The Bottomline!

[swissie]

A lot has been said about "the new visa rules". They are not all that "new" to me. Anybody able to read a newspaper, and interpret the statements of certain "politicians" and members of the parlament must have realised that "something is coming". Well, it has "come".

I have lived and worked in Thailand for 2 years before. During this time I have made every effort to rather "mingle" with Thai's instead of (more or less) honorable members of the expat community.

After having lived and worked in Thailand for 2 years, I decided that I will return to my "home country" and abandon future plans in connection with Thailand forever. Why:

Most importantly and this may be the main reason and somewhat hurtful: Thais do not like us! (PS: They don't even like their "neighbours" = Cambodians, Laotians, Burmese.=Thai Rak Thai!)

- The constant smiling routine etc can not camouflage the fact that Thais consider us farangs as ugly, harsh (too direct in the way we express ourselvers verbally= we lie only if necessary, Thais lie as a live philosophie, furthermore we are mostly overweight.)

So why is the "smiling-routine" is alive and well:

Thais have a certain respect for us because we seem to have something most Thais do not have: A sufficient amount of a commodity called money. That this commodity (called money) was earned by hard work or intelligent business decisions or consequent saving efforts is simply beyond them.

But for them and for whatever reason: We seem to have plenty of that "commodity" and the "smile routine" has proved in the past that this is a good way to somehow gain access to this commodity.

In the meantime and due to this fact, the courts in western europe are clogged with divorce cases between farangs and their Thai-Wifes that are directly connected to what was said above concerning this matter.

But of course there were other raesons for me to abandon my "longer term Thailand project".

- Why would I want to stay in a country where my legal status as a resident can change overnight and depends basically of the mood swings of some corrupt "parlamentarians" in Bangkok? THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED NOW!

- Why would I invest a penny in a country where I would never really own what I bought (regardless of what certain "hokus-pokus magicians" tell you. No, they are not Thai folks, but farangs, simply interested in making a living in "paradise".)

So, in closing, I do not feel sorry for for the type of expat that plugged down some money in Thailand as "playing money" (Las Vegas Style, if I loose it, it wont cramp my lifestyle).

But I feel sorry for "Farangs", that possibly have worked all their lives and have (in the meantime) already invested their live savings into a live with "no worries in paradise."

Remedy: Don't look west young man (or old man)! Look east! It's only about 4 hours driving time away from you.

Cheers.