BORED outside of Thailand.....

[buddha]

I just was reading old Hippies 'I'm Back' thread and I wanted to share some things about my own retun to the US.

 

I'm fucking bored. I have always been pretty upbeat but I gotta say that since living in Thailand and thus expanding my 'outrageous quotient' the US is well, BBBBBOOOOOORRRRRIIIIINNNNGGGGGG!!!!!!

 

Forever I have snuffed out what used to be a great deal of fun for me. Walking up and down Sukumvit everyday and getting to know people and bars, living in a foreign land where everything is well foreign, trying to communicate in a different language, learn a new city, participate in life was awesome. To come home was like having a truckload of cinderblocks dropped on my head.

 

It's not just the girls, but I admit that is a big part of it. You kind of get a psuedo-celebrity status at bars you visit, girls trying to pull you inside, the first thing out of a girls mouth is 'I want go with you'. Even if it is contrived, a sales pitch, it sure raises the bar to an unatainable height. I ate at a thai restaurant the other day realizing that the people working there were korean, the food was okay, but how do I shake the depression and right myself.

 

I didn't want to get stuck in Thailand. Financially I have a lot of debt that I need to work out, and that wasn't going to happen for me where I was at. I worked for a long time and enjoyed my last eight months travelling about. I returned home knowing that the next couple of years was going to be about 'working my asss off' yet somehow the fact that it was going to be incredibly boring escaped me.

 

What the fuck do you do when you just are not interested in where you live? When it all seems to be going through the motions? Lately I have tended to stay at home rather than go out and put off an air of 'I'm bored, this is boring, how can you pea brains be enjoying this?

 

I am making lists of things I need to do to be happy. I am quiting smoking, I excercise daily, I look for opportunities abroad, I make a concious 'geographical affirmation' everyday [i'm here lets make the most of it type of shit] and while I admit I am depressed I feel that I am no danger to myself and the last thing in the world I want is counselling from a shrink, psychologist, etc.

 

I didn't view my life in the US as boring before, and I can't really explain to close friends why I feel this way. It's borderline insulting to explain to someone that they have no idea how much fun it is elsewhere if only they could pull their head out of their ass and go check it out they might understand.

 

I talk about Thailand WAY too much. I can't seem to converse with anyone where the topic doesn't somehow find it's way to Thailand.

 

How do you rediscover your homeland after being in Thailand?

[chilli13]

sorry - can't help - it's very tough & I'm still struggling

[Guest]

 

Well I sure undersatand where you are at. For over 20 years anywhere outside of SE Asia has been boring for me.

 

Only leave LOS to come back and make enough to go over again. In fact I have for a long time considered that LOS is home and I am just on a work assignment over here. One of these days I'll get it worked out and not have to come back to the west.

 

Until then....... work your butt off. Keep that goal firmly in your mind's sight. Still bored..... work more, take a part-time at 7-11 what ever you need to do to get back sooner.... and better. Hey, an extra $50 a day is a plane ticket in a month, etc.

 

And yes your friends back home will never understand. And that makes you more isolated. The Thai and other Asians you encounter at home aren't much help either, just make you pine away more to be back there, IME.

 

But you have a large group on this board that are both empathetic an supportive. It's what brings us all together here. Our love of Thailand. No matter which aspect of it is your favourite, it's all here.

 

So go get the $$$ guy, me too. Then we can give that dream some reality.

[Guest lazyphil]

The USA is an interesting country--why not go on a road trip say from Chicago to LA--its not the same here going from Peterborough to Wigan--now thats boring I can tell you

[Old Hippie]

"...Lately I have tended to stay at home rather than go out and put off an air of 'I'm bored, this is boring, how can you pea brains be enjoying this?..."

 

I never go out here, to expensive and too boring, I keep thinking what it will buy me or a loved one in LOS...

 

I basically only associate with other LOS Warriors like myself, occassional meetings with other board members etc...like cops and war vets, we are the only ones who really understand...

 

"... counselling from a shrink, psychologist, etc..."

 

Have thought about this really, but have decided I don't want to change, Life for me basically sucks when I am Away from LOS, I just try to put a bit of Los in my day...where are you located anyway?

[Guest]

 

My friend, take solace in that you are not alone. Commonly referred to as "The Bangkok Blues", it's an affliction shared by many. In it's most severe form, little else matters in life, until you can return to your beloved Thailand. The only cure is getting back there as many times as is possible, within a given year.

 

Clear signs of the disease in farangland are:

 

1. When out shopping, you're no longer looking for designer jeans. You're looking for ka, lemmongrass, and kamfir limes to make dinner with.

 

2. You start liking cold showers.

 

3. You wish you had a squat toilet

 

4. The most revered anglo-saxon beauty model looks like shit to you, and just cannot get it. ::

 

5. Occasionally greet people with "Sawat dee Khrap. Sabai dee rue plao?", and then question the surprised look on their face.

 

6. The only music in your house is off the computer, linked to an Internet Thai music station.

 

7. The first section you look at, when buying the Sunday paper, is the 'travel section" to check airfare rates.

 

8. You find yourself taking 4 showers a day.

 

9. You start converting everything you see in terms of the current Thai 'baht' exchange rate.

 

10. Every dream you have at night, is linked to Thailand.

 

The list goes on forever. Accept the fact that your existence in farangland, forever more, is only relevant, to an ends to a mean. The means being, your ability to return to the place that you know, is where you were meant to be.

 

Maybe one day, they will come up with a pill/cure. Until then, you'll just have to suffer along with the rest of us zombie's. The walking dead, with a singular desire. So close, yet so far away.......

 

HT

[buddha]

can you post a link or two to thai radio sites, please.

 

thanks

[HSTEACH]

I Know the feeling. Believe me MANY here feel the same. There is only ONE cure for the blues, book a ticket back to BKK. Call within a week of getting home from LOS. Don't wait, the blues will really begin to sink in as the jetlag wears off. Book the ticket by any means possible, THEN you have something to look forward to. Something that every morning the first thing you do is check off another day on the calendar. Gives you something to live for. Sounds rather childish, but it works.

 

The other option is bring a bit of Thailand home with you. If you think you've been confused before, bring your tirak home to farangville with you and you'll be scratching your head everyday thinking what the hell did she do that for. Makes life interesting. )

[MikeN]

can you post a link or two to thai radio sites, please

 

thai radio online :

Learning thai website radio links

[Guest]

Not that bad. Ilook at it as just another adventure. Maybe Iam fortunate, I have lived in some cities were more things have gone on then in Bangkok. But those cities have changed, just like Bangkok is changing.

 

If I want to get hit upon, there are places to go.

 

What I find is that stuff for free is more available outside of Thailand.

 

To me, it is about "same, same", just have to look at things from a different perspective.