Why Did You Come To Thailand The First Time?

[bbigman21]

I came to to see if all the stories were true about all the bars and the girls and I met a girl in the mall and fell in love.

[apetley]

Was looking at the Thomas Cook website for a cheap holiday to anywhere and the first special offer was cheap flights, LHR-BKK.

The rest, as they say, is history.

[OZONE]

. She was fed up earning her living horizontal so she returned to LOS and asked me if I would like to come over and have a look.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wonder what you meant?

"have a look"? i bet you said "heck yea"

[Padkapow Guy]

1995 came over to start up a plant in Ta Toom, near Prachinburi. Spent 6 months there and have been back almost every year since.

PKG

[Captain Chaos]

I was working in India. The boss of our company's Thailand operation was visiting the Indian subsidiary and offered me a promotion and relocation to Thailand. Took me at least a nanosecond to agree!

[MikeRay]

Honestly, to travel with my clique through an amazing and beautiful tropical country on a budget

Got fed up with that after 3 weeks and spent twice of that in 6 days Chaweng Beach,Koh Samui

[moonoi]

I saw that my company was setting up a new group in BKK and needed experienced staff to move here on local contracts. I was sick of Paris and ready to quit so thought that I would apply and give it a go.

Needless to say I got the transfer

Had never been here or to SE Asia before, and I love the place......don't ever want to leave (and I'm not into the "BG" scene so thats not the reason ).

Been here 1 year now

[the_heart_thief]

I came to Thailand for the PARTIES! ("Drink Properly", Dance from 10PM til' 1AM/2AM at least 3x a week.)

[jonik]

cheap ticket

[gareth1]

In 2000 my father was visiting BKK he's 76 (thank god for viagra).

I flew out for a long weekend to join him and was hooked,26 flights in 18 months.

Mooved hear 4 years ago,many many ups and downs been through hedges backwards and forwards seems ok at the momment but who knows in this weird and wonderfull place I call home now.

[Neeranam]

1993 - To study Buddhism in a place that had nice pharmaceutical drugs I could buy over the counter, and cheap booze. Also, it was easy to get a job as an English teacher, and the girls were kinda cute. Nice food, weather, and beaches was a bonus.

Edited January 5, 2006 by Neeranam

[chonabot]

To shag fit girls for the price of a pack of ciggies like.

[Popeyethesailorman]

My ship had stopped over in Singapore back in 1995 on the way to Darwin and it just seemed right to jump ship and have a holiday in LOS. The holiday turned into a 10 year stint but alas I had to come back to sailing as money was running out.

[Guest endure]

1993 - To study Buddhism in a place that had nice pharmaceutical drugs

Presumably you hadn't got around to the 5th precept?

[The Skipper]

Pussy, I came for the Pussy.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Pussy, I came for the Pussy.

[Ulysses G.]

Pussy, I came for the Pussy.

One honest soul.

[Gary A]

I have Chrysler to thank for my discovering Thailand. After 22 years of working for Chrysler they decided to sell the factory I worked in. I ended up working for an Australian company who were planning on building a joint venture factory in Thailand. I basically came here in 1991 for work. After the factory was built and producing I went back to the USA and spent the next three years figuring out how to come back to Thailand. I decided to go in business here and after two years I was broke and went back to the USA with my tail between my legs. I have been lucky to be in a high paying profession and saved my money to retire in the Kingdom. Now I am here to stay. I live here VERY well on my retirement income. I couldn't afford and wouldn't have wanted to retire in the USA.

I came BACK for the women.

[the_heart_thief]

Pussy, I came for the Pussy.

Oh, behave!

[dr_Pat_Pong]

It's only his natural urges

[GPage]

It seems we see many many threads about bar girls all the problems ect. All the advice about staying away from them and hooking up with the more educated women. They all seem to run the same bar girls bad, not thier fault though money for thier poor Issan famalies. Let me say this one thing and I will get off my soap box, there are many many poor girls in Issan that never end up in bars. The poor people in Thailand as far as I can tell are by no means poorest people in the world. Must be a reason why people from Laos want to get here. Ok thats over.

So now what brought you to Thailand, not job or military related in the first place?

I'll kick things off I came for a party with beautiful women, nothing noble about it and very self serving. I had that party for three weeks and paid through the nose for it, it was worth every penny spent, no complaints.

The lifestyle I have now is what brought me back, which has nothing to do with the original party I had. But the reality if I had not been enticed here by that party I would have never had what I have now.

There were prices to pay to have what I now have and just like the party worth every penny.

So no matter how your life is now what really brought you here in the first place or made you return after the military or job you had here?

My story is probably pretty generic as I was stationed at Korat RTAFB in '70. My twin brother and I were in the USAF and got them to send us over together. Regardless of the fact that we were 19 years old and could have made the best of any time together, this was truly the best year of our lives. In spite of the war and the political situation, we never did forget our time there and shared fond recollections for years afterwards. Once both of us were divorced, we had nobody to object to a return trip. We went back for a few weeks in '94...almost 25 years after our first experience. Right back to Korat...to our old stomping grounds. Talk about our noses being open!!!

Next year at this time, we will be new residents in Phuket as expatriates on a retirement visa. We have no plans to ever return to the states. I can't think of a more wonderful place on earth to spend my final years. Even if we should go nuts and spend our entire nest egg in the first year...I would be happy. One year in Thailand is worth a lifetime of memories anywhere else.

G

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Sounds good.

[StateSix]

I never had any urge whatsoever to travel, let alone to Thailand, which I thought was full of wanky backpackers and perverts (how wrong I was ). A friend of mine came here by chance and ended up coming back about 5/6 times. He finally convinced me and a few mates to come and I loved it. A few months later I was at work reading an industry magazine and saw an advert for my role in Thailand. Sent my CV off and within a week I was interviewed and offered the job. I had my final interview for the Police 2 days after that and bottled it and joined the Police. Whilst I loved that job, I got sick of dealing with drunken yobs and the cold and the rain, and I could not get Thailand out of my system. 2 years later I e-mailed the company to see if they had any openings and as luck would have it the director was in the UK interviewing at the time. Met up, got offered the job and resigned the next day. Best decision I ever made.

[meom]

. She was fed up earning her living horizontal so she returned to LOS and asked me if I would like to come over and have a look.

Wonder what you meant?

"have a look"? i bet you said "heck yea"

You're absolutely right although things didn't go exactly as planned. Back in the karaoke she was this stunning girl without any inhibitions when it came to carnal pleasures

So when I arrived in Bangkok after two months in the desert I was looking forward to rejuvenate the ties that bind. However once in the bedroom it turned out that suddenly some chapters of the Karma Sutra were out of bonds. So I asked her what's the matter, you're not in the mood?She replied that since she was not a ho#oker anymore she wouldn't do certain chapters.

I kinda lost my erection on the spot and almost choked in a fit of laughter.

Next surprise came later when she told me her real age. It turned out she was six years older than me

Anyway things developed over time and we get along fine

[PeaceBlondie]

If the other guy admitted that he came over for the pussy, can I admit that I came over for the dick?

Not claiming; just asking.

[The Skipper]

.. but I came back because I like the Thai people, the lifestyle, reasonable prices, variety of good and foods and of coure the abundant vitamin P.

[Ulysses G.]

If the other guy admitted that he came over for the pussy, can I admit that I came over for the dick?

Not claiming; just asking.

Speaking personally, it would be a lot more exciting to know that if you are a girl.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

If the other guy admitted that he came over for the pussy, can I admit that I came over for the dick?

Not claiming; just asking.

Speaking personally, it would be a lot more exciting to know that if you are a girl.

[Rigger]

To shag fit girls for the price of a pack of ciggies like.

Have some kids and grow up you TW#T

[Tippaporn]

There's the surface version of why I came to Thailand. But that version is merely the how of it and can only tell of surface events.

Asia was one of the last destinations I would have ever chosen had it been on my dime. For whatever reason, this region of the world held little interest for me. Working for a multinational company I had the opportunity to travel a few times a year and was sent to Thailand for a 2-3 week stint setting up an assembly line for PCs.

I absolutely fell in love with the people my very first day. Fifteen hours after my plane touched down I met my wife. I spent as much of my free time with her as possible. Our last weekend we took a one day, one night trip to Patters, staying up all night together as I had a 7:00AM flight out on Monday morning. I could write profusely about the details of those mere ten days, the absolute joy and awe I was filled with. But I did immediately recognize, heck, was slapped firmly in the face with the knowing that I had just been through an experience that was to profoundly change the course of my life.

I can recall one particular instance with as much vividness as any present moment. As we finished packing up in our hotel in Patters (she insisted on doing all the packing of my suitcases) my teehrak (whose name is Tippaporn BTW) wanted to give me something from her heart. She had nothing to give, really, in the way of a purchased remembrance as she was poor and supporting her child and parents.

But we had taken a trip to the island off Patters that day and walked along the beach shore. She took a spontaneous interest in collecting colorful seashells and rocks and I began collecting them for her myself. So as she was ready to zip the bags up, symbolizing the finality of our short relationship, she paused momentarily, and from the plastic bag filled with her precious rocks and seashells she began giving me her favorite ones. What struck me with utter amazement during that episode was the ambiance of kindness and yearning which exuded from her heart to transform her face and eyes into the most wonderful features I have ever witnessed. I looked at her, awe struck of those beautiful eyes in particular, and promised her then and there that I would be back in 4-5 months.

Yes, I returned for a three week holiday five months later. Almost ten months to the day after arriving back home, star struck and somewhat dazed and with a single-minded focus unlike any I had felt before of returning to Thailand and my teehrak, I was able to work out a transfer to our company's plant in Samut Prakarn.

BTW, I am still with my teehrak, going on five years, in what has turned out to be the most remarkable relationship which was beyond my then current imagination of what possibly could exist. Now, the initial joy and awe I felt on that first trip, what I can only describe as 10 days of continuous magic, has never left me nor diminished an iota. Nor can I ever again look in Tippaporn's face without simultaneously remembering the pureness of her spirit that had graced me the night she offered me those cherished stones and seashells (which I maintain on prominent display in our home).

The true why of how I ended up in Thailand is a matter of the heart and soul. To find those answers (and they are multitudinous) one needs to travel beneath the surface of everyday events and occurrences and enter a different realm altogether (one which I like to travel to often). My life up until my first trip had developed into a monotonous regimen of work and . . . boredom. I had recognized this fact months in advance of my initial trip and came to the realization that my life lacked excitement.

Another issue in my life at the time was that I had been divorced for seven years. After a long marriage of tribulation I was happy to be free of an intimate relationship. At the same time, I realized my life needed an infusion of, well, life, I also considered that it was time for me to get back upon my bicycle.

Now, everyone has their own preference as to body type and mine has always been small, thin and petite. At a ripe age of 45 my mind turned to what prospects would be available to me here in the States. Living in a population where the obesity rate is currently running at approximately 37% my heart took a slight downward turn. I, myself, have always been in good shape and slender.

Thailand was simply an answer, the best matching solution, to what I desired at the time. While I've mentioned only two reasons where Thailand and my desires were a match there are many, many others which I won't get into here for the sake of brevity (which I've already transgressed ).

Well, there you have the short of it, or at least as it appears to me! I've enjoyed reading so many of the other responses since this is really a topic that could be more appropriately entitled: "How Did Your Dream Come True." IMHO I enjoy reading threads that touch upon the heart. They're so much more fulfilling than so many of the other threads which are often filled with so much malcontent. But there's value in all of it.

Thanks, ray23, for a great OP.

I got off the plane and met my wife to be about 5 hours later...

tutsi, I'm chagrined . . . you beat my record my a whopping 10 hours!!

Edited January 7, 2006 by Tippaporn