East meets west. Lots of noise with the underclasses moving upward.

Violence and unwanted behavior is on the rise. Hooligans' behavior is a good example (lately the Rotterdam's team ugly behavior in Rome).

It is all about the money that tourists have and that Thais do not have. Tourists are low hanging fruit; easier than taking school seriously, or taking job seriously. On the other hand, Thai culture does not include any path for the bottom third of the society to better themselves. One thing is sure; as the economy gets worse and layoffs increase, crime against tourists will go up. Wily Sutton, a famous bank robber in the U.S. many years ago was asked by a reporter why he robbed banks. Sutton did not have to think about the answer and replied, "That's where the money is."

This is the best post I have seen in months...truer words have never been written and you cut to the chase succinctly without staging a rant. Thank you!

Thai's hate farang. Thai's let farang in country for the money. That was decades ago, now days Thailand has money. Farang still come but money not needed like before. Farang not needed like before, simple concept.

From all the years that i have lived here there is no doubt in my mind the tourists and expats are the cause of most of the problems. It seems the foreigners are just getting more and more obnoxious and disrespectful every year. I don,t even deal with most foreigners and all my foreign friends which are few here feel the same. I learned long ago to get as far away from the tourist slums or anywhere listed in Lonely Planet . The foreigners i strongly believe after witnessing their behavior are their own worst enemies . Zero common sense, expats tend to make no effort to learn Thai, most make no effort learning about Thai culture, and many i have seen are non stop drunk. This common behavior is both men and women of all age groups. As long as the government keeps pushing for more and more foreigners the situation is likely only going to get worse. Mass tourism has destroyed this country. Stop bitching about how bad the Thais are. No Thai is holding a gun to your head and there is always NO!. Like i said i just avoid the foreigners as much as possible. Guess what ? Next to zero problems with the Thais. I repeat as i have said a thousand times. This is THEIR country and YOU are a guest here. Can,t deal with that fact and obey the rules and behave yourself than leave.

Thai's hate farang. Thai's let farang in country for the money. That was decades ago, now days Thailand has money. Farang still come but money not needed like before. Farang not needed like before, simple concept.

I will try to tell that next time to a taxidriver - "Money not needed"

So Thailand has Money now - well the rich does but the old woman trying to sell a few mangoes in the road without any Family to help she will probably disagree with you

And soon farang will be someone that thais will not see anymore - enjoy the chinese Q-tourists 55555 ....

If old Thais came to your home country and were ****** the girls and women how will you feel

I think my of us forget this.

It is amazing I can leave my home at night and feel safe in Pattaya

I think accept me for 14 years as they never robber me or started a fight with me

The Thai will a hard dating a sister in New York or London

From all the years that i have lived here there is no doubt in my mind the tourists and expats are the cause of most of the problems. It seems the foreigners are just getting more and more obnoxious and disrespectful every year. I don,t even deal with most foreigners and all my foreign friends which are few here feel the same. I learned long ago to get as far away from the tourist slums or anywhere listed in Lonely Planet . The foreigners i strongly believe after witnessing their behavior are their own worst enemies . Zero common sense, expats tend to make no effort to learn Thai, most make no effort learning about Thai culture, and many i have seen are non stop drunk. This common behavior is both men and women of all age groups. As long as the government keeps pushing for more and more foreigners the situation is likely only going to get worse. Mass tourism has destroyed this country. Stop bitching about how bad the Thais are. No Thai is holding a gun to your head and there is always NO!. Like i said i just avoid the foreigners as much as possible. Guess what ? Next to zero problems with the Thais. I repeat as i have said a thousand times. This is THEIR country and YOU are a guest here. Can,t deal with that fact and obey the rules and behave yourself than leave.

Firstly, the reason that "foreigners are getting more and more obnoxious" is that Thailand has chased away the quality European tourists and swapped them for mass tourism. Package tours from Europe, Russia and China.

This was a conscious marketing ploy by the TAT. The saying "you reap what you sow" comes to mind.

Secondly, we are talking about tourists here, not expats. I do agree that too many expats don't bother with the language, but, you have to remember that many expats arrive here in middle-age, or older and it's very hard to learn any language at that age, nevermind a difficult tonal language like Thai. To expect tourists to learn the language is unreasonable.

Thirdly, I don't respect too much of Thai culture, only bits of it. My own (Western) culture, in my opinion is far, far superior. Truth, integrity, science, individuality, the importance of education, the arts and literature etc. What has Thailand ever given to the world, or even achieved on the world stage?

Lastly, I'm sick and tired of hearing that we are "guests" in the country. If that is true, then, Thailand is the host and it's a pretty poor host that robs, cheats and scams it's guests.

Tourism is not about guests. It's purely a financial transaction and Thailand is not willing to hold up it's part of the bargain.

my older sister came in the 70's when it first opened up

she had a friend film her standing on a bhudda statue in a singlet top and shorts, obviously horribly insensitive

no thais made a fuss

these days, with all the unrest its always easy to blame/take it out on foreigners

I wonder how many years have passed since the first miserable farang predicted the downfall of the Thai tourist industry?

Meanwhile, life goes on.

No they have finally reached their limit with us and i can,t blame them. Sister sounds like someone i would want to avoid being around while in Thailand.

my older sister came in the 70's when it first opened up

she had a friend film her standing on a bhudda statue in a singlet top and shorts, obviously horribly insensitive

no thais made a fuss

these days, with all the unrest its always easy to blame/take it out on foreigners

No they have finally reached their limit with us and i can,t blame them. Sister sounds like someone i would want to avoid being around while in Thailand.

my older sister came in the 70's when it first opened up

she had a friend film her standing on a bhudda statue in a singlet top and shorts, obviously horribly insensitive

no thais made a fuss

these days, with all the unrest its always easy to blame/take it out on foreigners

Oh dear.......another example of a farang with a "holier-than-thou" attitude who is in touch with his "Thainess".

You have probably spent years in Thailand and expect people new to the country to have the same awareness and knowledge as you.

Bit unrealistic, eh?

how hard is it to read up on the customs of a country you plan to visit ? I was also speaking of the foreigners that have lived here for years that don,t get it." Holier than thou " No Smarter than thou YES.

No they have finally reached their limit with us and i can,t blame them. Sister sounds like someone i would want to avoid being around while in Thailand.

my older sister came in the 70's when it first opened up

she had a friend film her standing on a bhudda statue in a singlet top and shorts, obviously horribly insensitive

no thais made a fuss

these days, with all the unrest its always easy to blame/take it out on foreigners

Oh dear.......another example of a farang with a "holier-than-thou" attitude who is in touch with his "Thainess".

You have probably spent years in Thailand and expect people new to the country to have the same awareness and knowledge as you.

Bit unrealistic, eh?

Smarter than thou YES.

Thanks for proving my point......

My girlfriend answered honestly to my question...about jeolousy in between Thai's.

"They are very jealous" she said and no matter if village or town people.

They use smile but a growing hatred is hidden feeling towards those who have more.

How can you expect they will treat a farangs? ..coming to their beloved country and spending fortunes having most of the time their young girls, then behaving badly and showing unrealistic style of their life in Los until they come back to "their beautiful worry free world"

Anybody finaly got pissed of on own hard life seeing people as we are farangs.

Yes, they love our money as anybody else in the world....hatred comes always later in time...

Think it depends on how one would determine, what is a tourist?

I believe that in general those who visit Thailand as holiday makers create little problems and on the whole are usually well behaved, although of course there are always going to be exceptions to the rule. The problems arise with the longer term foreigners here, the forever tourists doing border hops, breaking the rules or ex-pats that have difficulties adapting to the lifestyles, culture and attitudes of the Thai people, such as failing to learn the language, what is considered as being impolite in Thai society and dressing inappropriately and even having bad attitudes towards their fellow ex-pats, therefore coming across as being arrogant, rude and distinctive from the Thais in a bad light, making themselves stand out more as not even partially assimilating into the environment that brings more attentions onto them if one or a few step out of line causing problems that I guess tars us all with the same brush in the eyes of the Thais.

In answer to the OP`s question, no, I don`t believe there is a clash between Thais and the genuine tourists, but not to say that there isn`t low tolerance levels between Thais and the long term foreigners here.

Sorry, not a very good poll. I shall have to give you lessons in polling. May i be the poll moderator, please?

The first time I came to Thailand, I was living in a nearby country. I had read a little about the culture and wished to be respectful.

At the airport, there were no taxis, just the illegal cars that you could hire to get to town. The first question was did I want a Thai girl, to which I replied no, this was followed by did I want a Thai boy, again a no. "Well, what do you want?" I want a ride to my hotel.

At the hotel, when checking in, I was asked if I wanted the room by hour.

It was a little hard to take some of the stuff I had read about the culture seriously at that time.

Totally agree what you say about the expats. Hardly a day goes by where i don,t see at least one without a huge stick stuck up their butts. Never bother to learn Thai, anything about Thai customs , Thai food, dress like total slobs, often drunk, rude obnoxious and a 24.7 scowl that would scare off anyone. Gee Whiz ! I wonder why the Thais might not think highly of them. Oh i forgot about the twenty something trophy bar girl covered in skin prints they have dragging behind them. Shows serious low class. Trailer trash foreigners. Not someone i would ever invite home nor want within a mile of me or my Thai friends. Sadly they seem to be flooding into the country by the plane loads. Having said that i have seen numerous clueless tourists i don,t want near me neither.

Think it depends on how one would determine, what is a tourist?

I believe that in general those who visit Thailand as holiday makers create little problems and on the whole are usually well behaved, although of course there are always going to be exceptions to the rule. The problems arise with the longer term foreigners here, the forever tourists doing border hops, breaking the rules or ex-pats that have difficulties adapting to the lifestyles, culture and attitudes of the Thai people, such as failing to learn the language, what is considered as being impolite in Thai society and dressing inappropriately and even having bad attitudes towards their fellow ex-pats, therefore coming across as being arrogant, rude and distinctive from the Thais in a bad light, making themselves stand out more as not even partially assimilating into the environment that brings more attentions onto them if one or a few step out of line causing problems that I guess tars us all with the same brush in the eyes of the Thais.

In answer to the OP`s question, no, I don`t believe there is a clash between Thais and the genuine tourists, but not to say that there isn`t low tolerance levels between Thais and the long term foreigners here.

^

You do realise that you could be mistaken for a snob of the worst kind?

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Not worth voting.

The poll is far to simplistic and not really relevant to the causes of the problem between 'tourists' and the average Thai.

The situation is complex, but some points to consider are:

• Many tourists spend more money in one day than an average Thai earns in a month. This income disparity makes many Thais feel inferior to the tourists, and the Thais, quite frankly, resent that. This feeling of inferiority is often inflamed when Tourists , often unconciously, flaunt their relative wealth. Many Thai vendors, working long hours for a small salary compared to the tourist, see the tourist parading their "wealth" about in tourist areas.
• Many tourists so not attempt to consider the Thai cultural point of view ...... to many Thais that shows them to be stupid, arrogant, and pompous.
• And also, many "tourists" that Thais meet in "Tourist venues" are drunks, loud mouthed and uncouth, and hardly good ambassadors for thier fellow country men and women. Unfortunately that is what many Thais regard as the "average" farang. One 'bad apple" spils the whole bushel ..... and that 'bad apple" is what many Thais see as their first example of the normal Farang.

i could go on, but enough said.

So Thais resent tourists because of jealousy....that makes sense to me

If I read it correctly, 3 out of 4 options basically blame the tourists.

Drunks, loud mouthed and uncouth. I think that explains about everything.

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Not worth voting.

The poll is far to simplistic and not really relevant to the causes of the problem between 'tourists' and the average Thai.

The situation is complex, but some points to consider are:

• Many tourists spend more money in one day than an average Thai earns in a month. This income disparity makes many Thais feel inferior to the tourists, and the Thais, quite frankly, resent that. This feeling of inferiority is often inflamed when Tourists , often unconciously, flaunt their relative wealth. Many Thai vendors, working long hours for a small salary compared to the tourist, see the tourist parading their "wealth" about in tourist areas.
• Many tourists so not attempt to consider the Thai cultural point of view ...... to many Thais that shows them to be stupid, arrogant, and pompous.
• And also, many "tourists" that Thais meet in "Tourist venues" are drunks, loud mouthed and uncouth, and hardly good ambassadors for thier fellow country men and women. Unfortunately that is what many Thais regard as the "average" farang. One 'bad apple" spils the whole bushel ..... and that 'bad apple" is what many Thais see as their first example of the normal Farang.

i could go on, but enough said.

So Thais resent tourists because of jealousy....that makes sense to me

You read correct. Add expats to that list.

If I read it correctly, 3 out of 4 options basically blame the tourists.

ridiculous choices. whats wrong with a simple yes or no???? why the irrelavant attached qualifier??? i can nit choose any answer the way tge post is worded...its as if you are guiding us to select your prescribed outcome...cheap

There is no other third world country where a foreigner pay generaly the same as a local,

specialy for hotels, even in Pattaya...

phuket or Samui i'm not sure

What a sad sorry sack of complainers and whingers - guess that beer tax must already be hitting your pensions harder.

Broken, when liars ends their arguments surely don't quit, instead a step conversation change, like your face is horrible take place. I am not different no way, I hate tourism and tourist tout-court but there is no Truth just a lie more

..Truth?

You invite 20+ million people to your country

and you are actually trying to invite more

There is no chances all of them will behave

It is their holiday ... they have paid for it

Seem will feel it this right to act as they wish

Then again some who travel are just pigs

Thailand should stop crying about a few bad apples

and be happy that people still want to travel here

In general I think Thais hate all foreigners. However, they love their expertise and money. They wish you would drop your wallet at the airport and get the hell out of here...

Today, the humans' standards have dropped very low on this planet.

Doesn't matter where.

You invite 20+ million people to your country

and you are actually trying to invite more

There is no chances all of them will behave

It is their holiday ... they have paid for it

Seem will feel it this right to act as they wish

Then again some who travel are just pigs

Thailand should stop crying about a few bad apples

and be happy that people still want to travel here

Should not the travelers have some conscious?

Should be thankful for the scum that come and behave like pigs?

Then it should apply to all countries, especially to yours first.

East meets west. Lots of noise with the underclasses moving upward.

Violence and unwanted behavior is on the rise. Hooligans' behavior is a good example (lately the Rotterdam's team ugly behavior in Rome).

Looking at the 'big' picture, this statement explains a lot - East meets west. Lots of noise with the underclasses moving upward.

In this world the 'underclasses' with their big money is creating havoc globally.

Money does not equal the upper class.

And who ARE defined as the upper-class?