Are Us Men In Thailand Different From Other Men At Home?

[meatballs]

Well back in my country(USA) nobody travels at all. So that makes me pretty different.

[MAJIC]

Some people come here to try to get away from something,others come here to try and find something.I used to feel misplaced in a lot of places i used to live in(different countries).Been in Thailand for nearly ten years now and i feel i am finally at home.

I dont think it's a bad thing that people want to change.The thing that gets me with men moving to Thailand is that they seem to leave there commonsense and honesty in their home country plus try to change and become something they never could be or indeed were.For example:- men who claim to be SAS, Navy Seals or other ex special forces, Men who cant seem to tell the truth, men who suddenly claim to be zil,lionaires living on a basic budget, men who think they have turned into male models that the ladies cant resist, Men who claim to be airline pilots, men who are quite young claiming to have retired.Chaps, all I can say is that if you fit the above or another category of which there are many, you make yourselves look like complete tossers, don't do it and be true to yourself.If you were a builder, say that, if you cleaned toilets, then that's OK too.Don't sell yourself short and if your mate is being a cock, tell him, he may not know how stupid he looks!

I love the kind of people you have identified. They provide entertainment without charge and the more time you spend talking with them, the more elaborate becomes their framework of lies. Enjoy yourself by asking them detailed and probing questions, in a modest and reverential way of course and only when there's plenty of company. Others categories include people who worked for MI6 and who are forbidden from discussing it and stocks and shares traders for Bank Belgique!

One thing these Walter Mittys have in common.......poor memories,ask them to tell you the same story 2 weeks later,and it will be completely different,guaranteed!

[chiangmaikelly]

Well back in my country(USA) nobody travels at all. So that makes me pretty different.

AAA Projects 42.5 Million Americans Will Travel This Thanksgiving, Four Percent More Than Last Year and that's for one day.

[TommoPhysicist]

Am I adventurous? Well; not really in the sense that I want to go Mountain climbing, Pot holing, Deep Sea diving, Et al. I like to ride my Bike every day and chat with the village locals, which is adventurous enough for me, but I know that's not enough for everyone. All depends on what people want for themselves when retired.

Done all those, including pot holing (cave SCUBA diving) in Florida springs and wreck diving in the UK.

Still go hiking on mountains and through jungles.

Yep, most of us foreigners living in Asia are adventurous.

........... men who are quite young claiming to have retired.

I retired at age 45, is there a problem with that?

Edited October 5, 2012 by TommoPhysicist

[impulse]

Real unemployment in the US is close to 20% and it is 0% in Thailand.

You have me curious, If unemployment in Thailand is 0%, would those dozen or so beggars I pass every day on my 100 meter walk to lunch be categorized as service workers, manufacturing workers or agricultural workers? And those hundreds of nice ladies I pass on Soi Cowboy, I guess they would be categorized as "service workers?"

And those sturdy looking local guys I always see in the pictures taken during those jet ski scams, they'd be categorized as employed in the tourist industry?

If you're going to make an argument, start with a reasonable statement. Thailand doesn't have 0% unemployment.

Oh, and everyone who is willing to work for the dollar equivalent of 300 baht or less a day in the USA probably has a job, too. Heck, I can cut 6 lawns a day and if I offered to cut lawns for $2 each x 6 a day, I'd have all the work I could handle, and make over 300 baht.

Edited October 5, 2012 by impulse

[jamora]

Real unemployment in the US is close to 20% and it is 0% in Thailand.

You have me curious, If unemployment in Thailand is 0%, would those dozen or so beggars I pass every day on my 100 meter walk to lunch be categorized as service workers, manufacturing workers or agricultural workers? And those hundreds of nice ladies I pass on Soi Cowboy, I guess they would be categorized as "service workers?"

And those sturdy looking local guys I always see in the pictures taken during those jet ski scams, they'd be categorized as employed in the tourist industry?

If you're going to make an argument, start with a reasonable statement. Thailand doesn't have 0% unemployment.

Oh, and everyone who is willing to work for the dollar equivalent of 300 baht or less a day in the USA probably has a job, too. Heck, I can cut 6 lawns a day and if I offered to cut lawns for $2 each x 6 a day, I'd have all the work I could handle, and make over 300 baht.

The unemployment rate in Thailand is actually very near 0%.

Remember that to be unemployed you need to:

1. Be without a job.

2. Be able to work.

3. Be actively looking for work.

The labor-force participation rate for Thailand is, however, quite low (64% for females and 80% for males, if I remember correct).

[akspace]

Well back in my country(USA) nobody travels at all. So that makes me pretty different.

AAA Projects 42.5 Million Americans Will Travel This Thanksgiving, Four Percent More Than Last Year and that's for one day.

I love pedants! What he means, and it should be obvious in this context, is most Americans don't travel outside the country. Of those 42.5 million traveling on one day, about 50% will be driving (probably traveling less then 450km), the vast majority will be staying inside the US.

As for the original topic, well I'm not an expat, I do get a lot of people questioning me about how much I travel (4 months outside the US in the last two years). I also have a lot of trouble trying to get the time off, because we have a very work focused culture. In the end it's nothing new, I've always had an adventurous lifestyle, before it was world travel people where questioning my sanity because I was constantly breaking myself. Specifically over the course of the last six years; broken ribs twice (skiing and mountain biking), concussion twice (mountain biking and white water rafting), torn meniscus (skiing), broken collarbone (ice climbing), lost two teeth (white water rafting), dislocated thumb (bouldering), plus the normal lacerations, bumps and bruises.

For the last year I've considered becoming a expat in Thailand, while it seems fun and amazing, I'm not sure I could give up the rest of my life for it. I can live with the paycut I would take to teach, but I would miss real mountains, ice and snow.

[thenervoussurgeon]

Wow the last three posters are a little negative ,and most of the men i know here just laugh at the hansom man thing ,we know what we are ,but dont you think that at the last chapter of ones life its not an adventurous thing to do ,to give up all you have ever known to take a leap into another life?

whats this last chapter nonsense. The are some of us here south of 50

So what are you saying ,that you are not adventurous,and still a hansom man perhaps?

[HardenedSoul]

I don't consider myself "adventurous" for having rocked up on a plane for a month's junket and then deciding to hang about for nigh on 5 years but my friends back in London pretty much idolise me for having done exactly that.

"Everyone talks about it but you actually did it, mate!" or "Wish I had your guts" is what I hear when I speak to them but, the thing is, I think that they are the heroes. I admire their ability to keep getting up, pursuing the career that, for many of them, has long since lost the allure it held at the outset and putting up with the seemingly never-ending march of stifling, insidious societal control while being continually bullshitted by the government.

Don't get me wrong; I do wake up each day feeling rather pleased that I've been able to build a comfortable life in a country so different to my own from scratch but I can't help wondering what takes more gumption; to leave everything and ship out or to stay put knowing just how shit everything outside your immediate comfort bubble is.

[omnilangur]

My clothes are always ironed and cleaned perfectly well, it may have to do with the insecticide sprayed foods and all the chemicals and toxins in our food in water. Anyone else ever had some strange parasite eating away there insides?

[thaicbr]

My clothes are always ironed and cleaned perfectly well, it may have to do with the insecticide sprayed foods and all the chemicals and toxins in our food in water. Anyone else ever had some strange parasite eating away there insides?

No. But we are Humans. TROLL parasites dont feed on us. They only like perfectly laundered trolls. . . . Like you:)

sent from my Wellcom A90+

[omnilangur]

Well back in my country(USA) nobody travels at all. So that makes me pretty different.

AAA Projects 42.5 Million Americans Will Travel This Thanksgiving, Four Percent More Than Last Year and that's for one day.

I love pedants! What he means, and it should be obvious in this context, is most Americans don't travel outside the country. Of those 42.5 million traveling on one day, about 50% will be driving (probably traveling less then 450km), the vast majority will be staying inside the US.

As for the original topic, well I'm not an expat, I do get a lot of people questioning me about how much I travel (4 months outside the US in the last two years). I also have a lot of trouble trying to get the time off, because we have a very work focused culture. In the end it's nothing new, I've always had an adventurous lifestyle, before it was world travel people where questioning my sanity because I was constantly breaking myself. Specifically over the course of the last six years; broken ribs twice (skiing and mountain biking), concussion twice (mountain biking and white water rafting), torn meniscus (skiing), broken collarbone (ice climbing), lost two teeth (white water rafting), dislocated thumb (bouldering), plus the normal lacerations, bumps and bruises.

For the last year I've considered becoming a expat in Thailand, while it seems fun and amazing, I'm not sure I could give up the rest of my life for it. I can live with the paycut I would take to teach, but I would miss real mountains, ice and snow.

You get more than that living in the middle of an action movie down here in Narathiwat! YOU ALso can teach english here and make decent money and more beautiful women than in all of pattaya here~

[farang000999]

A lot of the guys here are 26 so that makes you 13 years of age. That makes sense.

If by a lot, you mean <3 %. yeah

[gazmat]

I admire the courage of every person who is prepared to migrate across the planet and live in an alien culture in order to give themselves a better life. Whether it's a Somalian in London or a Norwegian in Thailand. Obviously, Westerners migrating to Thailand undergo far fewer hardships in order to get here but the underlying goal is the same.

I'm here because my wife (although Thai) is, in effect, a MNC expat. After a few years in London, her career has brought us back here. I love the lifestyle over here and consider it to be better and more enjoyable than what we had in the UK but I'm not sure I'd do it on my own though. The language and cultural barrier is just too immense, regardless of any financial cushion.

I'm lucky to have a ready-made family and group of friends, many of whom speak fluent English and were educated in the US or UK. It makes things easier and less foreign. So any single person who ups sticks and comes over here to make a new life - especially those who do so away from the bright lights and tourist traps is deserving of a great deal of respect. No matter what impulses drive them, they embody the pioneering spirit that got humans out of African caves and on to the Moon and for that, I salute you.

[BEENTHEREDONETHAT]

"I really dont include the married guys in this as they can hardly up sticks ,but just the single ones ."

Not sure why you say that about married guys. I'm married and my wife and I have been living in foreign countries since we retired 28 years ago. For 12 years we did nothing but travel and stayed in a place for 3 to 6 months and then moved on. The ones we really liked we would do again at a later date. We have a vast storage of memories that we refer to frequently.

You don't need to be single to enjoy life and be adventuresome. All you need is the right partner.

[NeverSure]

being in a disease prone area of Thailand I feel like I'm coming down with something undiagnosed. But i have chronic fatigue and worry I have parasites in my intestines eating all my nutrients making me tired all the time. Any rare parasites that meds cant rid people of in thailand?

That sounds like symptoms of a young man in love. Run.

Edited October 5, 2012 by NeverSure

[chiangmaikelly]

Real unemployment in the US is close to 20% and it is 0% in Thailand.

You have me curious, If unemployment in Thailand is 0%, would those dozen or so beggars I pass every day on my 100 meter walk to lunch be categorized as service workers, manufacturing workers or agricultural workers? And those hundreds of nice ladies I pass on Soi Cowboy, I guess they would be categorized as "service workers?"

And those sturdy looking local guys I always see in the pictures taken during those jet ski scams, they'd be categorized as employed in the tourist industry?

If you're going to make an argument, start with a reasonable statement. Thailand doesn't have 0% unemployment.

Oh, and everyone who is willing to work for the dollar equivalent of 300 baht or less a day in the USA probably has a job, too. Heck, I can cut 6 lawns a day and if I offered to cut lawns for $2 each x 6 a day, I'd have all the work I could handle, and make over 300 baht.

First off the beggars are probably not from Thailand and second are making a good living begging. Thailand does have 0% unemployment. Do you know or have any idea how many people Thailand imports from across the border to work in Thailand who are not Thai?

[thenervoussurgeon]

I dont know about it being brave to travel from any country ,as Gazmat said because if i was a Somalian migrating to Britain knowing that a house and benifits were waiting i am sure if the same was happening in Thailand the planes would be jammed to the doors with guys coming here ,in fact they would be strapping themselves to the wings

also when i said about the married men not coming i certainly did not include those with Thai wives and i know that there are adventurous couples out there ,but not a lot i am sure.

[somtumlion]

Take people one at a time and make your own judgement. Some are here by choice, others by circumstance, others by predilection (some unsavory).

[nietzche]

Well back in my country(USA) nobody travels at all. So that makes me pretty different.

I think it is a misconception that Americans don't travel at all.

Most of the people we are referring to do indeed travel within the U.S. The U.S. is a huge country with a lot to see itself.

If the U.S. was the same size as the U.K. then of course people would travel internationally more.

But even flying from NY to Los Angeles is the same distance as London to Moscow.

[Chittychangchang]

"I really dont include the married guys in this as they can hardly up sticks ,but just the single ones ."

Not sure why you say that about married guys. I'm married and my wife and I have been living in foreign countries since we retired 28 years ago. For 12 years we did nothing but travel and stayed in a place for 3 to 6 months and then moved on. The ones we really liked we would do again at a later date. We have a vast storage of memories that we refer to frequently.

You don't need to be single to enjoy life and be adventuresome. All you need is the right partner.

Married guys with families that are expats living here from the west have to be very switched on and go-getters to make it work out here.

The immigrants of history have always had to work twice as hard at life.

Unless your a single guy with no ties living of inheritance or such like.

[MAJIC]

Different ?but of course! that's why you are in Thailand,and not just endlessly talking about it,down at your local Bar/Pub.