Newbie Stupid question: Are the locals friendly?

[NoshowJones]

10 minutes ago, garryjohns said:

 

Hah, not following your posts at all .

Just that being an observant guy, i notice your frequent "wanna-be tough guy quips"

They stand out amongst all the other posts, that's all.

I'm not sure about the meaning of voting for you in the POTY.?? lost me there.

But i will attest that IMO you do indeed appear to be quite potty.

There is a good answer to that, but I won't give it for obvious reasons meantime you are on my ignore list.

[garryjohns]

25 minutes ago, possum1931 said:

There is a good answer to that, but I won't give it for obvious reasons meantime you are on my ignore list.

 

Knowing how this new setup is not working so well, you may be dissappointed ie the ignore may not ignore.

This is a bit drama queeny mate, just as we were starting to get along well, was it more because my shorts were not below the knee when we met? 

I realise now that you hate that., so.:    

[William C F Pierce]

From 10 years personal experience, I have had a shop chase me to give me my 5 baht charge I had forgot on more than one occasion. Then there are the various forms of taxi drivers who will charge locals 40 baht for a 2 kilometre journey, but quote me 200 baht for the same ride. I will walk rather than be ripped off. Just be aware there is a 2 price system operated by some but not all Thais. Even police officers I have found giving me a polite greeting sometimes.

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

On 1/4/2017 at 10:44 PM, true blue said:

Imho option the last few years I've noticed a changing in attitudes and Thais are getting a bit territorial and don't like you in there bars ogling there women and sitting there nursing a bottle of chang why the Thai table is on the 2nd bottle of Sam song.

I hope you are joking, and don't actually do this?

[Farmer1956]

The people from my wife's village are very friendly, it probably helps that they have a high regard for my wife.

Feedback from them is because I make an effort to mix with the people, treat people as you wish to be treated and most people will respond well.

There will be exceptions of course.

You must also understand that their culture will most likely be quite different from what you are used to, sometimes you have to bite your lip.

Make the effort to learn the language as that will be appreciated, even if you get it wrong.

[davo2003]

I like Thailand..."like". Used to love it there. Many people are friendly. After traveling there for the last 10 yrs couple times a year, every trip got less fun...meaning, I had to be much more careful with what I did, plan my activities and budget carefully. First few trips, nothing went wrong, pure fun. Then, new rules or strict enforcement of existing laws...means you're a target of opportunity for authorities. If you rent a motorbike wear your helmet, don't drink any alcohol in the 24 hours before driving,  have an international motorcycle license or Thai one. You will be stopped almost daily regardless. This in itself steered me to other tourist destinations. I'm a careful slow driver, sadly what I learned is this only means you're easier to flag down and stop by every traffic officer who sees you...you spell $$...that's it. If you violated any law regardless of obscurity,  just empty your pockets.

 

About one in fifteen Thai shops will have a friendly helpful Thai. The rest, a young girl staring at her phone until you insist on being helped. I try to smile, be friendly always even when locals are unfriendly, or worse, rude without provocation (rare but happens) but usually they just seem confused by your friendliness. I think in large part the problem is their English language skills are poor to medium, so it's easy for both sides to come off wrong. I had a receptionist at a dentist office seemingly misunderstand my English on one occasion,  so I politely asked to speak to another girl I knew from a previous trip there. Well,  the first one got so offended when the second girl translated and handed me back over to the first one, the first one told me to go outside and come back in and start over. So I smiled and did it because there was no way to remedy the situation otherwise. But that's Thailand.  I now spend about 25% of my vacation time in Thailand and 75% in Philippines.  More English speakers and Jesus,  never met friendlier people. Every shop you walk into you get a smile and a sincere greeting in English including 7-11...and if the shop has few customers ALL the workers greet you. Thailand is a good travel destination and great jump off point to go visit the surrounding countries, but explore other places and judge for yourself.  I heard Vietnam was incredible, haven't made it there yet. Good luck. 

[thairookie]

18 hours ago, kannot said:

You mistake "poor" for  "GREEDY" and "jai dee" for  "sucker"......if the guy's so poor  how come he weighs about 150kilos, he can hardly walk for his lard

 

Ah....but I am using a Thai village dictionary plus a village guidebook on "How to deal with Farangs".  In this book, poor and greedy are interchangeable.  Likewise, jaidee and sucker.  

 

The choice of the word 'poor' removes the guilt that comes with greed.  It'like 'faen' and 'wife/husband' can be used interchangeably.

 

 

 

 

[Mook23]

On 4-1-2017 at 5:48 PM, Berkshire said:

 

I can honestly say that I've never taken a scale into a restaurant to weigh the fish that I ordered. 

 

i have seen them blatantly cheating on me in thai fresh market. i do speak thai. and funnily the price was adverted (per kg) in roman. the trick is to cheat on the cheater, ie. confuse them with higher intelligence and wit. sure, u will not win moneywise as they are bad losers too but INTELLECTUALLY you win like a BOSS!!! and the next time you visit the same stand (of course u do) they shiver in fear (pesky. farang. him. back). that's the fun of living in los. they expect us to lose and look stupid. they don't expect us to confuse THEM and make them boggling their small (reptile) brains :-) not racist mods, just the truth!

 

 

 

[JimmyJ]

On 1/4/2017 at 3:14 AM, MadMac said:

/Friendlier than in most parts of the world, not the friendliest in Asia.

 

Which do you feel are the friendliest  in Asia?

[JimmyJ]

On 1/4/2017 at 4:03 AM, what2do said:

Thanks all. How about business wise? Any problem with dishonest merchants and what not?

 

 

[HaleySabai]

On 2017-01-05 at 11:16 AM, thairookie said:

TS, you need to attend a course in Thainess in order to understand how the local culture works.

 

For example, in a Thai vs Farang fight, Thainess dictates that it's 5 Thais against 1 Farang.  Thais will never fight one against one with Farang.  It's Thainess.

 

..... I saw a Thai kid wearing a T-shirt with an image of 5-guys kicking the crap out of 1-guy lying on the ground,the sub-heading said 'Team-Work'.....I had to laugh because the immediate thought of "Thainess" came to mind.

[MadMac]

19 hours ago, JimmyJ said:

 

Which do you feel are the friendliest  in Asia?

 

Indonesians and Burmese.

[LannaGuy]

some are some not... mostly depends on your 'generosity' they get MUCH more friendlier if you are 'Jai Dii'  (translated = pay)