Living In Thailand Blog
Thursday 10th July 2014
I was just looking at some prices for a recently announced camera lens - the Canon EF-S 10-18mm ultra wide angle lens for Canon crop sensor cameras.
- Amazon UK: £299.99
- Amazon US: $299 (£175 at current exchange rates)
- Fotofile Thailand: Bt10,900 (£198 at current exchange rates)
This is why people refer to the UK as Rip Off Britain.
Prices in the UK for certain items are disgusting. The moral here is that if you are fortunate enough to live in the US, buy all your camera gear on-line at home.
If you are unfortunate enough to live in the UK don't get ripped off. Go to Thailand with a shopping list, get some dental work done while there, and the money you save will pay for a free vacation - or at least a heavily subsidised vacation.
On the other hand, if you wish to buy a good quality used Porsche stay at home. Not everything in Thailand is cheap, especially luxury goods from abroad.
Around the time that the sitcom 'Friends' was at the height of its popularity, some commentators were saying that friends were the new family. I disagree.
My friendship with my old friends from the UK has all but disintegrated. Even though it has been easy to keep in touch ever since e-mail was invented, it became obvious many years ago that most people weren't interested in staying in touch. And anyway, who wants friends that they never meet in person? I only keep in touch with a few people.
I have met lots of 'friends' in Thailand over the years, but they have all proven to be transitory. I lead a very busy life and apparently so does everyone else, although I suspect that many people these days have no time because they are always on Facebook or Twitter. I refuse to use either, and even if I wanted to I don't have the time. This constant busyness, and the fact that meeting friends involves travelling, means that I rarely meet the people I call friends.
These days, the people who have proven to be the best possible friends and support us in a way that family members might are my neighbours. They have been absolutely magnanimous.
For starters, neighbours - by their very nature - are always close by. Meeting up with them doesn't take lots of phone calls and checking of schedules. In addition, we have been blessed by having such wonderful, caring neighbours. For our Bangkok trip earlier this week it was neighbours who took us to the airport and picked us up and it was neighbours that fed the cats.
Our neighbours who live opposite love kids, but their situation is such that it simply isn't convenient to have a family. She is a very busy university lecturer and business lady, while he is a colonel in the Royal Thai army. They love our daughter as they would love their own and help a lot by taking care of her. The husband also came to visit us in Bangkok on Monday because he is currently stationed in the capital.
Some people in the development obviously want to be left alone and make no effort at all to meet their neighbours - one actually does her best to avoid making any contact. However, there are many who want to be friendly and their help and assistance is invaluable.
I've talked quite a lot about the contrasts and contradictions in Thailand and the hazards of generalising too much about Thais. Living in Thailand is like being in at least two different countries.
A few days ago in Sukhumvit I felt as if I was surrounded by hungry, circling sharks who were constantly preying on gullible foreigners and looking for any sign of weakness. In such a situation I am extremely wary and do not trust anyone I meet.
On the other hand, another neighbour has a baby who is two months older than our son. She makes food for her own child and brings some along to our house for our son.
She understands the difficulties we are currently going through with our daughter and has offered to take care of our son when we go back to Bangkok. Leaving your child with anyone requires complete trust and I would trust her completely.
I fall into the trap of generalising about Thailand and Thais myself, but it is so wrong. The people are all so different, ranging from the lowest form of human life possible to the kindest people imaginable.
I love being at home because I am always surrounded by good people. The neighbours and friends of my wife that visit the house often are all thoroughly decent, trustworthy people. The world outside is very different.
Wednesday 9th July 2014
There has been a lot in the news recently about sexual violence against women in India and Pakistan, but Thailand - unfortunately - also has a big problem.
News stories of rape are common and many rapes do not get reported. The victims are either too frightened or too ashamed to say anything and in the case of rape incidents at schools - often gang rapes - the schools try to cover up the incidents to protect their reputations. My wife just told me about another incident of gang rape at a Thai high school that occurred this week.
Earlier this year a serial child rapist and killer was caught after he was captured on CCTV leading a young girl away. The issue has been thrust into the spotlight again this week with the horrendous rape and murder of a 13 year-old girl who was travelling by train when she was attacked by a railway worker.
He had raped before and got away with it because the victims didn't report what happened. Also, as is the case with a lot of crime in Thailand, he was high on yaa baa (the crazy drug) and alcohol.
Many Thais are demanding the death sentence for him and I feel the same way. Not only are people like this of no use to society, but they represent a severe threat to society and should be removed permanently from society.
Unlike many countries these days, Thailand has retained capital punishment, however, Thais seem very reluctant to sentence anyone to death no matter how heinous the crime. Perhaps this is because of their belief system?
Missing girl on train found dead, raped
The following article describes Thailand as having a rape culture and says that on average a rape is committed in the country every 15 minutes.
Death penalty no cure for rape culture
I had a serious chat with my wife about this subject. We have a daughter and extra special precautions need to be taken in Thailand with daughters. She isn't going to like some of the restrictions that her parents will impose on her later, but unfortunately it will be necessary.
In the past I have teased my wife for seeing so little of her own country. By the time I was her age I had seen quite a lot of the world. She has never been outside of Thailand and has travelled very little within Thailand. Many Thais are the same and it helps to explain why many Thais have such a narrow view of the world.
She told me the main reason she has never travelled in Thailand is because of safety. When she was younger she wasn't allowed to travel alone or even with friends and as she got older and became more aware of the risks she lost her desire to travel because of the potential dangers.
It amazes me to see how some farang girls carry on in Thailand. I've seen farang girls walking around downtown shopping areas in bikinis or bra-less wearing skimpy T-shirts and flashing their breasts as they clamber on to buses and song-thaews.
Some get drunk and then go alone for a bit of topless sunbathing on a secluded beach with apparently no concern for their own safety. At such times my reaction is the same as the Thai one: Farang baa.
Tourists need to get beyond the 'Land of Smiles' nonsense and understand what really goes on in Thailand. There are many Thais who are wonderfully kind and who are as appalled at these horrific incidents as any right-thinking person would be. On the other hand, evil does exist in Thailand and there are plenty of people who are beyond evil.
I have always had quite a good sixth sense when it comes to sensing potential danger. On one occasion I found myself alone on a song-thaew with a strongly built Thai male who made me feel very uneasy. It was in Chumpon province as I was travelling from the main town to the coast and there was no one around.
I rang the bell to tell the driver to stop, got off, and then waited for the next song-thaew. It wasted about half an hour, but I felt a lot safer.
I avoid bars and other places where there may be problems, I very rarely go out at night, and I observe people carefully. It also helps being male, and I haven't really had any problems in Thailand.
It's very different for females. My wife also has a well honed sixth sense and this is an invaluable asset in Thailand. We hope that this ability will be inherited by our daughter. Pay attention to any gut feelings you have and, like I did in Chumpon, if you sense any potential danger extricate yourself from it.
Incidents of rape against foreigners in Thailand are not unheard of, but when I see how many foreign girls dress and behave in Thailand they really don't help themselves.
Despite what you might see at some of the tourist resorts, Thailand is a very conservative country. Public nudity is a taboo and Thais even get upset about minor public displays of affection.
There are times and places when nudity or skimpy clothing is acceptable, but if you get bored with the beach and decide to head into town, dress appropriately. Be very wary of Thai men and stay alert to potential dangers. One of the best ways to reduce your state of alertness is to consume alcohol.
As a woman don't be afraid to travel around in Thailand, but be very aware of the dangers and take suitable precautions.
I have been disappointed this week to encounter Bangkok taxi drivers who still refuse to take people where they want to go, and disappointed to meet others who still refuse to use their meters, insisting instead on a Bt500 fixed fare.
As part of their programme to fix long-standing problems in Thailand, the military government has been having a crackdown on illegal and rogue taxi drivers. This seems to have been successful, but there is still a long way to go.
Taxi mafia crackdown inspires all
One of the problems is that metered taxi fares are too low. The taxi we took from Don Meuang airport to Sukhumvit on Sunday covered a fair distance and got held up in the infamous Bangkok traffic for quite a long time.
I had to pay Bt100 in tolls and Bt210 for the fare. When I lived in the UK I didn't even consider getting taxis because the cost was so exorbitant. In Bangkok the fares are almost embarrassingly low.
It can't be much fun being a Bangkok cabbie. I hate driving in traffic in Thailand and any driving job in Thailand must be awful. The drivers pay for fuel and many rent their taxis. At the end of a long, tiring shift they may only have made about Bt500 profit.
I would have no objection personally if the fares went up a little, provided the service got better.
There was one thing in Bangkok that I was really pleased to see - traffic light cameras. In provincial Thailand, running and ignoring redlights is a national pastime. Some drivers simply run the lights (turning on their hazard warning lights to alert other drivers), while others stop momentarily before just taking off while the light is still red.
I was surprised when one taxi driver slammed on his brakes at an amber light. This never happens where I live. He then pointed out the cameras. If Thailand is already using the technology I can't understand why they don't roll it out nationwide.
This is turning out to be probably the most difficult year of my life. Both of our children had problems at birth and the year started with my newborn son spending three weeks in NICU with pneumonia. The travelling back and forth from the hospitals (he was in one hospital and my wife in another) was exhausting. My parents were also here and it wasn't fair to leave them in the house all the time, so I took them around a bit as well. I had never felt so tired.
Now that he is out of the woods and healthy, the foot problem that my daughter was born with has got worse and after spending an enormous amount of time at hospitals with her in the first couple of years we are just about to start all over again.
We ran into some problems with the local hospital in that they started off OK, but after about nine months they seemed to run out of ideas and couldn't source the equipment that was necessary for successful treatment. I found the top doctor in Thailand for treating her problem, but of course, having to travel to Bangkok every time she has an appointment isn't particularly easy or cheap.
I will be back in Bangkok in three weeks' time, and will be making several more trips in the coming months. We have had to pull our daughter out of school and she is at home getting bored with full length plaster casts on her legs.
The only time that I ever get to myself is when she is at school, and this means that I have even less time than normal at the moment. For months (years?) I have been looking forward to the time when I would be able to do more here, but it never seems to happen.
The latest developments mean that I may have to give up all together.
We normally stay at a hotel near Victory Monument, but on this last trip I fancied a change and was looking at hotels near the river. However, my wife had different ideas. For reasons known only to her she wanted to stay in Sukhumvit, an area that I would normally avoid at all costs.
A lot of Thais have travelled very little around their own country and they develop a strange fascination with some of the tourist spots. They know that lots of farangs go to these places and become very curious, even though the places in question may be hideously ugly. I've even met Thais who have expressed a desire to go to Pattaya. It's incredible, but true.
As someone who has lived in Thailand for almost 11 years and who has become very bored of Thai food, the greatest attraction about the Sukhumvit area is the food.
Our first meal after arriving was at Pomodoro, where the pizza is to die for. I can't get anything remotely as good as this in the south. My other great love is good Indian food and there were several Indian restaurants just a few yards from the hotel, including Mrs Balbir's.
My wife (like many Thais) screws her face up at Indian food and my only opportunity to indulge alone came on Monday. I was thus extremely disappointed to find that Mrs Balbir's is closed on Mondays. However, a place just over the road served up a delicious Rogan Josh that hit the spot.
I also found a branch of Asia Books on Sukhumvit with a good selection of books about Thailand and Southeast Asia.
I hastily passed the language section because I have enough Thai dictionaries and phrase books already and sprinted past the sexpat farang accounts of poor Isaan prostitutes and ladyboys because they bore me to death, before encountering a book entitled 'Twentieth Century Impressions of Siam'.
I thoroughly enjoy historical accounts and photos of Thailand before the days of mass tourism and globalisation and these act as an antidote to present-day Thailand with its armies of tourists and American fast food chain restaurants everywhere.
Apart from a good bookshop and some good restaurants, I really don't like Sukhumvit. The best analogy I can think of is a pool of sharks where the sharks circle continuously looking for weak and injured fish on which to prey; the sharks being professional scammers and the weak and injured fish being naive tourists.
Some of the people who approached me trying to sell fake watches were very forceful and some weren't even Thai. There were lots of dodgy looking Africans hanging around on street corners and Arabs accosting tourists.
One Middle Eastern guy marched towards me very intently before thrusting a bag of fake watches in my face. He wasn't going to let me go and couldn't speak any Thai so I couldn't tell him to go away in Thai. In the end I had to speak very aggressively to make him go away.
Indian restaurants are fine, but Indian tailors in Thailand are another matter. There is little that pisses me off more than an Indian standing outside a tailor shop in Thailand beaming at me and extending his hand to get me into his shop. I'm just not interested.
The Thai scammers take a very different approach to the guy who wanted to sell me a watch. They try to be very friendly and non-threatening at first, but when they have acquired someone's confidence it no doubt ends in a scam.
I say 'no doubt' because after their initial lines I replied in Thai and then didn't have a problem. This seemed to throw them and once they realised that I wasn't a fresh-off-the-plane tourist a normal conversation commenced. There was no attempt to scam me.
In provincial Thailand away from the tourists, Thais never speak to people they don't know - especially forigners. I find the behaviour in Bangkok's tourist area very strange and very suspicious. I am on my guard constantly and don't trust anyone.
There is another aspect of Thai behaviour that irritates me in tourist areas. Tourists - through no fault of their own - get confused and disorientated in Thailand. It's hot and humid, and the language, culture and way of doing things is very different to what they are used to.
They feel like fish out of water and many look and act like children. I've seen many farang men with Thai wives who follow their wives around like children. They speak no Thai and rely on their wives to do everything in Thailand. Consequently, the women treat them like children.
I noticed the same thing in Bangkok with some hotel staff. They deal with naive tourists all day everyday and know how useless they are in Thailand. Again, it's no fault of their own because Thailand is a difficult country to get to know.
What I do object to, strongly, is when Thais start talking to me as if I am a child and have no idea about Thailand. It happens, though.
A survey has confirmed what I was saying about Thailand being a happier place since the coup.
Most happy since NCPO takeover, latest poll shows
Thailand is still not ready for Western stype electoral politics and until such time as it is ready, foreign countries should not apply pressure on the country to use a system of government that isn't suitable for Thais.
It seems impossible for many foreigners to accept that not all people think the same way as they do. The patronage system in Thailand has been well documented, but what does it actually mean in real terms?
When my wife talks about the political situation she uses the term doo lair a lot. This term is used all the time in Thailand and it says a lot about how many Thais think. It means 'to take care of, look after, supervise, be responsible for'.
To my wife and many Thais, going it alone in the big, wide world is just something that is beyond them. The education system doesn't prepare them for it, they have no opportunities in life to earn enough money to become financially dependent, and generally they have very little self-confidence.
Their aim in life is to find sponsors or patrons to take care of them. In Isaan, the poorest region of Thailand, there is a whole industry devoted to finding foreign men who will take care of poor girls and their families.
Personally, I don't particularly want to live in an environment where someone 'superior' takes care of me. As far as I am concerned, the role of politicians is to create an environment that is conducive to allowing me to take care of myself. However, this is where foreign thinking differs to the way that many Thais think.
Thais are quite happy for 'big people' (poo yai) to get rich in return for looking after them. The problem with this system is that it is open to abuse and corruption, and this has long been the problem with politics in Thailand.
As things stand now since the latest coup, the military is taking care of the country, while attempting to stamp out corruption and many other problems that have blighted Thailand for a long time. This is exactly what most Thais want. They want someone else to fix their problems, which they regard as being too big for them to fix themselves, and they want to be taken care of.
The big problem now will be returning to a so-called democratic system. In my opinion, Thailand would be better off continuing as they are doing now indefinitely, but there will be enormous pressure from foreign countries to return to the flawed system that caused so many problems. If something is broken and then gets fixed, why would people want to break it again? The ideology is fine, but the reality is that such a system doesn't work in Thailand.
Saturday 5th July 2014
I was recently bemoaning the fact that a lot of small electrical repair shops had disappeared, and associated this with Thailand's transformation from a society in which repairing, re-using and re-cycling is normal into a Western-style throwaway consumer culture where the normal behaviour is simply to discard old appliances and buy new ones. These small shops still exist, but they are becoming rarer and are now found only in the poorer neighbourhoods.
The soles on my comfortable walking shoes starting to fall off recently and I wanted to get them repaired. It would seem a shame to have to throw them away and I didn't want to buy a pair of new shoes just before departing for Bangkok as they might be uncomfortable.
In the downtown area is a railway bridge and the shops under the bridge are the place to go if you want shoes repaired or keys cut. This is also where there is a big trade in Buddhist amulets. Most Thai towns have places like this. It's not a place that will figure in many tourist guides, but I have always found these kind of places far more interesting than the places that the tourist guides recommend.
The gent in the photo has been repairing shoes here for over 40 years, although he is originally from Nakhon Sri Thammarat province. His wife died last year, leaving him and three grown-up children. His daughter also repairs shoes here.
I imagined that he would just squirt some glue between the sole and the upper, but he said that the shoes needed stitching. He said that it would take 30 minutes and very nervously said that the price would be Bt150. It seemed he was slightly afraid that I might think Bt150 was excessive and walk off.
This was very cheap, so I agreed and waited while he repaired my shoes. We chatted while I was waiting. He spoke to me in the central dialect, but he spoke the sing-song southern dialect to other people working there. My wife uses the southern dialect with her family and I can hardly understand a word. The southern dialect seems to use more tones than the standard five tones in the central dialect and the tones get very high at times.
Natives from Nakhon Sri Thammarat have a certain reputation in Thailand and it isn't very positive. Many outsiders see them as violent and murderous. Indeed, after Chonburi and Petchburi, Nakhon has the highest rate of criminality in Thailand.
However, I have never had a problem with Nakhon natives and there are a lot of them in Hat Yai. The reputation they have probably hinges on their directness. If they don't like you, they won't smile falsely and make out that they do like you. They let you know their feelings. This might make them seem aggressive, but at least you know where you stand with them.
I often find that Thais use Thai time, which bears no relation to Earth time. In Thailand, 30 minutes can mean a couple of hours or all day. However, my shoe repairer was true to his word and finished in half and hour.
He did all the stitching by hand and his work doesn't look like a repair at all. The quality is excellent and could easily have come from the factory like this.
I was very pleased with his work, he was a nice guy (and obviously quite poor), and I was in a good mood. I gave him Bt200 and in circumstances like this I am very happy to give a tip. This brought a big smile to his face and he wanted to make sure that I will return to him the next time my shoes need repairing. I will.
While I was walking around the downtown area getting shoes repaired, etc, I could sense a feelgood factor in the air that I haven't sensed for a long time in Thailand. It's almost intangible, but palpable - if that isn't a contradiction. I kept noticing seemingly insignifican't little acts of courtesy, but these individual acts have a cumulative effect.
I could be imagining it, but the famous Thai smiles just seem to be a little more genuine right now, rather than being forced. There are all kinds of different smiles in Thailand, but they aren't all good.
I've also been making a point recently of asking Thais how they feel and whether they think things are better now than they have been. Every person I have spoken to says that things are better. These are the views of southern Thais and it will be interesting to ask some people in Bangkok tomorrow.
The people I have spoken to here range from cleaners to young, very bright qualified dentists. Their backgrounds, education, and intellects vary, but what they have in common is that they all feel more positive about Thailand at the moment.
I am certainly looking forward to my Bangkok trip tomorrow a lot more than the last one in January. When I went last time my newborn son was in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with pneumonia. My wife was still receovering from the birth and was visiting our son.
This was the first time I had travelled any significant distance alone with my daughter and I was a little apprehensive. In Bangkok, taxis had to find alternate routes to everywhere because of blocked roads.
I stayed in a hotel near Victory Monument and just before we arrived there was an explosion at Victory Monument after one group of protesters tossed a grenade at another group of protesters. It wasn't at all pleasant.
I am grateful to the NCPO for many things and that includes removing the miniature war zones from Bangkok. This is the last thing anyone needs, especially travelling with two young children.
As a child I exhibited asthma type symptoms whenever I had a cold, however, I never considered myself asthmatic because I was fine when I didn't have a cold. I played lots of sport, including cross-country running at school, and did some long bike rides, such as the annual London to Brighton event.
About four years ago I started suffering from bronchitis. I have never smoked, but growing up in the UK when I did I was subjected to a lot of passive smoking. People smoked everywhere and it was impossible at times to avoid it.
This episode of bronchitis went away with some anti-biotics, but the same thing happened a few months later. Since then I have been suffering quite badly from asthma and have been relying quite a lot on an inhaler. Last year, around this time of year, I had quite a bad asthma attack and ended up in ICU overnight.
It's been quite bad again recently and whenever I see a regular doctor they just prescribe more inhalers. A few days ago I went to the hospital and asked to see a specialist doctor. He was very good and turned out to be the twin brother of the doctor who treated my son after he was born in January.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he saved my son's life because without the excellent NICU failities at the local hospital and without the expertise of the specialist doctors and nurses he may not have pulled through.
The doctor who I saw prescribed different medicine, X-Rayed my chest (which was fine), and I have been feeling a lot better since.
As it was, I was using the inhaler before I slept but then woke up in the night short of breath and had to use it again. The problem is also a lot worse when I lie down. This meant that I never got an unbroken night's sleep, and this wasn't good for my health.
For the last two nights I have slept all the way through and feel so much better. I will now see this doctor regularly so that he can keep tabs on the problem. He told me that asthma attacks are very dangerous - "It can make you dead."
This was yet another very positive experience with the Thai medical profession. I have had many.
I was speaking to my Thai dentist friend and telling him all about my good experiences here. He replied that there are poor dentists and doctors in Thailand. I'm sure there are, and that applies to all countries.
All I can say is that in 11 years I have had many excellent experiences and only one bad one, where a doctor in Chumpon told me I had a perforated eardrum when in fact it was just a bit of loose earwax that needed to be sucked out.
I saw a dentist last year and although she did a decent job of filling a tooth, the tooth she chose wasn't the one causing terrible toothache and therefore it didn't relieve the pain. Also, while she was working on my tooth she continually chatted and gossiped to her assistant.
No doubt, there are poor dentists and doctors in Thailand and, no doubt, some foreigners will have come across them. All I can talk about are my personal experiences, and I have had far more good ones than bad ones.
There may be some people who are worried about visiting Thailand because of the political problems, which have now ended. Even when the protests were ongoing, the tourist resorts were unaffected and only a few easily avoidable places in Bangkok had problems so it was never really an issue. However, due to the way that news is reported I can understand that some people were reluctant to travel.
It seems to me that now would be a great time to visit Thailand. However, you should bear in mind that this is a personal view. I personally prefer the low season when there are no crowds and prices are lower. Many tourists seem to prefer crowds and high prices, which I don't. The weather can be hot and wet in the low season. It's not a problem for me, but it may be a problem for other people.
Hotel prices in Thailand are always low, but with lower than usual occupancy rates there are some great deals at the moment and Thais working in the tourist industry will make tourists very welcome because they need the money that tourism brings in.
The UK pound to Thai Baht exchange rate is also very favourable at the moment. I'm not sure how the Baht is fairing against other currencies, I'm afraid. One UK pound is probably unlikely to buy Bt60+ or even Bt70+ again, as was the case when I first moved to Thailand, but with the rate getting close to Bt56 this week it is a lot better than the Bt43 I was getting just over a year ago in April 2013.
If you are a tourist, or if you live in Thailand on incomes from abroad, as I do, this makes a big difference.
Wednesday 2nd July 2014
My wife made the comment that it was a good idea to include an oven when we had the kitchen installed. To a Thai it might seem a 'good idea' because Thai food is generally only grilled, steamed, stir-fried, deep-fried, or boiled. My neighbour, who has an expensive fitted kitchen, has no oven. Below the counter in his house there are no appliances, just cupboards.
To a farang it wouldn't register as being a 'good idea' because to Western thinking you simply can't have a kitchen without an oven. An oven is a necessity in, and often forms the centrepiece of, a kitchen. This is just one example of how Thai thinking and Western thinking differs. There are many, many more.
I have been surprised and pleased at how much she uses the oven. Today she made some pizzas from scratch and last weekend we enjoyed roast chicken and potatoes. A few days ago she baked a loaf of bread and last week she made an excellent lasagne. I regularly eat the bagels that she bakes for breakfast, and she has made all sorts of other goodies, including cakes, cookies and apple crumble.
In parts of Thailand where there are lots of Westerners it may be possible to rent a house with an oven. Where I live in Thailand, houses with ovens are as rare as public toilets with soap and tissue paper.
It's unlikely that anyone would want to have a proper oven installed in a rented house in Thailand, however, there are lots of counter-top ovens in the department stores that can be taken with you when you leave a rented house. I had a very small version when I lived alone and it was adequate for roasting and baking small items.
They aren't the same as proper ovens, but after only existing on Thai food for several years it's really good to eat something that is baked or roasted.
The irony with doing this is that when I am really busy and have lots to write about I don't have any time. Life has been very busy, but very good recently.
I remember quite vividly walking along the street one day about 10 years ago and thinking how good it felt to be in Thailand. I then went many years without having the same feeling and I became extremely disillusioned with the country. Yesterday, I was walking along exactly the same piece of street and being in Thailand felt good again.
I loved the country as a tourist and could never get enough. When the day came to go home after a vacation in Thailand I always felt desperately sad and never wanted to go. I knew that I would always end up living in Thailand.
As a typical tourist I walked around with my eyes closed most of the time and was only focused on those things that tourists focus on. For most single male tourists these things are normally around 5'4", slim, shapely and with big, inviting smiles.
My last vacation in Thailand before I moved to Thailand was in January/February 2003 and for the first time I started to see Thailand in a different light. The 'War on Drugs' had just begun and the daily images on Thai TV news were quite shocking. More was to come after I moved to Thailand and watched news reports of the incidents at Tak Bai and Kreu Se.
In addition, I heard politicians lying about the presence of Bird Flu, continually read about corruption cases, observed a dramatic clampdown on the media and any dissenting voices, and saw growing authoritarianism in the country. It was quite scary.
The scariest part was that no one seemed to be able to do anything. Whenever criticism got to a certain level another election would be held and the same people would be elected back into office.
There was a never ending cycle of corruption, business politics, conflict of interests, nepotism, cronyism, protest, violence, deaths, populism, vote buying and flawed elections. Occasionally the names changed, but the same person was behind the problems and in effect nothing changed.
In addition to the continuous political problems, I also noticed very quickly that the country's social problems never got resolved either. The appalling road death statistics started to make me feel genuinely afraid of travelling by road.
However, despite the carnage nothing ever changed. Every time that the Songkran festival or New Year came around hundreds of Thais would lose their lives on Thailand's dangerous roads. It seemed that Thai politicians were unable, unwilling, or not interested in fixing the problems.
When I started to drive regularly in Thailand some years ago it started to become quite clear why there was so much carnage. There were no police anywhere and the roads were almost lawless. Thai drivers did things routinely on the roads that would be considered as major offences in other countries leading to big fines, driving bans and even imprisonment. In Thailand, nothing.
In short, after about four years I started to see the country for what it was and the sad realisation (this really was a sad time for me) was that Thailand was not a country in which I wanted to live. I considered leaving, but struggled on.
I had no desire to return to a Western country, Singapore was beyond my means, and I guessed that all of the other developing countries had similar problems. Nowhere is perfect, and I figured that Thailand is probably no better or no worse than elsewhere.
And then kids came along. As any parent will know, no other event in life is as life-changing as this.
This called me anguish in two ways. The first was that it was no longer easy to leave the country. As a single man I could have left whenever I wanted to, but not with the responsibility of children.
The second was that for every problem in Thailand, of which there are many, I thought about how they would impact my children. Once again, I got very disillusioned with the country.
Nothing got better and the problems just kept going around and around, as they have always done since I moved to Thailand.
But then, about a month ago, everything changed. The wheel of misfortune suddenly stopped turning; the problematib business turned politicians were removed, the protests and violence stopped, and someone started seriously addressing the issues.
I have been glued to the TV these past two Friday evenings hanging on every word (actually, reading the English subtitles) that come from General Prayuth's mouth. It has been more refreshing than a fresh coconut in the Thai hot season.
The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) is addressing every political and social issue in the country and for the first time since I have lived in Thailand I am feeling confident that the country can actually change and develop. Prior to this, I didn't have any confidence that Thailand could get back on track.
The range of topics being addressed by the NCPO (the term 'military junta' sounds far too harsh and uncomplimentary for what they are trying to achieve) is breathtaking.
In addition to the usual corruption scandals in Thailand that have just become a normal part of life in Thailand, the military are addressing things such as taxi mafias, issues that affect farmers, road laws, parking violations, the release of Thais from foreign prisons, land encroachment, illegal logging, human trafficking and slavery, illegal vendors, and the list goes on and on.
Basically, all of the things that I have been complaining about in Thailand for many years are being addressed. I can't describe how good this makes me feel.
My only concern is that in the past I have seen many clampdowns in Thailand that fizzle out after a few weeks and then everything reverts to how it was before. Secondly, General Prayuth will be under immense pressure from the US and other Western countries to go back to a 'democratic system'.
The sentiment of many Thais that I have spoken to is that this isn't what they want. They would be quite happy for the NCPO to continue indefinitely.
The system, as it was, was completely broken. It therefore mystifies me why so many Westerners think that Thailand should start using it again, but this is because ignorant Westerners think that Thailand is the same as their own countries, which it most definitely isn't.
I know that many people will disagree with me, but as far as I am concerned this is the best possible medicine that Thailand could have been prescribed for what was becoming a terminal illness and I have never felt more confident than I am right now that Thailand has the ability to change for the better.
When I first arrived in Thailand to live I stayed in a hotel, but I immediately started looking around for longer term accommodation. After about a week I moved into an apartment building.
Just along the road was a small DVD rental shop and it was run by three girls. I rented some DVDs and got to know the girls. They were all from Phattalung province, which is quite rural and undeveloped and where there isn't much work. They lived in a room above the shop and as well as running the shop looked after the owner's twin children.
They were really nice girls - good, genuine, honest, Thai girls - and single. I have spoken to lots of Thai girls and they tell me consistently that around 60% of Thai men are bad news. The men cheat, drink, and use violence against women.
There is a shortage of good Thai men and the good Thai men are either gay or really picky. They want girls from good backgrounds who are educated and have money. Rural girls working in a DVD shop for tiny salaries aren't in very high demand and the girls wouldn't be interested in the type of men who would be interested in them.
Their shop is near to my daughter's school and I still walk past occasionally. One girl left a few years ago, but the other two are still there and still single. They must be getting close to 40 now, and there is probably quite a good chance that they will remain single.
Thai women are also a lot more studious and serious-minded about work than most Thai men. I asked some dentists recently why every Thai dentist I have ever visited was female. They told me that to qualify as a dentist is extremely tough and that female students are normally better suited to the hard work that it requires.
Consequently, with good career prospects and the opportunity to earn a good salary, many Thai girls are choosing to stay single. I just saw this report:
Study examines growing trend of Thai women staying single
This report also includes some interesting population statistics. Many foreign men believe that there are far more women in Thailand than men. I've seen official birth rates and spoken to Thai doctors and they tell me that the birth rate is approximately 50-50.
However, as this report points out, women start to outnumber men as they get older. This report talks of a higher mortality rate, but what it actually means is that Thai men are experts at killing themselves on the roads. Most Thai men seem to think they are racing drivers competing either in Le Mans or the Isle of Man TT.
This is all good news for foreign men looking for Thai wives. There are more women of marriageable age and despite the many Internet horror stories concerning Thai girls, there are still lots of good ones out there.
The moral of the story, however, is that you will be better off learning a little Thai and searching in places like the little DVD shop I mentioned, than heading to the nearest beer bar in Pattaya or Patong and meeting prostitutes who speak bargirl English.
Tuesday 1st July 2014
Weather has always had a big effect on my state of mind and general well-being. That didn't change when I moved to Thailand, except that I now feel better when it starts to get cooler instead of warmer.
I hated winter in the UK, not only because of the cold and wet conditions, but also because of the lack of sunlight during the winter months. Christmas was my least favourite holiday. On the other hand I used to enjoy Easter (unless it was still snowing) because Easter usually heralded the first warm sunrays of Spring and longer days.
Thailand's location close to the equator means that there isn't much variation in sunlight hours throughout the year. It starts to get light at around 6am and by 7pm it is dark. During UK summers I sometimes played golf after work and it was possible to finish 18 holes before it became too dark to play. That isn't possible in Thailand.
The temperature in the south doesn't tend to vary much throughout the year. Most of the time it is around 30°C or the late 20's. During very hot periods it might go up to 35°C or 36°C (but never 40°C as in other parts of Thailand), and after several days of constant rain during the rainy season it might go down to 24°C or 25°C. Unbelieveably, 24°C can feel cold if you live constantly in 30°C of heat.
I quite enjoy this time of year. Starting in January it starts to get very hot, peaking in April/May. The southwest monsoon starts to blow around May/June and the change in weather is quite noticeable. There have been some very strong blasts of wind from the southwest recently, some heavy downpours, and some very dramatic looking skies.
A friend of mine in the UK hates blue skies and sunshine, which he refers to as two-dimensional weather, and spends his leisure time walking along the cliffs in Cornwall when the elements are at their harshest. He loves this three-dimensional weather, and I also enjoy it in Thailand.
Shortly after arriving in Thailand at the end of 2003 I spent a night in a hotel on the beach in Songkhla. A huge storm came in from the Gulf of Thailand and the rain was pounding against the window. It felt really great being inside listening to the weather outside.
Just recently, some severe weather caused quite a bit of chaos along the Andaman coast:
Freak waves batter beaches in the south
This kind of weather probably doesn't please tourists who are only interested in going home with a suntan, but I love it.
The weather between June and October here in Songkhla province can be quite variable. Some days it is very hot and some days it is very wet. The rainy season begins in October and normally finishes before the end of the year. It can be intensely wet, but the weather at this time of year can be very pleasant if it is dry because it isn't too hot.
As soon as the New Year arrives it then starts getting hot again and the cycle is repeated.
I hate the well-known tourist resorts in Thailand and avoid these places like the plague if possible. Generally, they are full of tacky T-shirt shops, faux Irish pubs, junk food restaurants, tacky tattoed farangs, sexpats, prostitutes, ladyboys, taxi mafias, and greedy Thais looking to rip off foreigners.
Once you have lived in Thailand for a while you find out about much better places that have none of these things. One such place is Khanom district in Nakhon Sri Thammarat. I first went there several years ago for a department meeting when I was working, and I took the family last year for a quick break.
It's still a beautiful part of the Thai Gulf coast and it's still almost deserted. Now, the Tourist Authority of Thailand (TAT) plans to advertise these lesser-known places (including Khanom) to farang tourists.
TAT to steer visitors off the beaten path
With such a big drop in tourist numbers due to the political problems, it seems that they are trying to develop new strategies to get the tourists back. That's understandable, but with tourism having already wrecked places liked Pattaya and Phuket, it just seems a shame that previous unspoilt places in Thailand will probably now go the same way.