Long timers - Is Thailand better or worse than 10 years ago?

[euroflash]

Couldn't agree more with the OP. I have also been here for a good 10 years and just feel so many things have changed - and most of them not to the better.

When I first arrived here, whenever I grabbed a taxi, went to a shop or the hairdressers, the Thais would almost always strike up a conversation. That rarely happens anymore. And I really do believe there are fewer smiles around.

The bigger cities have lost loads of charming small shops to the endless malls, and I feel the economic divide is bigger than ever. I see Lamborghinis almost daily passing by people who have absolutely nothing. I don't like what I see.

Of course, Thailand should develop. And a huge middle class has emerged. But are they happier than before? Some probably are, but it sure doesn't always show.

I still love Thailand, but I'm not in love with it anymore.

[johnnygimbo]

Why do so many TV members boast about being steaming drunk? It is disgusting, there is nothing wrong with social drinking, but steaming drunk????? I know it is normal behavior for men (not all, and any nationality) to drink too much at times, but why be proud of it? Anyone who admits to having been drunk should be ashamed.

[Sandman77]

We have to go and change with the time, because the time and people not will change!

Proberbly the world around us is the same when we first arrived

Only the people around us change

Or maybe we are more sensitive now , because of to many bad experience

It's also the Internet that change our view of the daily life here

Because 90 procent we read only bad story's

A new forum here on tv would be welcome

I would call it the happy topics

The level of good experience are higher then the bad ones!

I also still in the process not let come bad experience near to you

It's not easy to ignore it or simple not think about it

Another strategy I followed for a while, go out of the way of bad and cheating people simple not talk to them!

So the world around us has change us that we are more sensitive or was it via versa?

Going back home is nice when you have friends , you got less cheated but in the end same problems will come back to you!

No matter where we stay in the world!

Some say it's possible to learn find back the own happiness , it's only the people that change us,

Our own identity cannot be change, we have to learn that bad expirence make us everyday stronger in your life

Not look to much in the past, I always also do this but it is wrong, we have to look forward, because the past with

Good old times in our remember never. Comes back to us!

For me when I visit beautiful places or find good friends I always must come back from time to time, to the same places

Often same people here, and wait!

When friends waiting at home is ok for someone, but when you have less friends in your country

Or most of them forget you is better you stay here

Welcome in Thailand!

Gesendet von meinem iPad mit Thaivisa Connect Thailand

[kevozman1]

AS you said yourself: " This is a proper useless rant" . So why bother the rest of us ?

"Proper useless rant" ah the quality " English teachers " they have in Thailand.... Sounds like an extra out of Eastender's or some other low class British soap..... During empire nobody spoke like this and if they did a good thrashing would be had

During the empire did people also use unnecessary apostrophes? Oh how easy it is to be pedantic on a casual internet forum.

[Bernard Flint]

MY VIEW

After reading most of the posts, i do believe that the ones who want to leave Thailand get jaded and too high expectation, causes this.

I have not seen any evidence of thais having more hatred for non thais, not seen thais changing.

What i have seen is many farangs getting jaded due to alcohol, a total lack of reality, the hatred to thais, yes it happens,read any forum, and the hatred is very evident, mainly the whore mongers. I here farangs moaning about the cost of ciggies/ booze compared to 5 years ago, give me a life please.Most farangs who have a good relationship, and dont drink to excess seem to be the happiest.

[johnnygimbo]

Did 18 years.

Finally ran out of love for it last year. Came home to the UK. Best thing I ever did.

You must have plenty of money to afford all these taxes, to run a car, to pay lots of income tax, council tax etc etc etc.You must also be happy to walk about in all that wind and rain, be stuck in huge traffic jams (not just in the cities, everywhere) almost every time you go into your car.

No thanks, even allowing for about 90% of drivers and riders having very little road sense, I will just stay here.

[NoshowJones]

Did 18 years.

Finally ran out of love for it last year. Came home to the UK. Best thing I ever did.

You must have plenty of money to afford all these taxes, to run a car, to pay lots of income tax, council tax etc etc etc.You must also be happy to walk about in all that wind and rain, be stuck in huge traffic jams (not just in the cities, everywhere) almost every time you go into your car.

No thanks, even allowing for about 90% of drivers and riders having very little road sense, I will just stay here.

You are one guy who sure knows what you are talking about.

[lovelaos]

^{Go home then, we don't want you here}

^{Before you go though, tell us why you brought the suit...}

Edited July 3, 2014 by lovelaos

[samran]

Can't hack it in Thailand after immigration did their job and you didn't pay your phone bill.

Diddums.

Please pay 100 baht to one of the Klong Toey slum charities before you go.

There's a good boy.

[Ricardo]

Thailand has changed, Bangkok used to be a discrete (in the geographical sense !) city, now it's a sprawling urban region occupying a zone a couple-of-hundred miles across, and has consumed places like Ayuttaya or Pattaya, and many more people live in concrete-jungle dormitory-blocks or work in offices/factories & call it progress. Shudder ! I simply avoid the place whenever-possible !

But Thais (and other 3rd-worlders) have the right to enjoy 'progress', and will IMO eventually discover that it's not all it's cracked-up to be, give it a century & they might even come to value the quieter rural-life, like us Brits ! The current rise in cmping/cycling/domestic-tourism

So just pick the right part of Thailand to live in, to match what you're now looking-for, Samui was no-doubt excellent for a two-year-drunk on first arrival ... but now you've grown beyond that.

I enjoy life in a small (but doubled-in-size over a decade) village, with views of the mountains, and a full-service city (Chiang Mai) within 30-minutes drive. That's what suits me, at this stage of life !

Others go totally-rural & live in places like Chiang Rai or Isaan. Perhaps that's a step too far ?

My own occasional-need for bright-lights or a really-well-stocked supermarket or an island-beach are satisfied by holidays, either within Thailand or back to Auld Eng-er-laanndd, which incidentally is also no-longer the place I recall from my youth ! In particular it appears to be now inhabited by fat thick frumpy people, even by my own low standards, and I miss the stylish attractive petite smiling eye-candy everywhere, which is such a joy here ! NB ... if you don't agree, just visit a doctor/hospital, as you may have died & not yet noticed !

Perhaps, rather than changing place, the discomfort felt by the OP is due to an approaching change-in-lifestyle ? Could it perhaps be time to settle down, with some agreeable female person, and have & raise a family ?

Whatever, IMO the OP needs to get himself slightly-more organised. Immigration anywhere can be a pain, if you haven't got the right visa for your lifestyle, bills left unpaid anywhere will result in withdrawl-of-service, when you travel for a month rather than the usual week. Problem & solution identified, there.

Good luck to the OP, and feel free to vent or let-of-steam on TV, it beats joining the Pattaya (or Rotherham, or North-Devon) Flying-Club !

Edited July 3, 2014 by Ricardo

[daveAustin]

Why do so many TV members boast about being steaming drunk? It is disgusting, there is nothing wrong with social drinking, but steaming drunk????? I know it is normal behavior for men (not all, and any nationality) to drink too much at times, but why be proud of it? Anyone who admits to having been drunk should be ashamed.

Ahhh, what a nondescript dainty little flower one is. I wonder if one knows how to breed.

[nottocus]

Anyone who admits to having been drunk should be ashamed.

Is those that don't admit getting drunk that should be ashamed.

[trainman34014]

You raise many valid points and i am sure venting it out helps.

You have only experienced half of the problems, there are more when you have a business.

For example i am renewing my extension, keep in mind its my 7th year with WP.

First they want me to make photo's of myself with all the staff, then they want to come for check up.

So if you coming for check up, why the hell do you want the pics?

Fine, do the pics.

Now they want me to come into Immigration to take my photo, but you have my photo already with application and many photo's with my staff.

No, they need to put my photo in computer, so i need to come.

Ok, i go there, make the photo.

Oh solly, we do not need your photo, i forget, your income is over 1 million baht, so no photo is needed.

I am always short of staff, basically because i do not want any of my customers to have the experience you had with True.

So today have a 46 year old, uni educated woman come for interview.

In the advert is says must read, write and speak good English.

She is told to come for interview at 3pm, she shows up at 11am

Cleaner tells her interviews are at 3pm.

She comes back at 2:30 pm and as it turns out can hardly string 2 words in English, mind you in her resume she states she worked in India and Dubai for a decade.

I seriously doubt she spoke HIndi or Arabic.

Anyhow, after seeing that she can not string 2 words in English, i tell her no, give her back her documents and cut up her application.

She is standing there looking at me like a sheep.

After 5 or so mins she asks if i will interview her?(i guess first sign of being retarded) i reply, no i will not.

Now she tells me but the lady(cleaner) told her blah blah blah.

Now i am pissed off and can no longer take the stupidity, so i ask her how old are you? She reply 46 after thinking for a minute.

Great i say, 46, do you have anything inside your head? meaning do you have any brains at all.

After thinking for another minute or so, she replies, NO.

So i double check what she says, and ask her again,, You do not have any brain?

Response was, No, i do not, its hot outside.

So the moral of the story is , it is not only you , but many others feel or experience the same thing.

NO doubt, many esteemed members married to good girls half their age, living in Isaan never experience much of it, for obvious reasons,

Is it better or worse? I guess it depends on what angle you look at it from.

PS. Forgot to mention, i am in Thailand full time for around 12 years, out of which 7 in the business

Love it. Look on the bright side; the woman actually told the truth about having no brain, and truth here is a rare commodity. Perhaps she was worth employing for that reason alone !

[Ulysses G.]

Thailand was better and cheaper for illicit sexual activities 20 years ago, but much better for foreign restaurants and recorded music and other entertainment today. I don't think that much has changed concerning those things in the last 10 years.

Edited July 3, 2014 by Ulysses G.

[GuestHouse]

Anybody living anywhere should ask have I developed myself over the past 10 years? before they ask if the place they are living is better or worse over the past 10 years?

If the answer to the first question is no or recognition/denial of a decline , then the answer to the second question is irrelevant.

[Nignoy]

I don't remember those days of smiling and jokes at Don Muang tbh.

It used to be a pleasure landing at Don Muang, no hassle with taxis,if you were heading to the northeast,walk across to USAAF flight control and scrounge a lift to Ubon in time to catch the ubon to Muk Mail run, 50 US$ taxi to Phuket, happy days compared to today paradise

[Suradit69]

You're totally right. Both about treatment in Thailand and the reception you'll get when the saffron colored glasses crowd wakes up and start telling you to relax and enjoy life and smell and the roses and blah blah blah.

There's a lot of countries besides Thailand that are as nice or better. Really there are. When you go there you'll think 'why the hell did I waste so many years in a place that hated me.'

Places where you can own land in your own name. Places where you really can just show up and stay as long as you want with no hassle.

Really though, it was better ten years ago. It was cheaper, I was younger and you could do visa runs to your heart's content. I did hundreds of them.

It's no better nor worse than any place you might settle in for a decade or more. If you're bored and unhappy, don't blame it on Thailand.

"...you could do visa runs to your heart's content. I did hundreds of them."

And like most self-indulgent people, the consequences of your behavior, for yourself and others, is a total mystery.

"You're totally right. Both about treatment in Thailand and the reception you'll get when the saffron colored glasses crowd wakes up and start telling you to relax and enjoy life and smell and the roses and blah blah blah."

The ones wearing the saffron colored glasses were the naive first-time-away-from-home crowd who thought they were settling in paradise. Now that reality has sunk in they realize that if they were bored and unhappy in one place, they'll be just as bored and unhappy everywhere because the boring & unhappy follows them wherever they go.

Those of us who are reasonably happy with life in Thailand saw clearly what life here would be like and have been happy with the good & not-so-good because it was pretty much as expected. The whiners and moaners simply reached new levels in whining and moaning once the saffron colored glasses fell away and they had to face the fact it wasn't Thailand but them that was lacking.

No don't relax and enjoy life "and smell and roses" (whatever that means) because you're going to be throwing a hissy fit wherever you are and no one will miss you if you take your tantrum to greener pastures.

[CapeCobra]

Do you really want to go back to join the loniest people in Europe?

Should be glad to have left this lonely, miserable island and its more miserable weather and unhappy people spending a lot of their live underground (tube). See http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/britain-has-been-voted-the-loneliness-capital-of-europe--so-how-did-we-become-so-isolated-9566617.html

[nanapong]

Did 18 years.

Finally ran out of love for it last year. Came home to the UK. Best thing I ever did.

What , all that pissing rain , hordes of Eastern European gypsies , New mosques in every city , political correctness , the fattest women in the world and not to forget the postie with a wad of brown uns every day. Sod that , you're aving a larf ain't ya.

[Katipo]

I think many of us go through an extended Honeymoon period here, and for good reason. Cheap beer and food, sunny beaches, an abundance of women... and basically everything else you are in to.

There are negatives/difference though, and while in the beginning we ignore or perhaps aren't even aware of them, over time they can begin to wear us down. Frustrations we used to brush off, now nag at us a little more. Yes, I feel like this sometimes, and I am sure others do, more or less, too.

[AnotherOneAmerican]

Did 18 years.

Finally ran out of love for it last year. Came home to the UK. Best thing I ever did.

Time to ask the mods for a name change, don't you think?

How about "There will always be an England" ??

or "Home is where the heart is" ??

Edited July 3, 2014 by AnotherOneAmerican

[DoctorG]

Enjoyed the story. Thank you Longshoot.

[krisb]

Feel free to let it all out, not good to bottle these things up.

ps, it really is a difficult place, even tourists agree.

Thailand is great for hotels and resorts for a few weeks, then enough, time to go.

[lormakmak]

Did 18 years.

Finally ran out of love for it last year. Came home to the UK. Best thing I ever did.

You must have plenty of money to afford all these taxes, to run a car, to pay lots of income tax, council tax etc etc etc.You must also be happy to walk about in all that wind and rain, be stuck in huge traffic jams (not just in the cities, everywhere) almost every time you go into your car.

No thanks, even allowing for about 90% of drivers and riders having very little road sense, I will just stay here.

Is that all you got? it's 27 degrees in London today and not a cloud in sight....

difference is if I have an accident on the road in the UK then at least i've got a chance at the hospital for them to patch me up.... I wish you well to whatever chop shop you end up in out there if that ever happens....(not that I wish it to)

lived in both places, Thailands great for a holiday and bit of time out or maybe a few years work on expat salary but full time.... I agree with the OP and the fella who has the silly cow turning up for the interview at the wrong time cos it suited her.... mind you kudos to her being 4 hours early

[ezzra]

I don't know about you guys, but when I see a long, amply worded post, I get tired reading it all,

I'm sure the op has put his soul in to writing it but, it take too long to read and I need a beer...

[thailiketoo]

Did 18 years.

Finally ran out of love for it last year. Came home to the UK. Best thing I ever did.

You must have plenty of money to afford all these taxes, to run a car, to pay lots of income tax, council tax etc etc etc.You must also be happy to walk about in all that wind and rain, be stuck in huge traffic jams (not just in the cities, everywhere) almost every time you go into your car.

No thanks, even allowing for about 90% of drivers and riders having very little road sense, I will just stay here.

Is that all you got? it's 27 degrees in London today and not a cloud in sight....

difference is if I have an accident on the road in the UK then at least i've got a chance at the hospital for them to patch me up.... I wish you well to whatever chop shop you end up in out there if that ever happens....(not that I wish it to)

lived in both places, Thailands great for a holiday and bit of time out or maybe a few years work on expat salary but full time.... I agree with the OP and the fella who has the silly cow turning up for the interview at the wrong time cos it suited her.... mind you kudos to her being 4 hours early

Having a heart attack. Time from front door of hospital to hooked up, sensors, a heart specialist, 4 nurses in the ICU? 2 minutes. Where do you think?

[Morakot]

Good rant, OP!

Now get on with it. I'm sure it will work out whatever you decide.

Best of luck

[lormakmak]

Did 18 years.

Finally ran out of love for it last year. Came home to the UK. Best thing I ever did.

You must have plenty of money to afford all these taxes, to run a car, to pay lots of income tax, council tax etc etc etc.You must also be happy to walk about in all that wind and rain, be stuck in huge traffic jams (not just in the cities, everywhere) almost every time you go into your car.

No thanks, even allowing for about 90% of drivers and riders having very little road sense, I will just stay here.

Is that all you got? it's 27 degrees in London today and not a cloud in sight....

difference is if I have an accident on the road in the UK then at least i've got a chance at the hospital for them to patch me up.... I wish you well to whatever chop shop you end up in out there if that ever happens....(not that I wish it to)

lived in both places, Thailands great for a holiday and bit of time out or maybe a few years work on expat salary but full time.... I agree with the OP and the fella who has the silly cow turning up for the interview at the wrong time cos it suited her.... mind you kudos to her being 4 hours early

Having a heart attack. Time from front door of hospital to hooked up, sensors, a heart specialist, 4 nurses in the ICU? 2 minutes. Where do you think?

in a soap opera?

[thailiketoo]

You must have plenty of money to afford all these taxes, to run a car, to pay lots of income tax, council tax etc etc etc.You must also be happy to walk about in all that wind and rain, be stuck in huge traffic jams (not just in the cities, everywhere) almost every time you go into your car.

No thanks, even allowing for about 90% of drivers and riders having very little road sense, I will just stay here.

Is that all you got? it's 27 degrees in London today and not a cloud in sight....

difference is if I have an accident on the road in the UK then at least i've got a chance at the hospital for them to patch me up.... I wish you well to whatever chop shop you end up in out there if that ever happens....(not that I wish it to)

lived in both places, Thailands great for a holiday and bit of time out or maybe a few years work on expat salary but full time.... I agree with the OP and the fella who has the silly cow turning up for the interview at the wrong time cos it suited her.... mind you kudos to her being 4 hours early

Having a heart attack. Time from front door of hospital to hooked up, sensors, a heart specialist, 4 nurses in the ICU? 2 minutes. Where do you think?

in a soap opera?

No, a private hospital in Thailand. I have found the care here to be better and faster than my experiences in the USA.

[lormakmak]

No, a private hospital in Thailand. I have found the care here to be better and faster than my experiences in the USA.

in a soap opera?

exactly, a private hospital! you pay for it or have to be insured(same as in U.S) and once they got you there they perform all sorts of unwanted or needed procedures, you may have the success story and good luck to you, glad you survived the ordeal but believe me theres plenty of horror stories on this forum.

what about a real story of a retired man from Europe living up country in Thailand driving his pick up and some moron just pulls out in front of him on their motorbike and is killed, it's an accident and if anyone is to blame then the cretin on the bike should be but no.... European man pays 1 million baht compensation to the family!

Happy driving

Let me be correct though.... England the US or even a tropical island are not the perfect places to live just like the land of frowns isn't.... it has some great qualities that make me return from time to time and I always have a great experience and get what I want from it.... the only people who think it is utopia are the newbies, that was me once saying I will never return back to the UK and here forever... my advice is don't burn your bridges as you never know what situation and when it may change