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Why pay more? Because you are in Thailand!


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Again' date=' it is NOT the money for some anyway, but the principle. You are right, it won't break me, or most, and I can pay it or not, I pay it and don't give it much more thought...when the discussion comes up, I/we discuss it...other than that, it is a non issue.[/quote']

I've been in residence forever. Outside of the obvious situations {national parks, historical parks, etc}, I've never paid more than any Thai when it comes to anything else.....

 

 

 

 

You studying to be a doctor?

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But is it "ignorance" if it is their culture?

No. Not at all. Just as someone might disagree with a said political or social opinion - this is not ignorance. Different train of thought, reasoning, character, culture, way of doing things, etc. Just as they might contradict one's foundation, doesn't make it ignorant-based. This is all to typical conditioning throughout the Western thought process. Long-historied tales of superiority and whatnot. If such respected civilisations don't mirror us - than it must be backward, undeveloped, and 'ignorant'. This is also how we are trained to observe general world historic content and historiography. Ethnocentrically. Forgetting that all Euro-civilisations have gained only by more highly developed ones. Certainly, there is nothing original about such cultures. As historic influence and contributions from European civilisation are concerned - we are way down on the list. Might behhove us to extend a little more humility.

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  • 3 weeks later...

At first, I was puzzled by the stupidity of the idea that Caucasians must have more money than Asians (in fact, that seems blatantly false in Bangkok).

 

Then I realized -- Thailand is a nation of people who (generally) can't find Thailand on a map, could not tell you what causes winter and summer, could not name a single Nobel Prize winner. Horses for courses, and just remember that if you were actually Thai, this kind of "intelligent policy/legislation" would be applied to all aspects of your life and existence, not just how much you pay to get into a park.

 

Smile and pay up, and put it in the same category as a sales clerk looking for her calculator so she could calculate 30 + 20 (seen yesterday).

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I love generalisations......

How about this one : all of us going to Thailand go only for the whores.

Probably as smart a statement as what you wrote down.

 

Thais are generally less aware of their world than people from other countries, even countries with similar GDPs and other objective factors. (Ever talked with a run-of-the-mill university graduate from Burma/Myanmar or Vietnam, and compared to a similarly positioned individual from Thailand? Won't even mention Singapore or Taiwan or Korea here, because I have pity.)

 

And very much because of this, a larger fraction of the visitors to Thailand come for the prostitutes, even when compared to visitors to countries with similar GDPs and other objective factors.

 

And also because of the general level of stupidity, "Farang have many money, must pay more" passes as truth.

 

(By the way: has anyone attempted asking average Thai folk how many countries there are in the world? I am guessing that their guesses would be in the range of 5-10.)

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Thais are generally less aware of their world than people from other countries' date=' even countries with similar GDPs and other objective factors. [/quote']

 

How about Americans? I'd like to place bets on that action.

 

I'm not so sure about that.

 

I've long held the theory that the "Americans are bumpkins" stereotype only comes from the fact that American bumpkins can afford to travel, while other countries' bumpkins generally can't.

 

And there's the additional factor that the US itself is a huge place/thing, so having one's worldview restricted to the US is not the same as having one's worldview restricted to, say, Sweden.

 

But I'm being defensive here.

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Bumpkins are bumpkins everywhere. You can't really go past the zero knowledge barrier. America though, has a fiercely anti-intellectual culture. People are proud of their success but even prouder if they can accomplish it without formal education.

 

The thing is that the people who are setting prices at Ocean World or national parks are probably not bumpkins. So I don't get your original point.

 

And really, a white person in Thailand should have more money than the average Thai. Unless, of course, they have a British or Australian accent, dark tan and wearing a wife-beater. But I think Thais will pick up on that one soon.

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