Total Immersion – An Expats View after 10 years in Thailand

[Scotwight]

1 hour ago, Khon Kaen Dave said:

How do you exploit a ladybar? tell her you will pay her tomorrow.

Then she won't leave and that's exploiting you.  But I think we have a difference of opinion about what a ladybar is.  I think it is a bar staffed with women where you go to drink what do you think it is?

[Rhys]

Write the book then Ten years in Thailand...

 

[onemorechang]

6 hours ago, AsianExport said:

 

No, the problem is when someone writes things that he believe are the truth when they are mostly BS. 10 years and he thinks he knows everything...

 

 

 

Don't worry,     when the bars go bust as 95 % do.  ( if not more )

you may see him down beach road trying to sell Time-share condo's. 

 

but i some how don't think we will  see him  selling Som-Tam after his total  immersion experience,   it may leave a nasty bad taste in his mouth. 

 

[free123]

running ladybars  what a great business model.....

[holy cow cm]

Ten years and now he is 35. I understand his writing and crossed those bridges twenty five years ago when Thailand was still the Wild Wild East. The reality is for most all Expats I can see and have met who come here, this is far from reality and the most part of their lives here will be speaking with other foreigners keeping an expat to expat life with some small interaction with the superficial Thai side of maybe going to a 7-11 or Tesco Lotus at best. But, Thailand is what everyone makes of it, and  another reality there are getting to be way too many foreigners here now just retiring or coming and staying so unconnected to Thailand's real identity. But then again, who am I to say but is my opinion.

[sendintheclowns]

18 hours ago, williamgeorgeallen said:

i put down a 30% deposit. it is finished but if i buy it i will wait until it has all the paperwork. the owners in stage one moved in 2 years ago and still dont have their titles.

Very very very wise move.

You might be interested in learning from one of the many Phuket stories. In more than one instance,

whilst waiting for the paperwork (slightly diff., as a 30 year leased apartment),  the title was lost to a loan shark. PM me if you want several project names. Phuket property rights for foreigners is a total disgrace. Check out the stories of the Irish and UK guys who lost phenomenal amount of their savings.

[williamgeorgeallen]

22 minutes ago, sendintheclowns said:

Very very very wise move.

You might be interested in learning from one of the many Phuket stories. In more than one instance,

whilst waiting for the paperwork (slightly diff., as a 30 year leased apartment),  the title was lost to a loan shark. PM me if you want several project names. Phuket property rights for foreigners is a total disgrace. Check out the stories of the Irish and UK guys who lost phenomenal amount of their savings.

have heard many many stories from phuket. wish someone told me not to buy anything here in thailand. was so easy to make money in australia from buying and selling i was gunho when i got here. hundreds of owners in stage one of my project are waiting for their titles for over 2 years. hope it is not another 2 years for stage 2. we are coming up to the 5 year deadline for when they are supposed to give us a refund but i am sure it is not that easy.

[sendintheclowns]

9 minutes ago, williamgeorgeallen said:

have heard many many stories from phuket. wish someone told me not to buy anything here in thailand. was so easy to make money in australia from buying and selling i was gunho when i got here. hundreds of owners in stage one of my project are waiting for their titles for over 2 years. hope it is not another 2 years for stage 2. we are coming up to the 5 year deadline for when they are supposed to give us a refund but i am sure it is not that easy.

Mod: I guess this should be moved to another topic?

last minute gasp: CHECK WHERE ARE THE PROPERTY LAND TITLE CERTS HELD. The equity in all of your group's investment is at risk, as long as the developer can borrow money against the 2 titles; (there are 2 Registries of title: - land title and ''building title <not sure of the correct terminology > ) . How many units are there?  I suggest that you talk to your lawyer about this, pleease :)

[williamgeorgeallen]

7 minutes ago, sendintheclowns said:

Mod: I guess this should be moved to another topic?

last minute gasp: CHECK WHERE ARE THE PROPERTY LAND TITLE CERTS HELD. The equity in all of your group's investment is at risk, as long as the developer can borrow money against the 2 titles; (there are 2 Registries of title: - land title and ''building title <not sure of the correct terminology > ) . How many units are there?  I suggest that you talk to your lawyer about this, pleease :)

not worried about it for myself as i only put a small deposit on my unit. i got the owners in stage one to go see a lawyer. the lawyer said yea it is fine, just wait. they should have got the lawyer to do a title search but the just wanted to be told everything is ok. your right, this is not the right place to discuss this topic. 

[natway09]

Wow, that's a very big write.

Agree with a lot of it. 24 years has taught me to be able to live with Thais.

Total integration difficult as the reasoning somewhere along the way just alludes them on many things.

I see that corruption will be a thing of the past soon due to the PM's efforts.

Which of course means a complete new police  force . Wheres your money?

Whoops, sorry, no betting

[Khon Kaen Dave]

Scotwight

exactly the same as you.Unless you are saying that ladybars are exploited by the bar owner/management,and then,having had a couple of bars,we would have a great difference of opinion.Are you talking about the exploitation of said ladybars by the customers?

Please clarify.

[Conquestador]

I enjoyed reading this, but are you a teacher and running a cindicate owning 10 lady bars in Pattaya ? Do your students parents have no problem with this ? Or did you give up teaching.

Please write more it's very interesting to read. I liked both the books called farang and farang 2. 

[atyclb]

"total immersion in pattaya" 10 years no less.

 

 

personally if i had done that it would be too embarrassing to write a story about it.

 

 

 

 

total immersion imo is more akin to spending 6 months in a mock cambodian jungle camp doing everything in written and spoken khmer

Edited October 3, 2016 by atyclb

[William C F Pierce]

Clearly this guy does not read the headlines in ThaiVisa everyday. Trying to live the Thai dream of 20 or 30 years ago is not today's reality. Not all Thais subscribe to their ancient culture now. The high level of greed mentality will not go away or get better.

[YetAnother]

a lot of farang go the opposite of immersion, they intentionally isolate themselves with remote land in the country;

always wondered why so long ago as a tourist; i now know, living here so long, thais can be very irritating

[Naam]

1 minute ago, YetAnother said:

a lot of farang go the opposite of immersion, they intentionally isolate themselves with remote land in the country;

...thais can be very irritating

intentionally isolating myself is what i do since 27 years (15 years in the U.S. of A. and 12 years in the Land of Smile). not because i find

Americans or Thais irritating but because i like my life style. there's also no need to live in the boonies. our moo baan is situated 5km (as the crow flies) from Pattaya's Walking Street.

[Naam]

8 hours ago, William C F Pierce said:

Clearly this guy does...

...does enjoy a life style that makes me shudder and that applies to each and every point he listed. but it's his life and his prerogative and i wish him well

[thaibeachlovers]

Interesting OP.

I've been in LOS way longer on and off, so I have some rules for myself that I try to live by in LOS.

Try to never get in an argument with a Thai- sometimes I fail, but I'll never win

Never buy property- no matter what Sixpack may think.

Know at least enough Thai to go shopping and find the loo. Other than that, I don't want to know what they think about me.

Rent the girlfriend. I thought I knew better and paid the price  by marrying one. Luckily I got out alive.

Whatever I want to buy, I can find it cheaper if I look harder.

Always ask the right questions. Thais don't volunteer information without being asked.

Never use a taxi ( or anything else ) without ascertaining the price first. I learned that one the hard way.

No matter how brilliant the situation one finds oneself in, eventually some b****** will come along and stuff it up.

If going somewhere really crowded, stay where one can get out in a hurry. Many places where  Thais celebrate are potential death traps in a crowd surge.

Never expect anything to be the way it was back home.

Just because it was one way the last time one did it, don't expect it to be the same next time.

Anything to do with bureaucracy is only going to get harder- it's what they do.

No matter how bad the day, it's better than back home.

If I'm not having fun, I'm not trying hard enough.

Know when it's time to go home. I love Thailand, but I'll never be accepted as a local.

 Flying from a high building isn't really a good way to end it.

 

[thaibeachlovers]

7 hours ago, YetAnother said:

a lot of farang go the opposite of immersion, they intentionally isolate themselves with remote land in the country;

always wondered why so long ago as a tourist; i now know, living here so long, thais can be very irritating

It's nothing to do with irritation or otherwise. Some of us don't need or want to be involved with loads of other people.

My idea of paradise is staying on a sparsely populated beach off the Thai coast.

 

[thaibeachlovers]

On 10/3/2016 at 4:05 PM, Conquestador said:

I enjoyed reading this, but are you a teacher and running a cindicate owning 10 lady bars in Pattaya ? Do your students parents have no problem with this ? Or did you give up teaching.

Please write more it's very interesting to read. I liked both the books called farang and farang 2. 

Why would the parents have a problem? Not everyone thinks owning a barbeer is evil.

[thaibeachlovers]

On 10/2/2016 at 3:58 PM, fiddlehead said:

I enjoyed reading his story. 
I believe there is a lot that can be learned there if you intend to stay here a long time. 

I have 3 farang friends who speak fluent Thai.

I am often amazed at the doors that get opened to them that would be closed to me. 

I fully believe i am too old to learn to speak Thai now. 
I work for weeks on memorizing a new food sometimes, and then hear someone else (Thai) saying it, and can't believe it's the same word.    
Accents I guess. 
Anyway, I don't see why so many are coming down on the guy. 
He seems to be happy in his decision to do his best to act like  a Thai person.  

(my back wouldn't allow the sitting on the floor all the time. LOL)

 

Agree about learning Thai. I'm too old to discern the tones so unable to ever converse in Thai. Just as well I have never had the desire to do so. 

Agree that he can live his life. Thais are far more accepting of differences than farangs. Farang culture could never accept ladyboys like the Thais do. Farang cultures even think sex is shameful and hide it away.

[thaibeachlovers]

On 9/27/2016 at 8:49 AM, joepattaya1961 said:

After almost 13 years living in Thailand I do agree on most of the OP's post.

 

Thai food: Not my favorite especially when lemon-grass or fermented fish-sauce is involved, but luckily there are some nice Thai dishes. I found a good balance between Thai food and Western food,  self-cooked or ready made .

Thai language:  I should be able by now to read, write, speak and understand Thai 90%, but unfortunately I'm not. If I'm trying most Thais say "Phood kaeng kaeng", but that's more a kind way of saying: The bugger is doing his best, but we've no clue what he's on about.

Thai time and appointments:  I've learned that having an appointment at 9 a.m. means that the actual meeting time is somewhere between 9 a.m. and 9.59 a.m.; as long as the "9" is used, they're in time. Was not easy to accept with my 50% German genes. However, more and more Thais manage to be in time for appointments and that's probably due to the smart use of smart-phones.

 Thai attitude:  The Thai's attitude and social behavior is pretty selfish and ignorant. Not only towards foreigners, but towards other Thais as well. Was not easy to deal with, but after almost 13 years I got used to it. It doesn't mean that I now slam the door in other people's faces or leave a full tray of waste at a KFC table.

Corruption:  That's something I'll never get used to. "Under the table deals", paying off officials, paying off police.....I just don't understand the 'game'. I don't seem to recognize the moment to make a 'deal'.

Thai discussion:  I've learned that Thais like to argue until the moment that they're about to loose (face). There will be a silence which should be respected or in other words: If the Thai become silent during an argument, stop arguing. There will be no more replies and it's if you're talking to a wall. Depending on the severeness this silence may last a few days until suddenly all is forgotten and fine again. This is not the moment to start the argument again......."Let it be!"

Having an argument with unknown Thais (e.g. in a bar or disco) will mostly result in a win on your side and the Thai opponent will leave the "battle-field" with a big smile, but watch out, he may return with (armed) forces and win the argument in his own way.

I liked the bit about Thai discussion. I tried to book a bus seat with a travel agent but was told Thais were not allowed on the bus. I was trying to get her to explain why Thais were not allowed on a bus in their own country, but she refused to answer- very confusing. You have explained it well.

[carlyai]

And remember, the immortal words of the HASH: never waste a hard-on, and a fart is not necessarily.

Sent from my SM-J700F using Tapatalk

[carlyai]

Naam, did you find them lost kgs?

Sent from my SM-J700F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[JimmyJ]

```

Edited May 18, 2017 by JimmyJ

[Naam]

6 hours ago, carlyai said:

Naam, did you find them lost kgs?
 

i don't want to find them. not a single one and feel like newborn!

[williamgeorgeallen]

On 18/5/2560 at 9:18 PM, thaibeachlovers said:

Interesting OP.

I've been in LOS way longer on and off, so I have some rules for myself that I try to live by in LOS.

Try to never get in an argument with a Thai- sometimes I fail, but I'll never win

Never buy property- no matter what Sixpack may think.

Know at least enough Thai to go shopping and find the loo. Other than that, I don't want to know what they think about me.

Rent the girlfriend. I thought I knew better and paid the price  by marrying one. Luckily I got out alive.

Whatever I want to buy, I can find it cheaper if I look harder.

Always ask the right questions. Thais don't volunteer information without being asked.

Never use a taxi ( or anything else ) without ascertaining the price first. I learned that one the hard way.

No matter how brilliant the situation one finds oneself in, eventually some b****** will come along and stuff it up.

If going somewhere really crowded, stay where one can get out in a hurry. Many places where  Thais celebrate are potential death traps in a crowd surge.

Never expect anything to be the way it was back home.

Just because it was one way the last time one did it, don't expect it to be the same next time.

Anything to do with bureaucracy is only going to get harder- it's what they do.

No matter how bad the day, it's better than back home.

If I'm not having fun, I'm not trying hard enough.

Know when it's time to go home. I love Thailand, but I'll never be accepted as a local.

 Flying from a high building isn't really a good way to end it.

 

one of the best informative posts i have read. i did 10 years in thailand and agree 100% with all of this. i never got romantically involved with a thai girl but made the mistake of buying property and was lucky to only make a small loss but i suffered a fair amount of grief over it all.