Survivalism In Thailand

[canuckamuck]

I don't think it necessarily needs to be a global meltdown for someone to need survival skills in Thailand. Certainly the potential for Thailand to have its very own meltdown is possible, some might say immanent.

[Chunky1]

I don't know what OP has in mind exactly but here is what is going to happen:

-Western currencies purchasing power in terms of real value** will fall

-Global stock markets which are currently massively overpriced and based on the delusion of Western solvency will crash in terms of real value**

-Global real estate which is currently massively overpriced on cheap credit and loose monetary policy based on the delusion of Western solvency will crash in terms of real value**

-The real value of gold and other commodities will appreciate substantially.

**Prices may increase in nominal dollars, but not in terms of real value (commodities).

[cardholder]

I'm for sure no believer in an upcoming global implosion, but this is an interesting article:

http://edition.cnn.c...nger/index.html

I hope it comes soon.

I have almost completed my strategy of (a) spending all my savings on alcohol and loose women and ( borrowing as much as I can so I am heavily in debt when the balloon goes up.

Infact, I have completed stage one and am now working on stage two.

[Ulysses G.]

Do you think that they will turn off the air-con after Armageddon? Uht Oh!

[elektrified]

YOU MUST BE A BUNDLE OF LAUGHS TO BE OUT WITH.

HAVE A GO ON THE FINANCIAL CRISIS THREAD YOU WILL FIND SOME LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE.

PS. THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS HAS ALREADY HAPPENED

(Sorry about CAPS lock)

Hahaha LOL wow are you in the dark. It's only just begun.

[Khun Jean]

In Thailand you will be more sure of food then in many western countries.

Everything revolves around transport.

Even now, with a little snowfall it becomes obvious that the just in time delivery system will fall short one day. If it snow for 1-2 days more then the supermarkets will be empty in 1-3 days.

Do people still have a deep pantry or are they going to be very hungry?

Survival for me means, food, shelter and safety. The best way to secure that is to be part of a small local community. Locking yourself up in a cabin in the woods will not work.

Survival skills necessary will be: being able to adapt, communicate, work as part of a group, having valuable skills etc. It is not about how much gold and guns you have.

Winter or summer, in Thailand food is abundant. Thailand will just take care of itself first and then export what is left.

I am 100% convinced we will return to a simpler live style and centered more and more around local communities.

No more food that has to travel thousands of miles before it reaches you.

I am actually looking forward to a simpler live style, i hope it will not be forced onto people. Hopefully there will not be a 'shock' but a slow and controlled retreat from globalism to localism.

[Ulysses G.]

Someone has been watching too much Glenn Beck.

[Travel2003]

This has to be a wind up, surely nobody can be as sad as this OP

Dont forget he is a "funlovingkid".

[crazygreg44]

Thais would say , world gone bad , money gone bad , no ploblem, we got rice !

However like many posters quoted, it is questionable that you will be tolerated in the village community when your dollar is good enuff to wipe your A..E with . ..

some posters expect anarchism .. that s a wide subject, open to the wildest speculations ! Welcome to the believers of 2012 and Nostradamus !

my two cents here will be subdued to the fact, that all that moves here - economy and YOU as well - is based on the CHEAP PRICE of OIL and it's AVAILABILITY ! Scientists have long declared that the peak exploration has already been reached.

For your scare I'd like to admonister, that SOMCHAI cannot tuk-tuk his Cart to the market when the oil hits 150 Baht at the pump, whilst the US of A are wagingf another war of the pumps, and the chinese hold their stakes in the African aftermath ..

Do the maths. . you are welcome in the sticks in Thailand as long as the farmers don t need a victim onto which they can blame the obvious end of the dreams . . . .

[crazygreg44]

Why would Thailand kick farang out except those that are bankrupt, committing crimes and/or living on the street? Granted, that will be a very high percentage, but still, no reason to think that all farang will be kicked out.

The OP pointed that it will be the situation when disaster is such that your Dollars are just good enough to start the charcoal fires with . . means worthless. Don t make me believe that this is the moment when we will be most welcome to tell them how to grow food . . .

[Chunky1]

Someone has been watching too much Glenn Beck.

It's the opposite, Glen Beck has been watching other people and stealing what they say (seriously).

It's funny though, the fact that Glen Beck has adopted these ideas just makes more people assume that it's another Y2K hoax. The people with their head in the sand never address the "doomsayers" from a technical standpoint but instead rely on their personal history of media hysteria.

I guess they must have missed the Dow Jones falling 50% before Obama and Bernanke saved the planet by creating another inflationary boom through low credit and loose monetary policy as was the case in the tech bubble and housing bubble stimulating the markets, without creating jobs.

[jazzbo]

The people with their head in the sand never address the "doomsayers" from a technical standpoint but instead rely on their personal history of media hysteria. Why spend the time? Life is too short ... you should try it some time.

[Ulysses G.]

The people with their head in the sand never address the "doomsayers" from a technical standpoint but instead rely on their personal history of media hysteria.

As much as I enjoy some of the outlandish threads that you start, I'm rather suspicious of your personal opinions on the future of the planet.

Edited December 23, 2010 by Ulysses G.

[Ricardo]

Somehow I don't think I'd last long, once 1500 million starving people came over the border, from the North. The problem with growing-your-own in Thailand, after the collapse of global trade, is that this country isn't an island.

[patongster]

Interesting thread, topics like this are always amusing. Like some others have said, if shit really hits the fan, foreingners will be the first to be targeted. That will go for all countries including western ones, but especially countries like Thailand.

[mca]

I think I'm ready for the rapture/armageddon/collapse of the world/sky falling down/aliens arriving/people running for the high ground (insert your favourite fantasy as applicable).

Dunno about you biff but my favourite fantasy usually involves me being a teacher at a Thai university with an all girl class on national " No Underwear and MDMA Ingestion Day "

I think I'm ready for the rapture

I think it's already happened for the majority of local Thai bus drivers. The way they're all over the road there's not a chance in hell anybody is actually behind the steering wheel.

Edited December 24, 2010 by mca

[cardholder]

It's funny though, the fact that Glen Beck has adopted these ideas just makes more people assume that it's another Y2K hoax.

Oh no !!

Don't tell me I spent all that money on Y2K planning for NOTHING !

[mca]

I never could understand the panic over Y2K. All that palaver over a bunch of zips and fasteners.

[cardholder]

In Thailand you will be more sure of food then in many western countries.

Everything revolves around transport.

Even now, with a little snowfall it becomes obvious that the just in time delivery system will fall short one day. If it snow for 1-2 days more then the supermarkets will be empty in 1-3 days.

Do people still have a deep pantry or are they going to be very hungry?

I have seen no reports in the UK of anyone starving to death.

I saw one woman had been mauled by a Belgian mastiff - perhaps TESCO had run out of dog food.

[sarahsbloke]

LATC

from Life After The Crash

Civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon. This is not the wacky proclamation of a doomsday cult, apocalypse bible prophecy sect, or conspiracy theory society. Rather, it is the scientific conclusion of the best paid, most widely-respected geologists, physicists, bankers, and investors in the world. These are rational, professional, conservative individuals who are absolutely terrified by a phenomenon known as global "Peak Oil."

This is one of the most likely scenarios for the end of the world as we know it.

When the oil runs out western civilization would quickly end (read the novels 'Last Light' and 'Afterlight' by Alex Scarrow) and the countries reduced to barbarism. The UK keeps very little food in reserve as storing food ties up capital. Delivery and distribution in the UK is very tight these days, estimates are that there is only food for two weeks at any given time.

Interestingly in most of Asia this would have little effect as the population is mainly primitive and rural.

For example, I am surrounded by paddy fields even thought quite close to Chiang Mai, my wifes farm is in very rural Petchabun and all you can see from her house is crop fields. The crops are still mainly planted, tended and harvested by hand. If the worst were to happen (my money went along with everyone else's) ..... the end result would be me living in the same conditions as all the Thai relatives. They would have no more reason to harm me than any other older man in the village.

Of course the mistake many make is thinking gold will have any worth after the crash. Land, food and weapons is what it will be all about! If in the west at the moment, include heating ....... no heat in these weather conditions and most of the population would die very quickly.

Edited December 25, 2010 by sarahsbloke

[Tonto21]

Survivalism in Thailand, Planning to stay in Thailand even if the worst happens,

I feel its evident reading the replies to this topic that everyone's view of survival is deferent. Survival to one person could be a loss of all their money in a stock market crash, to another it's getting to see the sun rise for another day. I think it boils down to a case of personality, Optimist or pessimist, "glass half full or half empty" survival to me means a continued existence, anything short of that is life!

I've said it before and I'll say it again.............Full on survival, (the car's chami leather for a loincloth and next doors cat...for a hat!) Thailand every time.

To the TV's that replied, Knocking the topic as being morbid or insinuating that anyone thinking such things is a bit tingtong! I did read a few years back a report from the FAA, The report; Air accidents and survival rates, I don't recall all the facts, but some things stuck. It's a matter of course that all survivors from aircraft accidents are interviewed for; a firsthand eye witness account of what happened and what they did personally before during and after to the incident to account for their survival. There were a lot of fact and figures, but some stuck, in air craft accidents where 10% or less of the total passengers were killed in an incident; 50% of the survivors had taken positive mental steps to ensure there survival, in the form of reading the safety instruction, visualizing there escape, taking note of exits. Where the death toll was 50% an average of 70% of survivors took positive mental steps to ensure their survival, where 80% death toll, an average of 90% of survivors took positive mental steps to ensure their survival.

Anyone still think their life or own survival is all down to luck? What's that saying;"you make your own luck, Luck, like life; I believe is the crossroads where preparation and planning meets opportunity. So, fact, It's coming, (the end, but not as we know it....Jim) maybe not our life time....But it's coming, so just in case, You best either buy lots of canned soup, a spoon and a very big knife, or take up yoga, (so you can kiss your own ass goodbye)

Edited December 25, 2010 by Tonto21

[jaideeguy]

LATC

from Life After The Crash

Civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon. This is not the wacky proclamation of a doomsday cult, apocalypse bible prophecy sect, or conspiracy theory society. Rather, it is the scientific conclusion of the best paid, most widely-respected geologists, physicists, bankers, and investors in the world. These are rational, professional, conservative individuals who are absolutely terrified by a phenomenon known as global "Peak Oil."

This is one of the most likely scenarios for the end of the world as we know it.

When the oil runs out western civilization would quickly end (read the novels 'Last Light' and 'Afterlight' by Alex Scarrow) and the countries reduced to barbarism. The UK keeps very little food in reserve as storing food ties up capital. Delivery and distribution in the UK is very tight these days, estimates are that there is only food for two weeks at any given time.

Interestingly in most of Asia this would have little effect as the population is mainly primitive and rural.

For example, I am surrounded by paddy fields even thought quite close to Chiang Mai, my wifes farm is in very rural Petchabun and all you can see from her house is crop fields. The crops are still mainly planted, tended and harvested by hand. If the worst were to happen (my money went along with everyone else's) ..... the end result would be me living in the same conditions as all the Thai relatives. They would have no more reason to harm me than any other older man in the village.

Of course the mistake many make is thinking gold will have any worth after the crash. Land, food and weapons is what it will be all about! If in the west at the moment, include heating ....... no heat in these weather conditions and most of the population would die very quickly.

I have to agree with Sarasbloke on 'peak oil' being the most likely scenario for 'survivalism'. It is a known fact that we already at the top of the bell curve with 'easy oil', yet we are consuming more and more and what happens when the wells run dry??

Oil prices will go up, there will be shortages and we'll have to cope. Unless someone comes up with a magic fuel....it's inevetable.

Also agree that self sufficient Asian countries will hurt less than the west and don't have as far to fall.

[inmysights]

I'm really happy that all of this will end in December 2012 ! 24 months to go !

BS you disingenuous fool. Name your bet!

[gregb]

LATC

from Life After The Crash

Civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon. This is not the wacky proclamation of a doomsday cult, apocalypse bible prophecy sect, or conspiracy theory society. Rather, it is the scientific conclusion of the best paid, most widely-respected geologists, physicists, bankers, and investors in the world. These are rational, professional, conservative individuals who are absolutely terrified by a phenomenon known as global "Peak Oil."

This is one of the most likely scenarios for the end of the world as we know it.

When the oil runs out western civilization would quickly end (read the novels 'Last Light' and 'Afterlight' by Alex Scarrow) and the countries reduced to barbarism. The UK keeps very little food in reserve as storing food ties up capital. Delivery and distribution in the UK is very tight these days, estimates are that there is only food for two weeks at any given time.

Interestingly in most of Asia this would have little effect as the population is mainly primitive and rural.

For example, I am surrounded by paddy fields even thought quite close to Chiang Mai, my wifes farm is in very rural Petchabun and all you can see from her house is crop fields. The crops are still mainly planted, tended and harvested by hand. If the worst were to happen (my money went along with everyone else's) ..... the end result would be me living in the same conditions as all the Thai relatives. They would have no more reason to harm me than any other older man in the village.

Of course the mistake many make is thinking gold will have any worth after the crash. Land, food and weapons is what it will be all about! If in the west at the moment, include heating ....... no heat in these weather conditions and most of the population would die very quickly.

I have to agree with Sarasbloke on 'peak oil' being the most likely scenario for 'survivalism'. It is a known fact that we already at the top of the bell curve with 'easy oil', yet we are consuming more and more and what happens when the wells run dry??

Oil prices will go up, there will be shortages and we'll have to cope. Unless someone comes up with a magic fuel....it's inevetable.

Also agree that self sufficient Asian countries will hurt less than the west and don't have as far to fall.

Oil is the precursor to every other resource that we use. Peak oil means peak everything, as the cost to extract any other resource will skyrocket as oil becomes unavailable. Unfortunately, there are many unreliable opinions out there as to what this will actually mean to our daily lives. Some sites, like LATOC mentioned above, are filled with the tinfoil crowd that believes oil will just suddenly dry up, and Mutant Zombie Bikers will roam the land ala Mad Max. A more reasonable take on what a post peak oil world is can be found at a site like the Arch Druid Report, where John Michael Greer takes painstaking efforts to compare what we are going through now to what countless civilizations before us have also gone through.

A little bit of actual history and some common sense says that while our predicament is an order of magnitude more severe than what has transpired before us, the profile of what we can expect to experience is basically the same. Namely, rationing, followed by resource wars, several reorganizations to lower levels of complexity, before finally bottoming out at a sustainable level that is based on local economies without huge exosomatic energy inputs in the form of fossil fuels. This process will take more than a century. The "fast crash" envisioned by the LATOC tinfoil zombie hordes doesn't actually represent reality.

What is much more likely is a slow crumbling of civilization, beginning at the edges and slowly working its way towards the city centers. There will be no "Aha!" moment, when someone can say "now we've crashed." It will be a very, very slow decline, punctuated by periods of catastrophe. Survivalism in this scenario will not be about trapping wild bears and eating insects (although mass starvation will definitely be a large part of it), instead it will be about learning to make do with less, learning how to make the things you need using local resources, doing without modern medical care (even during plagues and disease outbreaks), living without electricity and refrigeration, reorganizing into tribes and clans when central authority breaks down, paying local warlords for protection, and developing low tech skills necessary to survive in a non industrialized world.

Thailand in a few decades is likely to look much like Cambodia of 10 years ago. History tells us that one thing is absolutely guaranteed during decline, and that is there will still be hierarchy among the population. No matter how poor everyone is, there will always be some that have an excess. And those people will value gold rather than yet another ton of rice that they can't eat. After their needs and the needs of their private armies are met, the extra surplus must be traded for things of lasting value, and gold has throughout history been that thing.

I just think there is too much misinformation and scare stories being spun on the web by people with Armageddon mythologies on the brain. Civilizations collapse. They have throughout history. And most collapses look surprisingly similar. Ours will likely be no different. Yes, billions will die over the next couple of centuries. Life will be hard, people will be starving and unable to get medical attention. Central governments will not have the resources to help the outlying areas. They will be left to fend for themselves and society reorganizes at lower levels of complexity. Wars will become common place. Technologies will be lost. But throughout that whole time, oil will still be coming from the ground in lower and lower numbers, and contracting industrial pockets will be fighting amongst themselves for scant resources.

If you are preparing to survive for a short time in the wilderness, to reemerge in a few years to a gilded age, you are preparing for the wrong thing. That is not the kind of survivalism that will be helpful. Learn a low tech trade, practice surviving on less, prepare to live a shorter and more difficult life. Walk alot more. Get ready for manual labor. That is what you will need in the coming decades and centuries.

[jaideeguy]

great post greg.....

[Ulysses G.]

.

What is much more likely is a slow crumbling of civilization, beginning at the edges and slowly working its way towards the city centers. There will be no "Aha!" moment, when someone can say "now we've crashed." It will be a very, very slow decline, punctuated by periods of catastrophe.

Not with a bang, but with a whimper...

[atf343]

I agree with some of the others in the post:

Adapt

Learn how to make do without electricity, gas, or running water - you can always practice for a week or so

Be friendly to others

It will, as it's been said b4, not as sudden as say a zombie apocalypse. However, if you're so deadset on preparing, prepare for floods and waterproof everything esp on rainy season.

[inmysights]

Hi sheople,

If i am honest (and why shouldn't I be?) a similar thought does cross my mind. I have often thought that if the sh*t were to hit the fan in a big way, would I want to be in an agrarian society where self sustainability would be 'more doable' or in a city, western or eastern (such as the one I was raised in)?? To me, a fair chunk of rural Thais would have 'less far to fall' than those in places who rely solely on others for food/clean water etc.

I am lucky insomuch that I live in relative rural tranquility within a pretty close knot community (neighbors/in laws) and not in central Bangkok/Pattaya/Chiang Mai.... that said, I can also foresee a time when all visas would be canceled and all non-Thais potentially deported.... should that time come, I should have to make a tough choice - follow the herd back home or head for the hills with the family? A friend has about 50 rai stuck out in the middle of nowhere with access to fresh water and aims to be almost self sufficient after living there for only two years. Makes sense to me... for whatever his reasons.

No one wants such a scenario to ever occur, but I see no harm in thinking about it and maybe trying to make oneself the least 'vulnerable' possible...

Cheers

I am always nonplussed by these 'Thailand' or 'Go Home' 'solutions' to any potential problems HERE.

There're plenty more countries around Asia/The Planet. I'd take a bullet before I returned to mine.

[inmysights]

If you are preparing to survive for a short time in the wilderness, to reemerge in a few years to a gilded age, you are preparing for the wrong thing. That is not the kind of survivalism that will be helpful. Learn a low tech trade, practice surviving on less, prepare to live a shorter and more difficult life. Walk alot more. Get ready for manual labor. That is what you will need in the coming decades and centuries.

[unquote]

If these principles had been applied in the past, 'we' (namely mainly the West) would not be in the situation it is now.

As to someone from Bradford or Baden Baden being able to cope without their local Tesco/Villa Market et al being to immediately adapt to a hunter/gatherer lifestyle is laughable.

And what about the (oh god I hate this term) 'elite' who'd brought all of this upon the 'masses' in their own interests in the first place? They going to send out minions from their closely guarded enclaves to feed them? Back to Square One.

Relax. Nothing's going to happen. This is merely another wake up call. And this is is an extremely silly thread.

Edited December 26, 2010 by inmysights

[geriatrickid]

It is obvious that some people have no clue as to to how modern agriculture works in Thailand. It is dependent upon mechanization and the use of pesticides and fertilizers. It is also requires lots of water. Guess what happens when Thailand cannot afford to purchase fossil fuels? No more fertilizers, no more pesticides and no more farm implements. The agricultural yields will plummet. When the countries at the headwaters of Thailand's water supplies dam off the rivers to make electricity what will Thailand do? Oh, I can hear it now, they'll use water buffalo like the old days. well, it will take years to breed those beasts and they won't harvest the rice fast enough. In the interim, all it will take is one year of reduced harvests and limited food imports for millions to slowly starve to death.

pestilence and disease will spread throughout the country. TB, HIV, influenza, common fatal infections once easily prevented or treated will spread because the resources to make and distribute the medicines won't be available anymore.

I like the part where people say they can live it rough in the jungle. try it for a week and see how long you last. drink the water tainted with parasites or toxic chemicals that will spread because of neglect. Malaria control programs will cease. within a year, jungle dwellers will have experienced malaria, dengue, Berri berri and a host of other tropical diseases. It's hard to go rough in the jungle. I was obliged to rough it in the bush a few times and it wasn't much of a life.

And don't forget the Chinese. China, is a land of a billion+ which nees to import its resources that keep it going. If it can no longer import, its people will spread like a plague of locusts consuming everything in their path. China could easily send a wave of 100million through southeast asia absorbing laos, Cambodi and Thailand. The forests would be chopped down, the meager resources taken for the Han and the local populations crushed. Before that happened, there would be a large war with India Pakistan and China tossing a few nukes. Eating radioactive papaya is hardly the future one hopes for.