technology, I think is also driving us apart, sure you can talk to some one you know on the other side of the world all night from your own living room...............but at the expense of interacting with the people next door, face to face, we are social animals, we need a lot of contact.

I think I'm right when I say that some of the most technological and affluent countries in the world have the highest suicide rates as well, so much for having the technology that puts everything we want at our finger tips.

I remember my Mum telling me about what they used to do before the telly, I was about 10 years old, to me, it was like a horror story, No television! Now who needs that, not me.

Some of the most rewarding and enlightening times in my life were when I was forced by work to be isolated from the hum of the world, newspapers, the telly and Internet. It can take weeks but the frustrated feeling of not knowing what's going on, gives way to one of peace and living in the now. it's a fantastic feeling.

I would love to be able to get that feeling again, save sitting cross legged on some mountain..........................But technological/Internet is just like a drug and the come down takes time. The Internet for me is both a blessing and a curse.

[neverdie]

Same the last few posters, when I arrived on Koh Phangan the island didn't even have telephones. I used the radio phone at the post office in town to tell my parents I had met a really nice guy and was going to stay for awhile

And then you found out I wasnt that nice & moved onto a local

I remember the first time I saw the internet at a friends place. He told me that oneday the world would run through it. I thought he had lost it. How wrong I was.