Thai For Thais!

[colin howard]

hi terry, good post , but with respect your neck of the woods is NOT the real THAILAND , as no doubt you would agree if you came here to issan , i,ve lived here since april 04 and for me its a pleasure to live amongst these people who i regard as the salt of the earth , of course there are a few minus,s but the plus,s far outweigh them , glad to read you have a nice lady and your parents are enjoying the fruits of there labors , regards , colin .

[Terry Etherington]

Hi Colin,
I absolutely agree as I have spent quite a few weeks in Surin where my girlfriends family live and you hardly see a foreign tourist. I suppose it is a choice of what you want but in the country areas of Thailand it is too quiet for me and I do like my sport and beaches among other things. Also Colin like yourself I have to comment on the Thai people who are absolutely lovely hosts so how all these farang keep getting ripped off is beyond me. It seems these gullible visitors come to Thailand and lose their brain by making bad financial investments or decisions and then blame it on the country itself when it all goes wrong. The same thing applies when you read about crime against foreign tourists in Pattaya. Majority of the time it is somebody walking alone in an unsafe area at 03:30 in the morning wearing gold jewellry or a handbag containing cash and then wondering why they become a victim of crime. I am not condoning these actions in anyway of course but time and time again tourists come here and do things that they would never do in their own country. I find it ironic to see so many hateful comments about Pattaya but then why do these people spend so much time writing about it and usually only about Thai women and go-go bars ! It seems as if these people come here for one thing only so they are not interested in exploring the Thai culture or the country itself anyway. Pattaya City has absolutely everything you could want and I believe it is a bit of both ignorance and jealously from some of these negative postings. Of course I am not saying this City is perfect but the pluses far outweigh the minuses. I left the UK two years ago and the only thing I miss is my family. Good luck to you Colin, I will be heading for a visit to Northern Thailand next year.

[colin howard]

hi terry , a good thoughtful post and i must admit i had a little laugh , cos like you its my view that ANYONE who gets ripped of only has there selves to blame full stop , i,m about 1hour 20 minutes from surin and go to BIG C quite regular , many of my friends go to martins at the" farang connection", we lived in samui for almost 6 months before coming here , but as it was getting crowded and expensive so we decided to come and live here , a move i have never regretted i might add , been coming here since 89 so i pretty well know the score , getting bored do,s not come into the equation, ubc tv , the pc , fishing , making my own wine from local fruit , going down to our local to solve all the worlds problems keep me busy enough and of course having a lady like yours is the iceing on the cake eh, regards , colin .

[Leum Laaou]

That's right Colin. People should grow up and look after themselves. Expect nothing and beat your own path.

Thailand is not alone in its nationalistic fervour. But it is real or a construct perpetuated by media zealots and squeaky wheels? Often 'issues' are carefully managed and fostered by those with hateful agendas of division.

It is happening right now here in New Zealand. At the moment we are dealing with incredible racial tension as there is a small minority of spiteful activists, many of whom, if not all who are of mixed blood. These activists would like to see all non-Maori leave NZ; how insane and unrealistic is that?

Nasty tensions are encouraged by people with agendas of hate and seeking recompense for wrongs committed in the 18th century. So my point is nationalism is nothing new, it is everywhere, and such small minded bigots can get stuffed.

A point I am making is that I am set to return to Thailand, with all its failings; a welcome respite from the highly politicised life I have here.

How's your experience on the street? Mine has been fine. Thai's are sweet to me and those who aren't can take a running jump, just like dorks anywhere.

In Thailand, as in life, don't expect too much from people. Look after yourself and if you are unhappy or feel unwelcome take your business elsewhere.

[colin howard]

hi leum , sorry to read of the problems in NZ, for certain there is nothing lke this here apart from the south with the islamic troubles , but they are world wide anyhow and thailand is only a small player , i think the secret is mutual acceptance that we ain,t all the same and for someone to put another down for there opinions, belief's, or race is a bit immature at best , in regards to living here in thailand i can honestly say i,ve never regretted it , the locals here are the salt of the earth and i have a high regard for them , of course there are a few pitfalls , such as the standard of driving , and the language barrier , but all in all i find living here a big improvement from the UK , regards , colin ..

[Adam]

Hi Leum, I was in Rotorua NZ last June. I paid good money to go to the Tamaki Maori Village for cultural entertainment. We had to take a motor coach from Rotorua to the village. The guide on the bus supposedly was to talk about the culture of the Native (Maori) people. But most of his talk turned into hate speech for all whites. I was totally offended and my evening was ruined. And even worse, this guy was the local Maori chief's son.

[Leum Laaou]

Hi Adam ,yes NZ has a way to go before it settles down and gets on with life. It really should become a republic, forge a constitution and get on with it.

It's a young country and during its birth it suffered a lot of conflict and many hatreds still burn bright here in a tiny but noisy minority.

But those noisy, influential minorities - many of whom seem to have unfettered access to the media for the extremity of their views - are everywhere stoking the fires of nationalism and apartheid. They are dangerous divisive people.

Fortunately such spiteful views more often than not do not reflect the opinion of the everyday person whose hearts are generally as good as they can be among life's daily struggles.

[Ian]

Terry - you're quite right about there being many great and good things about Thailand. It is indeed a lovely country. But the anti-foreigner laws are an open invitation, a blank cheque, for the many scams and rip-offs. You're particularly lucky to have a totally trustworthy girlfriend. All the best mate, for your sunny life on the beach - I envy you from my the dismal setting in East Enders !!!

[Pete, London]

Sadly, what happened to Pattaya was the US servicemen taking R&R there during the Vietnam war.

Having said that, it would be a grave injustice to Thailand as a whole to judge the country on just this one small place (OK, and Phuket & Patpong). That would be like judging the whole of The Netherlands solely on the 'Red Light District' of Amsterdam.

The fact is that almost every major city in the world has it's own red light district and we must all look beyond these places to see what each country really has to offer.

Pete Miller
Ealing
London
UK