Living In Thailand Blog
Monday 22nd June 2015
I talked about neighbours yesterday and today I will cover my experiences of renting and buying a house in Thailand. First, the rented house.
Many Thais rent accommodation and renting a whole town house house is normally cheaper than renting a small room in an apartment building. (This doesn't apply to renting a detached home, which is significantly more expensive but still quite cheap when compared to most other countries.) Consequently, finding a house to rent can be quite difficult because there is limited supply and a lot of demand.
I have only rented one house and therefore I am only qualified to talk about that experience. Everyone will have different experiences, of course.
Bangkok and other places may be different, but where I am there is no single resource that lists all the properties available. Thais with houses to rent create posters and stick them on lampposts, etc. They are in Thai, of course, and this is yet another reason why all foreigners in Thailand should make an effort to at least read a little Thai.
This was exactly how I find the house. I was walking somewhere and I saw a sign for a house to rent so I called the number and made an appointment. The owner lived in another province and had bought this house to rent out for another source of income.
I took my wife along and although I didn't really like the house, she did. I wanted to live in an apartment building, but she was against this idea and wanted a house. We were aware that if we didn't take it, someone else would quite quickly so a decision was made to sign the contract.
The previous occupants were a group of youngsters who were nightclub singers. They had obviously never cleaned the house and it wasn't even fit for farm animals. Amusingly, the owner had brought along a small brush, which she waved around the house, but what it actually needed was some industrial strength cleaning. Before we moved in I spent several days with brooms, buckets and vast quantities of detergent to remove the grime.
The previous occupants had refused to spend a single Baht on the house and the owner didn't want to spend anything either. I managed to get the owner to replace a few lightbulbs and toilet squirters (which had simply been tied off because they were leaking), but I knew that I would have to pay for anything else out of my own pocket.
This wasn't a big problem. The rent was only Bt4,500 per month and I had budgeted a lot more. I was prepared to spend some of the money I was saving on rent on making the house fit for human habitation.
After getting it clean I got some painters in to give it the interior a new coat of paint. This cost me Bt17,000 but it made a big difference.
There were hardly any power outlets in the house and instead of doing it Thai style and having extension leads everywhere I got an electrician in to add more outlets.
The house was swarming (no exaggeration) with mosquitoes and although Thais might be happy to live like this I wasn't. I had mosquito screens installed to keep the house moqquito-free. At the same time I had burglar bars installed.
There is a lot of theft in Thailand and living in the only house in the Soi without burglar bars made us the softest target. I didn't want burglars visiting the house and I wanted to make sure my wife and daughter were safe if I wasn't around.
The kitchen area had a tiny counter and no storage cupboards at all. At first I bought a purpose-built unit, which was very nice, but a couple of months later it was destroyed in the flood and I replaced it with a basic counter and shelves instead of cupboards.
My rented house after lots of cleaning, painting and additions
The same scene two months later
The house had no curtains, but neither did it have many windows. Being a mid-terrace town house there were no windows at the side of the house. This made the house dark and clautrophobic, but it saved money buying curtains.
There was no hot water so I had water heaters installed in the bathrooms. I don't mind cold showers in the hot season, but not the rainy season. The other problem was that when lots of people were taking showers in the morning the mains water pressure was very low and our taps upstairs ran dry.
Resolving this issue required buying a water tank and water pump. After we left the house I had no need for these items so gave them to a neighbour who had helped me quite a lot. I wanted to leave as little as possible for the owner because she had given me so little.
The house had no furniture and even if there had have been furniture it is very unlikely that I would have wanted to use it. I therefore had to buy furniture, but at least we could take this with us when we left.
I regarded all of these modifications and additions as being necessary and had to pay for them myself. The owner paid for nothing because from the Thai perspective these things aren't necessary.
Upon renting the house I had to pay a month's deposit and when we notified the owner that we were leaving it soon became apparently that she had absolutely no intention of returning that money.
Not only had we NOT damaged the house, I had spent a lot of money improving it beyond recognition.
I was advised not to leave my car parked on the street in that area and so the car lived in the front room downstairs. Thai town houses normally have full width shutters at the front of the house instead of a front door.
After the big flood we were very wary of using the other room downstairs for fear of another flood and so the downstairs area wasn't. There were two rooms upstairs and one room was used to store things.
This left one room where we did everything - slept, worked, watched TV. The house was quite big, but because of various reasons we ended up being in one small room most of the time.
I never felt happy in that house and rejoiced on the day we left.
Now on to my experience of buying a house.
As with all things in Thailand, the main driver is money. The first thing Thais think about is how they can get more money out of something and everything else is secondary.
The developer employed part-time sales staff and they changed around every six months. All they wanted was for customers to sign on the dotted line so that they could collect their commission. They would promise everything and lie trough their teeth, knowing that by the time their lies were revealed they would be working somewhere else.
I visited the house often as it was being built and one day there was a terrible smell in the air. I spoke to one of the sales staff and she told me that she had never smelt it before, of course. Later on I found out that there is a garbage processing plant nearby and if the wind is blowing in the wrong direction it really smells. She knew this but didn't want to tell me anything that might make me change my mind. Her worst fear was losing her commission.
The basic design of the house was fine, but I wanted some modifications. The first problem was that I had to keep telling new staff what I wanted because the old staff left and didn't pass on the information. The staff turnover rate was very high.
Furthermore, they charged me for every modification even if it didn't cost them anything. For example, if I wanted a window moved slightly, which wouldn't cost any more in labour or materials, I was charged. The developer also charged high rates for modifications compared to external builders.
While the developer was building the house I arranged with various external contractors to install a fitted kitchen, air conditioning, mosquito screens, curtains, guttering, electric gate opener, and a wired LAN, etc.
I wanted a lot of this stuff done while the house was being built and not afterwards so that pipes and wires could be concealed inside the walls. It would have been great had the developer coordinated this for me, but I had to do it myself. When I originally told them I wanted a wired LAN installed they simply didn't understand what I wanted.
The fitted kitchen counters were a standard height, but the windows in the kitchen were too low and were below the height of the counters. I argued with the developer about this and reluctantly they agreed to change it, but I had to pay. In Thailand the customer pays for everything.
Kitchen area before fitted kitchen was installed
The dreaded parquet flooring being installed upstairs
After the house was finished there weren't too many problems and within the first year they were fairly good at fixing problems. However, after a year they weren't really interested. There are no 10 year warranties on new houses in Thailand. A year seems to be about the limit.
Most problems have been fixed, but the one remaining issue we have is with the parquet flooring upstairs. When the house was being built they used various sub-contractors to do different jobs and there was a big problem with the parquet flooring sub-contractors.
For many months the house didn't make any progress and whenever I asked they told me it was because the parquet flooring hadn't been finished. Eventually, I think they just did it in a hurry and they didn't do a good job. It creaks in several places where it isn't stuck to the floor and in some places it was too close to the walls. The wood has expanded in places and if it has no gap to expand in, it bows.
Eventually, it will all need to be replaced (a huge job) or there will have to be a big repair job. Based on my experience, it would be my recommendation not to install parquet flooring Thailand. If you really want it done, make sure you hire installation contractors who really do a good job.
Whatever you are having done in Thailand, here are always a few common problems. The first is that Thais are always more interested in money than making sure that their customers are satisfied. The second is that workers always want to take the path of least resistance. With any job, they always want to do it in a way that entails the least amount of effort.
When I called in the air-conditioning people I wanted two small A/C units at each end of the large room downstairs. They wanted to put in one large unit at one end of the room because to do this was easier for them. Instead of simply acceding to the paying customer's request, they will argue and try to convince you that their way is best.
Despite all the problems I am quite happy with the house and having good neighbours makes all the difference. Now, if only I could figure out a way of moving the entire house to Chiang Rai province where I originally wanted to live ...
Sunday 21st June 2015
Unless you choose to live on the top of a mountain or in a cave, it is likely that if you live in Thailand you will have neighbours.
If you live in an area where there are lots of other foreigners you may have foreign neighbours. I've had foreign neighbours in Thailand a few times and the experience wasn't good. I've had far more Thai neighbours over the years and the experience has been quite varied.
As with all things in Thailand, there is very good and very bad. Thailand is full of contrasts and contradictions.
When I first moved to Thailand I stayed in a hotel. Most of my neighbours at the hotel were single Chinese-Malaysian males and at nighttime there were lots of comings and goings, especially comings.
I moved to my first apartment building and had Thai and farang neighbours either side. The Thais were extremely inconsiderate and made a lot of noise at all times of the day and night. The farang guy was a sexpat with no interest in anything Thai, apart from the prostitutes.
There was always a pile of pizza boxes left outside his room and a stream of paid-for women going in and out. His room, as you might expect, also generated a lot of noise, albeit the noises were slightly different.
I moved out of that place and into a bigger, better place. It was fine at first, but the owner was obsessed with money and (despite the wording in his contract, which stated a limit of two people to each room) he would fill the rooms with school kids during the school holidays.
It was near to a tutoring area and during the holidays lots of kids would come from other provinces to study. They didn't have much money, but if 20 slept in the same room it didn't cost much. The landlord liked the money and didn't care that it contradicted the terms of his contract or that his other tenants had to live with all the noise. He got greedier and greedier and eventually I left.
The third apartment building was great at first. My neighbour was a dentist who was studying for a Master's degree and she was so quiet that I never heard her.
Unfortunately, her room was broken into one night and the scum bag who entered beat her severely, robbed her and attempted to rape her. The police actually managed to catch him using CCTV footage and I hope that he is still spending time in a Thai prison.
Lowlife piece of scum
She moved and then I had a series of nightmares. A half Thai/half French girl moved in. She was employed as a Coyote dancer and finished work at 2am. When she got home at around 3am she would watch TV and play music very loudly. Sometimes she would arrive home with another woman and they would argue and fight with each other.
Thais never like to interfere because they are scared of reprisals and despite my protestations the management wouldn't take any action. I can understand this because Thais are extremely vindictive, but it means that if you have such a problem no one will help you and it is dangerous to try to fix the problem yourself. This was a very unhappy period for me. Eventually, to my relief, she left.
The guy after her was a gay farang. Most gay men I have met in Thailand have been really kind and considerate, but he wasn't. He was a thug with the menacing demeanour of a gangster. He also left eventually.
My next neighbour, on one occasion, decided to fly a remote controlled toy helicopter around inside the apartment building. I couldn't work out what the noise was at first and when I asked him to stop he became very angry.
When my wife (then my girlfriend) became pregnant we started looking for a rented house because we needed more space. Rented rooms in Thailand are fine for one person, but start to get uncomfortable with two people and they aren't suitable for young families.
Finding a rented house was very difficult, but eventually I found one. Unfortunately, it was in a very poor area full of urban peasants.
Some of our neighbours were lovely people - poor, but honest, decent and very kind. Others not so. There was a huge amount of street racing involving motorbikes and pickup trucks.
The central street had lots of food vendors with lots of old people and children milling around, however, this didn't stop the teenage motorcycle brats from using it as a race track.
Further along our Soi lived a particularly nasty individual who owned an aggressive looking black pickup truck. As soon as he entered the Soi he would floor the accelerator to go as fast and make as much noise as possible. He knew that other people didn't like it, but he liked to be defiant as well as obnoxious.
Thai town houses have no gardens and the only area for kids to play was a few feet of space between the front of the house and the dangerous road. Women with children liked to congregate in the evenings to chat and let the kids play, but I could never relax with the street racers being so close.
Obviously, some of the Thais in that area didn't feel the same way as I did regarding child safety. Occasionally, when I was driving home I rounded a corner and had to stop because there were one year-old children sitting playing in the road unattended. It was unbelievable.
Two things dominated in that neighbourhood - garbage and livestock. Many people made a living from collecting and recycling garbage and there were big piles of garbage everywhere. Also, people just used to dump their garbage on pieces of unused ground instead of using garbage bins.
Many people kept chickens and there were chickens on the streets everywhere. One guy even accused my cats - who never went out of the house while we lived there - of killing chickens.
One guy kept a huge pot-bellied pig (which was drowned in the big flood) and I saw deliveries of pigs going to another house. There was also a small Muslim community, which kept goats.
Our rented town house
Chickens and garbage everywhere
A neighbour's pig
Pigs being delivered to another neighbour's house
My original plan was to rent that house for about five years. We moved in and I spent a lot of my own money making it habitable, only to see all my work destroyed by a huge flood a few months later.
It didn't take me long to realise how obnoxious a lot of the neighbours were and shortly after moving in I couldn't wait to leave. I found a new housing development that was being built and put a deposit down on a house. This takes me on to my current house.
Living in a house or apartment that shares walls with another house or apartment can be a nightmare in Thailand. I wanted a detached house to avoid this particular nightmare. It is extremely quiet and peaceful where we now live.
There is still construction taking place on a new phase of the development and there is still a workers' camp about half a kilometre away. The only noise I hear comes from the camp, not the neighbours.
Many people living here seem to be like me in that they got fed up with the antics of unsocial and inconsiderate neighbours elsewhere. They just want to be left alone in peace.
Some have increased the height of their walls and gates and it is their desire to shut themselves off from the outside world. These people aren't at all interested in their neighbours. We hardly ever see them and we talk to them even less.
The socioeconomic class of people here is completely different to the people living where my rented house was. For many people, the houses here are second homes or have only been bought to sell later in order to make a profit. A few houses have never been lived in at all, and many only get used occasionally.
Forget this nonsense about all Thais being poor. It's a rich country with a lot of genuinely poor people, but there are plenty of wealthy Thais around. In my current neighbourhood I am probably the poorest person here.
There are about 70 homes, but we only speak to people in a handful of houses. One guy is retired and his wife runs a small minimart. He loves his pets and his garden. His neighbour is also a retired guy, but he retired very young. His wife does quite well in a multi-level marketing operation. A year or two ago he surprised everyone and ordained as a monk for four months. Both these people (and their wives and families) are very pleasant. They feed my cats when we are away and they are thoroughly good, thoroughly decent, thoroughly moral people.
Another set of neighbours have a daughter the same age as our son and run a business from home. He is Muslim and she converted. They are also nice people and we went with them to Malaysia last year for a short break.
The neighbours we are friendliest with are also Muslim, but in this case the husband converted. He is quite a high ranking soldier in the Royal Thai Army and a very morally good person. He spends most of his time in Bangkok, but gets home a few times each month.
His wife has her fingers in lots of business and education pies. She's always busy and doesn't spend a lot of time at home. They love kids, but their lifestyles aren't compatible with having kids. When they are at home they will often take care of our children. They enjoy it and it's great for us because we get a break.
There is one neighbour that I can't really talk about. He reportedly has kids all over the place from five or so different women and leads a lifestyle that requires orders of magnitude more money than he earns officially.
Thais love to gossip and there is lots of speculation about the sources and legality of his income. He is a very strange guy and the longer I have known him and the more I hear about him, the warier of him I become. I say hello to be social, but try to keep him at an arm's length.
While living in the rented townhouse there was more of a community atmosphere and a few very nice people, but a lot of bad ones. It was also a dangerous place to bring up children.
The current house is very quiet, very peaceful and a great place to bring up kids. We have an enclosed garden where they can play and there is no through traffic so even playing outside (with due supervision, of course) is safe. The cats also like it because they can go outside without fear of being mashed by a pickup truck or accused of chicken rustling. The 'community' thing doesn't really bother me, but my wife is different. She likes socialising with neighbours, but often there are none to socialise with.
I love it here, but for my wife it would be better if there were a few more like-minded people. I would be quite happy living on a mountain top without any neighbours at all. The new phase of the development has around 150 houses, therefore, there may be some more people for her to talk to soon.
Also, at the front of the development they are currently building a small complex that will have a cafe, restaurant, minimart and maybe a swimming pool. Once that it is finished it may serve as a focal point where people can get together and socialise.
The bottom line is that, as with everything else in Thailand, it is impossible to generalise. My experience with neighbours has ranged from being very pleasant and advantageous to disastrous and very unpleasant.
In apartment buildings it is a gamble. It is a generalisation, I know, but Thais who are better off financially and better educated are normally better-mannered and more considerate. You will increase your chances of getting considerate neighbours by staying at a more expensive place.
The same applies with renting a house. I hated my time living in a poor neighbourhood, but it has been a huge improvement living in the same area as Thais who have money and are a bit more civilised. I'm not a snob and I don't come from a wealthy background myself, but I expect some consideration from those living around me and that didn't happen when I lived among lots of poor Thais.
The only animals in evidence where I live now are cats and dogs. I have yet to see a pig or a chicken and although a few neighbours drive a little faster than they should do, there is definitely no street racing or out-of-control teenagers.
It's really pleasant. The only problem is that I can't stay here all the time. I have to live my life and that means having to go outside where I then encounter the type of people that I moved to this house to get away from.
No matter where you live, nothing is ever perfect.
Saturday 20th June 2015
So, you are fed up with life at home, you had a fantastic vacation in Thailand, and now you are thinking about going there to live. How much money is required to live in Thailand?
It's a question that I get asked occasionally and also people find their way to my website after searching for this answer. It's a difficult question to answer because we are all so different. Most of my income is used to pay direct or indirect expenses for my children.
I talked about motoring expenses a few days ago and I only have a car because of my children. I don't want them riding around on the back of motorbikes, Thai-style, and I wanted to bring them up in a safe, comfortable environment, which entailed moving out of town to an area where it is necessary to have a car.
In fact I have to pay for two cars. A second car is necessary if the first one has a problem and it also gives my wife some independence. Cars aren't cheap to run and if I didn't have kids I wouldn't have cars. If you don't have children I would strongly advise against having a car. Just rent one when you need to and save lots of money.
With medical expenses I have IPD insurance for me, my wife and children. It costs around Bt11,000 for me and around Bt7,000 each for my wife and kids. I dropped the OPD insurance so have to pay myself when one of us gets sick.
I have been suffering from asthma for the last couple of years and the medicine is quite expensive - Bt2,000 per month. OPD visits to a hospital or clinic for all of us, my asthma medicine, and over-the-counter medicine when someone gets sick probably costs me around Bt40,000 per year.
In addition we make two visits to Bangkok each year so that my daughter can see a specialist doctor for a problem that she was born with. With flights, hotels and expenses these trips work out between Bt10,000 and Bt15,000 each. The yearly total, therefore, is probably close to Bt100,000. Again, having a family makes it expensive.
If it is just you, insurance isn't too expensive or you can gamble without any insurance and hope that nothing happens to you that will incur a big hospital bill.
I really do see it as a gamble. There are lots of road accidents in Thailand and the climate is perfect for many diseases to thrive in. My asthma doctor told me recently that around half the population in Thailand have tuberculosis.
It is latent in most cases, but it can cause problems if the body is attacked by another disease which then weakens the immune system. He told me that if you stay in Thailand long enough you will get tuberculosis.
I had to pay my daughter's school fees this month and these are around Bt13,500 each term. There are two terms in the Thai school year. This charge includes lunch and snacks.
The school is always trying to raise funds and it seems like each month I am asked to donate money or buy a T-shirt for something or other. I have just had to buy two T-shirts for my daughter's upcoming sports day.
I could always send my daughter to a government school, but this would be the equivalent of taking her everywhere on a motorbike. It would save money, but it isn't very desirable.
Before she was at kindergarten we put her in a nursery for a while and the cost was Bt3,500 per month. My son hasn't started school yet, therefore when he does this cost will double.
Can you see what I mean about children? I see comments on-line from farangs teaching English who say they live well on their Bt30,000 salaries, but they obviously don't have kids.
Our monthly electricity bill varies a lot depending on air-conditioner usage. In the hot season it might be Bt3,500 a month, but in the rainy season it is half that. I changed all my light bulbs to LED versions last year (at a cost of around Bt20,000) and that has lowered the electricity bill. When I lived in an apartment my bill was never more than Bt1,000 and usually considerably less.
Water is cheap and even though I water the garden a lot it is never much more than Bt400. In my apartment it was a flat rate of Bt100 and I never exceeded the limit. The actual amount of water I used cost less than Bt100.
Cooking gas is cheap and the tanks last for ages. The one we are using now was replaced in February at a cost of Bt420. We use around two tanks each year.
Food is one of those items that can be cheap or expensive. The cost of living has risen a lot in recent years, but there are still places that sell Bt30 plates of rice or bowls of noodles. But can you eat this food all the time? I can't.
The longer I live in Thailand, the more I miss food from home and imported food is very expensive in Thailand.
For example, I love a little Branston pickle in a sandwich. In Thailand a 310g jar costs Bt199. In Sainsburys in the UK a larger 360g jar costs £1.30 (around Bt69 at current exchange rates). More product for just over one-third of the price in Thailand. (Bt64.19 per 100g versus Bt19.17 per 100g.) TOPS quite often stocks little treats from the UK, but all of these little treats are very expensive.
In Thailand there are no local rates or council tax to pay. In some developments, such as the one I live in, there may be a monthly service charge for security guards, street lighting and maintenance of communal areas.
To conclude, we all have very different needs and it is impossible for another person to work out how much money another person will need to live in Thailand.
Here is my suggestion. Be extremely honest with yourself (you can deceive other people, but you can't deceive yourself) and work out exactly what you will need. Research prices for those things - by all means send me an e-mail - to get an idea of how much your monthly spending will be.
Once you have finished, double the figure and you will be pretty close. It is still possible to live cheaply in Thailand - many Thais do, and not out of choice. However, to live the life that most farangs will want in Thailand it costs a lot more than you might imagine.
And after considering monthly outgoings, don't forget your visa costs. Unless you are employed and have an employer who is happy to pay for all your visa costs, you will have to do.
The visa itself doesn't cost much, but for certain types of visa there are financial requirements that must be met. After my family have taken care of virtually all of my income each month I then have to prove to Thai immigration that I have Bt800,000 in a Thai bank account or that I have a regular income exceeding Bt65,000 per month.
Friday 19th June 2015
It's difficult to maintain any sense of optimism at the moment. I have just been pointed to some economic indices that provide accurate bellwethers to the real state of the global economy and it isn't good. At all.
After the Global Financial Crisis struck in 2007/2008 there was talk about a recovery. However, several years later it became apparent that the economy would never return to how it was before. The depressing news is that it is most likely going to get a lot more serious.
That isn't the only problem the world faces.
I mentioned a few days ago that I have new grass and to keep it green and prevent it dying I have been watering it copiously. While this has been taking place, I've been having an e-mail conversation with a friend in California about the mandatory state-wide water restrictions that have been introduced recently.
California is in the fourth year of a severe drought and unless extreme measures are taken the state will run out of water.
The reservoirs in his area are at 85% capacity, but the new laws apply throughout the whole state. He hasn't been able to wash his car for some time and he tells me that people are filling in their swimming pools and replacing their green lawns with drought-resistant desert flora. Golf courses and farms are not being spared.
California has the problem now, but other areas will follow.
UN warns world could have 40 percent water shortfall by 2030
A farmer who I saw interviewed on TV said that the state has been very good at encouraging people to move to California from other areas, but the infrastructure hasn't been upgraded in a commensurate manner, and also the planet's resources are finite. The problem is too many people.
The chart on the following link shows that California has experienced very dry periods before. However, there is another chart among the comments at the bottom of the page that shows the population growth in California. The problem with this current dry period is that there are now so many people in the state.
Worst drought in California history? Not really ...
With a tropical climate, Thailand also suffers from droughts, but at other times there is too much rain and this causes flooding. The problem is not so much restricting, but managing, water usage throughout the year. It's not an easy task.
When there is ample rain how much water do you release and how much do you keep for the dry season? Keeping too much could lead to broken dams and flooding, but droughts could occur if you don't have enough.
Bangkok's tap water becoming salty
Water management in Thailand is done by controlling the amount of water in huge dams. The big floods in my part of Thailand have been caused by the dams becoming too full and huge amounts of water being released.
Bangkok's drinking water is becoming salty because the amount of water being released from the dams into the Chao Phraya river has been decreased and this allows sea water to advance inland.
This article also states that drinking water is being rationed in certain districts.
I have lived in southern Thailand for almost 12 years and have never been made aware of any water restrictions. There was no rain here this year between the beginning of January and the middle of April, but no one warned about any water shortages and everyone carried on as normal.
In England I never experienced dry taps, but there was a lot of education about water preservation. People knew not to leave the tap running when they brushed their teeth and to take showers instead of baths, etc.
I'm not sure how much education there is in Thailand. My wife's parents used to live in the countryside and on my first visit to their house I was slightly shocked to discover a tap in the bathroom that was left running 24 hours a day. I don't know why.
My wife will often leave our daughter playing in the bathroom with the shower on and the water just going straight down the plug hole. It makes me feel guilty when I find this kind of thing, but obviously it doesn't concern her.
With many aspects of life in Thailand today I am reminded of the UK when I was a child fifty years ago. Since then, many things have changed in the UK and gradually attitudes and behaviour in Thailand will also change.
I have reached the point now where I really don't want to drive in Thailand. Driving in Thailand is all about high speed, aggression, and getting in front of everyone else on the road. It's like being on a race track and if you get upset with someone for driving like an idiot you risk being shot. There are very good reasons why Thailand has one of the highest road fatality rates in the world.
This morning I asked my wife to take our daughter to school. She obliged and I had a relaxed morning looking after our little boy at home. It was very pleasant. Unfortunately, I will have to do the school run this afternoon and next week it will be back to normal again.
There are good things and bad things about living in Thailand, but from my own point of view driving is the worst. Not only is it dangerous, but there is no national will to change anything. Traffic police are conspicuous by their absence and although Prayuth has taken it upon himself to fix a lot of social problems in Thailand, I am not aware of any actions he has taken to make the roads safer.
In fact, it was rather ironic that his proposal for a network of cycle lanes in Thailand was followed by a series of fatal accidents involving cyclists. Why do Thais not care about the never-ending carnage on Thai roads?
Thursday 18th June 2015
While browsing through the hundreds of reports about crime in Pattaya, there were a number of stories about road rage. In Thailand this often results in guns being pulled out and fired. In one case a driver deliberately rammed a motorbike because he was upset with the motorcyclist. It's frightening.
Truck Driver Shoots Van Driver To Death
Teacher and Student Shot After Beeping Horn On Pattaya Road
Man Shot After Honking His Horn To Pay Respect To A shrine In Pattaya
Pattaya Road Rage Norwegian and Thai Wife Shot By "Vigo" Pickup Driver
Police name suspect in pilot's road rage shooting
Three hurt in road rage shooting
Chonburi has the highest crime rate in Thailand because of Pattaya, but this kind of thing happens everywhere in Thailand.
A Swedish guy driving a car in Phuket while carrying a young baby honked at a couple of feral youths riding a motorbike dangerously and, of course, they took exception. They always do.
Fortunately for him they didn't have guns, but instead they pelted his car with rocks.
Police hunt men for stoning Swede's car
I can't recall the last time I had an altercation with a Thai off the road, but I have an incident of some kind or other almost every time I drive.
Thai men want to kill other drivers who upset them (and sometimes they are successful), while the women (many of whom are just as aggressive) normally resort to verbal abuse.
I was waiting at some traffic lights yesterday and there were three lanes. I was in the middle lane because I wanted to go straight on. Just as I took off, three women on a motorbike who were in the left lane cut in front of me to turn right.
I almost hit them and gave a little toot on my horn. As I did so, all three of them span around and let forth a volley of verbal abuse. This kind of behaviour is absolutely typical. They do wrong, but if anyone says anything to them their immediate response is to reply with physical or verbal aggression.
When I first started being aware of this I couldn't work out whether the behaviour of Thais changes when they drive, or whether they showed their true colours while driving and simply presented a polite image the rest of the time.
Costs in Thailand keep rising all the time and salaries remain very low. As I explained yesterday, financial pressures and the added stress of having lots of debt sometimes has devastating consequences.
Thais are very materialistic and very status conscious. Many people around the world have financial worries, but this status sickness that many Thais suffer from creates additional stress.
In extreme cases some people may decide to end it all, but most don't. However, this doesn't mean that they aren't stressed. They are stressed and a big problem in Thailand is that because of Thai cultural behaviour there are no safety valves to relieve the pressure.
Thais are not supposed to get angry and they are not supposed to reveal their inner feelings to the world. No matter how bad they feel inside they are expected to present a pleasant, happy image to the outside world. This is the Thai way.
If you want to know how they deal with all their pent up anger and frustration, just drive in Thailand for a while and you will see.
The vast majority of cars in Thailand have tinted windows so dark that the occupants of the car cannot be seen from the outside. This gives Thais a feeling of anonymity and because they can't be seen they no longer have to conform to Thai cultural behaviour norms.
All the anger and aggression that they have been bottling up inside can be discharged on the roads.
In addition, the rapid population growth in Thailand certainly hasn't helped. In just my lifetime, the population of Thailand has risen from 27 million to 67 million. That is huge.
Further, as agricultural techniques have become more efficient and the industrial and tourism sectors have grown in Thailand, lots of people have move from the countryside to specific urban and tourist areas.
Even if I only go a few kilometres out into the countryside it is noticeable how few people there are, but the town near to where I live has become terribly congested and over-populated in recent years.
The increase in construction has interfered with natural flood plains and caused more flooding problems and it is detrimental to mental health to have so many people living so closely together. Driving on permanently congested roads is no fun and with so many vehicles on the roads there is more pollution.
I don't know why Thailand doesn't create some new cities in the countryside with good transport and communication links to alleviate the problems of its overcrowded urban areas. Bangkok is a nightmare, but many of Thailand's second cities are just as congested on a smaller scale.
At this rate the situation will only get worse, not better.
Wednesday 17th June 2015
I was reading something recently about the Thai economy and the ongoing policy of maintaining a strong Baht. In the article, a Thai politician gave reasons for keeping the Baht strong and one of his justifications was that the unemployment rate in Thailand remains low. This confused me a little.
How do Thais know what the unemployment rate is? Without any unemployment benefit where do they get the statistics from? Do they simply assume that the unemployment rate is low because no one in Thailand can afford not to work? Answers on a postcard.
My wife was watching the Thai language news last night and told me that a man in Nakhon Sri Thammarat had killed his three children and then killed himself. She told me that there have been several stories like this in Thailand recently.
I just scanned the English language Thai news and couldn't see this story. I may have missed it, but also a lot of news in Thailand isn't reported by the English language press.
The reason he did what he did was because of financial worries and a large amount of personal debt. Thailand gives old people a very small pension and subsidises the healthcare system, but it isn't a welfare state.
Countries with generous welfare systems tend to rack up a lot of national debt, but Thailand doesn't have this liability. Instead, there is an enormous amount of household debt - over Bt10.4 trillion.
Thais seem to think nothing of taking on (comparatively) huge amounts of personal debt, even though most have a very small income, and even though being in debt can cause a lot of stress. It's a combination of the Thai obsession with material possessions and their inability to be able to think very far ahead. Just live for the moment and think about the problem of paying the first installment when it comes. Loan companies such as Aeon do huge business in Thailand.
I was chatting to a neighbour last week. Her and her husband have one daughter and they run their own graphic design business from home. They seem to do quite well. She told me that they spend about Bt30,000 each month on bills and groceries, but their car and house repayments are Bt100,000. This is a lot of money for the average Thai.
When my car started to play up last year and needed frequent repairs, my wife's response was just to go out and buy a new one. Yeah, sure. It doesn't bother her that currently I don't have the money available; her attitude is just to buy a car on finance. She's Thai.
I have never felt happy about being in debt. If one of my income streams suddenly gets turned off, which could easily happen, we can survive if there is no debt. However, that wouldn't be the case if there are loans to service. I apologise to my wife, however, I like to be able to sleep at night. And besides, I'm not Thai and my value system is different. My old car suits me fine and I don't want, or need, a new car.
Thais care about what car they drive, the image they project, and what other people think about them. These things mean nothing to me.
An article I read about Thai household debt quoted a Thai man in Bangkok. He had lots of credit cards and was heavily in debt, but he planned to get more cards and build up more debt. His response to this was notable.
He was quoted as saying that you only live once and that life should be enjoyed. Assuming he was one of the 95% of Thais who claim to follow the teachings of the Buddha, this was a very strange response.
This attitude that the way to enjoy life is by being as materialistic as possible goes completely against Buddhist teachings and also the King's philosophy of Sufficiency Economy, which all Thais are supposed to follow.
And you only live once? As a supposed Buddhist this is another very strange statement.
Debt is a way of life in Thailand. Motorbike showrooms don't display cash prices. They put up big signs telling Thais how little down payment is required to take a new bike out of the showroom. The assumption is that everyone will buy using finance and that no one will pay cash.
Thai customers like this because they can obtain new things for a small down payment. Sellers also like it because on top of their normal profit they also profit from financing deals.
Everyone is happy. That is until the person with the shiny new motorbike runs into some financial difficulties and can't repay his loans. That causes stress and sometimes it can have devastating consequences.
Those Thais who have poor credit ratings and can't get credit from banks or finance companies sometimes go to underground loan sharks who lend money at exorbitant interest rates. If the money isn't repaid then things can turn really nasty.
I was browsing through some crime stories in Pattaya last week (always good entertainment provided that you don't actually live in Pattaya) and there was a picture of a car that had been sprayed with bullets because the owner of the car owed money to an illegal gambling operation.
Tourists still arrive in Thailand believing that Thailand is a peaceful country populated by a gentle race of devout Buddhists who closely adhere to Buddhist teachings in order to live happy, contented, satisfied lives.
The reality of Thailand, unfortunately, is very different.
This year commemorates a big anniversary in England.
Rule of law applies to everybody in the Magna Carta
Tuesday 16th June 2015
What are the costs of car and motorbike ownership in Thailand?
All vehicles in Thailand are subject to road tax and they must also be covered by a mandatory government insurance known as Por Ror Bor. As is the case in other countries, the amounts differ according to the type of vehicle.
I have just renewed the Por Ror Bor and road tax for my wife's eco-car, a 1.2 litre Honda Brio. The Por Ror Bor was Bt645 and the annual road tax was Bt1,197.
I had to do the same for my car (a 3.0 litre SUV) a couple of months ago. The Por Ror Bor was the same amount as the Brio, but the road tax was Bt3,384.
The same has to be done for my wife's motorbike next month. It's the kind of 125cc bike that most Thais run around on. Last year the Por Ror Bor was Bt330 and the road tax was just Bt101.
Vehicles over a certain age have to be inspected and a valid test certificate (along with the Por Ror Bor insurance and vehicle registration document) need to be presented in order to get road tax. I am told that the age limit is seven years for cars, which seems to be a very long time. Vehicles in the UK must pass an MOT inspection once they are three years old, which makes a lot more sense.
The inspection cost in Thailand is cheap - just Bt200 for my car and Bt65 for the motorbike. It's not very stringent, unlike the MOT inspection in the UK where faults are often found and need to be rectified.
The Thai test consists of a few very basic checks and putting the car on a rolling road in order to test the braking efficiency.
My car undergoing its annual roadworthiness inspection
Car servicing costs vary quite a lot. Primarily I use official dealerships. They tend to be on the expensive side, but they have first-class facilities, they use all original parts, and they do a good job. Occasionally, there are exceptions.
The Ford dealership has a policy of replacing complete assemblies rather than repairing them. I spent quite a lot on car repairs last year and when my fuel pump died at the end of the year I got another bill for Bt20,000. Shortly after that my starter motor started to play up and my wallet began to complain bitterly.
Ford quoted me Bt12,000 to replace it, which I though was a lot. My wife's three brothers all work in the auto business so I asked their advice. I was sent along to a place that repaired car electrical problems and they stripped down and completely refurbished my starter motor.
These places are known as 'Dynamo' in Thailand (they use the English word written in Thai script), even though they repair a lot more than dynamos and even though cars nowadays use alternators rather than dynamos.
They did an excellent job. I had this work done in February and there hasn't been a single problem since. It cost just Bt1,800 - a big saving compared to having it replaced by the Ford main dealer.
My car is getting old and has cost me quite a lot in repair bills. I don't want to keep spending lots of money on it, so in future I will look to see if I can get things repaired cheaper.
Petrol (fuel, gasoline or whatever you call it) started dropping in price last year. My car uses the most expensive Gasohol 95 kind of fuel and at the start of 2014 I was paying over Bt41 per litre. At the start of this year I was paying less than Bt28 and currently it is around Bt29.
The motorbike uses Octane 91 fuel and since the price of petrol dropped it is impossible to spend more than Bt100 when filling the tank. The bike doesn't get used much and a tank of fuel lasts for weeks. This is why I get upset when greedy motorbike taxi drivers demand Bt80 to take me half a kilometre.
The government Por Ror Bor insurance only covers third parties and so it makes sense to also purchase private insurance to cover the damage to your own car in the event of an accident.
This year my wife's insurance for her Brio was Bt10,350 (the third year without a claim) and for my car was Bt10,750 (the fifth year without a claim). As in other countries, a no claims discount is applied if you don't claim.
Tyres aren't that cheap. The tyres on the Brio were replaced in March at a cost of Bt9,000 and replacing the tyres on my car around four years ago cost Bt20,000. Next time (maybe next year) it will be around Bt25,000.
That's about it, but there is no limit. Many Thai menmales seem to think it is essential once they own a car to add a set of mag wheels, a fake set of Brembo brakes, a ridiculous spoiler, and fake exhaust tail pipes sticking out the back of the car.
However, I suspect that most car owners with a mental age of 10 or above will choose to forsake these childish accoutrements.
Flying banana
Stick these on your existing brake calipers for a Thai-style Brembo brake upgrade
Fake brakes
Guess which one is connected to the exhaust manifold and which three are decorative
Monday 15th June 2015
Houses in Thailand are a lot cheaper than the UK, but they come with very little. If I bought a new house in the UK I would expect it to have (at the very least) a fitted kitchen, quite a lot of cupboards, some built-in wardrobes, and a central heating system.
Guttering isn't even included with Thai houses, whereas every UK house will have rain gutters fitted as standard. Getting guttering added cost me another Bt50,000.
My new house in Thailand had no kitchen, no air-conditioning (heating systems aren't required), and very little storage space. The only storage space it had was a cupboard under the stairs, but this got so full that eventually it was impossible to enter.
Thais think that this is perfectly normal because they have nothing to compare it with. After buying a house many Thais get someone in to fit built-in furniture everywhere. I had a couple of built-in wardrobes and cupboards added, but I didn't want it everywhere and it is also expensive. The guy next door paid Bt1.3 million for his built-in furniture and it took about six months to install.
In my UK house I kept quite a lot of stuff in the loft and I had planned to do this in Thailand. However, there are two problems.
Firstly, there are no wooden rafters in the loft space and thus it is difficult to use the space. All that is up there is a flimsy arrangement of aluminium supports and steel wires to support the suspended ceilings.
Secondly, there is a huge population of rats in the country and they have a horrible habit of getting into lofts. On quite a few occasions I have heard rats running just above my head even though there are cats in the house.
When we first came to the house I put a baby buggy in the loft because our daughter no longer needed it. After our son arrived I retrieved the buggy only to find that rats had gnawed their way through the rubber grip on the handle.
The house also has balconies outside every bedroom. Before we moved in I had thoughts of sitting out on one of the balconies drinking coffee in the morning while catching up with the latest news. However, the reality of having children is that there is no longer sufficient time to enjoy any of life's little luxuries.
For some reason known only to the designer, the house, which is quite large, had no designated space for a washing machine. While it was being built I asked the builders to add a water supply and waste pipe to one of the balconies so that we could install the washing machine. This isn't as bad as it sounds because the washing machine can't be seen from outside.
The other balconies don't get used and with so little storage space in the house we had run out of space to store things. I decided that it would be a good idea to brick in one of the balconies and use it as a storage room. I regarded this as a long term plan that might happen in a year or two.
One day a couple of months ago I passed by a house nearby that was being built and there were lots of construction workers just about to go home. I stopped, explained what I wanted, and asked if they were interested. They said they would take a look.
The boss man agreed to do it, we agreed a price (Bt15,000), and they started the next day. On the first day they bricked everything up. On the second day they did the rendering and then waited two days for the cement to dry.
When it was dry one guy came back and did the painting. I was really pleased. It was all done within a week, they did a good job, they made very little mess, it looks great, having some more storage space is extremely useful, and considering how hard they worked I thought the price was very reasonable.
My new storage room
Another long-term job I had in mind was relaying the lawn. In typical fashion when building a new house the workers had simply disposed of all their debris in the garden and just before we moved in someone covered up the mess with some turfs.
Of course, it was impossible for the grass to grow. After it all died lots of weeds appeared and in no time it looked terrible.
I knew that all the debris needed digging out, new soil needed to be added and then new turfs. I started to do the work but in this heat and humidity I found it extremely heavy going.
After making a few enquiries I discovered that one of the security guards on the front gate was keen to earn some more money. Their wages are so low that they are always looking for extra work.
He worked in the evenings after his dayshift had finished and arrived wearing a rubber tapper's lamp on his head. Just like the construction workers, he worked extremely hard for several days digging out the bricks, tiles, concrete, plastic, wood, metal, bottles and cans that had been dumped in my garden.
He asked for only Bt2,000, but my conscience wouldn't allow me to pay him so little so I gave him Bt3,000. After the ground was prepared he ordered the new turfs and laid them for me. I now have some decent looking green grass.
My new lawn
In the space of a couple of months this year I have therefore got jobs done that I wasn't expecting to get done for at least a few more years. This is why I have the time to write here again.
I refer to Thailand as a country of contrasts and contradictions. Some things are very difficult to get done, but other things are incredibly cheap and easy.
The Swiss guy I met recently came over to the house last week and he seemed quite fascinated with my ceiling fans. In really hot weather air-conditioning is required, but when it's not so hot a fan will suffice. I therefore had seven ceiling fans installed.
He also bought a new house and wanted ceiling fans, but was told that it was impossible to install fans in his house. It seems that whoever he asked didn't want to do the job so told him it wasn't possible. He received the same answer when he requested a water tap outside. I got the same answer when I wanted an air-conditioner in the second bedroom of our rented house.
This is why I have made the point several times about the dangers of generalising too much in Thailand. There are many common traits among Thais but, at the same time, you will also experience completely opposite and contradictory behaviour.
I have always been ambivalent about living in Thailand. Sometimes it's a real pleasure, but at other times it can be a bit of a nightmare.
Sunday 14th June 2015
In every survey about education in this region, Singapore always comes top and Thailand always comes at - or very near to - the bottom.
Thailand ranks near bottom in English proficiency: survey
Lao children are better educated than Thai kids
Thai students score poor marks in world survey
Thai students close to bottom of 14-country IT skills ranking
Etc, etc.
Thailand's English language newspapers have also highlighted skills shortages in the country. Thailand churns out hundreds of thousands of graduates every year, but many of those graduates don't have the skills to actually do any useful work.
Thais are aware of these facts, but won't, or are unable to, change anything. The problem in Thailand (and not only with education) is that there is a national arrogance. As far as Thais are concerned, everything is perfect in perfect Thailand and nothing ever needs to change.
If the method of teaching is already perfect, as Thais believe it is, all that can be done is to increase the quantity of education. However, with most school kids already attending tutoring schools at weekends and in the evenings after regular school they can't increase the quantity any more.
As a result of this approach the kids look constantly tired and fed up with school. When I was teaching senior high school kids in Thailand one of the major problems was trying to get through to kids who were obviously tired, bored and unmotivated.
Teaching English in Thailand
With no ideas how to really improve the system, the Thai authorities clutch at straws. Ah, technology must be the answer, we often hear, so the solution is to give every child a tablet. Unfortunately, this won't work either. A large capital investment will only create more corruption and the computers will be used for games and Facebook, while the underlying problems will remain unresolved.
My daughter started the second year of kindergarten this year and it has given me yet another perspective of the Thai education system, but at the other end of the education system compared to when I was teaching older kids.
My poor child is only four and already she comes homes with homework to do every day and doubles doses at weekends. When I pick her up at 3pm about 95% of her classmates remain at school until 5pm for additional tutoring.
My wife, being typically Thai, is a very strong advocate of tutoring whereas I have always been completely against it. In some situations for some older children I can see a need, but not for every single child and certainly not for kindergarten kids. Young kids should be playing, not studying all the time. And if it really is necessary it can only be an admission that the mainstream education system has failed.
Despite my views on the subject, my wife went behind my back and signed her up for tutoring on a Saturday. This is also quite typical. We disagree on a number of things, but her view is that because we live in Thailand she is always right and I am always wrong. What was I just saying about Thai arrogance?
My wife then prepares work for her to do on Sunday. The kid now has studying to do every single day of the week. At her age I hadn't even started school and I didn't get homework until I went to high school. I could understand if Thailand was producing legions of child geniuses, but that definitely isn't the case.
Incidentally, I recently met a Swiss guy at the school who is in a similar position to me. He is married to a Thai woman and has a daughter who is a year younger than my daughter. His views are the same as mine and his wife's views are the same as my wife's. Just like me, he never gets his way either. In Thailand the Thai way is always the right way and the farang way is always the wrong way.
So, what does all this 'studying' consist of?
The short answer is rote learning. My daughter is shown how to write Thai script and English letters, which she then has to reproduce multiple times on a page of her work book. She is assessed purely on her ability to remember and repeat.
At this level of her education I have mixed feelings about how she is being taught. Rote learning certainly has a place in the education process and my primary school education consisted of a lot of rote learning. Even today I can remember my times tables and the ridiculous way in which many English words are spelled because of rote learning.
When I initially taught myself to read Thai there was a lot to be remembered and rote learning was an effective way to remember. I actually used the same methods to teach myself as Thai teachers use to teach four year-olds. It works well for certain subjects.
The Thai education system started in temples and all that was taught was reading and writing Thai. Rote learning was a very effective medium of instruction. However, as the education system has grown to encompass a lot more subjects the teaching skills haven't really changed.
I have reservations about how much my daughter is supposed to remember at her age because I fear that trying to teach young children too intensely will have the opposite effect to that intended. I also think that kids of that age need to play more to develop creative and problem solving skills.
Of much more concern to me is her education as she gets older. The subject matter will change and she will be expected to learn different skills, but the same old teaching methods will remain the same.
When I was teaching Thai high school students I discovered many things. On a positive note, the huge amount of rote learning and repetition that Thai students are required to undertake leads to a quite exceptional handwriting ability.
Many of my old students could write beautifully and occasionally I would teach in a classroom in which the previous Thai teacher had left writing on the board. It seemed a shame to erase it because it was like a work of art.
Handwriting is a skill that is being lost in the West, but in Thailand it is still given a lot of priority. In a rote learning environment it is something that can be easily taught and easily assessed.
Not so positive was that Thai students (and most teachers - even those whose job it was to teach English) could only use one English tense - the present - and had no idea about the English grammar article (to name just two problems). "What did you do at the weekend?" "I go Songkhla." "Where has your friend gone?" "She go toilet."
This was after 15 years of studying English. If the students were asked to give the sentence structure for a certain English tense they could answer easily and correctly. What they couldn't do was actually use the correct tense in normal conversation.
When they were tested in English they could give the right answers, but they couldn't speak English. Accordingly, they would get top grades in English, but their actual ability was abysmal.
My four year-old daughter uses the present perfect tense perfectly naturally because she has learnt English in a natural way from listening to me. She asks me, "Where has Mummy gone?"
This little sentence may seem completely insignificant to an English speaker, but after meeting thousands of Thais who, after studying English for 20 years or more, cannot ask or answer a question in the present perfect tense it is significant to me.
Ironically, if she is tested by her teacher and the English letter she is asked to write isn't as 'beautiful' as her classmate's she will receive a lower score than her classmate despite her real ability in English being far superior. The system is completely screwed.
Her teacher doesn't understand how to use English grammar tenses and therefore cannot assess a student's ability to use tenses correctly. However, she can assess whether a vowel or consonant is written 'beautifully' and therefore that is how she carries out her assessment.
Another problem is the Thai value system, in which image and aesthetics are always given precedence over knowledge. In Thailand image is always more important than substance.
Computer studies is another example. I once asked my Matayom 6 (final high school grade) students what they learned in their ICT class and they gave me a very impressive list of all the different types of technologies. However, some further questioning revealed that spouting out a list of technologies and protocols was all they could do.
They might have been able to name 20 different programming languages, but they couldn't write a basic program in any language. Compare this to Singapore where all schools have 3D printers and students are taught how to program the printers to actually do something real. Substance, not image.
Even the Singapore Prime Minister recently demonstrated his programming ability.
Singapore PM shares code for Sudoku puzzle solver
My other concerns about the Thai education system are to do with the non-academic subjects taught at Thai schools.
Niels Mulder took a deep look at the education system and saw that a lot of what was taught had to do with keeping society in order. At certain levels this is given more prominence than academic subjects.
From Mulder's 'Inside Thai Society':
"Proceeding from the old idea that the order of society follows from the individual conduct of its members, he (ex-Prime Minister Thanin Kraiwichien) wanted to strengthen the moral fibre of the nation. To this end, the subjects of good conduct, ethics and religion were to be given more prominence in (especially) elementary school education, at the expense of the more academic subjects. Accordingly, seventy-five percent of school time in the fifth and sixth grades is now devoted to the socialisation of tractable subjects of the state."
Terms such as mind control and brainwashing are probably a little too strong, but there is certainly a lot of indoctrination within the Thai education system.
The other thing I observe a lot is the inculcation of deference in the students. Thailand is a very deferential country and the quality of being deferential is something to be admired among Thais.
As my daughter walks into school she passes a number of teachers. As she meets each one she is expected to stop, bow her head and perform the Thai wai. I often see a teacher pushing her head further down because her bow hasn't been deferential enough.
Thai parents encourage this behaviour because the more deferential their children are the more they will be accepted into Thai society, but it grates with me.
I don't want my children to be disrespectful to their teachers, but I have always been of the opinion that respect is earned. I refuse to kow-tow to people just because of their age, position or wealth and in Thailand I can often sense that my lack of deference doesn't go down very well. I know what I am expected to do, but I refuse to do it and this upsets some Thais.
I don't really want my kids to do it either, but they are Thais living in Thailand and they are expected to conform to Thai ways. As a foreigner living in Thailand there are many compromises to make and this is just one of them.
I've had a very productive year so far getting jobs done around the house (more about that later) and with my daughter back at school I now get a few hours spare between taking her to school in the morning and picking her up in the afternoon.
Our son is now past the baby stage and although he isn't ready for school yet he is becoming easier to look after. I therefore have some time to do this again.
My original plan had been to do more work on my local visitors' guide to Hat Yai, but that part of my website has gone very quiet. I'm not sure why. Possibly Google has decided to act against me again, or perhaps it's the Malaysian economy and the introduction of a Goods and Services Tax in Malaysia this year? (Most visitors to that part of my site are Malaysian.) More likely, it's a combination of different reasons.
A reader gave me a list of suggested subjects to write about here and there is never a shortage of subjects to write about while living in such an eccentric country.
This website may not last a whole lot longer, especially as it is not currently paying for itself. The Internet has changed beyond recognition in the past few years and many small, personal sites like this have gone the same way as the dinosaurs. Pretty soon, the Internet will only consist of a limited number of massive websites and those players will pull all the strings.
Personally, I think this is quite sad, however, it is fairly democratic and the majority gets what the majority wants.
Every time I go for a cup of coffee downtown I see groups of young Malaysians sitting together, but instead of talking to each other they all stare at their smartphones. They want Facebook, they want apps, they want information right away, and they want that information is as few words as possible.
I'm not sure where the world is going. Up until a few years ago I always kept up with technology, but that hasn't been the case recently. It's not that I don't have the ability to keep up, it's just that I am fast losing interest with what is happening and I don't think that what is happening is particularly healthy.
On Channel News Asia yesterday I watched a report about a food fair in Singapore which had a technology slant. Someone has now made a Wi-Fi connected sensor that you can put in a saucepan of boiling water and it will send a message to your smartphone as soon as your egg is boiled to perfection. This kind of thing just about sums up the reason why I can't be bothered with much of today's technology. We are turning into a race of dumbed down idiots.
Websites need to be funded and the business model with the Internet, in which everything is expected to be free, is a little different to a bricks and mortar business.
For quite a while this site was funded by Google advertising, however, the ads got so bad and consequently attracted so little interest that they became an embarrassment. I took them off.
I figured that anyone visiting this site would probably have an interest in travel, particularly Thailand, and at some stage they would probably need to book a hotel. If people book through Agoda using the links on this site I receive a little commission which then goes towards the cost of running this site.
It doesn't cost them any more; it just means that instead of all the commission going to Agoda, I get a little piece of the pie. And hopefully, by booking through Agoda they should save money.
If I can pay for this site using that method it will stay, otherwise it will go. I have a degree of emotional attachment to the site, but the bottom line is based purely on basic economics.
Sorry to go on about this. I'm not giving you a big sell. I am just explaining even though everyone expects everything on the Internet to be free, hosting websites isn't free and somehow they have to be paid for. If a site doesn't receive any financial support then don't expect it to stay around forever.