Retain. Sincere or not, smiles are a big part of the culture, identitiy, etc. and people seem to discuss them quite a bit. That being said, Ive never seen as many serious faces on people that look like they dont want to be bothered as I do in BKK.

Ahem, have you been living your life, high-up in a tree? Have you never been on the ground-floor level of NYC, LA, London, Paris, Cairo, Rome, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Moscow, Hong Kong, Mexico City, Shanghai, etc. Believe me, BKK is very socially warm & friendly, by comparison to those fore-mentioned cities.

Fair enough, but none of those places claim to exist within the land of smiles. How sincere is that BKK warmth? I like places like NYC bc when you do connect with people its real.

Again, BKK is one of the very, very few urban areas of the globe, where you (as a foreigner) are "generally" safe on the streets, even in the worse of neighborhoods. That level of cultural sincerity, is sufficient to satisfy our farang palates. So, If you wish to further debate those facts, then have at it. Shalom

I don't equate personal safety with friendliness, or cultural sincerity (whatever that is). But yeah, shalom.

LOS could have many meanings but land of smiles is not one of them.

Lost or Stupid

Land of Scams

Lousy oyster stew

Lonely old Slut

Etc

Etc

Retain. Sincere or not, smiles are a big part of the culture, identitiy, etc. and people seem to discuss them quite a bit. That being said, Ive never seen as many serious faces on people that look like they dont want to be bothered as I do in BKK.

Ahem, have you been living your life, high-up in a tree? Have you never been on the ground-floor level of NYC, LA, London, Paris, Cairo, Rome, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Moscow, Hong Kong, Mexico City, Shanghai, etc. Believe me, BKK is very socially warm & friendly, by comparison to those fore-mentioned cities.

Fair enough, but none of those places claim to exist within the land of smiles. How sincere is that BKK warmth? I like places like NYC bc when you do connect with people its real.

BTW ~ I failed to concur (in my previous post) with your point, that whenever you do connect with people in cities, e.g., NYC, indeed it is for real. You are absolutely right about that.

Retain. Sincere or not, smiles are a big part of the culture, identitiy, etc. and people seem to discuss them quite a bit. That being said, Ive never seen as many serious faces on people that look like they dont want to be bothered as I do in BKK.

Ahem, have you been living your life, high-up in a tree? Have you never been on the ground-floor level of NYC, LA, London, Paris, Cairo, Rome, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Moscow, Hong Kong, Mexico City, Shanghai, etc. Believe me, BKK is very socially warm & friendly, by comparison to those fore-mentioned cities.

I think eldragon was referring to Farang. Not Thais.

Cultural Sincerity defined (in my opinion): An innately consistent, and reliably “live, and let live" culture of people. Thailand is definitely that, compared with other Asian countries, and does not change, regardless of the current political environment.

Genuine friendliness, in my considered opinion, is based upon achieving a compatible level of consciousness, between individuals and developed through mutual effort, as human beings. The consciousness “love at first sight” phenomenon, is non-existent in Asia. Thus, any westerner expecting to find a readily available “friendship” in Asia, is definitely living the dream world perception of the general Asian mentality.

As a “farang” in the LOS, the rules for a successful living circumstance are quite simple. Keep a perpetually polite smile on your face; do not become emotionally involved with any of the locals (especially with “born-in-Asia”, Asian females). It is a thought process, on the foreigner's part, only.

Which LOS are you talking about ?

Land of Smiles or Land of Scams

You forgot Land of Stupidity.

I accept that I'm probably with this communique, but miracles do happen. so here goes Opinions are like a**holes, and everybody has one. Perhaps if you tried becoming more accepting (different from understanding) of the general Thai mentality, then you'd probably be more generous in your considered "opinions". Oddly enough, the only farangs the Thais consider to be not stupid, are the Russians, and East Europeans. A very interesting perspective, for sure.

Retain. Sincere or not, smiles are a big part of the culture, identitiy, etc. and people seem to discuss them quite a bit. That being said, Ive never seen as many serious faces on people that look like they dont want to be bothered as I do in BKK.

Ahem, have you been living your life, high-up in a tree? Have you never been on the ground-floor level of NYC, LA, London, Paris, Cairo, Rome, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Moscow, Hong Kong, Mexico City, Shanghai, etc. Believe me, BKK is very socially warm & friendly, by comparison to those fore-mentioned cities.

I think eldragon was referring to Farang. Not Thais.

I was referring to the Thais.

I'm almost tempted to flip on this. There really are a lot of friendly people here. Thai people are very kind too. But it's mostly people in the service industry. And of course friends, friends of friends, etc. But I feel like your average stranger- or even casual acquaintance- here comes across like they don't want to be bothered.

Granted, I'm extremely biased by frustration with what I'd describe as a lack of intellectual or cultural curiosity among Thais. Most of the time I feel like they don't care about foreigners or where they came from. There's also the way they tend to hide things for no apparent reason and seem like they're trying to end a conversation early. And that's just the ones that speak English. In fact, I'd say the ones that can't speak English are almost friendlier.

Cultural Sincerity defined (in my opinion): An innately consistent, and reliably “live, and let live" culture of people. Thailand is definitely that, compared with other Asian countries, and does not change, regardless of the current political environment.

Genuine friendliness, in my considered opinion, is based upon achieving a compatible level of consciousness, between individuals and developed through mutual effort, as human beings. The consciousness “love at first sight” phenomenon, is non-existent in Asia. Thus, any westerner expecting to find a readily available “friendship” in Asia, is definitely living the dream world perception of the general Asian mentality.

As a “farang” in the LOS, the rules for a successful living circumstance are quite simple. Keep a perpetually polite smile on your face; do not become emotionally involved with any of the locals (especially with “born-in-Asia”, Asian females). It is a thought process, on the foreigner's part, only.

First paragraph is a great point. Thailand is very comfortable in the sense that people typically don't judge, or at least it's unlikely they won't confront you about things the aspects of your behavior they don't agree with.

The last paragraph is kinda what I think of when I say people are not that friendly here. On a superficial level, they definitely are. And one could make an argument that this is what friendly is. But the lack of emotional connection here- and even what you mentioned in the first paragraph- kinda wears on you leaves you feeling like locals just don't care about you.