November 9, 201411 yr Sitting in the skytrain with a date the second day I arrived in Thailand ( I had met her the first day I arrived) when I saw a big fat ugly Farang with a beautiful young Thai girl holding hands together, the first thing that entered my mind was he must be very rich. I knew nothing about the barscene back then in 2001, how it worked, and how any fat ugly Farang could just walk into a bar and barfine almost any young girl for almost any length of time. I admit I came to Thailand for the girls, I read about the country and how there were many pretty girls, I just bypassed anything to do with bars as I had no intention of entering the barscene as I am a non drinker. So what surprised you most the first time you came to Thailand?
November 9, 201411 yr The friendliness of the people...when I first came here I was out in the "boonies" between 3 small villages......the people were curious but very friendly and respectful (something on a downhill trend in the US).......CM was about 40 minutes away with a lot of interesting options to offer but in a small package city-wise.....I was not convinced after the first visit & came back once again - and found it to be as before..... I landed in the CM area by chance - there may be other areas as nice with as much to offer but have not found it yet..... If I had initially been stuck in BKK without venturing out I might not have returned to Thailand - I don't need/want/enjoy/seek the pulse/drum beat of a big city.....
November 9, 201411 yr Popular Post I am afraid 1975 is a bit of a blur at this point. What would surprise me, is being able to remember anything that far back.
November 9, 201411 yr Author The friendliness of the people...when I first came here I was out in the "boonies" between 3 small villages......the people were curious but very friendly and respectful (something on a downhill trend in the US).......CM was about 40 minutes away with a lot of interesting options to offer but in a small package city-wise.....I was not convinced after the first visit & came back once again - and found it to be as before..... I landed in the CM area by chance - there may be other areas as nice with as much to offer but have not found it yet..... If I had initially been stuck in BKK without venturing out I might not have returned to Thailand - I don't need/want/enjoy/seek the pulse/drum beat of a big city..... Nice story, I live in a small village and would not want to live in a city, but I do wish I was a bit closer to a city than what I am.
November 9, 201411 yr Popular Post The thing that surprises me is that there are not many flies. Sure, there are some, but in a tropical climate, with a lot of pollution and lots of food out in the open, I would have expected swarms of them. Food stalls seem to have more wasps than flies. Open air butchers have almost none. Australia....well you almost can't breathe without swallowing them, and NZ has many in the summer.
November 9, 201411 yr Author I am afraid 1975 is a bit of a blur at this point. What would surprise me, is being able to remember anything that far back. I don't know how you can forget the first few days when to first came here. I thought that would be the most important time.
November 9, 201411 yr how easy it is to get things done, when my wifes grandma let us have our land, all we did was go and see the head man in the village, ask if we could have a pig farm and house, that was it, i started to build the pig pens while we lived with the inlaws, got them finnished, built a 8x5 condo typ thing that we then lived in, it was all so easy, no planning or anything like that,,, great,
November 9, 201411 yr Author The thing that surprises me is that there are not many flies. Sure, there are some, but in a tropical climate, with a lot of pollution and lots of food out in the open, I would have expected swarms of them. Food stalls seem to have more wasps than flies. Open air butchers have almost none. Australia....well you almost can't breathe without swallowing them, and NZ has many in the summer. I bet you live in a city, I never have problems with flies when I go to Bangkok or Pattaya, but upcountry??
November 9, 201411 yr The Heath, the smells and the small people on my first walk on Sukhumvit after I checked in at the Miami late at night. I booked the Miami at the hotel desk at Don Meuang, what a dump it would be....funny I could look over the heads of the people and I measure only 170 cms. Later I would enjoy the smells on the night train to Chumpon I took directly after landing. Avoiding Bangkok all together, I also got used to the unique smells of Don Meuang airport. In fact each and every airport on the planet has it's own specific smells
November 9, 201411 yr Author how easy it is to get things done, when my wifes grandma let us have our land, all we did was go and see the head man in the village, ask if we could have a pig farm and house, that was it, i started to build the pig pens while we lived with the inlaws, got them finnished, built a 8x5 condo typ thing that we then lived in, it was all so easy, no planning or anything like that,,, great, Some of my Farang friends were given land by the wifes family to build a house, I wasn't so lucky, I had to buy the land for our house.
November 9, 201411 yr Popular Post How everything seemed so ridiculously cheap ! I no longer needed to base decisions on what things cost, man how things of changed since then. Don’t miss the latest headlines from Thailand and around the world. Get the Asean Now Briefing newsletter, delivered daily. Sign up here.
November 9, 201411 yr The aromas of the open sewer system as I traversed the streets of Lower Suk looking for a decent Temple. .
November 9, 201411 yr How friendly the thai people were, how clean they were... The beautiful weather..., the Markets and just the general buzz. Great restaurants friendly efficient service, just all round nice people. Ok, I know there are some bad ones, but fortunately I habe not met any yet... The Driving standards scared me, that was fearsome...
November 9, 201411 yr Popular Post My first time in Thailand was so full of surprises it would be difficult to put them in order. A truly different experience, as in those days as a well travelled 30 yo, I honestly thought I'd seen everything there was to see and done most things that needed to be done. Massive reality check................ That changed on arrival at DM from Tai Tak in Hong Kong. The first taxi ride from the airport to Pattaya (4 - 5 hours on a good day then), the inane giggling from the driver just after nearly having a write-off or almost forcing another driver into the separation klong. The number of trucks that were in the said klong. And then came Pattaya. It may come as a surprise, but jungle elephant rides or visiting tourist spots were not high on our agenda, we came to Thailand to party and that is exactly what we did. At that stage of my life, I had been to the seediest bars and clubs you could ever imagine as well as a of the high end clubs as well on many continents but nothing prepared me for the party atmosphere in Pattaya (at the time). Bars (legally) open 24/7, day & night staff, girls everywhere, a completely different kind of happy and smiling than what I have seen recently. In the 80's they should have had the logo Amazing Thailand, it would have been apt. And since then, on reflection? Everything has changed, and nothing has changed. Over the years I saw the natural smiles turn into fixed smiles, the gentleness harden, the drugs, the gambling becoming widespread. Then it was a safe town, no problem or worries about walking anywhere, with almost zero violence around the barscene. Sometimes I have to ask myself what happened? Note: Sorry for the drift above, we were talking about this very subject last night, still fresh in the mind............................
November 9, 201411 yr Author How everything seemed so ridiculously cheap ! I no longer needed to base decisions on what things cost, man how things of changed since then. True Charlie, but the bus fare from my village to Nakhon Sawan, is much the same as it was when I came here about nine years ago.
November 9, 201411 yr Author I was surprised that I couldn't flush the loo paper ... . I don't understand that one David.
November 9, 201411 yr Author My first time in Thailand was so full of surprises it would be difficult to put them in order. A truly different experience, as in those days as a well travelled 30 yo, I honestly thought I'd seen everything there was to see and done most things that needed to be done. Massive reality check................ That changed on arrival at DM from Tai Tak in Hong Kong. The first taxi ride from the airport to Pattaya (4 - 5 hours on a good day then), the inane giggling from the driver just after nearly having a write-off or almost forcing another driver into the separation klong. The number of trucks that were in the said klong. And then came Pattaya. It may come as a surprise, but jungle elephant rides or visiting tourist spots were not high on our agenda, we came to Thailand to party and that is exactly what we did. At that stage of my life, I had been to the seediest bars and clubs you could ever imagine as well as a of the high end clubs as well on many continents but nothing prepared me for the party atmosphere in Pattaya (at the time). Bars (legally) open 24/7, day & night staff, girls everywhere, a completely different kind of happy and smiling than what I have seen recently. In the 80's they should have had the logo Amazing Thailand, it would have been apt. And since then, on reflection? Everything has changed, and nothing has changed. Over the years I saw the natural smiles turn into fixed smiles, the gentleness harden, the drugs, the gambling becoming widespread. Then it was a safe town, no problem or worries about walking anywhere, with almost zero violence around the barscene. Sometimes I have to ask myself what happened? Note: Sorry for the drift above, we were talking about this very subject last night, still fresh in the mind............................ Very interesting post Chrisinth.
November 9, 201411 yr Author How friendly the thai people were, how clean they were... The beautiful weather..., the Markets and just the general buzz. Great restaurants friendly efficient service, just all round nice people. Ok, I know there are some bad ones, but fortunately I habe not met any yet... The Driving standards scared me, that was fearsome... Absolutely spot on Robert, though I would question sentence no3.
November 9, 201411 yr <script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script> Penises in panties.... Always a surprise! Love it...................... Pip is so much easier to spell than krathoy kratoy transgender
November 9, 201411 yr How amazingly broad faced many people are here. Foreigners especially, but also some Thais.
November 9, 201411 yr That you can make a language where all the words sound the same. Kao, kao, kao, kao. Yeah right. They all sound different.....
November 9, 201411 yr That the 18 or 19 year old girl pacing the beaches all day selling snacks and trinkets was also working the bars at night.
November 9, 201411 yr Popular Post What Surprised you most The number of people who deliberately chose to live in Thailand but seem to spend most of their time finding excuses to complain about everything. I loved Thailand my first day here and still do. Not blind to the problems here, but also do not have some romantic fairy tale notion about how wonderful things are back in Farang Land.
November 9, 201411 yr I am afraid 1975 is a bit of a blur at this point. What would surprise me, is being able to remember anything that far back. You mean you are now max 40 years old ...
November 9, 201411 yr I am afraid 1975 is a bit of a blur at this point. What would surprise me, is being able to remember anything that far back. I don't know how you can forget the first few days when to first came here. I thought that would be the most important time. There have been so many memorable events over the past 40 years, that some of the early stuff has ended up in a box I can no longer find. Detailed memories from back then are somewhere for sure but I can’t seem to access them.
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