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Stickman Leaving Thailand Soon


Belem
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In March of last year in his weekly column, Stickman announced he was leaving Thailand in a year. With the date approaching, I thought it would be appropriate to start a thread about it on this board, as he was by far most active on this board from its Delphi beginnings due to the Bangkok expat clique.

 

I remember first meeting him around 1998 when he was teaching English and started a Geocities nightlife information site as well as meeting WhosYourDaddy. I subsequently saw him at a few Nana Plaza Friday night board meetings at the Woodstock Bar in Nana Plaza.

 

His website first started out as an encyclopedia of Thai nightlife information breaking it down to cities like Bangkok and Pattaya and bar areas like Nana Plaza. It was a plethora of info that convinced many people to take the plunge and go to Thailand.

 

Around 2001, he made a genius move starting a weekly column that enabled him to get more hits and attract more advertisers giving him more of an income stream to supplement his English teacher salary as well as other ancillary income from his bargirl investigation service. Over time he dismantled the nightlife sections, and his website evolved into other sections like book reviews, photography, etc.

 

He has stated some of his reasons for leaving are wanting to live a more active lifestyle and wanting to have animals. I also suspect that another reason is Thailand has changed and not for he better with changing attitudes, declining Thai nightlife web traffic, and an ever changing tourist mix among other things. He also said that he may not go back to his home country, New Zealand. It wouldn't surprise me to see him settle in Australia, where many Kiwis have relocated.

 

Stickman first arrived in Thailand to settle around 1998, and it's now 2015. He is now in his 40s, and I'm sure his experiences would make for an interesting book, although he has said he has no plans of writing a book. From his beginnings of being a participant in the nightlife and venturing to the dark side for a time to getting married to a Thai national and his subsequent divorce to embracing health and fitness, he has evolved like many expats do.

 

His departure from Thailand is the end of an era, a big part of Thailand nightlife history becoming the Internet's version of Bernard Trink. I know I will be reading his final column with great interest.

 

Just ask him.

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Why are you leaving LOS Stick?

 

3 main reasons:

 

- I don't enjoy living in Thialand like I used to. I mean I still like it, but not as much as I once did. Small things that never used to bother me now do and things I used to enjoy doing and places I used to enjoy visiting I now don't.

- I don't enjoy running the website any more. The time has come to stop it, or at the least, take a long, long break from it. It takes too much time for something I don't enjoy any more.

- I desperately need a new challenge and think moving on from Thailand to another country will provide a challenge.

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For me, I have been fortunate in that I would leave Thailand for a business trip every few months. It seemed that after three months,

all those little things started to annoy me; the idiot drivers, the taxis that refused fares, the way many Thais treat farangs so poorly, etc.

 

With a few weeks break from Thailand, I would return and once again enjoy LOS...until I started being annoyed, again!

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- I desperately need a new challenge and think moving on from Thailand to another country will provide a challenge.

 

 

Iraq? Afghanistan? North Korea? :hmmm:

 

Seriously, maybe Vietnam? Nowhere the freedoms you find here though, even under the military government. Burma? Probably the same is true.

 

p.s. I went back to the States for some years. I found that almost everything I complained about here was to be found at home. The main difference was they didn't smile when they did it.

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I move for work regularly - six countries in twelve years - including Thailand about a decade ago, with many many short returns between then and now, many more to come. As I move from unsatisfying country to shithole to hellhole and back, Thailand is always there in my mind - the future 'home' that I don't have now, a fantasy place to finally settle down a bit and live off my savings and so on in a happy little paradise... Probably best to just keep moving, and keep Thailand as a fantasy that I look forward to, but never actually get down to brass tacks with... Five days at a time? Heaven. For a few more years at least, I'll leave it at that...

 

YimSiam

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Iraq? Afghanistan? North Korea? :hmmm:

 

Seriously, maybe Vietnam? Nowhere the freedoms you find here though, even under the military government. Burma? Probably the same is true.

 

p.s. I went back to the States for some years. I found that almost everything I complained about here was to be found at home. The main difference was they didn't smile when they did it.

 

Australia

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Hi,

 

"I was around that time and you also took down your nightlife section for a time in response to the Purachai-Thacksin crackdown like some other sites."

 

There was a lot more going on behind the scenes at that time, but Purachai/Thaksin had nothing to do with it.

And no, I will not elaborate.

 

The name change was done in order to try to get more advertisers and a broader audience. In hindsight that was a bad move, but of course hindsight is always 20-20.

 

As for the decline in members, yes, the name change almost certainly was a part of it, but the rise of social networking and the increased ease of setting up websites were certainly a large part of it as well.

 

Sanuk!

 

Was there an issue with Google classifying the site as an adult site and thus could not get Google AdSense revenue.

 

 

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First of all, is it necessary to name people? This should be edited and removed as I am sure it is against forum rules. Further, what you have written is factually wrong. Why do you continually do that?

 

The relationship between Sunbelt and Sunrise is immaterial to any mentions made of either on my site and NO, Sunrise is NOT owned by Sunbelt. Again, the facts are wrong.

 

Yes, I once had a banner exchange with Secrets but that is NOT why I mention the bar. I've long said Secrets is my favourite bar in Pattaya and many years after the banner exchnage ended, that's still the case and I still mention it BECAUSE I LIKE IT THERE! I mention venues I frequent and venues which provide with information about what is going on. I tend to mention the same veues rhese days because I don't go out a lot and when I do I tend to gravitate to the same places.

 

Sunbelt Legal is not an advertiser although, yes, they have a banner which is a thank you for the legal questions they answer.

 

Like I said in a previous post, I happen to eat at Sunrise more than anywhere else hence it is mentioned more than anywhere else. In the past I mentioned Tilac Bar in Soi Cowboy a lot because, funnily enough, I used to go there more than any other bar.

 

 

I skipped over the questions your ex wife answered and have continued to skip over the Sunbelt answer of legal questions when I read your weekly.

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