Living In Thailand Blog
Monday 14th October 2013
I took a quick look around the web to see what other farangs say about driving in Thailand. There is a lot of stuff, of course, because the driving is so insane.
Someone has made a video about how pedestrian crossings with red lights were installed in Pattaya at great cost - about 4.5 million US dollars. The video shows how Thai drivers completely ignore the red lights as if they aren't there, and how the police don't do anything. It isn't just Pattaya - I see this all the time. Often at four-way junctions Thai drivers will stop at red lights, but then they will shoot off before the lights turn green.
Crazy Thai drivers FAIL at stopping for red lights. Insane video!!!
Thais themselves know how bad the driving is and how dangerous it is for tourists. One blog has noted that a Thai academic proposed printing handbooks to hand out to the 20-odd million tourits who visit Thailand every year to inform them how bad the driving is.
Warn tourists about Thai driving habits, expert says
The blog author can't understand the Thai logic. If there is s snake in the neighbourhood that keeps biting people do you print hundreds of leaflets to give to residents telling them how to recognise dangerous snakes and how to treat snake bites, or do you simply catch the snake and fix the problem at the source?
Why not simply educate Thai drivers and ensure that traffic laws are enforced, which is the source of the problem?
There are two things going on here.
- A major part of the Thai psyche is that people should be allowed to be what they want. Thais don't like being told what to do and what not to do, and they don't like telling people what to do or what not to do. They regard being able to do what they want to do on the roads as a kind of right and will fight tooth and claw to maintain that right.
- Thais always choose the path of least resistance and will select the 'solution' that requires the least effort. The entire country is full of bad drivers who have no interest in following traffic laws and who think they have a right to do what they want. The authorities who are are supposed to enforce traffic laws aren't really interested.
To improve the standard of driving in Thailand would be such a gargantuan task that it is probably impossible. On the other hand, printing a little handbook millions of times and giving a copy to every tourist who enters the country is easy.
"Some foreign news agencies have reported in a way that might make people think roads in Thailand are not safe. The government is concerned that it might hurt the country's image."
If you thought that one way of avoiding Thai drivers was to travel by train, think again.
Drunk drives car on rails, delays trains
And yet another minivan crash involving tourists. Being in Thailand reminds me of the movie Groundhog Day where exactly the same things hapeen every single day. Minivan drivers in Thailand are a nightmare.
Four tourists hurt in Phuket minibus crash
Cars Repeatedly Crash Against Each Other At a Pattaya Accident Site
Another farang performs the Pattaya Death Leap, this time in Bangkok.
Sunday 13th October 2013
Language doesn't only enable us to communicate, it also provides lots of clues about culture. If a concept doesn't exist in a society, it is unlikely that there will be a word in the local language. This isn't always the case, but it applies most of the time.
One exception I can think of is the German 'schadenfreude' where the concept certainly exists among English speakers, but there isn't a single word English translation. As a result, this German word has become a loanword in English.
A few years ago English speakers had no concept of singing along to a pre-recorded music track and therefore there was no word to describe this activity. The Japanese language did have a word and as a result karaoke has also become a common loanword in the English language.
During the colonial era in Southeast Asia the Thais had a great fear of being colonised and they believed that one justification for a colonial power to colonise Thailand was because Thailand wasn't civilised. This was a great concern and steps were taken to appear civilised.
Thais began to change certain things to give the outward appearance of being civilised. For example, they started to wear Western style clothing, started to eat with forks and spoons instead of with their hands, and started to sit on chairs and eat from tables instead of doing everything on the floor.
There was no word in the Thai language to describe the concept of being civilised and thus the English word became a Thai loanword. Thai has many loanwords.
With English loanwords in Thai the basic sound is roughly the same, kind of, but the final consonants- or even entire syllables - are dropped. For example, motorcycle has become moto-sai, science has become sai, battery has become bat, etc.
I was a little surprised at the Thai spelling of this particular loanword. Thai has four 's' consonants and there is a consonant cluster (tr) that also makes an 's' sound. Three of the 's' sound consonants are high class consonants and therefore can be used interchangeably in theory. The reality is that two are seldom used.
Sor seua is the 's' consonant used for most Thai words starting with 's'. With loanwords that start with an 's' sound the consonant sor soh is usually used. However, siwilai uses sor saalaa, which is quite unusual.
There is no 'v' sound in Thai and the closest equivalent is 'w'. The last part of the word gets dropped, of course, and so 'civilised' becomes 'siwilai'.
Until I moved to this house I had no idea what a big thing it is in Thailand for owners of detached houses to fill their houses with built-in furniture. They don't do if they live in townhouses, but with detached houses (baan diaew) it seems to be a standard thing.
Obviously, the built-in furniture is useful, but having lots of built-in furniture also seems to be some kind of a status symbol. Some owners have it installed everywhere. I think it is a bit over-the-top and it also makes houses look a lot smaller inside.
In my house there were a couple of awkward alcoves that cried out for built-in cupboards, but that was it. I only have a little built-in furniture, therefore my status is quite low.
The guy next door still hasn't moved in. He has other houses, owns a hotel on Koh Lanta, and isn't in a hurry. He is currently having built-in furniture fitted and it will take three months to do. They are about halfway through.
Two houses on the other side of the street are also having the same thing done. The installers bring the raw wood and do everything on site. From dawn to dusk all I can hear is the sound of circular saws and the air compressors that drive their nail guns.
It's just one of those things and it will be finished soon. I'd prefer not to have the noise and dust, but it will be over soon. However, that isn't the view that some Thais take.
There has been yet another fatal shooting, this time in Phuket, because someone objected to the noise and dust from an electric sander being used in the house next door.
Man slain in Phuket kindergarten shooting
If you have lived in Thailand long enough, this type of story crops up with alarming regularity. Someone gets upset about a small matter and the next minute another person is dead from a gunshot wound. This type of thing happens so often that the national press don't even bother reporting it. The story here was reported locally by the Phuket Gazette.
Some years ago, near to where I live, a rubber tapper gunned down seven people for singing karaoke one night.
Apparently, the rubber tapper wasn't a big fan of John Denver.
John Denver karaoke sparks Thai killing spree
After my little incident with an obnoxious motorcyclist on Friday I received another death threat as the guy drew his finger across his throat. I've also had a van driver turn his hand into the shape of a gun and pretend to shoot me. Shootings in road rage incidents are certainly not rare in Thailand.
Their first instinct is to kill and when the red mist descends they will kill if they have access to a weapon, which many Thais do. The longer I live in the country, the more this type of uncivilised behaviour concerns me.
Considering that 95% of Thais claim to be Buddhist and the greatest sin in Buddhism is taking another life, there is an awful lot of murder in Thailand.
I now understand fully why Thais are so reluctant to intervene when someone else is being obnoxious. You don't dare say anything for fear of being shot and killed. It's a very real risk in Thailand.
However, to say that Thailand as a whole isn't civilised wouldn't be accurate or fair. There are plenty of Thais who are very civilised, very educated and very kind. What you find are lots of little pockets of civility dotted around the place. Where I live now is very civilised. The university campus where I used to teach was very civilised. If you stay at a good tourist hotel it will be very civilised.
Where I used to live, in an area with lots of urban peasants, wasn't at all civilised and that was one reason why I was desperate to move, the other reason being flooding.
The behaviour on Thailand's roads is the least civilised you will find anywhere in the country and whereas many uncivilised areas can be avoided, travelling by road can't be avoided.
I am now finding myself going beyond not simply wanting to drive in Thailand. I actually find myself reluctant to leave the civilised environment of my housing development.
I have written before how people I used to know who worked and lived on the university campus enjoyed the safe, secure and civilised environment of the campus and were reluctant to go outside. I now feel exactly the same way.
Saturday 12th October 2013
I am planning to write something soon about making changes in our lives and why humans normally resist change at all costs, even if making changes could be beneficial.
Many people may sit at their desks dreaming of giving up work and making a new life somewhere else, but one of the major reasons they won't do anything is because they don't want to lose the regular income from their job. The prospect of losing their job scares them.
This is quite understandable. Money is a necessary evil in life and the fact of the matter is that we need a certain level of income to buy the necessities of life. In addition, there are the other things we need that make life worth living.
Throwing in your job and attempting to start a new life is risky, and most people will decide it is a risk that they don't want to take. The easiest option is simply to carry on with what they know, even if life is boring and unfulfilled.
My income now is a lot less than half of my income when I was working, however, I feel a lot better off. How can this be?
Compared to my old life in the UK, the cost of living in Thailand is a lot cheaper. I don't work and therefore I have no commuting expenses. There is no monthly council tax to pay. Utility bills and car fuel are cheaper. Western food is expensive, but there is also lots of cheap local food. Already, these things start to make a big difference.
On our trip to the zoo on Thursday my wife and I paid Bt70 each to get in. The car was Bt50 and the two kids were free. The zoo operates a dual pricing policy, but I paid the local price. Even had I paid the foreigner price it wouldn't have been expensive. Dusit zoo in Bangkok also has a cheap admission charge.
The Bt190 total at current exchange rates is equivalent to £3.80. When I was a kid my parents took me to London Zoo, and I just looked up the current entrances fees. To pay at the gate it is £23.50 for adults and £17 for children from 3-15.
Had we gone to London Zoo our entrance fees would have been £64 (two adults and one child). That's 16 times more expensive than the local zoo here. The local zoo also had cheap food and cheap snacks. I doubt whether that would be the case in London. If you stay in a hotel in London and have to travel around using public transport it can start to get extremely expensive by the time you have eaten a few meals and visited a few visitor attractions.
Entrance to the Tower of London is £21.45 for adults and £10.75 for children. Madame Tussaud's is £30 for adults and £25.80 for children.
London is an incredible city and simply can't be compared to provincial Thailand, but the costs are crazy. If you plan well, you can save money by booking on-line and taking advantage of promotions but it is still expensive.
The high cost of living in other countries seems to be something that many Thais don't understand. Their eyes light up when they hear how much salary foreigners make, but they don't understand how expensive it is to live.
Conversely, foreigners moving to Thailand can live relatively well on a much smaller income because many things are cheaper. The good thing about Thailand is that you have choice. You can live cheaply, but if you have money you can find whatever you want.
In some lesser developed countries you can live cheaply, but that's all. In more developed countries, such as Singapore, everything is expensive. There is less choice in these places.
Thailand offers a lot of choice. This is a big benefit of living in the country - you can choose the cheapest option or go for the best that is available.
After highlighting some of the negative aspects of Thailand, some people may wonder why I live in the country. To afford the same standard of living in the UK as I have in Thailand I would have to earn a big salary, and that would mean doing a job that was so time consuming that I would have very little time to enjoy life. In Thailand I get the high standard of living without having to work.
Of course, you can have anything but you can't have everything. The big downside to living in Thailand is the Third World behaviour and attitudes that you constantly have to deal with. I would love to enjoy a high standard of living and live in a civilised society, but I can't afford to.
Thus to enjoy the standard of living I have to put up with a lot of things that I would prefer not to.
I recently wrote about some good customer service I had received. The representative at the Ford head office in Bangkok who helped me was excellent. Unfortunately, this seems to be the exception rather than the rule in Thailand.
After having problems with my fishpond pump the staff at HomePro told me that it couldn't be run constantly. There was nothing in the manual about not running it constantly and I have cheap pumps running all the time without problems.
The pump has a thermal cut-out and also a float valve so that it shuts off if the water level gets low. I didn't know where the HomePro staff were getting their information and wasn't sure if they were correct. The manual had a contact number for the manufacturer so I called them to find out. It was a simple question and as the manufacturer of the pump they should be able to tell me yes or no.
I called on 24 September. When the person who took the call realised that it was a farang speaking the response was just to hang up. I called again. This time a person spoke and I asked whether the pump could be run all the time.
She then asked me to send an e-mail with my question and gave me an e-mail address. I accepted this and sent an e-mail immediate. I didn't receive a reply. Last week I sent another e-mail asking why they hadn't replied to my previous e-mail. Again, no reply.
A teacher I worked with had a problem with the Wi-Fi connection in his apartment. The network guy couldn't fix it and instead of seeking some support his 'solution' to the problem was simply not to answer the phone when the annoying farang called.
Since signing some paperwork last month to get some things repaired around my house, which is less than a year old, no one has turned up to do anything and no one has said anything.
I normally find that the companies with a customer service culture in Thailand are foreign companies who open up branches in Thailand, such as Ford. Thaksin also understood this and the local AIS service centre is pretty good if you have a problem with your mobile phone.
Apart from this the concept of customer service is virtually unknown.
I need to be less hypocritical and I need to start following own advice regarding control my anger while driving in Thailand. I have developed a nasty problem that I would never have anticipated a few years ago.
The trip to the zoo on Thursday was really enjoyable apart from two things. Firstly, I couldn't believe how much litter people had discarded on the floor inside the zoo when there were plenty of waste bins just a few yards away.
The second, as usual, was Thai drivers as we made our way to the zoo and back again. Both roads between Hat Yai and Songkhla are full of high speed maniacs and there are lots of accidents.
I'm not a particularly slow driver, but Thais are never content to drive behind at the same speed. They always want to get past. I have no objections if I am driving the speed I want to drive at on a highway and they want to go faster.
What I do have a problem with is when they want to get past but have nowhere to go. If driving in congested traffic or approaching traffic lights they still want to get past. In these types of traffic situation it is no different to queue jumping.
They wouldn't do it in a queue at the post office, but in their big pickup trucks with heavily tinted they do it all the time. Sometimes I can let it go. If I have my wife and daughter in the car I can let most things go.
However, when I am alone I find it very difficult to control my anger. My car is faster than most vehicles on Thai roads and sometimes when they attempt to push in front of me I accelerate to stop them getting in. This sometimes results in confrontations and sometimes these get nasty.
I fully understand all the reasons why this is dangerous in Thailand and always tell other people never to retaliate, but sometimes I can't help myself. There was another incident yesterday when I went out alone, got angry, got into a confrontation, and immediately afterwards I was left wishing that I hadn't done anything.
I've just read through quite a long ThaiVisa forum posting about road rage incidents in Thailand. I'm not a big fan of Thai Visa, but many of the posters there have lots of experience living in Thailand and understand the country well.
They seem to be divided into two camps. Firstly, there is the camp that says you can't change anything, you are nothing as a farang in Thailand, and you have to let these things go. The thread mentioned examples of road rage incidents where farangs had been shot for getting upset. This is what happens in Thailand. I agree.
The second camp says why should farangs always have to back down and accept things in Thailand that are blatantly wrong? I also agree.
When you live in Thailand you start to have certain dilemmas, such as this. What do you do. You can have principles and standards and try to stand up for these principles and standards, but you won't be able to do much if a Thai shoots you in the head.
In Thailand where life is cheap you always have to choose the option that will preserve life. I hate the way that Thais drive, but I have to accept it. I have to.
The next step is how to control it. How would you feel if you lived in a foreign country and every time you stood in line someone jumped the queue? What if you knew that it was potentially dangerous to do anything, so you every time it happened you just had to stand and watch?
I read something today that suggested you imagine the reason someone else is driving like a maniac and trying to get ahead of you is because they are trying to get to a loved one in an emergency situation.
Dealing with Other People's Road Rage & Letting Go of Anger
Someone else once suggested this to me when discussing maniac drivers in Thailand. The problem is that it wouldn't work. I know full well that they aren't driving to an emergency situation, and that they drive this way every time they get behind the wheel of their car.
I was thinking of other ways to try to control my anger. These maniac drivers always have some things in common. Firstly, they are male and secondly they are losers. Apart from the vehicle they are driving they have nothing and they never will have anything.
By comparison I have everything. However, whereas they will never have anything I could lose what I have. In addition to what I have materially I also have my family, which is far more precious and important.
In order to keep them safe while driving like lunatics, Thais fill their cars with animist amulets posing as Buddhist imagery. What I am going to do is print a photo of my wife and daughter to place on my dashboard where they have amulets.
During those times when I am prone to get angry with Thai drivers, such a photo will remind me of the people who are most precious to me and whose lives would be a lot worse without me. Hopefully, that will remove the anger.
As mentioned in the Thai Visa posting, if anger on Thai roads starts to become a habit and you meet the wrong person the consequences can be fatal.
I tried to change after the last incident, but my anger returned. I now need to make sure that it doesn't return again and I really need to start following my own advice.
Russian tourist killed in bus crash - and 38 others injured
"The driver said he lost control of the vehicle while driving down the slope, causing the bus to overturn."
Now where have we heard that before?
Friday 11th October 2013
Even though most things in Thailand are highly predictable, it is always reassuring to see my views and predictions echoed elsewhere. After writing on 12th September 2013 about how the used car market in Thailand has been detached from reality for so long, I just spotted this:
Used car market slumps as a result of first car buyer policy
This report mentions that the Thai Association of Used Cars believes the market will be back to normal by next year. I'm not so sure.
When Western economies starting having major problems in 2008 I felt optimistic that the problems would be fixed fairly quickly and that things would return to normal. That hasn't been the case and with the American government shutdown and debt crisis things are set to get worse before they get better.
Eastern economies remained resistant to the troubles in the West mainly as a result of China. The Chinese demand for coal and other natural resources with which to drive its growth created a lot of wealth in Australia, but that is now cooling down. Thailand has also been quite isolated from the Western world's economic problems.
Nothing is permanent and everything is cyclical. All economies go through good periods and bad ones. Looking from a local perspective, there has been a huge boom in Thailand for quite a few years. The main indicator I use is the housing market.
There is hardly a spare piece of land available in central Hat Yai these days and if land is available it is very expensive. Further, if land is available developers are choosing to build high rise condo units instead of low level housing in order to maximise their profits. Some areas are looking more like Singapore than Thailand.
With so little land available in urban areas, developers are now starting to build houses outside of developed areas where land is available and a lot cheaper to buy. We went to Songkhla zoo yesterday and on the road from Hat Yai to Songkhla noticed lots of new housing developments.
There is no 'big plan' for creating new residential areas and thus where new houses are being built there is no other infrastructure - no shops, no public transport, no schools. People living in these places will have to travel everywhere by car and this will make Thailand's congested roads even more congested.
It also begs the question whether housing supply has exceeded demand. There are plenty of Thais around who have money, but the majority of the population can't afford the type of houses that are being built. Where are all the buyers for these new homes?
I could understand if Thailand was trying to attract foreign buyers. Many Malaysians and Singaporeans would be interested in buying property in southern Thailand, and with Singaporeans in particular it would give them an opportunity to buy a decent sized house, which most can't afford to buy in Singapore. The majority of Singaporeans live in very expensive private or HDB high rise apartments.
However, Thailand continues to be very concerned about foreigners owning land in Thailand and rather than relaxing foreign ownership laws, the country continues to make them tougher. Thailand will sell condos to foreigners, but foreigners can't own land and most condos are only sold on 30 year leases. These leases are renewable, but when the time comes there is no guarantee that the lease will be renewed.
For Thai buyers, there is also the business of developers offering very cheap finance to start with, for a year or two, before reverting to normal repayments and interest rates. I suspect that a lot of Thais were seduced with the idea of being to own their own home at a monthly rate cheaper than renting a room, but this is only temporary.
The used car market has started to crash because lots of motorbike riding Thais were seduced with the idea of being able to afford a car and no quite a few can't keep up with the repayments.
If the housing market runs out of buyers, not only will the developers not be able to sell new houses, but Thais who can't keep up with mortgage repayments won't be able to sell their houses either.
The price of everything keeps going up in Thailand, but wages seem to remain static. Farmers of certain types of produce have been able to get the government to give them subsidies, but most other people don't have the ability to increase their income.
Thais generally seem to have very short memories and they aren't very good at learning from their own or other people's mistakes. The Asian Financial Crisis was only 16 years ago, but looking at what is happening now it is as if it didn't occur.
Thais are followers, not leaders; imitators, not innovators. The example I usually give is the one of local coffee shops. When I arrived to live in Thailand ten years ago, there were three (maybe four) Western style coffee shops and bakeries where you could sit down with a latte and slice of chocolate cake.
There then commenced a coffee shop craze. Every new shop that opened was a coffee shop that followed exactly the same formula. People had seen that the original coffee shops were quite successful - and owning a coffee shop is quite desirable - so dozens opened. There was only a limited customer base and with so many to choose from not many do a great deal of business.
They see that something is successful, copy it, and then don't understand why there is no success after the market is saturated.
Pyramid selling is also huge in Thailand, but the people involved like to call it Multi Level Marketing. This is another example of how many people choose to follow because it is a lot easier than leading. Good job opportunities are very scarce in Thailand; opening an independent business is tough and expensive; and pensions are very rare.
Pyramid selling sells a dream to people who have no career opportunities in life. They are told that they are independent business owners, that they will be rich if they work hard, and that they will be able to retire with an income. My previous girlfriend got caught up in this scam and wasted about four years of her life working hard to chase this impossible dream.
The companies arrange meetings frequently and create an evangelistic atmosphere. In fact, it is very much like a religion than a business or, more accurately, a cult. They then wheel in the high-flying member who earns hundreds of thousands of Baht a month, drives a BMW and travels the world. They tell everyone that this can be them in a few years' time and everyone cheers and claps.
The sad truth is that only the people who got in first will ever make any money. The people down the line who follow will only make the upstream members richer. It's a scam, but Thais tend to be quite naive and they get taken in.
With any business it is only the first people that make any money. Amazon is a massive on-line retailer these days, but where are the Amazon clones?
What Thais need to do is to try to think ahead and predict trends before other people do. If they are first to market they stand a chance of success. Blindly following other successful people won't lead to success.
Unfortunately, one of the biggest problems for Thais is thinking ahead. When they are driving they can't even think about what might happen ten seconds ahead, let alone several years ahead.
With used cars in Thailand I predicted years ago what would happen eventually. Unfortunately, due to my personal circumstances I was forced into buying a car when the market was stupid. Now that I have bought two cars (the wife's car as well), when we sell them we will get a lot less. Never mind.
Timing is everything in life, but with marriage and children you can't also choose when to do something. I was forced to get out of the stock market when the market was very low and forced to transfer money when the exchange rate was very low so that I could buy our house.
My fear at one point was that if the markets dropped any lower I wouldn't have enough money and I couldn't afford for that to happen. The markets then went up, but I wasn't to know that. Thailand may be very predictable, but stock markets aren't.
I may well be wrong, but I think the housing market in Thailand will be having some problems soon. Thais are just like other people in that they want their own homes, want a car, and want to send their children to decent schools.
The country has been flooded with new cars, there is a huge surplus of used cars, new homes are being built everywhere, credit is easily available, and lots of misleading advertising has made Thais believe that they can have everything. I have led my life for many years by the saying, "You can have anything, but you can't have everything."
Thailand has a huge amount of household debt, the government is acquiring more debt with its agricultural subsidies, and it also wants to borrow enormous sums of money for infrastructure projects.
The party may not last for much longer.
Thursday 10th October 2013
Thalang traffic police to crack down on convenience store parking violators
There are some good messages coming out of Phuket at the moment, but I can't believe that anything will actually be done.
The parking in Thailand is as bad as the driving.
Thais seems to believe they have a right to park wherever is most convenient for them personally.
Most of the time this means parking directly outside a shop, foodstall or ATM, and often it means double parking. They don't care if they completely block one lane of a busy road during rush hour. Inconveniencing other people isn't important to them.
Some of the one-way roads here have five lanes, but they are reduced to having one useable lane because cars are double parked either side.
I often find lanes are blocked because of double parked cars and on a few occasions I have been hemmed in by other cars double parked and can't get out. Another habit they have is parking directly in front of people's driveways so that the occupants of the house can't get their cars in or out.
The photo here is of our old rented townhouse with a pickup truck parked directly outside. I returned home to find that I couldn't put my car away and the driver was nowhere to be seen.
What if there was an emergency and I had to rush my wife or daughter to hospital? The truth is that they simply don't care if other people can get their cars in or out. The only people they think about is themselves.
This used to happen at my old house and it even happened at my new house a few days ago where there are lots of parking spaces. The worker in question wanted to park his pickup truck as close to where he was working as possible. The fact he parked right in front of my driveway didn't bother him.
I went to find him and told him to move his vehicle. He did, only for another worker to park his truck in exactly the same spot half an hour later.
European Tourists Injured After Tour Bus Hits Steel Beam
What is it with farangs jumping off tall buildings in Pattaya, aka the Pattaya Death Leap? This happens regularly. Don't they realise that some unfortunate, low-paid Thai woman will have to clean up the mess afterwards?
Norwegian Man Jumps Off Condo In South Pattaya
Pattaya is the last place in Thailand where I would choose to live personally, but lots of foreigners love it there. One man's meat is another man's poison.
Our happy retirement in a Thai sex haven
A British woman says in the article that she and her husband just felt comfortable in Pattaya. This is a good sign. People should always follow their gut instincts and if somewhere is right for you it will make you feel comfortable.
Some Brits like Blackpool pleasure beach, while others prefer quiet Cornish beaches and hiking in the Lake District. The ones that like Blackpool will probably feel more comfortable in Pattaya than other parts of Thailand. We are all different.
One couple in the article first visited Pattaya in 1982. My first visit to Pattaya was in 1987 and it was a very different place back then compared to now. I really enjoyed that first trip, but hated it when I returned in 1992.
When choosing where to live in Thailand we are all different. Some expats only feel comfortable where there are lots of other expats, while others want to get as far away from their own kind as possible. I enjoy meeting other foreigners in Thailand occasionally, but for the most part I just want a quiet life with my family. Socialising with other foreigners isn't that important to me, and anyway I don't have the time.
One thing I do miss very much about places in Thailand such as Pattaya is the selection of Western food that is easily available. The selection of Western food available to me isn't at all good and certain things are completely impossible to obtain.
There are times when I really crave something simple, just as a good doner or shish kebab, but the nearest place is probably about eight hours away in Phuket. The needs of your stomach may also dictate where you choose to live in Thailand. This is something that shouldn't be underestimated if you plan to live in Thailand for a long time. After a few years of eating all the standard Thai rice and noodle dishes your stomach will start to crave more familiar kinds of food.
Wednesday 9th October 2013
I know that I'm cynical, but sometimes Thai ideas really do work. After setting up a centre in Chiang Mai to teach foreigners how to drive like Thais, a Russian tourist in Phuket has become the first foreigner to successfully pass the course.
In true Thai style she fell asleep at the wheel, lost control of her vehicle, and crashed into a shop. Excellent!
Russian Woman Hurt In Phuket Souvenir Shop Crash
As a Russian she definitely had an advantage over most foreign drivers in Thailand. From the dashcam videos I've seen of Russian drivers, the driving standards in Russia and Thailand look remarkably similar. If only there were more dashcams in Thailand.
Ms Elena Nikholas is now practising for the advanced drive like a Thai test in which many Thai driving skills are tested, such as flipping a minivan full of passengers on to its roof.
Let's hope that more of these driving centres for foreigners open up in Thailand. Where do I sign up?
I've just started re-reading Niels Mulder's 'Thai Images - The Culture of the Public World'. Authors such as Mulder who have such an enormous knowledge of Thailand pack so much into their books that I normally find that one reading isn't enough. Even after I have read books such as this a couple of times I still use them afterwards for reference purposes.
Mulder can be very academic at times, but he can also write very informally when talking about personal experiences. I find this style of writing very appealing.
His introduction to this book is very informal, and actually quite funny in places. When he first came to Thailand in 1965 he was met by a student who he had previously met at university. He says of of this person: "He liked to live dangerously, at least as long as he was behind the wheel of his car."
This simple sentence sums it up perfectly. Most Thais are laid-back, easy-going, never in a hurry, and have all the time in the world ... unless they are driving a vehicle.
On the road, they change immediately. They have to get from A to B as quickly as is humanly possible, they have to get ahead of every other driver on the road, they can't wait for other drivers or traffic lights, and any consideration they might have for other people when they aren't driving disappears completely.
Attempting to understand why their behaviour changes so radically behind the wheel would be an interesting research subject.
If no one in Thailand is bothered about enforcing traffic laws and Thais themselves have no interest in changing their driving habits, why does a mere farang think that he can change anything?
American urges Thais: Wear a helmet
This can only be a cheap publicity stunt because if he understands Thailand he will know that he is simply wasting his time.
Tuesday 8th October 2013
There's a viral e-mail going around with a link to a Thai commercial made by a Thai telecommunications company. It comes from the imagination of whoever wrote it, but even though it isn't real there is a strong message. It only lasts three minutes and it's worth watching. Get your tissues ready.
The storyline is quite similar to the urban legend about the father of Sir Alexander Fleming and Winston Churchill, which was also false. I wouldn't be surprised if the inspiration for this commercial came from this urban legend.
This type of story appeals to human nature because with so much evil in the world it is heartening to believe that good things will happen to people who routinely do good deeds for other people. What goes around comes around, or the equivalent Thai proverb - tum dee dai dee tum chua dai chua.
Despite this blog focusing on the negative side of Thailand, there are a lot of good people in Thailand who aren't greedy and who routinely help others. They don't prey on tourists and therefore won't be very visible to tourists, but they are there in the background.
After my daughter blocked the shower waste pipe yesterday I went off looking for a plumber. My enquiries soon drew a small crowd of locals who stopped what they were doing to help me and made calls from their own mobile phones because my battery had died.
Human nature is strange and with the Internet it is a lot easier to focus on the negative side of life and draw attention to things that go wrong. With any product or service you can find lots of complaints on-line from the 5% of people who have problems, but very little from the 95% of people who don't have any problems.
The Internet can thus offer quite a skewed version of reality. I want people to be aware of the negative aspects of Thailand for their own safety. However, I am aware that I need to keep a balanced perspective even if I have to remind myself of this from time to time.
I received an e-mail from an old friend in the UK who I used to work with. Her stepdaughter has been invited to a wedding in Krabi next year. She has a severe nut allergy and wants me to translate a card that she can carry around to show restaurant staff. My friend suspects that Thais won't be aware of nut allergies or the severe consequences that nuts can cause in some people. She's probably right.
I wanted her to be aware of some of the dangers in Thailand so that her stepdaughter can stay safe. It proved to be quite difficult making someone aware of the dangers in Thailand without overly worrying them. Thailand needn't necessarily be dangerous but lots of foreigners run into problems in the country.
British more likely to need consular assistance in Thailand (than anywhere else in the world)
I have to admit that lots of problems are brought on as a result of stupidity. If you attend a full moon party, get high on alcohol and drugs, and then decide to go swimming in strong currents there is normally only one outcome.
If you decide after a few beers to rent a motorbike and race around Thai roads without a crash helmet, don't blame anyone else if you end up in a serious road accident.
Female tourists face other dangers, but I have been horrified to see farang girls walking around Phuket town as if they are still at the beach. I've seen them wearing bikinis or skimpy T-shirts without bras and it simply sends out a message (the wrong message) to Thai men.
It's one thing looking at the bargirls on Soi Bangla and how they dress, and another looking at normal Thai girls to see how they dress. Normal Thai girls dress in a way to avoid harassment problems with men. I've also read reports of farang girls who go to beaches alone at night, get drunk, and then get raped. Just use some common sense.
I can only think that they are taken in with all the tourist authority 'Land of Smiles' hype and think that Thailand is a safe country. It isn't.
The Pattaya Daily News is always full of stories of foreigners being robbed by Thai women and ladyboys. Foreign men are approached on the street with an offer of sex or massage and then take the Thai person back to their hotel room. Sometimes they are drugged before being robbed. Beware of any drinks they might prepare for you and beware of strange tasting nipples.
Tourists robbed after sex offer
As well as being cautious of Thais, there are a number of bad foreigners living in the well known beach resorts and shifty looking foreigners also need to be given a wide berth.
If you hire a motorbike, don't drink and always wear a helmet. Drive very slowly and be very aware that Thai drivers will do things that you will never see in your home country. Right of way in Thailand is determined by vehicle size and motorbikes have to give way to every other vehicle on the road.
Try to avoid the temptation to hire a jet ski. These things are noisy, dangerous and annoying and there are other problems. After returning their jet skis a number of foreigners have been accused of causing expensive damage that was there already. Of course, they have no proof. These incidents can get quite nasty, not to mention expensive.
If you hire a car check the insurance details very carefully. It is possible that if you are involved in an accident - even if it isn't your fault - you will have to pay for all repairs to the hire car and other cars involved in the accident, all medical bills, and you will also have to pay the hire car company to compensate for loss of business while you are paying for repairs to be done.
In Thailand there is no sense of responsibility, accountability or liability. People will do things that endanger other people's lives and if anything happens they won't be liable.
As you walk along crowded sidewalks you will see vendors with red hot charcoal burners selling food. If you knock one over, or a child pulls one over, it will cause permanent disfigurement and terrible burns. You won't receive any compensation.
In Thailand you always have to watch out for yourself. Thais tend to be shorter than Westerners and you will often find sharp poles sticking out of food vendor carts that are at eye-level height for foreigners. Always be careful of charcoal burners, sharp poles and holes in the sidewalk.
When travelling around the country, you will find lots of minivan services. These things are convenient, but notoriously dangerous. If I have the option of travelling by bus or minivan I always choose the bus. They may be slower and less convenient, but they are safer. I know a farang living here who will only travel around Thailand by plane because statistically this is the safest method of transport.
When crossing roads always be very careful and use pedestrian bridges if they are available. Remember that Thai drivers will never think about stopping at pedestrian crossings.
At major tourist attractions, such as the Grand Palace in Bangkok, you will be accosted by bad Thais before you go in. They will offer you all kinds of things and tell you all kinds of lies. Just ignore them. They are bad news and should be arrested and taken off the streets. In Thailand, however, they are left alone and allowed to prey on foreign tourists.
I rely a lot on gut instincts and my sixth sense. I once travelled to Chumpon Cabana on the coast by sawng-thaew from Chumpon main town. The only other passenger was a strongly built Thai man and he kept looking at me in a strange way.
I felt very uncomfortable. I pressed the bell, got off, and waited for the next sawng-thaew. It wasted probably 30 minutes, but I may possibly have saved myself a problem.
If you are driving don't react to the horrendous driving that you will encounter. Let aggressive Thais go and try to ignore them. If you are out late at night don't start arguing with Thais. An American did this a few months ago in Krabi and was shot and killed.
Thais realise how much money tourism brings in and don't wish to kill the golden goose. Around the tourist resorts there are tourist police and in some tourist resorts there are even volunteer expats who are there to help tourists.
There's also a kind of code of honour among Thais about not damaging other Thais' livelihoods, which could be the case if they commit crimes against tourists. The tourist resorts are generally safe, but if you go off the beaten track you don't have quite the same level of protection.
If visiting Thailand you don't need to overly concern yourself, but you do need to be aware of the dangers and know how to avoid them. The 'Land of Smiles' sobriquet was the greatest piece of marketing for a country's tourist industry ever carried out. It was genius, a masterstroke.
Unfortunately there are some very real dangers in Thailand and not everyone goes around smiling while doing good deeds for other people. As the economy worsens and as inflation drives up the cost of living it is getting worse.
On Thai TV news recently there have been a lot of reports about armed raids on banks and gold shops. My wife tells me that it happens every day. Some Thais are desperate and will kill for very little money. An Australian woman was mugged and killed in Phuket by Thai men who needed to settle up a very small bar bill of just a few hundred Baht. Life is cheap in Thailand.
Don't be overly worried, but be very careful and most of all don't be stupid.
You have to laugh:
"CHIANG MAI : A service centre will be opened to ensure foreign visitors driving in Chiang Mai follow local traffic laws."
Of course, local traffic laws are quite different to traffic laws in other countries. Foreigners will be taught how not to stop at red lights or pedestrian crossings, how not to use the correct lanes, how not to stay within speed limits, how not to wait in traffic queues, and how not to drive with any consideration for the safety of others.
Chiang Mai targets foreign drivers
If nothing else, this at least proves that the Thais have a sense of humour. Thailand teaching foreigners how to drive is like Syria teaching foreigners about human rights. There isn't a Thai in the country who could pass a UK driving test.
And the carnage continues. This is just a small sample as most road accident fatalities go unreported by the English language press.
17 killed, seven injured in Buri Ram crash
No seat belts worn, but no fatalities after van flips twice
Children Hurt As Phuket Minibus Flips In Rain
Helmetless motorbike driver dies on deadly Phuket road
Monday 7th October 2013
The rains have finally arrived. For several weeks I've been reading about floods in the northern, northeastern and central regions, and more recently in Phuket. A friend of my wife's in Phuket sent photos of the road she lives on, which was quickly turning into a river. Our neighbour went to Bangkok last week and said that it was very wet with a good chance of imminent flooding in some areas.
Meanwhile, it has been dry and hot in the deep south. October is generally quite a wet month and all of the big floods in Hat Yai have occurred in the month of November after prolonged rainfall in October. Some strong winds arrived yesterday, followed by heavy rain, but it didn't last long. The strong winds and blustery rain have returned this morning, but who knows for how long.
While living in the UK where it is often cold, wet and grey my heart used to rejoice at seeing some sunshine. Most Brits are the same and worship the sun. After 10 years in Thailand, I have seen a little too much sun and most of the time the weather is too hot.
There is no cool season in southern Thailand and it is hot all year round. Sometimes it's hot and dry and sometimes it's hot and wet. The rain certainly cools things down, but after storms pass the sun returns and it gets hot again.
It's not perfect, but given the choice between the annual weather in southern Thailand and annual weather in the UK I know what I prefer. I miss those occasional perfect days in England when it is bright, sunny and not too hot, but I certainly don't miss the long, depressing winter months.
The northeast monsoon blows from November to April. In the upper part of Thailand the northeast monsoon winds come from China and Indochina and keep those regions dry. In the south the northeast monsoon winds come from the Pacific Ocean and cross the Gulf of Thailand, therefore bringing wet weather. From May to October the southwest monsoon dominates and brings in hot, humid air from the Indian Ocean.
The hottest month in Thailand is generally acknowledged as being April, although I find several months either side of April to be just as hot. The rains brought in by the southwest monsoon cool things down in the central and northern regions, and then the northeast monsoon does the same thing for the south starting around this time of year.
In addition to regular weather patterns, large storm formations can also have a big impact on the weather. These mostly seem to come in from the northeast. Some fizzle out before they get to Thailand, while some bring a lot of rainfall.
Now that we live in an area that isn't prone to flooding I can sit indoors and enjoy the wet weather outside. This wasn't possible in our old rented house where we were flooded badly in 2010 and there was always the threat of flooding when it rained heavily.
If it rained heavily for a couple of days I would have to start moving everything upstairs and preparing emergency flood supplies just in case it flooded. It's a terrible problem to have to live with but many Thais have to live with the problem during every rainy season.
I'm not paranoid, however, I have a strong suspicion at the moment that everyone is out to get me - including my daughter. All I want is a little time to do the things that I want to do.
I embarked on a major push in August to get the jobs done around the house that needed doing and I have just ordered extra kitchen cabinets because the wife wanted more. My thinking was that if I got everything done I would then have some time for myself. But it never happens.
My computer started playing up last week and I noticed that the C drive was almost full. However, the D drive had lots of spare space. There is no Windows utility to perform a dynamic repartition, but there are some free programs that claim to be able to do this.
I tried two and they both failed with write errors. I suspected a disk problem and ran dskchk on both partitions. It ran clean. I then tried both programs again and they still failed. I found another program and gave it a try. It also failed, but this time it left my computer in a horrible mess.
My next step was to completely rebuild my system from scratch. There were hundreds of Windows updates to apply and lots of other work to get my computer working as it did before. This problem came completely out of the blue and used up two-plus days of my life.
Never mind, I thought. "Soo soo," as the Thai stay. Keep fighting. I carried on still thinking that my time would come.
This morning looked great. The house looked reasonably tidy and there was nothing that desperately needed doing. Maybe I could have some time to myself after our daughter went to nursery? Of course, that wasn't going to be the case.
Our old rented house had terrible plumbing and there were constant floods in the kitchen when the drain got blocked, as it did frequently. It also cost me a small fortune in plumbing bills.
The new house has great plumbing and we haven't had one problem. That was until this morning when my daughter got in on the act.
After morning bath time, my wife called me about a problem. Our daughter, who loves playing with balls and had been playing with a miniature tennis ball, had dropped it down the drain hole in the shower. The ball is a perfect fit for the waste pipe and as a result it blocked the pipe. Great.
I tried hooking it out with an improvised metal clothes hanger, but to no avail. I then had to try to locate a plumber and I spent the morning waiting for him to arrive. He arrived at 2pm and worked for about two hours. It took me a couple of hours to clean up after him and thus another day has just been wiped out, not to mention Bt1,500.
He reminded me of some of the plumbers who visited the old house. They are quite frightening to watch. Some of the workmen we have had in have been real craftsmen, but others are just cowboys. This one was recommended so I thought he would be OK, but he was a cowboy.
He got the ball out, but it was a painful process. He used a large spring connected to a machine that provided rotation and had great difficulty getting the spring down the pipe. He simply applied more pressure and I was sure he would cause more problems than he fixed.
He then put the spring into every waste pipe he could find, even though it was pointless. When the spring didn't work he used compressed air to try to blow out the obstruction. As the other end of the spring was rotating it was hitting glass and tiles and he damaged some tiles.
In the rented house I watched one cowboy plumber trying to destroy the house while thinking to myself I'm glad that I didn't own the house. Well, I do own this one and he was painful to watch.
I'm slightly annoyed with my wife as well. I'm pretty sure that had I seen the size of this ball in the shower enclosure I might have anticipated what would happen. Thais don't seem to think about what could happen and don't prevent accidents from happening. They wait until something goes wrong and then deal with it.
Most road accidents in Thailand aren't really accidents. When you see how Thais drive you know what will happen and therefore it isn't really an accident.
Anyway, the ball has now been removed. Some bathroom tiles have been damaged, but everything is clean again. I'm Bt1,500 worse off and yet another day of my life has been wasted. I just hope that my luck changes soon. Maybe I need to change my name or maybe my bad luck is because my car is the wrong colour? Perhaps a sign on the back of my car telling everyone that 'This car is red' will fix my luck?
It's got to be worth a try. After all, this kind of thing works for Thais.
Saturday 5th October 2013
When is lying acceptable? To my way of thinking it is only acceptable to tell 'white lies' in situations where telling the truth would hurt someone's feelings. "Does my bum look big in this?" Of course it doesn't. "How was the meal?" Really tasty. That kind of thing.
Apart from that, it is never acceptable to lie. I have known liars in the past. They soon get a reputation for lying and it makes them disliked. In the West lying isn't regarded as being a good personality trait and there is a lot of stigma attached.
In Thailand it is quite different and there isn't the same stigma attached to lying. Thais know that it is wrong to lie and they don't like being lied to. However, many Thais regard lying as being acceptable in far more situations other than lying purely to avoid hurting someone's feelings.
The Thai finance minister deliberately lied about Thailand's growth target for exports in 2012. His justification for lying was that an increased growth target would bolster confidence and thus benefit the country. Ah, that's OK then. This kind of lie is acceptable in Thailand and he wasn't punished.
Thai uproar over minister's 'white lie'
A previous Thai Prime Minister lied about bird flu and lied about the southern insurgency. He then kept telling people that he was getting out of politics for good, which was another complete lie. He finds it difficult to say anything without lying.
It seems to be acceptable to lie in Thailand if telling the truth will result in people losing money. Flooding is a big problem in the country and whenever I see houses advertised for sale the adverts always include 'naam mai tuam' (no flooding). I know that this isn't the case for some new houses.
Another time when it seems to be acceptable to lie is when a lie will save face. Thais think they will lose face if they don't know something. If you ask directions and they don't know, they won't tell you that they don't know. They will make out they do know and send you off on a wild goose chase.
I wrote recently about misleading advertising for condos where the adverts tell people that they can own a condo for a very low monthly payment. When you do the sums you can tell that this is another lie.
My wife was looking at a Thai magazine a few days ago and saw an advert for condos in Chiang Mai that looked really cheap. The advert made a big thing of prices starting at Bt1.18 million. This is a current magazine and not an advert that is two years old.
There was a website address and she asked me to take a look. The website says that prices start at Bt1,748,000. Another lie. If the objective of advertising a very low price in the magazine was just to get people to look at their website they succeeded, but this lack of honest and integrity immediate makes me wary of any company that stoops to such deceitful practices.
The New Concept Boutique Condo
There are lots of bad Thais who basically make a living lying to tourists. They go to places in Thailand where there are lots of foreign tourists and lie to foreigners while pretending to help them.
If I go shopping for clothes or shoes the sales assistants keep telling me that there is a 30-50% discount, but the clothes and shoes were never sold at the higher price. The price with the imaginary 30-50% discount is the normal price. Telling me that there is a discount is therefore another lie.
Being lied to continuously in Thailand can start to get you down. I remember during my first year in Thailand it started to depress me so much that I considered leaving.
These days I don't believe anything I am told and my expectation is that I will always be lied to. This sounds cynical, but in Thailand you have to adopt a number of cynical attitudes in order to survive. When in Rome ...
When you speak to Thais they are pretty much the same as me. They don't believe what they are told, either. The main difference is that when I expose a liar I want them to know that I know they are lying. Thais aren't like that.
Even when Thais know they are being lied to they keep smiling and remain polite. This avoids any confrontation and unpleasantness that Thais know can lead to problems. Just as I have adapted my behaviour to survive in Thailand, they have done the same thing. The famous Thai smile is a defensive survival strategy as much as anything else.
As a tourist in Thailand, never believe anything from anyone who approaches you in the street offering to help with something. An honest Thai will never approach you. If you ask first, that is fine, but don't trust anyone who approaches you.
If you are offered anything or see anything advertised that seems too good to be true, it probably is. Do you really think that tuk-tuk drivers can earn a living taking foreigners on tours of Bangkok for Bt10? If something interests you, speak to an expat who has been in the country a while or speak to a Thai who you can trust.
If there is no one to ask, engage your brain and follow your instincts. Yes, everything looks different to where you come from but a lot of personality traits are universal and the same strategies that keep you safe at home can also keep you safe in Thailand.
After a while in the country you will find people who you can trust and you will realise that not all Thais lie. The Thai world is divided into two realms. There is a safe, secure, trusted inner realm which is inhabited by close friends and family. Moral compasses function normally in this world.
Outside of this safe realm is the big, bad, dangerous world inhabited by strangers and people who can't be trusted. Anything goes in this outside realm where lying and deception are rife.
As a tourist in Thailand you probably don't have any close Thai friends or family. You therefore exist in the outside world where you will be viewed as fair game for the many liars and cheats who prey on gullible foreigners. This realm of Thailand is like a Bermuda Triangle for moral compasses and they cease to function.
There are good people in Thailand, but unfortunately there are also a lot of bad ones. It's not all bad, but you need to be careful and in the long term you need to know how Thais think and behave.
Thailand analysis: 'land of smiles' becomes land of lies
Another innocent pedestrian killed in Thailand and - as usual - the cowardly driver flees the scene. This is a phrase that crops up often related to road traffic accidents in Thailand.
Phuket tour bus driver flees the scene after killing pedestrian
Friday 4th October 2013
On my first trip to Singapore in 1990 I stumbled across the Hindu Thaipusam festival completely by chance while wandering around. This was in the days when nobody had digital cameras or camera phones. I have been quite a keen amateur photographer since 1982 and snapped away excitedly with my trusty Canon A1.
After coming from boring Britain I had been looking for some good photo opportunities in exotic Asia and this was absolutely perfect. There was lots of mortification of the flesh as devotees carrying heavy kavadis on their shoulders pierced their skin with hooks and skewers.
After arriving in Thailand I discovered that similar rituals take place during the annual Chinese vegetarian festival. Phuket is well known for its vegetarian festival, which I've never attended, but there is also quite a large festival in Hat Yai. I have been to the Hat Yai vegetarian festival several times over the years.
It's a celebration of the Nine Emperor Gods and lasts for nine days. In Hat Yai the festival is located on Supasarnrangsan Road. A temporary food centre is set up and there are lots of food carts set up on the streets. Of course, they all sell vegetarian food only.
Permanent restaurants in the area either close for the duration of the festival or offer a vegetarian only menu. During the festival it can actually be difficult finding meat to eat in certain areas of town.
Religious devotees - normally young men - perform acts of mutilation and there is blood everywhere. There is a Chinese priest in attendance and he assists the devotees with working themselves into a trance-like state.
When they are ready they have their cheeks pierced and pass various objects through the holes, such as knives, bicycles and garden equipment. I've also seen young men repeatedly slashing their torsos or tongues with sharp objects until their body is covered in blood.
They don't appear to feel any pain and many have scars on their cheeks - presumably from having taken part in previous years' festivals. Walking on hot coals and broken glass are other acts performed by the devotees.
The festival started today, If you are in Thailand and haven't been to anything like this before it is quite an eye-opener. I must have attended seven or eight times and after you've seen it once it loses a lot of its appeal. I'm not sure if I will attend this year - it really depends upon the wife.
Some of my photos from previous years can be seen at the following link. Click on any thumbnail to view a larger image.
Tougher punishment on road lawbreakers
This headline implies that lawbreakers and 'ill-disciplined drivers' in Thailand are dealt with, but not harshly enough.
This is simply not the case.
Every time I drive in Thailand I see traffic laws being broken and I see the most ill-disciplined of drivers within minutes of starting my journey. I have never seen one of these drivers pulled over. Never.
Not only are the police not interested but there are no electronic devices, such as speed and red light cameras, to catch them either. They can do whatever they wish with impunity.
Other drivers won't dare react for fear of being beaten up or shot. I found this out personally after making my feelings known to an ill-disciplined, ill-mannered, selfish, pig of a driver. He stopped at the next set of lights, got out of his vehicle, and wanted to assault me.
This kind of headline sounds great, but I've heard this sort of thing in Thailand many, many times and nothing ever happens.
Wednesday 2nd October 2013
Thai society isn't like Western societies, and can never be like Western societies, because there are fundamental differences in the way that Thais think. The Western concept of rule of law can only work on the basis that all people are equal under the law. This was first codified in England by Magna Carta almost 800 years ago, and I expect there will be some major events in 2015 to commemorate Magna Carta's 800th anniversary.
To a Thai, 800 years after that event, it would be utterly ridiculous to suggest that everyone in society is equal. No one is equal in Thailand and people who feature high up in the social hierarchy expect to have certain privileges. Western concepts, such as rule of law, would remove these privileges and thus Western ideas will never be adopted in Thailand.
In a similar way that privileged Thais have advantages over lesser Thais, there are also mechanisms in place to ensure that all Thais have special privileges in Thailand over non-Thais. Thai laws are designed to make this happen and the practice of dual pricing, where Thais pay one price (or don't pay at all) and foreigners pay a much higher price is ubiquitous all over the country.
This morning I was sent an e-mail link about fairness. The short video clip is about an experiment that was performed on monkeys. Two monkeys were trained to perform the task of giving a rock inside their cages to their human trainer.
After each rock was handed over, they were rewarded with an item of food. If both monkeys were given pieces of cucumber (that is, treated fairly) they were content. However, if one monkey was given grapes (which are much tastier than cucumber), the other monkey got very upset and started throwing the cucumber out of its cage. The monkey sensed that it wasn't being treated fairly.
Two Monkeys Were Paid Unequally; See What Happens Next
It was interesting to see the reaction of animals that are deemed to be less intelligent than most human beings when they are treated unfairly. Of course, as humans we feel the same way when we are treated unfairly. Unfair behaviour nurtures anger and resentment and eventually it will cause problems in society.
The recent protests by rubber farmers in Thailand wouldn't have happened had rice farmers not been offered a guaranteed price for their rice by the government. As a result of the government's rice-pledging scheme, rubber farmers became angry because they weren't being treated the same. This is a natural human reaction and, as the video shows, monkeys react in the same way.
Once you give one person or group something, it will cause anger and resentment among those who haven't been treated the same way. After the rubber protests, growers of corn in Thailand are now unhappy. This is exactly what I had previously predicted. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what will happen; this is simply human nature.
Corn growers call for crop subsidy
For a long time I have refused to pay the foreigner price in Thailand. If I can't get into somewhere by paying the same price as the locals pay, I walk away. I had friends from Germany visit at the beginning of the year and they did the same thing. They can't read Thai, but they could see what was going on.
If every foreigner did this, Thailand would have to reconsider its dual pricing policy, but many tourists just pay up because they don't understand what is going on, they don't want to miss out, or their perceptions about wealth in Thailand are wrong. The Thai pricing information is usually written in Thai script and numerals in order to hide what is happening from foreigners and the vast majority of foreigners in Thailand can't read any Thai.
Nonetheless, most foreigners can sense that something is going on even if they can't read Thai. This doesn't happen only with Western tourists in Thailand's popular beach resorts. Most tourists to Thailand come from Malaysia. Their visits tend to be quite short, but they visit often and many stay in southern Thailand not far from the Malaysian border.
I know from speaking to local Thai vendors that there are Malaysian and Singaporean prices. Malaysians are charged more than Thais, and there is an additional surcharge for Singaporeans because they are regarded as being richer than Malaysians.
A Singaporean friend went out for a meal in Hat Yai and when he selected items off the menu he made a mental note of the prices. The bill arrived and it was much higher than he had estimated. When he asked why, he was told it was because he was Singaporean. He then took a piece of cucumber from his plate and threw it at the waitress.
I was interested to see an article in The Nation about not taking advantage of Malaysian tourists in Hat Yai, a town in southern Thailand that is very popular with Malaysians. Basically, the article says that people have choices and if they are badly treated they can vote with their feet.
Hat Yai must never take its guests for granted
I have often found a tendency in Thailand for short term gain, but it is self-defeating. I'm not stupid and I'm not unfamiliar with Thailand. I know if I am being ripped off or if I am being treated fairly. If I go to a restaurant and get ripped off they might make a short term gain, but they will never see me as a customer again. I will also write about the experience on-line and advise other people not to go. If they treat me fairly I will give them repeat business and I will also recommend other people to go.
Protectionism seems to be part of the Asian mindset, rather than a Thai thing. Countries in ASEAN, with the exception of Singapore, aren't really ready for an ASEAN Free Trade Area because this would remove the protectionist policies of individual countries. Abandoning protectionism is a good thing, but it is tough. When countries are exposed to market pressures, they become more competitive. Singapore has already been through - and benefited from - this transition and experienced the pain, but other ASEAN countries have yet to follow.
The World Trade Organisation has also voiced concerns about Asian protectionist policies.
WTO warns of Asian protectionism threat
To be honest, I really don't care if Thailand chooses to continue implementing protectionist policies instead of choosing to be competitive in a truly open market global economy. This shortsightedness will cause lots of problems eventually.
What bothers me most of all is being treated unfairly and for as long as that continues to happen I will continue to throw my cucumber around. Thailand relies heavily on tourism and with the rapid opening up of Burma there will shortly be a lot of people who will consider visiting Burma instead of Thailand once there is a decent level of tourist infrastructure in place.
The Internet has revolutionised the way that people disseminate information and lots more visitors to Thailand will be arriving with the knowledge that they will be untreated unfairly. When this happens and they personally experience being ripped off, they may not come back again.
Many Thais think that all foreigners are rich and see foreigners as being simply an easy source of high income. When foreigners appear the dollar signs light up in their eyes. They are wrong and Thailand still needs to learn a lot of lessons about treating foreigners fairly and thinking about long term sustainable profit instead of short term gain.