For me, a strong sense of community and being accepting and belonging are extremely important, and yet, after 16 years in Thailand, I have never felt any of that from the locals. Were it not for my wife and her two adult children, I would have been gone years ago. I walk around the lake in our village every other night, and after 16 years, I'm still waiting for my neighbors and other walkers to just make eye contact so I can greet them. Every now and again, one will nod after I force a greeting on them, but then the next time I see them, it's cold turkey all over again like they have never seen me before. They'll just look the other way or bury their head in their phone to avoid having to greet me. You'll never meet anyone who is friendlier or more approachable than I, so this kind of behavior just defies all logic and makes no sense at all to me. It's very disheartening and discouraging and had I the opportunity to do it all over again, I would never have set foot in this place.
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