Expat = Not normal back home?

[asdecas]

What's so good about normal?

[rondii]

Yep, just you, another stupid troll post..

[Emster23]

I'm a yank, and no longer consider USA as "back home" but more like "country of origin". Been living here 15 years, started visiting in '82. Yes I am retired. I don't drink or go to bars, my Thai gf is 40 and has a real job. Can't speak the language? Get out of the bars and learn it. Don't complain if you find bars happen to attract drunks..... I live in Jomtien. I guess my profile makes we "weird". We all want to be rebels, just like everyone else.

[gandalf12]

My wife and family are Thai, I live in Thailand and have for many years. I work all over the world and I would not want to return to the drab life in England. Yes expats are different they see more of the real world and enjoy life more

[little mary sunshine]

Maybe a percentage are a little strange, these are the ones who probably ran

Out on their families, bills, drug problems to "start over" in Thailand; unfortunately,

They bring the same problems and irresponsible behaviors with them.

Met a great deal of very nice X-Pats enjoying the good life, weather, travel,

Golf, social activities at a fraction of the cost of living in Europe or the U.S.

[freebyrd]

Wherever you go in life, there is one thing you can never escape.......you.

its not what you look at, it's what you see.

Everyone needs a little abbreviated Thoreau to start their day.

[freebyrd]

Different? I certainly hope so. One of my employees in PI asked what my ambitions were as a younger man. I told her I simply wanted my life to be different from those around me in the UK.

When I left the mob, where I was a lso 'different', a "career counsellor" - yeah right! sneered at me when I said i was heading for Thailand and that i would be quote: "Back in a year". In the 22 years since that meeting I've lived and worked in Thailand, China, Vietnam, Philippines and Cambodia where I'm still working, by choice and I intend to see out my days here.

So has my life been different? I would say so. My ony wish is if I could meet that smug git and make him eat his words.

[Thaidream]

When I got off the plane some fifty years ago- Don Muang airport- no air conditioning and no automation- Thailand was something out of a book- It was exotic, vibrant and different; people were great and the cost of living was cheap. I never came for the Booze or birds. I came because I was tired of life in dreary America. I have never looked back but have gone back to the US many times and never regretted making Thailand my permanent home. The only issue I have with Thailand is that it is trying too much to be like America and that is most disconcerting. Thailand actually has lost that exotic look and feel of being different. Bangkok is becoming like New York, expensive, over built and congested. Same for Pattaya and Chiang Mai Life in the rural areas of Thailand is much better but Americanisation is slowly but surely coming. They call it 'progress'. I call it depressing.

[georgemandm]

Let's just be honest about this, aren't most expats you meet a little "different" in Thailand?

I admit I have only met about 100, but I would say 98 are a little strange.

Either the 20-year old gf when they are 60, love for bars, and simply a weirder personality than most people i meet.

maybe it's the water.

So I wonder if these expats were normal back home?

i'm sure you have to be a little strange to leave it all and uproot in a country where you can't speak their language.

maybe it's the heat.

It's just the funny guy who comes into language class, admits he was up til 4 a.m., he's 55, and is that vomit on his jeans?l

maybe it's just me

Ok you tell me how old you are ?

And who cares if she is 20 and he is 60 it is none of your business or are you just up set he can get a younger lady

than you .

I not care what man from the west do in thailand up to them and why are you here tell me I know you are here like me good thai lady's and sometimes good people.

[Jonmarleesco]

'maybe it's just me' Who's weird? Or who thinks that everyone else is?

[1FinickyOne]

Not sure where these perceived "normal" people might be - - in any country. "Viva la difference" and all that. So, not really sure what you are looking for with this sort of post...

I would guess that if you went to any country and presented 60 yr old men w/an opportunity to have 20+ yr old Gf's, they would like that and the reverse for females…

Don't really like to categorize but maybe there are 2 types of expats - those who have a lifetime of travel and enjoy other cultures and those who do not and are here purely for financial reasons and think that being in another culture means the food is spicy and think they are speaking Thai when they say "same same" - -

Levels of education and financial comfort do effect people's outlook on life - - and likely on what you might perceive as normal or not.

[akentryan]

I have no idea what is considered normal in the USA or anywhere else for that matter. Tell me what normal is but before you do I'm sure I'll be outside your parameters. I've been here since 1986 and worked many of those teaching Accounting and Auditing in English at a half dozen or so universities around Bangkok. Happily married for 22 years to a Thai lady lawyer. Only one regret - she passed away in January at age 57. I have extensive experience in bar-hopping and whore-mongering (although the latter term does not reflect the respect I have for most of the girls forced into the "trade").. I have fond memories of Washington Square and Soi Cowboy - Nana and Patpong were rare excursions. In Pattaya there was no Walking Street most farangs knew each other and congregated in small bars to hoist a few. Now I go out and I'm lucky if I can find a Farang that I can convese with - bar girls are pretty much the same except most of them speak some English now. Everyone in the asylum probably considers themselves normal and who am I to say they're not?

[ronthai]

I hope I never meet this OP, sound like a boring know it all.

[Monkeyrobot]

It's you.

What's wrong trying to learn a foreign language with a hangover and vomit on your jeans? It is you is strange us vomit people with 20 year old girlfriends are the normal ones. Well that's what Nok tells me at the cowboy when I buy her a drink, she also told me I look like James Bond so put that in you pipe and smoke it buddy boy.

[billd766]

I was not normal back home and everybody seemed to want to remind me of it as in 'why don't you do this' or 'why don't you do that' or 'how come you never fill-in-the-blank' -- Here I am not normal and other than persons on this website nobody really cares.

Define "normal".

University education

career and regular employment

wife and kids

regular social activities ie golf, tennis, gardening club, etc.

Upwardly mobile

remain in one place long enough to be established part of community

not doing things I care not to talk about

University education

Never went as I joined the RAF as a boy of 15 1/2

career and regular employment

I had about 4 or 5 careers over 50 years

wife and kids

2 marriages, 1 divorce, 1 son from each marriage

regular social activities ie golf, tennis, gardening club, etc.

Never bothered with that

Upwardly mobile

38 countries in 50 years

remain in one place long enough to be established part of community

I moved every 3 months to 4 years until now

not doing things I care not to talk about

I don't understand that part

Edited September 10, 2015 by billd766

[NoshowJones]

"maybe it's just me", yes, I think it is just you, 98 out of 100 strange???? You must be meeting with Yorkshire men.

I have yet to meet even one Yorkshireman who was not a loudmouth or just plain strange.

In saying that I have met many nationalities over here, and 98 out of 100 are/were very pleasant people.

[Suradit69]

It's you.

Yes if the O/P thinks 98% of those he knows are "weird," possibly it's his view of what's normal that's skewed.

Of course, the farang population comes from many different cultures, so possibly he suffers from xenophobia or else this is his first experience living away from mom and dad.

As far as older men cavorting with much younger partners being weird, Larry King, Rupert Murdoch, Donald Trump, Jerry Seinfeld, Harrison Ford, Woody Allen, Hugh Heffner, John Cleese et al might disagree. Possibly "eccentric" or "lucky" might be a better adjective to use.

Edited September 10, 2015 by Suradit69

[micmichd]

When I find myself musing about expats and their many incarnations I am struck with how different todays expats are from those who were here in the mid-seventies when I arrived. Aside from the military guys who stayed on after the Vietnam war, there really werent any retirees back then.

Motivations and mindset were different, aside from the fact that Thai women played a part even back then. People werent rejects from social housing, trailer parks or slums. They werent people who couldnt survive back home, they were people who wanted more from life. Maybe it is a small difference but they seemed to be running after or toward something rather than running away.

Those kinds of people still find there way to Thailand but they are dwarfed in number by this new breed of expat. Those of us who started exploring the world right out of university are underrepresented in this modern age so we resign ourselves to having little in common with modern expats. In terms of numbers we are not the norm or normal I guess.

Agree 100%.

1. They had personality and individuality and were very positive.

2. They had ambition to be different and embrace it.

3. They didn't just jump on a 400 quid one way flight, to get away from something.

4. They weren't looking for the conveyor belt Thai wife.

5. They discovered Thailand and liked it. Not because it had easy " women"

6. They were young.

7. Weren't worried about pensions, being ripped off, security, where the nearest hospital was. Being called a farang, and all the absolute nonsense that is written in here.

8. Issaan was to be avoided unless doing voluntary work.

9. They didn't bring many prejudices with them because they didn't have many.

10. Most worked.

However the new breed experience something different but new to them. I just feel jaded by the Thailand that has been lost.

The retirees have changed the landscape here. For better or for worse..much more than the Russians or the Chinese they so seem to disparage.

Most interestingly if you read some of the threads they seem to think they know better than some who have lived here 30 plus years and have been exposed to all facets of Thai life and their institutions..

Everywhere changes..

One thing in common..not normal back home..I think the answer is yes..

[micmichd]

Not normal but crazy in Germany, a Farang over there.

I have been a globetrotter all my life, Germany was only for education and money.

In 1969 I hitchiked through Asia, all the way down A1 and back. Some parts by boat, some by train, never any airplane. When I came back, I was not the same anymore. Guess I lost my heart in Asia, somewhere between the Khyber pass, the Himalayas and Thailand. Good to be back where my heart belongs.

Edited September 10, 2015 by micmichd

[piersbeckett]

According to Wikipedia there were 24,809,683 foreign visitors to Thailand in 2014.

If the figure that 60% were male is correct, the breakdown would be:

14,885,810 men

9,923,873 women

or 4,961,937 more men than women visited Thailand in 2014.

I trust that my family visits to Scotland will not attract the same opprobium now that the family has repatriated to the Old Country.

The fact is that the males go out hunting revenue and return with the spoils to the home camp. So of course there are more male travellers.. Some amongst us choose to leave their clan in the arms of their in-laws in Thailand, some relocate to the Old Country. What us the ratio of male travellers to female for Scotland? Ohio?

SC

Careful with that trust not attracting that opprobrium; according to a report in The Herald of 16th. August 2014, Scotland has a thriving 'off street' prostitution industry involving many women from eastern Europe, Latin America and southeast Asia. "A snapshot as recently as last week found 2,253 individuals advertising sex for sale on 9 series of escort and other agencies including a major single portal hosted in south east Asia".

I don't know but would guess that you're correct in your assumption that more males travel internationally than do females but I would also guess that that is for a vast array of reasons.

[JLCrab]

I was not normal back home and everybody seemed to want to remind me of it as in 'why don't you do this' or 'why don't you do that' or 'how come you never fill-in-the-blank' -- Here I am not normal and other than persons on this website nobody really cares.

Define "normal".

University education

career and regular employment

wife and kids

regular social activities ie golf, tennis, gardening club, etc.

Upwardly mobile

remain in one place long enough to be established part of community

not doing things I care not to talk about

University education

Never went as I joined the RAF as a boy of 15 1/2

career and regular employment

I had about 4 or 5 careers over 50 years

wife and kids

2 marriages, 1 divorce, 1 son from each marriage

regular social activities ie golf, tennis, gardening club, etc.

Never bothered with that

Upwardly mobile

38 countries in 50 years

remain in one place long enough to be established part of community

I moved every 3 months to 4 years until now

not doing things I care not to talk about

I don't understand that part

2 marriages sounds exceedingly normal.

not doing things I care not to talk about

I don't understand that part

It means in common Yankee vernacular that it's none of your f^&&*ng business.

Edited September 10, 2015 by JLCrab

[VINCENT2012]

your feeling is shared 100%...i do agree with that post....and i would add that some are so strange that they look comming from another planet..!

my last farang customer was a "funny"german 56 old person, he said burned out...ok... kicked out from his german company after 28 years working there, now with serious problem of behavior, eating 20 pills a day, sober fine but happy happy you dont what will be is reaction, trying to buid a new life here with a bargirl friend....and thats only a case!i mean thailand instead of making normal tourism should advertize as psychiatric tourism destination because lots of these worldwide fellows fall radicaly down here.i dont know why! but it is a fact when you stay long time here the people look and act most of the time totally diferent as in their own countries.

enjoy:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiOyJj9h25s

[dotpoom]

Not all.....

I love the weather, the food , Thai people are friendly, I have a good quality of life, here....

That I would not have back home....

If I found somewhere else on par and even better I would be happy to give it a try....

Definitely a bit of a Gyspy....

My only negative is the Driving Standards... That's it..

I'll second all that. As a friend of mine once put it....."Had he not comer here he would be sitting at home by the fire (probably alone)waiting to die". Rock on this great country and it's happy happy people.

[dotpoom]

Got a "double take" don't know why...probably because it was worth saying again 555

Edited September 10, 2015 by dotpoom

[Dumbastheycome]

When I find myself musing about expats and their many incarnations I am struck with how different todays expats are from those who were here in the mid-seventies when I arrived. Aside from the military guys who stayed on after the Vietnam war, there really werent any retirees back then.

Motivations and mindset were different, aside from the fact that Thai women played a part even back then. People werent rejects from social housing, trailer parks or slums. They werent people who couldnt survive back home, they were people who wanted more from life. Maybe it is a small difference but they seemed to be running after or toward something rather than running away.

Those kinds of people still find there way to Thailand but they are dwarfed in number by this new breed of expat. Those of us who started exploring the world right out of university are underrepresented in this modern age so we resign ourselves to having little in common with modern expats. In terms of numbers we are not the norm or normal I guess.

Agree 100%.

1. They had personality and individuality and were very positive.

2. They had ambition to be different and embrace it.

3. They didn't just jump on a 400 quid one way flight, to get away from something.

4. They weren't looking for the conveyor belt Thai wife.

5. They discovered Thailand and liked it. Not because it had easy " women"

6. They were young.

7. Weren't worried about pensions, being ripped off, security, where the nearest hospital was. Being called a farang, and all the absolute nonsense that is written in here.

8. Issaan was to be avoided unless doing voluntary work.

9. They didn't bring many prejudices with them because they didn't have many.

10. Most worked.

However the new breed experience something different but new to them. I just feel jaded by the Thailand that has been lost.

The retirees have changed the landscape here. For better or for worse..much more than the Russians or the Chinese they so seem to disparage.

Most interestingly if you read some of the threads they seem to think they know better than some who have lived here 30 plus years and have been exposed to all facets of Thai life and their institutions..

Everywhere changes..

One thing in common..not normal back home..I think the answer is yes..

Yes, yes and yes!

But as the words to that old song say..." Of course I'm mad, you know I'm mad, I've always been mad !

And have been happy in Thai madness.

Which is why in general I avoid the pseudo new age colonialists like a plague!

[bamukloy]

The people 'back home' is a large part of the reasons i came here. Most are butt-plugs, end of.

If that makes me weird, misfit, looser, whatever, im more happy being called that than being 'normal' back home

[micmichd]

@VINCENT2012:

You have good ideas, "psychiatric tourism".

Did it ever come into your idea that many "mental diseases" listed in ICD-10 or DSM-5 are in fact labels for cultural differences between "inner norms" and"outer norms"?

Change the culture, the "disease" might be gone.

[Soutpeel]

@VINCENT2012:

You have good ideas, "psychiatric tourism".

Did it ever come into your idea that many "mental diseases" listed in ICD-10 or DSM-5 are in fact labels for cultural differences between "inner norms" and"outer norms"?

Change the culture, the "disease" might be gone.

Missed the boat i am afraid Dr Will has cornered the Thai market for psychiatric toursim and has some cutting edge techniques as well

[micmichd]

Why should one want to be normal in an anomic society?

[Shiver]

I came here for 2 weeks to visit a long time English friend. That was 9+ years ago. I wasn't happy with England any more but didn't know where to go.