British & Thai Cultures Clash (Dont Laugh)

[homeownership]

I am British, trying to become chilled out Thai.

In Chiang Mai, there is a MacDonalds, in a shopping mall, I dont quite remember the name.

Last night, I joined what I thought was queue to order food, I waited patiently behind a gentleman in front for the better part of 5 minutes, while being ignored by the staff.

A Thai bloke walked up and straight to the a counter (unoccupied by a worker) and said something in Thai, got served and walked off.

Unfettered, I continued to wait my turn.

Then this fatty, 14 year kid comes in says something jibberish to me in Thai and jumps the queue and gets served.

I then decide the queue I am in doesnt seem to be progressing as quickly as I had hoped and so walked to an unoccupied desk and stood there patiently waiting for service. I was looked up and down several times, and tried politely to place my order.

I was ignored.

Now Thai people seemed to get served no problem, but I was (I thought discrimated against).

27 minutes had passed before I returned to my Wife (English too) empty handed and asked her to try,

Another 20 minutes had passed and still no food service.

My Britainic blood was boiling and that means only one thing, WAR !!!

I marched in and past the queue that was no being served, went straight to front and said to the server, I want the following:

3 Double Whopper Meals,

3 Fantas as the drinks

I said the following ; "I have had enough of you, your stupid queueing system that doesnt make sense and being ignored, I want my order now.

He said to me, Sir, you must take a ticket and pass the ticket to the attendant when ordeing and then the attendent will call out your ticket number.

What ???? (I said in shock), I have to take a ticket.

Yes he repied, we saw you waiting before, but you had no ticket so NOT could serve you.

How do you expect me to guess (I screamed at him).

The sign Sir, in English, saying "Take ticket before ordering".

I took a ticket and was served in less than 2 minutes, apologised and eat our food.

I was so used to being treated badly, I expected it everywhere, until I came across a system that made complete sense.

In a clash of cultures, my culture of queue with a ticket won, they forgot to let me know about it.

Edited April 25, 2013 by homeownership

[guzzi850m2]

He-he

[Om85]

Great post!, I always liked british people

[Rsquared]

If all else fails.......read the instructions.

[homeownership]

If all else fails.......read the instructions.

Absolutly. Its official now, Thailand is no longer a third world country. No more raised voices, queue when asked to do so and most of all, yes most of all, remain calm there is sure to be a logical explanation for everything.

[StreetCowboy]

If all else fails.......read the instructions.

Desperate times, desperate measures....

[homeownership]

If all else fails.......read the instructions.

Desperate times, desperate measures....

I was raised that if you need to look at the instructions, then this was a clear indication that you don't know what you are doing and therefore somehow inferior to the woman at your side. Reading the instructions means you have failed to show initiative and are not worthy to have begun the appointed task in the first place.

To be told by a Thai person, that I must take a ticket and queue was the thin edge of the wedge, what if everywhere we go they introduce a queuing system, the Thais would be seen at least in my eyes as cultural and morally superior, by inference I would be a moron and inferior, where do we go from here ?

The Thais have achieved in a few years what we have been trying to teach the French for a thousand years and they still havent got it. If they carry on (the Thais that is), we are going to have queues all over the place, things will get done quickly and what will we do with all that time, not wasted.

I mean they will stop corruption soon and then we are really in the Chao Praya river.

[topt]

If all else fails.......read the instructions.

Desperate times, desperate measures....

I was raised that if you need to look at the instructions, then this was a clear indication that you don't know what you are doing and therefore somehow inferior to the woman at your side. Reading the instructions means you have failed to show initiative and are not worthy to have begun the appointed task in the first place.

You had a strange upbringing then and I almost feel sorry for you - brings some light perhaps to some of your postings......

[Forkinhades]

McDonalds has a ticket system , and you never saw a ticket being passed?

[Ginkas]

1. You can't remember the name of the mall?

2. McDonalds don't do Whopper meals - that's Burger King!

[Forkinhades]

^ think that 13.5 mil has gone to his head

[Kitsune]

What I wonder is why-oh-why when one possesses 13 M pounds, one decide to live in one the of most polluted place in the world to live on Burger King?

[asiaexpat]

But he is humorous, like so many Brits.

[StreetCowboy]

What I wonder is why-oh-why when one possesses 13 M pounds, one decide to live in one the of most polluted place in the world to live on Burger King?

Maybe he was sick of caviar. You want something a bit greasy if you're going out on the claret later in the evening.

Anyway, there's no point speculating, though Naam may disagree

SC

[NeverSure]

I always ask McDonald's Burger King to substitute caviar for the burger patty unknown ground and grilled substance in a Whopper. It's the natural progression when you are important.

[kevvy]

do you always bash Thai's , you always want to declare war on them , if it is not Songkran it is something else , You will never become a chilled out Thai and you always bash them . Grow up and get on with your life , and stop worrying about going to WAR

[Morakot]

Keep calm and carry on.

What I wonder is why-oh-why when one possesses 13 M pounds, one decide to live in one the of most polluted place in the world to live on Burger King?

Maybe he was sick of caviar. You want something a bit greasy if you're going out on the claret later in the evening.

Anyway, there's no point speculating, though Naam may disagree

Maybe he was queueing in his own restaurant. The staff just didn't inform him about the new system, which really leaves me wondering how much he pays these people...

[Forkinhades]

What I wonder is why-oh-why when one possesses 13 M pounds, one decide to live in one the of most polluted place in the world to live on Burger King?

[h90]

Great post!, I always liked british people

They are very strange people...well they are from an island....

But I like them as well....

[NancyL]

Don't worry, soon the place will be overrun by Chinese and they have NO concept of how a queuing system works and see it as a demonstration of their superiority to push ahead of everyone else for service.

[h90]

1. You can't remember the name of the mall?

2. McDonalds don't do Whopper meals - that's Burger King!

He orders the Whopper, the staff smiles friendly and gave him some burger that was ready. After standing around for 1 hour at the counter they just had to do something.

[transam]

I think the ticket system is a good idea as local folk jumping the queue is quite normal anywhere in LOS. Should give them out when approaching traffic lights.

And OP, somebody probably told you in Thai that Whoppers were 100 yards up the road with no Ronald outside.

[Swiss1960]

If all else fails.......read the instructions.

Desperate times, desperate measures....

To be told by a Thai person, that I must take a ticket and queue was the thin edge of the wedge, what if everywhere we go they introduce a queuing system, the Thais would be seen at least in my eyes as cultural and morally superior, by inference I would be a moron and inferior, where do we go from here ?

I start to see the problem... when God hands out brains to newly borns, their is also a ticketing system for the queue... so maybe the OP did also miss that one?

But, dear OP, their is a solution for your problem: Take some of your 19.5 M£ (according to your latest calculation) and buy yourself your private burger place... no need for ticketing system there

[Spoonman]

Amusing that someone could be so successful in life yet useless at the basic stuff.

[Kitsune]

What I wonder is why-oh-why when one possesses 13 M pounds, one decide to live in one the of most polluted place in the world to live on Burger King?

It's a genuine question,

The UK, where the OP is from, is using the PM10 scale and they consider that anything over 50 is dangerous.

Chiang Mai is at 200+ (216 last year)

I mean with 13.5 M pounds surely you can live anywhere, why going there ?

[manarak]

do you always bash Thai's , you always want to declare war on them , if it is not Songkran it is something else , You will never become a chilled out Thai and you always bash them . Grow up and get on with your life , and stop worrying about going to WAR

i love it when people don't bother to fully read a post before attacking the poster with an opinionated reply!

[manarak]

What I wonder is why-oh-why when one possesses 13 M pounds, one decide to live in one the of most polluted place in the world to live on Burger King?

It's a genuine question,

The UK, where the OP is from, is using the PM10 scale and they consider that anything over 50 is dangerous.

Chiang Mai is at 200+ (216 last year)

I mean with 13.5 M pounds surely you can live anywhere, why going there ?

maybe he's just visiting, and really lives in Pattaya

Edited April 25, 2013 by manarak

[Kitsune]

What I wonder is why-oh-why when one possesses 13 M pounds, one decide to live in one the of most polluted place in the world to live on Burger King?

It's a genuine question,

The UK, where the OP is from, is using the PM10 scale and they consider that anything over 50 is dangerous.

Chiang Mai is at 200+ (216 last year)

I mean with 13.5 M pounds surely you can live anywhere, why going there ?

maybe he's just visiting, and really lives in Pattaya

Pattaya is actually worse (33 times the acceptable level in 2009)

http://www.google.co.th/gwt/x?wsc=hg&wsi=23bc280462ac0864&source=m&u=http%3A%2F%2Fgcmonitor.org/article.php%3Fid%3D936&ei=ZECgT9auH4ukiAeL8tWSBg

[manarak]

Pattaya is actually worse (33 times the acceptable level in 2009)

http://www.google.co.th/gwt/x?wsc=hg&wsi=23bc280462ac0864&source=m&u=http%3A%2F%2Fgcmonitor.org/article.php%3Fid%3D936&ei=ZECgT9auH4ukiAeL8tWSBg

went to your link but couldn't find information on Pattaya.

the air here is pretty ok.

[Kitsune]

Pattaya is actually worse (33 times the acceptable level in 2009)

http://www.google.co.th/gwt/x?wsc=hg&wsi=23bc280462ac0864&source=m&u=http%3A%2F%2Fgcmonitor.org/article.php%3Fid%3D936&ei=ZECgT9auH4ukiAeL8tWSBg

went to your link but couldn't find information on Pattaya.

the air here is pretty ok.

My apologies it was Rayong the province next to Pattaya

Real time monitoring in Rayong Province, Thailand conducted by GCM and our community partner EARTH (Ecological, Alert and Recovery-Thailand) revealed frighteningly high levels of the cancer causing 1,3 butadiene.

The monitoring was conducted with a Real Time UV Ambient Air Monitor, which can detect 12 pollutant chemicals in the air including benzene, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, mercury and ammonia. It can take an air sample every 30 seconds and display results immediately on a laptop computer.