Thread: Time to move on?

Originally Posted by redhaze

Originally Posted by Slick

I dunno, it just doesn't make sense. Seems like theres a deeper issue there.

Boredom with the tedious dull existence of a place like Britain, combined with a significant reduction in cost of living are two issues alone that I can see driving many people to flee to a place like Thailand

If the color Grey could be physically manifested as a place, my hunch is that it would look something like Britain.

Completely understandable synopsis. Its an expensive chithole full of anti-social weirdos with weather that sucks hanging, floppy donkey penis.

However, there are far more stable, fairer weathered places to relocate than Thailand ffs.

If one was to look at things objectively, which I think most don't.

'Everywhere you go,
Always take the weather, the weather with you'

Trite maybe, simplistic definitely, but true. And a pretty good song to boot.

Originally Posted by Passing Through

Sadly, life is equally tedious everywhere.

Thats just not true. Just like saying something dismissive like "crime happens everywhere" and blatantly ignoring the frequency & violence of it from one location to another.

Like moving from some boring, sleepy English town where a car got stolen once, to Nigeria or Somalia & dismissively stating that "crime & bad things happen everywhere in the world" in some sort of crazy attempt to justify it all.

Originally Posted by Slick

Originally Posted by Farangrakthai

Think he's saying that living under military rule is not the real reason the op wishes to depart Thailand.

I can tell ya its not THE reason I'm gearing up to go, but it certainly plays a part. If it changed to a democracy overnight I would still be going though.

Slick, your Mia Noi met your Gik?

Damm, that's a shitter when that happens

Heh at least ill make it out with my dick intact

Hopefully

^Been in Thailand and Asia for 24 years now. Fortunately, work and life here for me has been rewarding and enjoyable. It occasionally gets to be a pain in the arse here for the same reasons we all vent about; traffic; driving; immigration; junta; blah, blah. But a trip back to the UK, or a break out of LOS usually puts things back into perspective, for me anyways.

Originally Posted by thaimeme

Justifying their inability to acclimate and adapt

That may be true in some cases. But sometimes the frustrations have nothing to do with failing to adapt and everything to do with being a normal decent sensible person.
If you start feeling that idiocy is a way of life and accepting it, there is a danger that you'll become one of the idiots.

7-11 a few months back. Bought a bag load of stuff including a pack of Winston (87 baht). I shoved the till receipt in my pocket with the change and then noticed the ciggies she'd given me were a cheaper brand that I didn't want. Looking at the shelf, they were 62 baht. I dug 25 baht out of my pocket and took the ciggies out of the bag and told the cashier that she'd given me the wrong ones. I proffered the ciggies and 25 baht difference to her, expecting her to just swap the packet for the right one and put the money in the till, and ring it up later.
No such luck.
Firstly she demanded my till receipt. Then she wanted my whole bag of stuff and started to take them out in order to refund the entire transaction and start again!
I said no need to do that, it's 25 baht difference just give me my ciggies and you can sort out the packet swap in your own time. Too hard. She called the manager. Manager was busy, so wait. I explained again...look this pack you charged me 62 baht. I want the 87 baht pack. Take the 25 baht and give me the Winstons.
No. Too hard. Manager came. Same thing, I insisted she take my 25 baht and sort out the till later. Manager made a compromise and did the refund of only the 62 on the till, then rung up the 87, then asked me for 87 without having refunded the 62.
I asked for the 62 baht. It dawned on her, so she got it out of the till. I said no, here's 25 baht. Confusion. OK, give me the 62, which she did. She placed it in my hand, I left my hand open and put the 25 in with the 62 and gave it back to her. Confusion. Counting. Oh, ok. Done.
No. She then opened the till, put the 87 baht in, and took out 5 baht change and tried to give it to me.
I smiled and said, "keep it".

Then there's the guy the other day with whom I had an altercation on the road. He, not just saving face, fully believed that in all situations, despite road signs, a bike must give way to a car. It's the written rules.

Yes, there are things to complain about.
Yet, there is a lot of good too.
Yesterday I was given 1300 baht from the school lost property office. I had lost it a month ago on the grounds and a student had handed in the whole lot. Kudos to both the student and the lost property officer. Either one could easily have pocketed the lot.

Essentially, contentment with life is simply a coming to terms with what one gets but the really tricky bit is deciding what one really wants.

Picking some other Asian country over Thailand because one tires of the place strikes me as futile given the societal differences are hardly in themselves compensatory.

The real problem is that one mostly wants to return to a period in the past but, as has been said before, the past is a foreign country to which no one goes once they leave.

It's the old story, whatever you are looking for is generally to be found in your own backyard, unless of course it happens to be in fucking Wales in which case self-immolation is a viable option.

Originally Posted by Slick

Originally Posted by Passing Through

Sadly, life is equally tedious everywhere.

Thats just not true

Crime is something which happens to you. Tedium isn't, or at least isn't to the same degree and the clueless oaf who entirely lacks any kind of personal hinterland but who moves to Thailand (i.e. the typical expat) is likely to find his life just as shitty and meaningless in Nakorn Bumblefuck as it was in Bumblefuck-on-Sea.

But to the extent that tedium is something which is inflicted on you by your environment, in my case, that's a tedium caused by being in Thailand, not by being in Britain. Unlike living in Britain, which gives one access to an extraordinary wealth of cultural experiences, in Thailand I have pretty much zero immediate access to a cultural life worth speaking of (and that, not the military government, or shitty driving, or 7-11 shop assistants is what would be most likely to drive me out of the country) but that's partly ameliorated by the internet and other positives help to outweigh this (admittedly fairly huge) negative.

Originally Posted by kmart

^Been in Thailand and Asia for 24 years now. Fortunately, work and life here for me has been rewarding and enjoyable. It occasionally gets to be a pain in the arse here for the same reasons we all vent about; traffic; driving; immigration; junta; blah, blah. But a trip back to the UK, or a break out of LOS usually puts things back into perspective, for me anyways.

Fairy Nuff. Glad it suits you.

It's easier for me to just move on. I have no ties, and the only thing I own that won't ft in a suitcase, is a Lazyboy armchair.
Sold the MTB in January.

Originally Posted by Maanaam

7-11 a few months back. Bought a bag load of stuff including a pack of Winston (87 baht). I shoved the till receipt in my pocket with the change and then noticed the ciggies she'd given me were a cheaper brand that I didn't want. Looking at the shelf, they were 62 baht. I dug 25 baht out of my pocket and took the ciggies out of the bag and told the cashier that she'd given me the wrong ones. I proffered the ciggies and 25 baht difference to her, expecting her to just swap the packet for the right one and put the money in the till, and ring it up later.
No such luck.
Firstly she demanded my till receipt. Then she wanted my whole bag of stuff and started to take them out in order to refund the entire transaction and start again!
I said no need to do that, it's 25 baht difference just give me my ciggies and you can sort out the packet swap in your own time. Too hard. She called the manager. Manager was busy, so wait. I explained again...look this pack you charged me 62 baht. I want the 87 baht pack. Take the 25 baht and give me the Winstons.
No. Too hard. Manager came. Same thing, I insisted she take my 25 baht and sort out the till later. Manager made a compromise and did the refund of only the 62 on the till, then rung up the 87, then asked me for 87 without having refunded the 62.
I asked for the 62 baht. It dawned on her, so she got it out of the till. I said no, here's 25 baht. Confusion. OK, give me the 62, which she did. She placed it in my hand, I left my hand open and put the 25 in with the 62 and gave it back to her. Confusion. Counting. Oh, ok. Done.
No. She then opened the till, put the 87 baht in, and took out 5 baht change and tried to give it to me.
I smiled and said, "keep it".

This happens so many times when something occurs thats just a little bit outside what they normally do. And I mean just a little.

I normally just do this:



Otherwise Im all aggravated.

Just last night I ordered room service in a popular hotel with a Farang restaurant. Stayed many times. Its a place that caters to Farang, and prices to match, so the service is expected.


The girl that answered the phone just sounded fucking CLUELESS.

"I would like the steak please"

"ooooooaaaaahhh sa-tay?"

"No, I would like the beef steak please"

"Ooooooaaaahhhh........ mmmmmmmm..... beef steak?"

"YES."

"And I would like Krappow Gai" This one I said in Thai ffs.

"mmmmmmmm ooooooaaaaahhhh ok ka"

She then repeated my order back to me, along with my room number. Beef Steak & Krappow Gai.





THEY BROUGHT CHICKEN SATAY AND KRAPPOW GAI WITH NO RICE FFS

To be positive, Thailand is an excellent venue to discover, or even re-discover, one's inner self not least because external stimuli is so limited and tediously predictable one inevitably falls back on one's own reservoirs for intellectual sustenance. I sometimes feel like I'm a hermit cut off from my surroundings by the imbecility of those around me.

As I have said, in order to achieve anything like this state of mind elsewhere, one would probably have to live in North America or Wales.

^^^^You just said life is equally tedious everywhere and then basically said it wasn't.

Unless you want to parse the word tedious to death. Which, let's be honest, would be tedious.

Originally Posted by redhaze

^^You just said life is equally tedious everywhere and then basically said it wasn't.

No. I made a general statement which I then qualified; for the average expat, moving from Britain to Thailand is unlikely to shunt them up the excitement ladder for any extended period of time. And if you want proof of the latter, read either this forum or Thaivisa.

Originally Posted by Passing Through

forum or Thaivisa.

Made an account there last night out of boredom.

My username was - womensrightsLOL

Didn't last long

Originally Posted by Passing Through

No. I made a general statement which I then qualified; for the average expat, moving from Britain to Thailand is unlikely to shunt them up the excitement ladder for any extended period of time. And if you want proof of the latter, read either this forum or Thaivisa.

I do agree with you there, but I don't agree that life is equally tedious everywhere.

More fair to say that a tedious person will find tedium anywhere

More fair to say that a tedious person will find tedium anywhere

You mean something like:

the clueless oaf who entirely lacks any kind of personal hinterland but who moves to Thailand (i.e. the typical expat) is likely to find his life just as shitty and meaningless in Nakorn Bumblefuck as it was in Bumblefuck-on-Sea.

I'll try to be clearer next time.

Yes that. Except without the other part where you said the other thing.

...the closer you get to the heart of Thai culture, the more you suspect it's an anus...ride above it on the bts of life...

Passing Through

Like my escaping the awfulness of life in Britain (a country which is dramatically less appealing than Thailand, and getting less appealing by the day),

I'm terminally work-shy so living in Thailand gives me and my wife (who is similarly work-shy, so found the ideal employer in the Thai state) a quality of life which we couldn't begin to achieve in Britain.

Obviously, for the work shy, (my spell checker keeps auto correcting that word to s o c i a l i s t ) the uk must be an awful place as one struggles to come to terms with the benefit cutbacks and ones self righteousness.

But thankfully, you managed to escape and find a kindred spirit here in thailand and now you can both languish in your laziness and lack of drive and can constructively pass your time posting socialist drivel on an internet forums populated mostly by equally idiotic losers whilst your wife continues to recieve money from the taxpayers for doing as little as possible.

How proud you both must be of your achievements.

The uk certainly benefits of by your absence.

Originally Posted by tomcat

...the closer you get to the heart of Thai culture, the more you suspect it's an anus...ride above it on the bts of life...

I wish I could say that is really profound, but it isn't, so I can't.

Originally Posted by taxexile

Obviously, for the work shy, (my spell checker keeps auto correcting that word to s o c i a l i s t ) the uk must be an awful place as one struggles to come to terms with the benefit cutbacks and ones self righteousness.

Obviously you've got a connection to Thailand. Why do you like it?

As far as the work thing goes, meh its overrated. Lots of better things to do, although it is too bad most people think that involves little more than laying around and drinking too much. And posting shite on the net, which appears to be an afflication we both share.

Originally Posted by chassamui

I wish I could say that is really profound

...and I wish I could afford an apartment in downtown SF...funny how wishes differ, eh?...

Originally Posted by taxexile

continues to recieve money from the taxpayers for doing as little as possible.

" I before E except after C"

Your frothing rant from the bath chair down in Sleepy Hollow Bottom seems to have foozled your grammar synapse. You have to watch out for that incipient dementia, Tax, it seeps in through the back door of slovenliness and general decrepitude.

Toodle pip.