Holiday From Hell

[Nervous_Dog]

Cent

 

Yeah - you can;t stand it either, I quite like Hua Hin, and there is a Satellite uplink there that I occassionally work with, Could easily see my self there, but every day I have 2 - 4 meetings so will need to be in Bangkok for at least another months ARGHHHH

 

Near the ThaiCom uplink at Landlungoi, about 45 minutes north of Bangkok is still beautiful rice farms and old thai houses, I'd move there and commute if I could get the right farm

 

Sigh - I like many cities, Bangkok isn;t one of them, too hard for the family.

 

I have my guy from Laos here in front of me now, I'll be up there regularly, and more so, so be real neat to take you.

 

I often take Darlek and Jing-Joe, so you can come with or without families

 

DOG

[Guest lazyphil]

"There are people much worse off than me, I should be grateful for what I've got", pure bollocks IMO. >>

 

OK, can I replace grateful to content?...not 100% mind you, I'm booked in for the full frontal labotomy to reach pure nivana :: ::

[INTJ]

 

No need to suffer the long wait on the NHS for the labotomy, why not try a bit of trepanning at home with the black and decker ?

 

 

Trepanning

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

INTJ

 

.

[Guest]

"But I have to say, the sterile environment in the UK, the pathetic sad lives of the people, the local evening news, people shaking their heads if you drive and talk on mobile, 2.50 for a small bottle of buxton water at the services, the complete absence of any good looking women, means I could never return to live in this god forsaken shit hole. I took a big chance by moving to Thailand, but I can live there the way I want, be stimulated each day and generally feel I am having an exciting and fufilling life."

 

 

 

Nah... another interesting thread to go through while so much else to do... dunno how many times we went over that topic but guess it's on a lot of forum members' heads daily so why not... fucking Thailand... love it and hate it and love it and get bored to death anyway... Not sure about the UK but should start to do business there next week... shall try to make it enthusiastically...sterile life... really depends on what you're doing with it. Dunno about evening news and not much about TV althogether, more exciting ways to kill time. East and West. Besides I can relate much more to western educated people than thais, and incidentally have more pleasure socializing with the former. You can have a blast in many western cities if you're not too short on money . Gin is 220 euro a bottle in some club I get seriously trashed in Paris on a regular basis but then I mark up on goods I sell there higher than most of my competitors in BKK could . And definetely higher than if I was dealing from BKK. High living costs don't matter much if you're on a higher income as well.

 

Still I find fun here depends a lot on the friends I hang out with, which is a big difference with Thailand where so many girls easily available mean it's quite fun to go out on my own, while in the West I tend not to hang out long in clubs or the street if I go out alone. Usually hate staying upcountry, no matter the lattitude.

 

Lots of gorgeous girls in Europe, and (more?) in France, frustrating though it's difficult to catch the youngers. Friends say I should start following at least half regular courtships or bring a lot of coke in clubs. I prefer waiting for almost monthly trips to Asia but am seriously thinking about flying a piece of thai cake over here. But then again this has more to do to my incapacity to catch girls of my taste (read around 20 y o, slim) than to their abscence.

 

Driving is something I enjoy very much over here and that seems quite a hassle in Thailand due to heavy traffic. Yet cops are getting more and more agressive over here so it's a pleasure that is already extinguishing.

 

Besides life in Thailand brings much pleasure but much frustration as well. I could tell you I now have a blast about everytime I go there but much to do with only seeing the greener side of the pasture. Speak half decent thai and come for only short periods without much human relationship expectations and lots of baht to spend. Sure life is cool.

 

A friend in BKK remarked last week than when I left Thailand 2 years ago , I said I'd come back and run my business from BKK when I'm worth what I'm roughly worth today. Doesn't look so obvious now, and anyway I can't really settle much anywhere but there are sure a lots of great places if you know how to enjoy them.

 

Random, worldly bugger.

[pattaya127]

For me at least, hating the country I was from gave me the vision and the motivation to change things. IMO Sometimes we need to suffer and understand the negatives (for me, life in the UK) in order to fully "appreciate life in Thailand".

----------------------------------------

As I said before, I understand you. And there really seems to be something specific about the UK life that brings such strong feelings.

It certainly appears quite more visceral than to guys from other countries.

The funny thing is, when i was in France last May/June, the talk was all about how England was riding the wave, superb employement stats, multi-culturalism of London, Blair outshining any other leader in Europe, all pointing to a country moving ahead, while french still worried about not being able to make their own stinky cheese, and wondering why they lost the Games 2012.

Do you think a younger generation may appreciate life in england, or London at least?

[MooNoi]

Dog,

 

You'd REALLY live in Kuala Lumpur?!

 

I spend a LOT of time there for work, and I don't mind the place, but I really don't even entertain the thought of living there. I find it much dirtier than Bangkok (in terms of rubbish piled up on footpaths in the morning and just the general feel of the place). The food isn't anywhere near as good as Bangers and alcohol is WAY more expensive. Not sure if you're a partaker in the sanuk scene anymore being married and all, but the girls in KL are also way over-priced and mostly under-performing. The traffic in KL is getting as bad or worse than parts of Bangkok now during peak hour. I also find that service levels in KL (and Malaysia) are appaling. Malays don't seem to have a concept of service. I get so much more frustrated in Malaysia than I do in Thailand. For a country that is supposedly more developed than LOS, it sure doesn't feel like it sometimes.

 

And finally the people are nowhere near as friendly as the Thais.

 

KL just feels seedy to me and doesn't have a very welcoming atmosphere. I think life there would be much more frustrating and harder than in Bangkok.

 

Now Singapore... a couple of years there would do me just fine!

MooNoi

[Long Gun]

When I read the first post in this thread I thought ?When did I write that? I must have been hammered last night as I can?t remember writing it!? but then I read it more carefully and realized that it was somebody else who only has to stay here for a few days rather than someone who looks doomed to spend considerably longer here in the UK, after a total of 10 years in Thailand, interrupted after 9 by a 2 year sentence back in blighty. So, my perspective is a bit different, but many of my feelings about the UK and Thailand are very much the same as INTJ.

 

But I have to say, the sterile environment in the UK, the pathetic sad lives of the people, the local evening news, people shaking their heads if you drive and talk on mobile, 2.50 for a small bottle of buxton water at the services, the complete absence of any good looking women, means I could never return to live in this god forsaken shit hole. I took a big chance by moving to Thailand, but I can live there the way I want, be stimulated each day and generally feel I am having an exciting and fufilling life.

 

I think you are being harsh on the general population, those who are apparently content with their existence at least. Blissful ignorance, it may be, but surely that is better than everyone feeling the way you do about living in the UK but not being able to make the move that you have. I think the people who fit in in Thailand/Asia, seem to find their way there somehow. Maybe it isn?t for everybody and maybe that?s something to be thankful for.

 

I?m back here with my family and if it wasn?t for my kids I would already be going nuts. I was fortunate enough to have jobs that paid for me to stay in Thailand for 10 years AND provided them with a great education and I am sorry that I?ve not been able to maintain that situation for their sake. They had an excellent 2 years here before, in a really nice primary school, but they are getting older and my eldest will have to face going from a school filled with small classes (average size 10 students) of the nicest, happiest kids you could wish to meet, to being the only new kid in a year group of 200. Maybe in the long run this will be a good time for him to discover that not everyone in the world is as nice as the friends he has just left, especially if you are ?different? ? eg Asian. Realistically, we may have to face up to being here for another 10 years until I retire and the boys have finished school and though it may be tough at times, I?m not sure that it won?t be a very positive experience for them in the longer term.

 

In the meantime, it?s the summer and it?s great to be able to stroll round the corner to the park, ride the bikes down to the beach (shame it?s too cold to actually go in the sea!) or kick a ball around in the backlane. I love the libraries here, shopping would be OK if we actually had some income ? can?t even get Jobseeker?s Allowance at the moment as they don?t seem to believe that I?m not just back for a holiday. Shopping for (convenience) food is fun, the variety is great after the dreadfully limited choices in Thai supermarkets and it can be VERY cheap if you just fill your trolley with special offers. Obviously having a Thai wife who is a great cook means that for much of the time we get to eat the good stuff anyway. I find driving relaxing and enjoyable. I enjoy the fact that everything works in pretty much the same way it?s supposed to and that everybody knows how that is.

 

I love movies and it?s good to have a decent choice and to see them in the state they are meant to be viewed in rather than haphazardly butchered by some misguided Thai puritan. There is a lot of great entertainment on radio and TV, terrestrial and cable and the quality of the newspapers and magazines here is another plus. I love live music and I can go and see decent bands here pretty much any time I want in the pubs and just bought tickets to see some of my heroes at the fantastic new ?Sage? complex in Gateshead ? Nils Lofgren, Rufus Wainwright, Jimmy Webb, Vin Garbutt (only the latter ever made it to Bangkok, I think) as well as tickets for all sorts of other dramatic and arty events at local venues.

 

I enjoy the ritual of ?ganning to the match? ? though this won?t last long unless Sunderland actually start picking up a point or two! ? but it is quite scary to know that I can walk into the same pub before the game and see the same people I have watched football with for as long as I can remember, only they have expanded and aged at roughly twice the rate that I feel I have.

 

So, yes, there is a lot I like about being here but the vast majority of it is purely passive entertainment, enjoying myself through other people?s words and pictures and ideas whereas, as INTJ said, in Thailand, or Asia generally, I always feel like I am making my own movie, writing my own books and songs, living it for myself rather than through somebody else. The bodyslam of suddenly becoming old and fat and poor and pretty much invisible again is tough to take, though I am happy to be ignored by 99.99% of the women I see up here in the North East, or pretty much anywhere that doesn?t have a large Asian presence. The sheer size of the women, especially the young, and the fact that they seem to have a total lack of awareness and self-pride about how they look and how much flab is hanging over their trousers is quite shocking. I can look back at my photo albums and confirm that I had a lot of really good-looking girlfriends when I lived here before, and see that I always had a preference for slim girls with small arses and I think my lads have inherited that from me so I?ve no idea what will happen to them! The booze culture and local food preferences are destroying that aspect of the landscape here, whereas a stroll around Victory Monument at any time of day was guaranteed to lift my spirits. Me and the lads have decent appetites but I find we can happily share a single portion of fish and chips here and fill 3 plates with what some poor 14 year old lass is wolfing down by herself, seemingly oblivious to the mess it?s going to make of her body and her life.

 

So, yes, I miss the women badly, especially as I?ve tended not to avoid the bar areas in Thailand, and having been much more actively involved in the few weeks preceding our return it has been rendered even more of a shocking contrast. Having said that it is SO alien to my life here that it?s not that difficult to deal with, all seems like a dream already. What is not so easy to cope with is the absence of the male friends I have in Thailand, both the fellow residents and the regular visitors who populate this board. Until a couple of years ago I hadn?t lived here for 25 years ago and hardly know anyone from my younger days but even then, it?s about attitude and outlook and that basic joy at being alive which is so common over there and so dismally absent over here to the extent that I find myself scarcely able to mention Thailand if I want to keep the conversation going.

[Long Gun]

Pattaya127 wrote:

 

At the end of the day, and IME, there are 2 types of LOS resident farangs. The ones who, having fantasized so much about the move, are fleeing their "shithole"?????

 

?? the others made a sound, calculated decision, not really based on a negative, hating a country they leave, but on a positive, the appreciation of life in Thailand and within its culture.

 

Well, there must be at least 3 types then because I don?t feel that I fit into either of those two definitions! The first time I left Europe was the day I arrived to work in Bangkok, woefully ill-prepared and ill-informed ? but it all worked out rather well, really! I felt I was doing fine in the UK, work was OK, I loved the area I was living in (South West), seemed to have survived the collapse of my first marriage and enjoyed a new lease of life on the romantic front and don?t remember having any desire to change job, home or lifestyle. To this day I don?t really know how I ended up in Thailand and I have met quite a few who stay the same. I certainly didn?t feel like I was fleeing anywhere, certainly didn?t make a sound, calculated decision (!) I was somehow just drawn there by some mysterious force and believe that should be a 3rd 'type of LOS resident farang'!

[Long Gun]

INTJ wrote:

Also for anyone with Thai wife here kidding yourself its not too bad (you know who you are),I lived here in UK with my Thai mrs for 8 years before moving out there, we are both so much happier there, as are the kids. She had missed England, but this time in only 5 days she is chomping at the bit to get back. All the stupid Mia Farang over here fcuking showing off to each other, and their sad downtrodden husbands. Most of them are like strangers to each other.

 

I must say that I haven?t really felt that about the farang-Thai couples I have met in the UK, mainly in the North East, but quite a few at gatherings/holidays organized through another board. I might not see it so much as my wife has nothing to show off, though she is not necessarily happy about that! I?ve met very few Thai women here who I didn?t warm to or who I felt I would be happier if my wife avoided. While there are certainly a lot of marriages which wouldn?t have happened were it not for differing economic circumstances, and there may not be too much romantic lovey-dovey nonsense apparent, most of them seem to be good working relationships, with mutual benefits for both parties.

 

For my wife there are three main reasons why she never actually wanted to leave the UK last year and is happy to come back here. Firstly, it means that I am not in Thailand! Probably more important though are the facts that a) she can actually earn a decent wedge here which she can?t really do in her own country and she isn?t judged and looked down upon here for where she was born or the fact that she is married to a foreigner. That is a sad aspect of Thailand which doesn?t really impact on us directly ? OK, TRT and all that but it?s easy enough to just say ?fuck ?em? - but which many of our partners have to deal with on a fairly constant basis, I think, apart from when they are back in the village.

[Long Gun]

Maybe some of you are happy here, if so then good luck to you, but when I look at the people around me I realise I am different from them, I have seen "too much". People blab on about shit, football, ill informed political opinions, celebrity gossip etc. The blokes seem overly concerned with looking hard, the birds are fat and blotchy. I was overtaking today with loads of room, the oncoming car was flashing his lights at me and doing a wanker sign from miles away. The prices are mental, just a plain rip-off, eg. £5.60 for a pack of Bensons. The UK is a very beautiful place, the scenery is magnificent, especially in the summer. Its the people and prices that spoil it.

 

Well, I don't smoke but I do drive! It is quite difficult to understand the concerns and attitudes of the locals and, yes, I do feel like I am observing proceedings from a superior perch, with the knowledge and attitude towards life that I have brought back with me.

 

Yes, I am from the UK, but I never felt like I belonged here, pre LOS. The moment I stepped out of Don Muang in 1993 I was captivated, I felt something magic, and that feeling has never left me. It took me 10 years to get there, but it was worth the wait.

 

As I said earlier, I was pretty comfortable here before but shared exactly the same feelings you described on arriving in Thailand - I beat you by about one month, but was fortunate enough not to have to go back for 9 years!