Living In Thailand Blog
Wednesday 15th February 2012
Ken, a visitor to this site, who has been following my Learning to Read Thai Tutorials sent an e-mail and subsequently offered to relate the story of how he met his Thai wife for the purpose of adding to this blog.
It's a very interesting story and he makes lots of valid points about what foreigners should and shouldn't do when visiting Thailand.
I didn't want his story to get lost among my various ramblings here, so I have created a separate page.
If you have a story to tell about Thailand and want to share it here, I'd be delighted to hear from you.
Regarding my recent comments about airlines, I knew it would cause some controversy!
Bangkok Barry writes:
"Like you, I do not use Air Asia. I took my wife for a few days in Kota Kinabalu, and we arrived at the airport for the return flight to find no plane. I asked at their ticket desk and they told me they had no flight that day. Actually, they did, but it hadn't even left Bangkok yet! When an airline doesn't even know they are operating a flight then the company has serious problems.
Like you, I mostly see and hear of long delays, although I also hear of people that swear by them."
Meanwhile, another regular correspondent from Malaysia (who is also a very frequent visitor to Thailand) has a differing opinion:
"I have just bought 10 Air Asia tickets to travel in November, December and January of next year. Flights from Hat Yai to Chiang Mai for Bt611 one way, Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur for just Bt88 one way plus taxes equals Bt1,103.
The remaining eight tickets were Bt500 each. No, I am not going to change your view but after six years I have never had a problem with Air Asia."
In Internet parlance, I should always add 'YMMV' to my comments.
I've still heard nothing about any plans for flood prevention in the south. I suspect it would be different if the Democrat Party was still running the country.
Bt49 billion agreed for flood plans in 10 northern provinces
Tuesday 14th February 2012
My preferred airline for domestic flights to Bangkok is Nok Air. I've never had a problem with them. I flew to Bangkok once with Air Asia and suffered a seven hour delay on the return flight so I refuse to use Air Asia again.
Some people swear by Air Asia (it is normally the cheapest airline), but whenever I'm at the local airport I always see delayed and cancelled flights for Air Asia on the departure and arrival boards.
Thai Airways is fine but it is also the most expensive. Additionally, my next flight to Bangkok will be our first with the baby and Thai Airways charge 10% for infants even though the baby will sit on my wife's lap. Other airlines don't make a charge.
Another thing I like about Nok Air domestic flights is that they use the old airport (Don Mueang), which I find more convenient than the new airport.
Unfortunately the old airport has been closed for several months due to flooding. However, I recently received an SMS from Nok Air telling me that they will start to use Don Mueang again from 6th March 2012 onwards.
For me, this is good news.
Sunday 12th February 2012
Being a parent is hard work. My wife looks after our daughter full-time, with quite a lot of support from myself. These days I seem to be forever doing laundry, washing dishes, or washing baby bottles.
I don't mind at all so it's not a problem. Perhaps this is an advantage to having kids later in life? If I'd had to do all this 20 years ago I might have resented the lost opportunities.
I try to give the wife some time to herself each week by taking care of the baby for half a day, or so. She likes to go to one of the local markets with her sister.
She was looking fed up yesterday and so we made a spur of the moment decision to go to Thale Noi in Phattalung province. This is one of my favourite escapes and as I had nothing pressing to do it was an easy decision.
Songkhla Lake is a large inland sea on the east coast of peninsula Thailand. The southern part is in Songkhla province, and the northern part is in Phattalung province.
The lake is divided into four areas, from south to north: Thale Sap Songkhla, Thale Sap, Thale Luang and Thale Noi.
The principal inflow to Thale Noi is rainfall run-off from the Banthad mountain range to the west, and not sea water from the Gulf of Thailand. The water then runs south. For this reason, the water in Thale Noi is fresh to very slightly saline, whereas in other parts of the lake it is the same as sea water.
Thale Noi is home to millions of lotus flowers, which can only grow in fresh water. The area is famous for its lotus flowers and abundant birdlife.
I've been many times since I first went in February 2005. It has changed a lot since then, including the building of a road bridge across the lake and a brand new visitor centre.
While all the construction work was taking place the environment looked as if it was suffering, but things have settled down now.
In all my visits I have only ever seen two farangs who looked as if they had travelled there independently, and I once saw a group of elderly Europeans who were doing an 'Unseen Thailand' tour. On this latest trip I was the only farang, as usual.
More Thais are visiting these days and I saw quite a few cars with Bangkok licence plates. There were so many Thai tourists this time that we couldn't stay in any of our regular guest houses as they were full.
What's there? First, I'll describe what isn't there. There is absolutely no nightlife. As soon as the sun sets around 6:30pm it is time to go back to your room because there is nowhere to go.
Not only are there no girlie bars or Go-Go bars, there are no bars. Period. This fact alone would probably deter 95% of farang visitors to Thailand from visiting Thale Noi.
There are no restaurants selling Western food (not even a McDonalds), no tacky T-shirt shops, no fake Rolex shops, no Indian tailor shops, no tattoo parlours, and there aren't massage shops every few yards with lots of young girls sitting outside. There are a few massage shops but they close around 6pm and the masseuses are old women.
The old and new visitor centres are at opposite ends of Thale Noi. A road runs between them just in front of the water's edge and this is where the private guest houses are located.
Behind this road are some small Sois where Thale Noi has its own cottage industry making mats and bags from the dried, dyed reeds which are harvested locally.
There are lots of long-tail boats available for taking tours around the lake. For a long time the cost was Bt400 but on this trip I found the charge has been increased to Bt450. A tour takes about 90 minutes.
This trip was quite disappointing for both lotus flowers and birds. I don't know why. I was told previously that February is a good month for birdlife. I'm also not sure why there were so few lotus flowers.
On previous trip there were so many lotus flowers that they resembled a carpet across the lake.
The lotus flowers open in the morning and close later in the day. It is therefore best to go out in the morning.
One of the most abundant bird species at Thale Noi is the Purple Swamphen. These can be seen everywhere and you can get close because they aren't afraid of humans. There are also lots of Little Cormorants.
There are normally lots of egrets and herons, but I didn't see many on this trip. On previous trips I have also seen lots of Brahminy Kites but I only saw a handful this time.
It's all a matter of luck. It doesn't seem to matter what time of year or what time of day you go out, sometimes you see a lot and sometimes you don't.
Is it worth making a visit? If you love Patong beach, Samui, Pattaya or any of the other tourist resorts I would say definitely not. It is unlikely you will enjoy Thale Noi.
If you've been to any of the aforementioned places and thought to yourself, "What a mess, whatever happened to the real Thailand?" you might enjoy Thale Noi.
If you enjoy peace and tranquility, beautiful scenery, connecting with nature, and watching some quite exotic bird species swooping around, then there is a good chance you would enjoy it.
For those who are interested in such things, the photos above were taken with my ageing Canon 40D and various lenses:
Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-f/4.5
Click on the small images for a larger image in a pop-up window. Javascript is required to do this. Nothing that I intentionally put on this site will harm your computer.
Saturday 11th February 2012
Phuket resort worker, 20, dies in 4-vehicle hit-and-run
Friday 10th February 2012
The local municipality has gone crazy posting signs around town telling people what to do and what not to do. There are signs everywhere. It's just like Singapore, except there is one major difference between the two countries.
Singapore has some of the most severe forms of social control in the world. Thailand doesn't.
If you don't play by the rules in Singapore you will be caught and severely dealt with. Some people get upset at the way foreign teenage vandals are dealt with in Singapore, but most of the law-abiding people I've spoken to think it is a good thing.
If you are a good citizen and respect other people and their property, you have nothing to fear. You will actually feel a lot safer because you are protected from bad people.
In Thailand it is very unlikely that anything will happen if you step out of line. I've written a lot about the terrible driving standards and disregard of traffic laws in Thailand. What about littering?
I was waiting in a car park recently while the wife went to collect something. As I was waiting I sat there watching other drivers coming and going.
A group of people came back to the car next to mine. There were about nine of them, adults and kids, and they all crammed into the small car. Kids were sat on adult's laps and of course no one bothered with seatbelts.
The car set off and after a few yards a couple of windows were rolled down so that the occupants of the car could discard their paper cups and food packaging in the car park. This happens all the time in Thailand.
The signs about not littering, following traffic rules and not driving while drunk are all very well, but things will only change if laws are enforced.
The majority of Thais do follow traffic rules and don't discard litter wherever they feel like it. They don't need signs telling them what to do.
Unfortunately, the section of Thai society that throws litter anywhere they want, and drives how they want with no regard for traffic laws or other road users will not alter their behaviour simply because they see a sign. They won't pay any attention to signs, and so the signs are of no purpose.
The traffic cops who were stopping motorcyclists for not wearing crash helmets last week have now gone. There was a couple of days of activity and that was it. Everything is now back to normal.
If Thailand is really serious about drivers following traffic rules it isn't good enough just putting up some signs and enforcing the law occasionally. The law needs to be enforced constantly and persistently.
A big problem is the lack of any meaningful deterrents. Firstly, drivers breaking traffic laws are unlikely to be stopped. They know this only too well. If they are stopped, the fines are very low and there is no points system.
If drivers knew there was a good chance of getting caught, if the fines were a lot higher, and if drivers accumulated points so that eventually their licences would be taken away, they might think some more about following traffic laws.
The inevitable conclusion is that the country isn't really serious about the issue. When there is a big problem there is a little lip service paid for a while, but nothing ever changes.
If you analyse the problems deeply enough you find that they are cultural. This is the biggest problem of all because you can't change culture.
The Thai model is based on Confucianism and Buddhism. In the Confucian way, efforts are taken to guide people to do the right thing. There is an awful lot of moralising in Thailand. In addition, there is the constant threat of karmic retribution with Buddhism telling people that what goes around comes around: tum dee, dai dee; tum chua, dai chua.
The weak rule of law is a problem. The Thai model is a good system if everyone has a conscience but there will always be people in every society who have no conscience and have no consideration for other people. You need strong laws and powerful deterrents to deal with such people.
A problem with the threat of karmic retribution is that some Thais will do bad things but they believe that by going to the temple to wai pra and tum buun, all of their sins will be absolved.
The only way to deal with such people is to have a strong rule of law and serious deterrents.
Singapore is the way it is as a result of Lee Kuan Yew's experiences in life. He grew up in Singapore while it was under British colonial rule, studied in England, and was also in Singapore during the Japanese occupation.
Japanese soldiers were brutal during the occupation of Singapore, especially towards the Chinese. As a deterrent they would routinely behead Chinese who had stepped out of line and put their heads on poles around the city.
Chinese heads on poles in Singapore
This is an extreme example, but Lee Kuan Yew saw that extreme deterrents worked. The harsh punishments in modern-day Singapore are intended to deter and they are very effective. As a result, Singapore is one of the safest places on earth and there is relatively little crime compared to many other places.
As with many things in life, the biggest problem can be getting the right balance. I appreciate the safety, law and order in Singapore but it can be a little oppressive.
In Thailand it's the complete opposite. I hate the way that a minority are allowed to make life miserable for the majority. Something in between would be perfect.
The unlawful behaviour on roads in Thailand doesn't simply make life miserable for others. It's extremely dangerous.
When driving in Thailand you use all the defensive driving skills you learned at home, and additionally you adapt your driving to deal with local conditions.
For example, you quickly learn that when traffic lights turn green this isn't a signal that it is safe to proceed. After the lights turn green, you need to wait for the four of five vehicles that just ran the red light to pass before you can go. Running red lights is a national sport in Thailand.
I was waiting at a large junction last week and the lights turned green. Before I went, I looked across the junction and saw a pickup truck speeding towards the red light. It was obvious that he wasn't going to stop so I waited. He ran the red light by about three seconds.
My wife and daughter were in the car and had I not waited he would have wiped all of us out. Approximately 40 people die each day in traffic accidents in Thailand. When you see how some Thais drive it isn't surprising. The only surprising thing is that the figure isn't a lot higher.
The technology for traffic light cameras has been around for years but I've never seen one in Thailand. Perhaps there are a few in Bangkok, but certainly not where I am. There are no speed cameras either.
I hated these things in the UK but I would welcome them in Thailand.
Such technology would make the roads safer and generate a huge amount of income. The only problem would be the substantial task of dealing with all the tickets generated.
When I talked recently about being cynical, this is the reason why. After you've lived in Thailand for a while you observe various road safety and litter campaigns coming and going but you realise that nothing ever changes.
I am approaching my ninth Songkran in Thailand in a couple of months and I know already that there will be as many deaths on the road this year as there are every year. There will still be the hand-wringing, soul-searching and rhetoric about all the road deaths, but the bottom line is that nothing ever changes.
Phuket tour buses: Two hurt in yet another crash
Tuesday 7th February 2012
Perhaps I've missed something here? With flood water you need to channel it away from residential areas to somewhere safe. It needs to go out to sea or into some kind of a reservoir.
If you just build a wall in order to make one place safe by keeping water out, won't the water simply cause problems elsewhere?
Floodwall planned for Chao Phraya
Queensland is experiencing its third major flood in less than two years. This La Ni a is sticking around and continuing to upset global weather conditions. Many parts of Thailand have already had two consecutive years of major flooding and I suspect there is more to come.
Thousands evacuated from Queensland flooding
What can you do to avoid or protect yourself from flooding in Thailand? I've still not heard about any plans to improve the flood defences in southern Thailand, and what is planned in the rest of the country will take a long time to complete.
If you live in an area prone to flooding, one option is to move house. If you are building a new house or commercial building, you can raise the ground level before building by dumping tons of earth.
Our second branch of Tesco Lotus was built on ground that was raised by about two metres. Another building currently being built (see photo) looks as if the ground has been raised almost four metres.
If you're looking for a place to rent or buy, do your homework beforehand and find out if the area is subject to flooding. If you live in a flood prone area, you need to organise the house in case of a flood.
Our rented house is in a flood area. All of our important things are upstairs and everything downstairs is as temporary as possible so that in the event of a flood we can get things upstairs. It's a terrible way to live but we have no choice while we continue to live here (not for much longer).
Huge plastic bags (jumbo bags) are now being sold in Thailand in which you can put your car or other possessions. A car put in such a bag will float away and therefore it needs to be tethered.
Some shops in this area, including quite a few branches of 7-Eleven and one branch of TOPS, have had brick walls built outside their entrances in an effort to keep flood water out. I'm not sure how successful this approach will be as there are lots of places where water can get into a building.
The weather has turned hot now. I don't normally enjoy this time of year but I am quite enjoying it at the moment. I don't enjoy the intense heat, but I enjoy the fact it isn't raining all the time and that we don't have to be constantly on our guard in case of a flood.
Monday 6th February 2012
I've used Colgate toothpaste for as long as I can remember. I think that a dentist once told me it was as good as any other toothpaste, and then I got used to the flavour. As with many things in life, it simply became a habit to buy the same brand and I developed brand loyalty for no particular reason.
Due to all the flooding in Thailand last year many items started disappearing from the supermarket shelves. You could generally get what you needed, but the brand you wanted might not have been available. That was the case at one time with Colgate toothpaste.
This gave me a small dilemma. I had never had to think about which brand of toothpaste to buy because I always bought Colgate. In the absence of Colgate, what would I buy?
I spent ages trying to make a decision and finally decided on Darlie, which also happened to be the cheapest.
When I first used it, it reminded me of the Euthymol toothpaste my parents used when I was a kid. To a kid's tastebuds Euthymol tasted disgusting.
Darlie has a strong, almost medicinal, taste but it isn't salty as many toothpastes are these days. It leaves my mouth feeling very fresh and clean. Today we needed to buy more toothpaste. There was plenty of Colgate on the shelves but I decided to continue with Darlie. I think I've been converted!
On my very first trip to Thailand in 1987 I bought a tube of Darlie to take home but I never used it. I kept it for many years before throwing it out.
Back then it was called Darkie. The name and the way it was packaged made it look quite strange to Western eyes and this is what prompted me to buy some.
The name was changed subsequently and it is now known as Darlie.
Sunday 5th February 2012
Here's some radical thinking:
Capital should be moved to Northeast, top scientist says
I don't know about relocating the capital, but I can't understand why anything of any importance in Thailand always has to be in Bangkok. Bangkok is humongous, while every other secondary city in the country is tiny by comparison.
Bangkok suffers from overcrowding, traffic congestion, and pollution. Flooding will become more of an issue as the city continues to sink into the ground.
With so few job opportunities in poor regions of the country, people are forced to move to the capital and this just makes things worse.
I don't think it's necessary to move the capital but I can't understand why more huge industrial parks aren't built in far-flung provinces instead of in, or adjacent to, Bangkok.
Doing so would improve life in the capital and also in the provinces by generating wealth and allowing upcountry folk to work closer to where they live.
Lots of cars are assembled in Thailand. If you buy a car in Thailand that was assembled in Thailand, the price is reasonable. If you buy a car that was assembled elsewhere and then imported there is a huge amount of tax to pay. The price of imported cars is anything but reasonable.
The Thai Customs Website shows that on an imported car with an engine larger than 3 litres producing more than 220 horse power, the total tax payable is 328%.
To own a new Porsche in Europe you need to be fairly wealthy. To own one in Thailand you need to be mega-wealthy. Despite this, there are still a lot of Thais in the country driving very expensive cars around, especially in Bangkok.
By the way, Thais who drive Bt14 million imported German cars still pay Bt20 at national parks while foreign backpackers on a budget have to pay Bt200 because all Thais are poor and all foreigners are rich (according to Thai logic).
But I digress.
Apparently, Thai students who study abroad are allowed to bring a car back to Thailand without paying taxes so some have been bringing back the kind of Porsche, Ferrari and Lotus models that students usually run around in.
Overseas students abusing rights
Even used luxury cars in Thailand are still very expensive, whereas the most expensive cars from a few years ago can be picked up very cheaply when bought second-hand in the UK.
It sometimes makes me sad to look at the kind of used vehicles I could buy in the UK for the price of a used Honda Jazz in Thailand.
On the other hand, if genuine performance cars were available so cheaply in Thailand the roads would be even more dangerous. Things are bad enough as it is with the boy racers racing around in their pickup trucks and 20 year-old BMW 318's, let alone giving them access to Porsches.
The ridiculous price of used cars in Thailand is therefore a mixed blessing.
Cassandra James makes the same points I've been making for years about the extreme danger on Thailand's roads.
Four young Swedish tourists and Thai driver killed in Phuket head-on collision
As she points out, the dangers are very well-known to foreigners who have lived in Thailand for several years, but tourists seem oblivious.
I mentioned before that living in Thailand for several years makes you cynical. She suggests that when apprehended, the driver will "likely apologize and then state he wants to become a Buddhist monk for a few months, in an effort to escape severe punishment."
How right she is. The cynicism can't be helped. Her article also highlights the following campaign being run in the UK by mothers who lost adult children in road accidents in Thailand and who want to make other people more aware.
Thailand deaths: Three mothers work to honour the memory of their sons
Never underestimate the danger. If you go to Thailand for a vacation or to live, the biggest danger you will face is while travelling on Thailand's roads.
Saturday 4th February 2012
And yet again:
Van plunges into ditch killing 4, injuring 14
I avoid these things like the plague, both as a passenger and as a road user.
Minivans, or more specifically minivan drivers, in Thailand are bad news. The driver always has an excuse - in this case, he claims a tyre burst - but they overload the vans, they have no concern for road laws or other drivers, they drive too fast, too aggressively, and often they drive when they are too tired.
They are bad news.
In Phuket a few days ago, four Swedish tourists were killed when a maniac Thai driver crossed the central reservation in a large truck and crashed into their car. The tourists killed were just kids, barely in their 20's. As usual, the Thai driver 'fled the scene'.
The photo of the wrecked Toyota in which the tourists were travelling is frightening, but this kind of thing is only too common in Thailand. The driving standards in Thailand are appalling. Phuket is particularly bad, but the rest of the country isn't much better.
4 Swedes, 1 Thai dead in horror smash near Phuket
Phuket update: Swede horror smash driver surrenders
The wife made chicken fried rice last night and just as it was ready to be served she decided that the chicken smelt funny. I couldn't take the chance of repeating last Tuesday's episode so it was all thrown away.
The primary suspect for my stomach problems last week was the chicken. There was nothing else in the gaprao gai that was likely to be contaminated with bacteria, and my wife has made me this dish many times without any problems.
Chicken is always susceptible to bacteria contamination. It was bought from our local branch of Tesco Lotus Express and was packaged in exactly the same way as you'd find chicken in a Western supermarket.
With contaminated food, you can never tell. You can buy the cleanest looking food from the cleanest looking place and have problems. Conversely, you can eat food prepared by a street vendor at the most disgusting looking food stall and not have a problem.
I've never been back to the UK since I left on Monday 22nd September 2003.
Ironically, after being desperate to leave for so many years, my final day in the UK was actually a very enjoyable one. The doubts, anxieties, fears, worries and concerns that had almost prevented me from leaving the country all disappeared the minute I closed my front door for the last time.
I took the train into Liverpool Street and then boarded the tube to get over to Paddington. The London commuters looked as miserable as ever. The fact I was leaving all this to start a new life was one of the things that helped to elevate my mood.
I had a fairly large, heavy bag and it was a struggle boarding the underground train. I probably looked like a tourist and one particularly miserable guy made a point of shoulder-charging me as I tried to get on the train. On another day I might have reacted, but nothing could upset me that day.
I bought a ticket for the Heathrow Express and managed to check my baggage so that I wouldn't have to worry about it again until I arrived at Changi. It was probably the first time in my life since being a very young child that I had absolutely no responsibilities and nothing to worry about. It felt very good.
I had plenty of time so exited Paddington station to get a proper English breakfast. One of the great pleasures in London is eating a greasy breakfast at one of thousands of small cafes in the city.
After arriving in Singapore I stayed with my brother for a couple of weeks and then we both left for Perth. We were both single at the time. Australia were playing Zimbabwe and we had a day's cricket at the WACA.
After returning to Singapore I took a bus to Melaka in Malaysia. From there I went to KL, Penang and Langkawi before boarding the ferry to Satun in Thailand.
My original plan was just to tour around Southeast Asia for a while and eventually to find somewhere in Thailand where I wanted to live. I already knew the places where I didn't want to live.
That didn't happen. I ended up staying in Hat Yai where I met friends and found work. I had a series of relationships (some longer than others), met the girl who is now my wife, got married, and then became a father.
My time of having no responsibilities and nothing to worry about was quite short-lived!
A couple of years ago I started to think about what I would do when I stopped working. My money situation was good for a single man and (once again) I thought I would embark on a series of journeys around this part of the world.
However, when I went off travelling alone I found that something had changed. Instead of the intense excitement and sense of freedom I used to feel while travelling alone, I just felt lonely. Age, I guess.
Marriage, and especially parenthood, completely changes everything. I do very little for myself these days, and spend very little on myself. At the same time, I have never spent as much money in my life.
It's a very different kind of life but I am never lonely. We all change during the course of our lives and what is right for us at 20 or 30 may not be right for us at 50. This is one of the problems with making long-term plans. You might plan something for many years but when the time comes to put the plan into action, you may not want it anymore.
If something feels right at the time, do it, and don't worry too much about the future.
Do I miss the UK? Not really. Sometimes I am reminded of things I used to enjoy but nothing is important enough for me to go back for. Besides, my limited income these days doesn't stretch to UK prices. London is a great place for the super rich but life can be tough if you only have modest means.
The Olympics this year is quite significant to me because I was born in Stratford, East London where the games are being held. It was always the poor part of London and the regeneration as a result of the games should be good for the area.
It would be good to attend a few events, or even just to savour the atmosphere, but it's not the most important thing in my life at the moment.
I miss UK weather in the Spring and Autumn but definitely not in the winter. The weather in Thailand is either too hot or too wet. I've always found it easier dealing with very hot weather than very cold weather.
Another cold night for UK as temperatures plunge
When I was going through the process of changing my life I read lots, talked to a lot of people, and attended one very interesting course while I was still working - paid for by the company.
It was a course the like of which I'd never done before. It was all about making personal decisions to get out of life what you wanted from life.
One of the most useful pieces of advice was that you can have anything, but you can't have everything. This is completely true.
However you choose to live life, you can't have everything. You can have the sunshine and beaches of Thailand in the depths of the UK winter, but then you can't go to watch West Ham every week (if you're stupid enough to want to watch West Ham every week as I did once upon a time).
I can't have the warmth of a young family around me and still be able to go off wherever I want, whenever I want. Many things in life simply aren't compatible. You have to decide which are the important things for you and accept that other things will no longer be possible.
The other thing, of course, (made very clear in Buddhism) is that nothing is permanent. None of us will live forever and nothing is permanent about our existence - our health, our wealth, or anything else. Keeping this in mind helps to make decisions in life.
Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address is essential viewing to anyone who has ever considered making major changes to their lives.
Steve Jobs, who was a well-known follower of Buddhism, is without a doubt one of the most remarkable human beings ever to have lived. He could have achieved anything in his life, with the notable exception of being offered a Bt30,000 a month English teaching job in Thailand because he didn't didn't have a Bachelor's degree.
In his speech, Jobs explains why he dropped out of college. I had my own very good reasons in the 1970's to study for an HNC for four years instead of going to university to do a degree. It was the right decision at the time.
In Thailand, there is no room for rational thought, logic, or common sense. Thai thinking on this matter is binary. The Thai view is that if you have a degree - no matter how useless it is, or how useless you are - you are a wonderful person. If you don't have a degree, you are on about the same level as a minivan driver.
This is a subject I will be returning to later, not that the Thais will ever change the way they think. Thais always know best, don't they?
Friday 3rd February 2012
Ex-PM Abhisit is voicing his concerns about flooding issues in the south. His concerns aren't quite the same as mine, but it shows that Thailand is still very much a divided country.
I am more concerned about what will be done to prevent further flooding in the south in future, rather than compensation and soft loans for victims of floods in the past.
South left out of emergency flood loans, Abhisit charges
Thursday 2nd February 2012
As a result of this site, a number of people have written over the years. Some of the correspondence has been a little strange, I've been insulted a few times, and a few correspondents have had a slightly different view of Thailand compared to my own.
I try to reply to all of the people who write but I'm afraid I didn't respond to the guy who wanted advice about opening a bar in Pattaya.
As is the case in real life, like is attracted to like in the online world as well and most of my correspondents have had similar views of Thailand. The vast majority of people who have got in touch have been very fine people indeed.
A young Englishman started writing to me last year. He came across as very polite, very decent, and generally as one of life's good people.
He had visited Thailand and the way he described his thoughts reminded me of how I felt about Thailand when I visited as a tourist. I was completely captivated as a tourist and knew that at some stage of my life I would have to live in Thailand otherwise my life wouldn't be complete.
I didn't know when or for how long I would live in Thailand and I didn't imagine it would end up being permanent with a wife and daughter, but in life you never know what the future holds.
He was young but had a good head on his shoulders and asked the right questions. I enjoyed our correspondence and tried to help him as best I could without being too cynical. The cynicism comes with living in Thailand over an extended period.
When I was going through the process of changing my life completely, one thing I learnt is that you must have clear goals. If you don't know in which direction you want to go, how can you get there? Set your goals first and make sure that everything you do advances you a step closer to your target.
He was clear about where he wanted to go and what needed doing. He went quiet for a while but just sent me another e-mail explaining why. He has been busy doing TEFL courses so that he can find work in Thailand and his flight is later this month.
I feel really pleased for him. A quote that always sticks in my mind is Thoreau's 'The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.'
I believe that many people lead lives that don't give them any great satisfaction, but it is an easier option not to make any changes than to really seek the life you want, which is difficult. Changing my life was not in the slightest bit easy but I'm glad I did. The thought of being back in the UK now just depresses me. I think I would die from boredom and cold weather.
I wish him all the best and every success for his new life in Thailand.
In my latest e-mail I tried to give him a few final pieces of advice (based on my time here) and also a warning not to be cynical. I wish I wasn't so cynical but when you experience life in Thailand over several years there are certain things that make you very cynical.
In this respect, it is no different to working for a large corporation where you will often find cynical attitudes among the longer serving employees. It's not because they are necessarily any more cynical than newer employees, but they have seen and experienced more things during their time with the company to be cynical about.
One of the bonuses about having a web site is that you get to see the searches people perform to find your site. Many foreign men have notorious difficulties with Thai girls but when you understand where they look for Thai girls, what kind of Thai girls they find, and their attitudes toward Thai girls it isn't really surprising that they run into problems.
Primarily as a source of entertainment for myself, I started compiling some of the questions a while ago, adding some (often tongue-in-cheek) answers to the questions.
I hope that no one is offended.
As I said above, people are attracted to people similar to themselves. Birds of a feather flock together. My young friend from the UK will meet good people in Thailand because he is a good person himself.
Conversely, someone who asks the question, "Where do I meet a tart in Bangkok?" will probably only end up feeling bitter and disenchanted with Thailand, and in addition his bank account will probably take a hit as well.
I have heard some foreign men say that all Thai girls are bad. If you only meet Thai girls who are prostituting themselves in beer bars in the tourist resorts that is probably true.
All the married farangs I know here are good people and they have strong marriages with good Thai girls. There will always be the exceptions but generally you only get out of life what you put in.
The ruling against Trip Advisor by the UK's Advertising Standards Authority is interesting, not least because I invite readers to post their restaurant and hotel reviews on my regional guide. This reminds me that I need to add a disclaimer wherever there are reader reviews.
It seems that Trip Advisor's biggest mistake was to claim that their reviews could be trusted.
TripAdvisor rebuked over 'trust' claims on review site
If someone posts a stinking review about a hotel, how do you know if it was a genuinely aggrieved guest or simply a mean-spirited competitor?
The Internet now is so big and so diverse that I often question the use of reading reviews. I can guarantee that regardless of what is being reviewed, if you search long enough you will find completely contradictory opinions. Which ones do you believe and which ones do you ignore?
This applies to any piece of electronic equipment, hotels, and everything else.
I replaced the tyres on my car last year. At first I wasn't sure which tyres to buy. When I actually started looking for tyres I found that many places didn't have anything suitable in the right size.
I ended up buying Michelin Latitude HP Tour. This model was suitable for my car and huge companies such as Michelin don't make a habit of producing bad products. If certain Michelin tyres can get an 'N' rating from Porsche, they can't be all that bad.
After buying the tyres (not before), I carried out some Internet searches for them. There was no shortage of reviews and, as usual, they all contradicted one another.
One guy wrote that he'd almost had a terrible accident in his BMW X5 because of these tyres and he could never recommend them. Some people wrote that they were great tyres, but wore out quickly. Other people said that they lasted for ages.
You start reading reviews because you are genuinely interested in other people's experiences and you want to buy the best. After a while, you read so many conflicting and contradictory accounts that you don't know what to believe and you just end up getting confused.
The Internet is an incredible thing and it has changed the way we all live, but it is such an unregulated free-for-all that you never know what you can believe.
By the way, the tyres have performed flawlessly and I have complete confidence in them. While living in southern Thailand I am unable to assess their performance in ice and snow, but there have been absolutely no problems in very hot or very wet conditions. I have driven in searing heat and torrential tropical rainfall without the slightest loss of traction.
The wear isn't excessive either. The place where I bought the tyres perform a free service to rotate the wheels after every 10,000 km. I expect to have this done several times before the tyres will need replacing.
After my personal experience it really makes me wonder about some of the reviews I read. Had I read them before I bought the tyres, I may have decided to buy another brand. I'm glad I didn't read the reviews and that I bought the Michelins.
Some more information about flood prevention measures currently being taken in Thailand to fix the huge flooding problems the country has:
BMA to implement flood prevention plans
This all sounds good, apart from the fact I've still not read anything related to the southern region. I saw a report about a provincial governor requesting money in order to dredge the canals here but that was all.
One of my little brothers is 50 today. Some things in life really make you feel old. I knew I was getting old when first policemen and then presidents of the United States started to look young.
Happy birthday bro'.
Wednesday 1st February 2012
Food poisoning and severe stomach upsets will affect you eventually if living in Thailand. It's not a matter of if, but when.
Food hygiene isn't always as good as it could be. Some places are obviously filthy with flies crawling all over the food and rats in evidence. Other places look OK, but many small restaurants buy their food from the local fresh markets and Thai fresh markets can be a real eye-opener if you have never visited one.
I'm sure that because of the obsession with money, Thais will never throw food away even after it has gone bad.
Some Thais have no education regarding food hygiene and do not know about keeping cooked meat away from uncooked meat or washing hands after using the toilet, etc.
My wife was unaware that once frozen food had been defrosted it isn't safe to refreeze it. It wasn't her fault but simply a lack of education.
This doesn't apply everywhere and some places are very clean. In addition, the microbes and organisms that exist in food in Thailand are different to elsewhere and so it isn't unusual after arriving in Thailand to get an upset tummy. The 'good' bacteria in our stomachs is a normal part of the digestive system.
This is quite harmless and it also works the other way. After getting used to Thai food, I find that I might get a stomach upset in Singapore. This kind of thing is nothing to worry about.
It's good to stay close to a toilet and if you need to travel you can block your system up using Imodium.
On the other hand, severe infections from 'bad' bacteria can be very dangerous. Bangkok Barry wrote previously saying how he had come within days of dying due to a severe case of food poisoning. What didn't help was that his symptoms were misdiagnosed.
A friend of a friend died after contracting food poisoning in Thailand. He attempted to get back to the States but didn't make it.
About 2 a.m. on Tuesday morning I felt an urgent need to use the toilet. This continued to happen every 20 minutes or so. As day broke, I cancelled my plans for the morning, took an Imodium tablet, and hoped to feel better in the afternoon. I didn't feel better, so had to cancel my afternoon plans as well.
As the day went on, I actually felt worse. I took another Imodium tablet but - just like the first one - it had no effect. After about 20 visits to the toilet my stomach was completely empty, my body was dehydrated, and I had as much strength in my body as a rag doll.
I didn't have the strength to stand or even to sit up. All I could do was lie on the bed and go to the bathroom when necessary.
At around 5pm my wife said I should see a doctor. I knew that I needed to but I didn't know how I would get there. Thailand has clinics and hospitals everywhere but it seems that doctors don't visit you at home.
I couldn't drive and to attempt to do so would have been dangerous. I ended up going on the back of the wife's motorbike to a clinic nearby.
There are lots of clinics here. Most of them open in the evenings and at weekends and are run by doctors who have full-time jobs in large hospitals. You get the same treatment but it is often more convenient and cheaper.
The doctor quickly diagnosed infected diarrhoea. She prescribed antibiotics for the infection and various other medicine for pain and intestinal gas.
She told me that the Imodium I had self-prescribed could actually be quite dangerous. Diarrhoea is the body's way of removing the infection and taking medicine to block up your system can make things worse rather than better.
Under certain circumstances Imodium can be really useful but in some situations it is not good.
You can buy antibiotics and other medicine over the counter in Thailand that in other countries you would need a prescription for. The temptation is there sometimes just to buy what you think you need and circumvent seeing a doctor but it isn't always a good idea.
I once got a severe telling off in the UK for seeing a doctor when she thought it was unnecessary. In Thailand I have never met a doctor with this attitude and if you're not sure just go to see one.
The cost for my consultation and medicine was a paltry Bt160. An old friend who used to live in Thailand but moved back to the UK wrote recently and mentioned free medicine in the UK. It may be free but the NHS prescription charge still made my visit to the Thai doctor cheaper.
I started to take the medicine last night and have continued today. The fact I now have the strength to sit and write this indicates I am feeling a lot better. I have started to get food inside my stomach and to rehydrate my body.
I am hoping to feel well enough by tomorrow morning to start to be productive again.
I had a bout of food poisoning on my very first trip to Thailand in 1987. I met a couple of Thai girls in Pattaya (as you do) who invited me to lunch (as they do) because they knew I'd be picking up the bill (as they do).
We ate seafood and the next day I felt like death. One of them took me to a doctor and it was my first experience of seeing a Thai doctor. He diagnosed the problem immediately and gave me three different kinds of medicine. My recovery was almost immediate.
Thai doctors understand the type of problems people get in Thailand very well and are good at treating them.
I've discussed this subject before and I'm aware that not all people have such positive experiences but I have had few problems.
To summarise, if you visit Thailand and have tummy problems it could be perfectly normal. Just wait for a while and take Imodium if you really need to travel. However, if the problems persist and it obviously isn't normal see a doctor.
There is no GP system in Thailand as there is in England. You can go to a hospital (private or public) where a doctor will see you.
Alternatively, there are many clinics. There aren't many generalist clinics (I know of one in Hat Yai). Most clinics specialise in a particular branch of medicine, but the doctors at these places will treat most things or send you to another doctor.
Information about the clinics is written outside in Thai but every doctor I have ever met in Thailand has a good grasp of English.
If you can't speak Thai, they will speak English. If you can speak Thai they may speak in English or Thai or a mixture of both.
The doctor yesterday could speak English but asked me everything in Thai. I suspect her English was better than my Thai. If she said something I couldn't understand, I said, "Mai khao jai," and she told me in English.
On the occasions that I've not done so well with Thai doctors, a doctor in Chumpon once told me I had a perforated eardrum when the only problem I had was a build up of earwax. I was travelling at the time and upon receiving this news cancelled my trip and returned home. My local doctor fixed the problem in minutes.
I contracted a serious fungal infection in my eye several years ago through a soft contact lens. The doctors here struggled at first to treat the infection because they didn't do any tests to see what kind of infection it was.
They treated the infection eventually but the infection left a nasty scar on my cornea and I have suffered from irregular astigmatism in one eye ever since. For some reason the local doctors didn't seem to know what to do about the astigmatism and reduction is visual acuity.
To get that problem fixed I had to visit Thailand top eye hospital - Rutnin hospital in Bangkok.
As is always the case in Thailand regarding anything, the best is normally only found in Bangkok. Our daughter has had a problem since birth and although the doctors here have done quite well up to now we seem to have got to a point where there is no further improvement.
I have just got in contact with the top doctor in Thailand in this particular field, but seeing him will mean yet another trip to Bangkok. We will probably go next month.
I really couldn't imagine living in Bangkok but living in the capital certainly has lots of advantages if you need to make frequent trips to your Embassy, visit specialist doctors, etc.
Oh, I almost forgot. You may be wondering what was the cause of my upset stomach. On Monday evening I asked my wife to make me chicken with holy basil leaves. She has made this several times before and because she makes it in the house I know it will be clean. I didn't want to buy it from a shop because of the hygiene issue.
She told me everything was clean and fresh. The problem with the microbes and organisms that attack our bodies is that they are invisible.
It could be that she's trying to poison me, but if that's the case there wouldn't be much point bumping me off until after I've paid for the new house. If this blog goes quiet later this year you will know that she's been more successful. Perhaps this was just a practice run?
My earliest memory in life is the assassination of JFK as shown on an old valve-driven black and white TV set. TV antennas were kept in the house in those days and it was always one person's job to hold it in position to get the best picture. The constant vertical and horizontal rolling of the picture could be cured by giving the set a good whack on the side. Kids don't know they're born these days with their High-Definition, flat-screen, 3D, all-singing, all dancing, high tech TVs.
Kennedy's assassination occurred just a few days after my third birthday and this fits in with the theory of people not being able to remember anything before the age of three.
Even after all these years, pieces of previously unreleased evidence are still coming to light, with the remainder to come in 2017.
New Air Force One tapes give insight on Kennedy death
According to Wikipedia, 98% of the Warren Commission records have already been released. Somehow, I think that even after everything is released we won't know much more about what happened on that day than we do now.
The only thing certain is that the conspiracy theories will never stop.
One of the free Kindle books I downloaded recently was 'John F. Kennedy, A Life' published by New Word City. It was a short, but interesting book.
At the height of the Cold War, not many people could have been more difficult to deal with than Khrushchev. The Bay of Pigs Invasion and Cuban Missile Crisis were enormous challenges for a president to deal with.
In the book, Kennedy comes across as a pragmatic person with a very sharp mind who knew when to take advice from his advisors and when to ignore them.
He wasn't a perfect human being, as we all know. The book is heavily biased in Kennedy's favour but that is the case with any piece of writing. Considering that it was free, it wasn't a bad read at all.
Regarding what happened on that day, I haven't a clue. The theories sound highly plausible, while the official account seems to be full of holes. I was travelling in the States one time and had a choice of stopovers. I chose Dallas and spent a few nights there purely because I wanted to visit the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.
Of course, I knew no more after my visit to the museum but it was interesting to visit a place for the first time that already looked so familiar from TV and cinema.
As the years pass and more people from that era die, it will become more and more difficult to find out what really happened in Dallas on November 22, 1963.