Kwasaki Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 (edited) A long one from you " Beetlejuice " instead of your funny one liners, as for me I couldn't wait to leave England quick enough, and when my family asked when I would be back it was the opposite to the Terminators reply :- I will not be back. My youngest daughter is over the 25th of this month and most of friends and family come and see me, after all my family always has a home here, if they wish it to be so. I was never one of the people who be able to stay in the same place all my life anyhow, my job got me moving around to all different places that's why I loved my job up to a point but that's another story. I think what follows sum's it up for me :- Once a good friend of my said, " life is like a book to me ", probably some places and people are in it from beginning to the end, some of them are chapters, some just pages, some a paragraph maybe only a sentence". A good analogy and a perfect thought I think. Enjoy your life ciber friend Regards K Edited January 7, 2011 by Kwasaki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mca Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 The extended family support system here though is a nice warm net that is hard to put an exact value though (talking about middle class type networks, not the vampiric/parasitic ones that are more common but not exclusive to the lower classes). This is very true. My wife is working in Bangkok for the next 2 months and it's comforting to know that I'm a single phone call away from somebody in my family in Khon Kaen who'll deal with any problems big or small that may occur that I can't handle. These people are the salt of the earth. I always thought I was a " do anything for anybody at any time" type of bloke but they make me look like the most selfish bastard to ever walk the earth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJP Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 Reading this thread, the only thought that springs to mind is there are no happy valleys. I would caution against 'moving' to Thailand permanently. Inadvisable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surayu Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 I always thought I was a " do anything for anybody at any time" type of bloke but they make me look like the most selfish bastard to ever walk the earth. how true! i made my very own kind of "social experiments" in the local environment, to get a more precise confirmation of what i was feeling like, basically it went a bit like this, if you let them steal your belonging without saying a word or complaint, their chit-chat between them will be something on the tune of " oh the farang is soo greedy, i have to take by myself anything i need, he's soo bad" and so on, in our culture the act of "taking" they are talking about is more appropriately defined as "stealing", however, maybe is just a point of views , if you instead stop their unauthorized takings from you, the music is always the same "oh the farang never give anything to me, sooooooo greedy and selfish", if you take the initiative to give them anything you think they might in need of, then " ohh the farang, soooo greedy and selfish, he just gave to me only this and look he got all that, he's no good"......i am not going to judge anyone, the facts are clear enough to make your own opinion about all this..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJP Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 (edited) I always thought I was a " do anything for anybody at any time" type of bloke but they make me look like the most selfish bastard to ever walk the earth. how true! i made my very own kind of "social experiments" in the local environment, to get a more precise confirmation of what i was feeling like, basically it went a bit like this, if you let them steal your belonging without saying a word or complaint, their chit-chat between them will be something on the tune of " oh the farang is soo greedy, i have to take by myself anything i need, he's soo bad" and so on, in our culture the act of "taking" they are talking about is more appropriately defined as "stealing", however, maybe is just a point of views , if you instead stop their unauthorized takings from you, the music is always the same "oh the farang never give anything to me, sooooooo greedy and selfish", if you take the initiative to give them anything you think they might in need of, then " ohh the farang, soooo greedy and selfish, he just gave to me only this and look he got all that, he's no good"......i am not going to judge anyone, the facts are clear enough to make your own opinion about all this..... I had this earlier. The shock absorbers on the old mans truck were f'ed to honest, so I got them changed this morning. Plus a service came to 7500. No thanks or anything, just 'Where were the old shocks and to go and get them'. This is about an hours drive now. They want them to somehow fit failed shocks to the one eyed buffalo! Grim. Edited January 7, 2011 by MJP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mca Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 (edited) ^^Sorry I think you've got the wrong end of the stick. By selfish I didn't mean " Oh mca isn't buying the whisky for the party so we can all get shitfaced at his expense the tight arsed farang". I meant " selfish" as in my wife asking me to take her mum to the temple at 6 in the morning to make merit because she's busy and my father in law is sick and me thinking " Bloody 6 in the morning. Have I got to?" whereas they were more than willing to drive a 200km round trip at 10 in the evening to pick me up when my car broke down out in the boonies near Chumpae and call the recovery company to come and get my car. Edited January 7, 2011 by mca Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJP Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 ^^Sorry I think you've got the wrong end of the stick. By selfish I didn't mean " Oh mca isn't buying the whisky for the party so we can all get shitfaced at his expense the tight arsed farang". I meant " selfish" as in my wife asking me to take her mum to the temple at 6 in the morning to make merit because she's busy and my father in law is sick and me thinking " Bloody 6 in the morning. Have I got to?" whereas they were more than willing to drive a 200km round trip at 10 in the evening to pick me up when my car broke down out in the boonies near Chumpae and call the recovery company to come and get my car. This is therapy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mca Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 In what way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJP Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 In what way? Never mind. Don't worry 'bout it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mca Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 Well you're either appreciating my point or taking the piss out of it. It'd be nice to know which one so I don't get the wrong idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJP Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 Well you're either appreciating my point or taking the piss out of it. It'd be nice to know which one so I don't get the wrong idea. Oh the former. No need to get the wrong idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mca Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 All good mate. Good luck with your own domestic situation I read on the other thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJP Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 All good mate. Good luck with your own domestic situation I read on the other thread. Oh that comedy's been rolling for the past 25 months now. It went from excruciating disaster to what I now view as entertainment. I am bothered about the safety of the dog though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surayu Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 ..."to the temple at 6 in the morning to make merit" Well here you could try to accomplish something even harder , try to explain to them that if someone really wants to be a good human being, all it is needed it's just to be that in the everydays life, every gesture it counts, even if small, the genuinity is paramounts too, i came across many individuals that just believes after they committed some evil thing, sometime even totally unnecessary and only motivated by personal hate, all they need to do is going to make merit....... a few hours in the Wat and free again to do as before or even worse, making a big cash donation also takes you out from any sins you might have made, it doesn't matter what your real feelings are, but if you have nothing to offer they can benefit from, then there is no hope for you...:jap: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mca Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 I'm certainly not going to try to convince a 72 year old temple going Thai granny of anything to do with religion. Life's too short. It'd be a bit like telling Tom not to chase Jerry. I've got more productive and worthwhile things to do like hitting myself in the face with a steam iron. It took me long enough to implant into my own dear departed nan's noggin that I was in Thailand not Taiwan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJP Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 ..."to the temple at 6 in the morning to make merit" Well here you could try to accomplish something even harder , try to explain to them that if someone really wants to be a good human being, all it is needed it's just to be that in the everydays life, every gesture it counts, even if small, the genuinity is paramounts too, i came across many individuals that just believes after they committed some evil thing, sometime even totally unnecessary and only motivated by personal hate, all they need to do is going to make merit....... a few hours in the Wat and free again to do as before or even worse, making a big cash donation also takes you out from any sins you might have made, it doesn't matter what your real feelings are, but if you have nothing to offer they can benefit from, then there is no hope for you...:jap: The boys in orange, they've got it made! This being 'TV' I can't say what I feel about this, but at least it's based on Buddhist principles of seeing reality for what it really is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surayu Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 like hitting myself in the face with a steam iron. That could be a true "hit" , pun intended , not even at that Pukhet weird festival they dared so much...TAT, i mean TIT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beetlejuice Posted January 7, 2011 Author Share Posted January 7, 2011 A long one from you " Beetlejuice " instead of your funny one liners, as for me I couldn't wait to leave England quick enough, and when my family asked when I would be back it was the opposite to the Terminators reply :- I will not be back. My youngest daughter is over the 25th of this month and most of friends and family come and see me, after all my family always has a home here, if they wish it to be so. I was never one of the people who be able to stay in the same place all my life anyhow, my job got me moving around to all different places that's why I loved my job up to a point but that's another story. I think what follows sum's it up for me :- Once a good friend of my said, " life is like a book to me ", probably some places and people are in it from beginning to the end, some of them are chapters, some just pages, some a paragraph maybe only a sentence". A good analogy and a perfect thought I think. Enjoy your life ciber friend Regards K Yes, there is more to me then my warped sense of humour, I have a duel personality, think they call it, Schizophrenia, but I’ll save that for another thread. Really enjoying the posts here, it`s been an education. Some a little sad, others more on the brighter side, but it does prove that as farangs if you want to consider us all as one people like the Thais, we do share the same hopes, fears and have much more in common than we realise however much we may disagree and differ in our opinions. Perhaps with some of us, pride gets in the way and we are just afraid to look too deeply and talk about what’s actually on our minds. I think especially out here where many people of our own race and nationalities that we should be able to relate to are relatively strangers It is comforting to know that whatever we feel and think about things in general and any regrets or what we consider are achievements that is locked somewhere in our minds, that we are not unique out here in this foreign land and that others share similar experiences to ourselves, to me that means I am not the oddball perhaps I thought I was and as I said previous, there is a lot more to giving up the homeland then just changing locations, there can also be strong emotional turbulence that is going to hit everybody once in a while even if in general we do not appear to be affected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lammbock Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 The first few years in Thailand are great for everyone of us."The point of no return" (As u mentioned it) is for everyone of us at a differned part of our life in LOS whater financel problems, pure happines or our job. For my self i can say (and totaly agree with the OP) i do enjoy my yearly holiday back in my home country but my friends, family and relatives didn't changed in anyway over the time i was away. Now, enjoy my time with my Mum i can't wait to get back to Thailand. This is my live, this is what i choosed. I shouldn't complain. I do have to make the best of it and i like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scully Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 I had a mid life crisis "at 30!" the UK was going to the dogs and I got sick of the weather and day to day rigmarole of working to pay for a mortgage and feed yourself , with maybe the odd night out or wedding to look forward to. I still own a small business in the UK if I was ever to return and have a business (or should I say my GF has a business) and we do OK, life is very different here as I eat rice for all meals, sleep on the floor basically do all that the Thai's do and now the family see me as family and not just farrang. As for friends and family, after three years here I had the unpleasant experience of having to return to the UK. No kids playing in the streets, misserable faces everybody working for a bigger house or nicer car. All that said I couldn't live without skype just to stay in touch with close family. I am cuurently sat writing this watching the sun rise over the breathtaking Isaan mountains back home I would be looking over the road at the house over the road, so sold the house in 2006 and I am still here with no regrets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tartempion Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 To the OP: Not at all for me in fact. When I was 10 I went up to look at my home town, admiring the houses and churches from above (town laying in a valley) and I dreamed of ,living somewhere far away. But it did not happen like that. I was lucky to have found a job bringing me slowly away from home base, working for customer all over the country, thenm traveling all over Europe for the week, then to the USA, Canada, later Middle East and Asia. Thus one day I quit the rat race to settle down In Thailand, moving from region top the other, finally found rest in Isaan. I still have the "walking Jew" syndrome and need to get on the move several times per year. Thus I travel back "home" twice/year and enjoy my stay there for a few weeks and soon I get bored and catch a flight back to here. The microbe hit me again and I am planning a may trip home with a jump to visit Montreal friends I have not traveled there since 2000. Finding the best airline route/price takes a lot of research and fun. I could fly Air Transat club class for 750 euro, earn some miles on American Airlines for 660, or fly Swiss for 502, decisions, decisions.... And waiting for good deals from Bangkok to Paris, Brussels, A'dam, Frankfurt.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pjclark1 Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 (edited) I'm happy to live in any country where pretty girls 1/2 my age are more than happy to share my bed. I didn't leave the UK to come to Thailand for that reason, but once I realized, there was no going back. Back in the UK the only girls like that were pretty awful. I can overlook everything else! Edited January 8, 2011 by pjclark1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark45y Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 I'm happy to live in any country where pretty girls 1/2 my age are more than happy to share my bed. I didn't leave the UK to come to Thailand for that reason, but once I realized, there was no going back. Back in the UK the only girls like that were pretty awful. I can overlook everything else! I hear what you are saying but for me it is the kindness and generosity of the people willing to give you anything they have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astral Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 I was back in the UK for 4 months in 2009. It was not the same place I left back in 1985....... I was glad to get back to my current home and friends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ignoramus Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 What a great photo Mark45. It tells a happy story. Nice to note that you aren't crying into a beer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint66 Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 Its funny isnt it ???? , the grass is always greener on the other site ...lol 3 months here , 3 months there , or something like that , get the best of both worlds . Happy New Year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raylo Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 That's emigration for you isn't it.. It's a choice, not compulsory.. Exactly. Thats why I hate immigrants who are always whinging about coming here. As my (Thai) wife says. Tell them to go home. Original post very well said. A little insightful and a good read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExoticMatter Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 Feel that people have lost soul (here in sunny England), they only care their own selfish lives, heads down(if not looking will ram you with the trolley/car that sort of thing) The heart (theirs) isn't there anymore.When the TW came to England she kept saying Falang were very separate,meaning with their lives and attitudes,(when get home slam the door and thats that.) People don't communicate the same here anymore;broken society? reasons anyone? Good reason for living in LOS is Thai's have big hearts :jap: Nice thread by the way,like the musings :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancw3 Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 Very hard to disagree with the general consensus here. Thailand is still cheapish, but what price clean water, safe drivers and conversations that talk about ideas, not people? Thailand has its place for the lonely, the perverse and those unable to make much money back home. Unfortunately that includes me, lol What consensus? A lot of people including my self love living in Thailand. Thailand is one of the most popular expat destinations. I gave up a high paying job in the USA to move to Thailand and am happy I did. And despite all the horror stories about Thai women on these blogs I'm happily married to a Thai woman. Take a Thai woman over an American woman any day. One of the best decisions I ever made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StreetCowboy Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 .... What consensus? A lot of people including my self love living in Thailand. Thailand is one of the most popular expat destinations. I gave up a high paying job in the USA to move to Thailand and am happy I did. And despite all the horror stories about Thai women on these blogs I'm happily married to a Thai woman. Take a Thai woman over an American woman any day. One of the best decisions I ever made. Now we're talking! But I bet that would be expensive... I'd be frightened to even suggest it, till I'd hidden the scissors SC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.png.3b3332cc2256ad0edbc2fe9404feeef0.png)
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now