Less Farang Living In LOS?

[CharlieH]

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[pgrahmm]

You want to see new faces? Go to Chiang Mai Immigration just about any day of the week! As far as I'm concerned, there are too damn many of them now!

No S*%t ....I've been living south of the city(Mai Hia) for over 10 years and amazed at the influx of farang over the last 3yrs. out this way.

At the fresh market on a sunday I could imagine to be somewhere in middle America....couples young,old,mixed & matched,full families and large groups all shapes and sizes...here for reasons of their own.

ChiangMai has been discovered!

Exactly what I have said and am seeing → close to the same area...

[JLCrab]

Well now I have noticed nothing of the sort here in the South,We go into the town and sometimes we see 1 or 2 Westerners at the most 3, that has not changed over the last 4 years .I like it this way,,, We don't have to Mingle with to many Westerners,,,Just the way we like it . 1 or 2 Friends is Fine . Love it !

I know a few people like yourself and I really cant make it out.

Why do people who have no wish meeting fellow Westerners in real life spend much of their spare time conversing with them online ?

Seriously I don't get it.

One of only a handful of reasons why any farang would rule out interaction with other farangs is an intrinsic fear of being instantly identified as a tool/dullard/faker.

I don't shun any anyone based on their being a foreigner - why not just take people as individuals?

Personally I do not shun or try to avoid meeting any farang just that -- in the normal course of my daily life which includes spending most of my time out & about during the early hours -- I just don't tend to meet any. When I do, I'm more often than not the one who initiates any conversation. And, as I said after my first few years here going to the bar-farang on occasion: I don't smoke, I don't drink, and I know nothing about footie so what's the point.

Edited February 3, 2016 by JLCrab

[pgrahmm]

Well now I have noticed nothing of the sort here in the South,We go into the town and sometimes we see 1 or 2 Westerners at the most 3, that has not changed over the last 4 years .I like it this way,,, We don't have to Mingle with to many Westerners,,,Just the way we like it . 1 or 2 Friends is Fine . Love it !

I know a few people like yourself and I really cant make it out.

Why do people who have no wish meeting fellow Westerners in real life spend much of their spare time conversing with them online ?

Seriously I don't get it.

One of only a handful of reasons why any farang would rule out interaction with other farangs is an intrinsic fear of being instantly identified as a tool/dullard/faker.

I don't shun any anyone based on their being a foreigner - why not just take people as individuals?

Personally I do not shun or try to avoid meeting any farang just that -- in the normal course of my daily life which includes spending most of my time out & about during the early hours -- I just don't tend to meet any. When I do, I'm more often than not the one who initiates any conversation. And, as I said after my first few years here going to the bar-farang on occasion: I don't smoke, I don't drink, and I know nothing about footie so what's the point.

Agreed.....I say hi & chat with my farang neighbor across the street....Drive the girls to school waving at another across the street farang neighbor out walking his dog.....Behind me another farang neighbor & we chat about world stuff....When out and about it's usually with the wife/family/errands.....Most farangs don't seem interested in a courtesy nod/hi/howdy/hello while in Makro/Big C/Tesco - they're busy shopping/errands....Don't do the soccer game watching thing & seldom join the lonely souls convention at the pubs → when I do there's not much substance or continuity there....Do enjoy playing ball a couple of times a week exchanging good humor & barbs along the way....Never been a crowd guy or follower - the wife is the same.....Neither of us has that outgoing hey-how-are-ya yearn to meet and greet - never met a stranger gene....

We have our circle of friends & that's good enough.....

Some people are loners - some are solitary - some cloister with family or village - some people are glad handers and mixers.....Don't see a reason to fault for that....

Pub/bar scenes are different - a lot of agendas floating around → most not positive......

[bwpage3]

O.P. - well spotted!

What I can say to add my 2 cents is that most of the dinosaurs, (like me) who made it through the 90s in LOS, and were able to set up a business and work themselves up to a certain standard, are still around. We all mostly will stay since most of us have house, wife, job/business, kids, etc. and basically are (and have the backing to support that) comfortably numb... Plus have we lost the "connection" to our native homeland... We would simply not fit in anymore...

But let's be honest - LOS is not the fun place it was used to be. As (talking to people who started here in the 90s) if all those coups, violently extinguished student protests, civil unrest and bombings in the south, the carnage(s) Thaksin was responsible for, the tsunami, the following yellow vs red disasters, airport seizure, civil war alike scenes in bkk, flood disaster in bkk, shut down bangkok idiocracy, and on and on goes the list...

As if all this was not enough to destroy the common westerners illusion of "paradise of smiles", we got overfishing, destruction of reefs by fishing fleets, speedboats, and jet skies, we got lazy and greedy park rangers, trashing Thais, murdering island mafiosi, murdering taxi drivers, in broad daylight tourist executing policemen, gang shootings, unexplained tourist "suicides" by the thousands, 2nd worldwide in traffic accidents per capita, a whole generation of useless drug-addicted Thai youngsters, jet ski scams, pickpockets wherever you go, sun bed and sun umbrella ban on beaches, destruction of highly profitable beach club areas, a corrupt and highly inefficient legal system, a corrupt police force in limbo, inefficient, corrupt and lazy officials wherever you look, an education system that never was good but now turns worse with native English teachers being driven out like in a witch hunt... oh man, where should I stop??? This could fill a book!

As if all the aforementioned points wouldn't be enough to destroy that illusion, we got more for you: Crackdowns on part foreign owned businesses whenever a Thai tourist related company screws up, crackdowns on visas, crackdown on foreigners in general, or (what we also had recently) police and/or army simply checking and padding down any tourist they might run into at a local 7Eleven, ever changing laws and/or regulations all purely focused on making the life of a foreigner living and working here as difficult as possible, the general anti foreign attitude many locals still reflect in their behavior, the selfcenteredness of the Thai people with their "we are the greatest, we were never occupied, never colonized, (never civilized?), nobody can beat us, nobody can tell us what to do!" attitude, etc. along with all those scams and ripoffs in private Thai/foreign partnerships that we all know just too well...

Man, if all of that is not enough to destroy your illusion of the "paradise of smiles" you either are a complete nutter, a LOS dinosaur (feeding on all those sweet memories of the long gone good times), or both...

I believe I am the latter as much too often I am asking myself "what the fffork am I doing here?"... I believe many of the oldtimers here will share my sentiment...

Yea, I wonder the same thing, why the fffork are you here?"

You have taken all the negatives about Thailand and collated them into one big heap. You could do that with any country. If that`s how you feel that Thailand has only negatives to offer and nothing good going for it, then why the fffork are you here?" The same goes for anyone else that feels the same way you do.

Do you have a hard time understanding English?

The poster explained clearly he was a "dinosaur" and the reasons he was still there.

Every single word he posted was the truth, so why are you getting bent out of shape for someone telling the truth?

If you think you are in paradise, take away all the Thai ladies and you would be someone else yourself.

The worst kind of expats living in Thailand are the ones in complete denial of the truth.

The truth is the truth and you are not going to sweep it under the rug.

Need more people telling the truth than those making up ridiculous stories.

It's none of your business why anyone is in Thailand.

However, if you cannot admit and deal with the truth, you are the one that should be questioning yourself.

[bwpage3]

My first stint in Thailand, I lived in Prachinburi in 1984.

There was nothing there.

The same round-about had one shop, which had the only land line telephone in town.

Khao Yai was still a jungle and all the nice concrete walk paths there now was nothing but dirt paths.

People were happy, simple, friendly, interested and uneducated as they are today.

What happened over the course of time was that a few of the rich and powerful introduced western marketing to Thailand.

Basically, hey dumbshit, if you don't have an IPHONE, you are a nobody.

For the generation that only had Thai Soap Operas to grow up on, believing everything they saw on TV was their reality.

Little by little, western marketing introduced a greedy want of money and power, or else you would be no one.

By not investing in the education system, it was easy to convince the uneducated to buy into this westernized marketing idea of needing all these products they could not afford.

As the timeline moves forward, offering payment plans and credit to anyone and everyone just because.

Thai's over the past 30 years bombarded with the message, if you do not have these fancy products or money, you are no one.

Everyone wants to be someone, be cool like the westerners, however to do this with little to no money meant supporting the Chinese counterfeit brand name products which Thailand thrives on.

Yes, I can see you have your counterfeit Levi's tee-shirt on (Spelled Leevi's) and I can see your counterfeit IPHONE, however, you must be cool because... mentality

The lack of education kept the marketing money machine going in high gear as every product under the sun was buy this or you will be nobody.

Corruption flourished when Thai's were too uneducated to ask what happened when 100 billion disappears and the government states they have no idea and the people say ok, must be a good enough reason and never question the money going into someone's pocket.

The media surviving on advertising dollars from the rich and power corrupt, so there is no true journalism. We cannot write a story on corruption when they are our main advertisers type of thing. No one is ever held accountable.

Biased judicial and police system where the poor fill the jails and the those stealing 100 billion walk away to a life of luxury.

Times have changed.

People have wised up but not to the point they have any power to make any change.

The Army waltzes in and just takes over the entire financial pie for themselves. Have you ever seen so many Army/Police Generals that have wealth in the millions of US dollars?

Thailand is racist no matter what you think. Thai men are racist against Isaan women. Chinese-Thai pretty much think everyone other than themselves are low class. Farang school teachers are the laughing stock in Thai Society.

Thailand wants your money, plain and simple, but they do not want you settling in, disrupting the machine, educating your Isaan wife or any of that other nonsense farangs are perceived to be doing.

An educated populace is the worst fear of the corrupt Elite. To be held accountable is something they are not willing to be.

So on to the question of being in Thailand?

Yes there are legal avenues to stay in Thailand. Those that have the financial means to achieve this have no problems other than the occasional hassle at VISA renewal time.

Those that are in Thailand not on a proper VISA or with not enough income, have to jump through all kinds or hoops to stay and it makes their life stressful and uncertain.

Thailand can change regulations at any time they deem necessary, right or wrong, which can adversely affect foreigners living in Thailand.

What can you do but be compliant or stay illegally?

It is a choice for each and every person to make in their own best interests.

No foreigner has the right to tell another foreigner if you don't like it to get out.

Every foreigner should accept the facts of what is going on in Thailand around them and be prepared for whatever shift may or may not come their way.

People that leave Thailand? Many did not burn bridges and had a life to go back to. They tried Thailand just the same as every single person here has moved once or twice or 3 times or more in their lifetimes.

If they decided to move away, it was the best decision for them and their family. Not because of you or anyone else.

Some posters by their own admissions have trapped themselves in Thailand and have no where to go home to.

Some posters have been in Thailand forever and to them that is home and they find ways to survive.

With the exception of 1 person I knew who has lived in Thailand 36 years, every foreigner I knew in Thailand has moved home for a multitude or reasons everyone can understand.

Are they losers or are the losers the ones that try to stay on VISA jumping and never having enough money in their pocket for plane ticket home?

I will be the first to admit, it took me two times to finally wise up.

Wise up to the fact I wanted more for my family than I could give them in Thailand. Could I have stayed around Isaan watching the rice grow and the chickens run around? Possibly.

However, I did not want our son to have that as his future.

I did not have anything to go back to, however, I did have a highly advanced education that I knew could place me right back in the middle of the job market with a high salary and benefits.

Is it as fun as Thailand? Well, working the 9 to 5 grind is no comparison, however, at this stage of life, I do what I do for my families future.

I had my fun over the years and for me, I decided that I wanted to give them everything I can in way of a happy future for themselves.

I simple could not do that in Thailand and doing that had become the most important thing in life for me.

I am a loser for leaving Thailand?

I look at it as having enough sense to put my families future first. If that makes me a loser fine.

However, I sleep very well at night in all these western comforts knowing if something every happens, my family will be taken care of the rest of their lives in a much better life than they had.

The naysayers are the ones with no options at all.

The retiree's have toughed it out and made a life in Thailand, my hat is completely off to them.

Others are younger, savvy, have a legal business, smart guys that can make money. My hat is off to them.

The one's that think Thailand will never change the rules and they can survive on a teacher's salary forever? Well, my advice there is time flies. We all get old. You will wake up some day with no pension or anything to support yourself. One hospital stay will finish you off.

Shysters will always be shysters, lying they way through life, cheating anyone and everyone for the next few bucks to survive another 90 days.

Everyone has a reason, no one really cares if you agree or disagree with the reason to stay or leave.

Worry about yourself before worrying about all the others.

[JAFO]

Lots of good responses in this thread to the OP's question, of course like almost all threads by about page 3 or so it goes off on a tangent because someone went on a rage about hating Thailand. Life as it is reading forums.

JLCrab and PGrahmm early on offered some insightful posts. Cypress Hill has noticed the shift of where foreigners are hanging out these days. The country is changing like every country does. Personally, I do not really pay any attention to the foreigner count anywhere I go in Thailand. I guess it has never mattered to me. I think if you are conducting census type assessments it will completely depend on where you live. I mean we all know places like Pattaya, Phuket area, Central BKK, Chiang Mai, Korat and KK have a high head count of foreigners. Of course you can then find a village out in the country and possibly never see a foreigner again. Some absolutely do not want any interaction with foreigners, others they absolutely have to have it so you know where to live to achieve both of those personal requirements.

When I was working and living in BKK back in 2005 there were Expats everywhere. Mostly UK folks some how linked to Tesco Lotus operations. I spoke with a few to share where we hailed from, small talk but never connected with them. I live up North now and day to day living I seldom see a foreigner in my travels but again I do not think I am really looking. I think my wife notices it more than I do, usually she says "Hey why is that foreigner guy staring at you?"...I usually respond "Where?" and laugh.

Anyway to each his own, I have a few American Expats I talk to, mostly by tele or email. They are 10+ years older than I am so our interests are way different. We have met up a few times for lunch and dinner. They are quite happy in Thailand and are not leaving. They have been here a long long time. Great resource. We talk crap about the US and Thailand the same. All 3 of us know, each place has its pro's and con's.

[true blue]

You want to see new faces? Go to Chiang Mai Immigration just about any day of the week! As far as I'm concerned, there are too damn many of them now!

No S*%t ....I've been living south of the city(Mai Hia) for over 10 years and amazed at the influx of farang over the last 3yrs. out this way.

At the fresh market on a sunday I could imagine to be somewhere in middle America....couples young,old,mixed & matched,full families and large groups all shapes and sizes...here for reasons of their own.

ChiangMai has been discovered!

Exactly what I have said and am seeing → close to the same area...

driving around the city (chiang mai)this afternoon commented to wife.never seen so many farangs here,bit of a mix lots of youngish ladies,but lots and lots of older men.

[Global Guy]

I've been living here on and off since 2001. I will say that Thailand is getting more expensive while getting less value at the same time. I notice customer service which was already a joke in 2001 has gotten even worse now. Anywhere you go, dare you interrupt someone with a question about a product or service while they are tapping away on their cell phone and you'll get a death stare.

Thailand has become more Westernized and as a result, more materialistic than before.

The overall attitude toward foreigners has gotten worse. It's still better than living in the West, but not as good as it used to be. I used to love Bangkok, now I can't stand going there and would never live there again.

At my last job, in 2004, I worked with about 20 Westerners. I think about 5 of them are still in Thailand, the other 15 went back home or elsewhere in Asia.

BTW, I'm on a legit visa and have a steady gf who has a great job. So, I'm not in bar fly category.

The past two years were the first time where I started to think about and talk to people about living in Cambodia, Vietnam, or elsewhere. I never imagined this years ago.

[bendejo]

Well, I used to divide my time between Thailand and Brazil. Brazil seems to be turning into something resembling a failed African country and Thailand is relaxing into it's bigotry and xenophobia before they start going after each other. All this checking in with police stuff is outside the comfort zone. No, I'm not on the run, just that I learned long ago that police (anywhere) are best avoided. In places with rampant corruption it is essential.

For me, the thing that has kept me uncomfortable in Thailand is that every Thai knows that if there is any disagreement with a farang they will come out on top because the farang shouldn't be here in the first place. This gets amplified knowing you are alone and all their Thai brethren will jump in if it came to blows, very tempting to a coward who's been hitting the booze and/or M-150.

Long ago I heard a bar girl loudly berating a punter "farang no gip money falang no good!" Translated into the terminology of the moment "him not Quality Tourist."

[KhunG]

I moved here in the 2nd half of 2014. I know of two others who moved here after me, and two more wrapping up things to move here this year. This is upcountry, so there are fewer of us around, but the building contractors I've hired say that most of their customers are Farang.

[MorristheRunt]

I find that generally those who actually have any skills or credentials tend to keep quiet about them.

Agreed. apart from former members of the SAS, SBS or Delta force 6