Thread: Why do Brits and Northern Europeans want to live in a hot climate like Thailand

I have often wondered why so many people who come from such cold climates want to settle in Thailand.
I met a guy just North of Chiang Mai that came from Zurich. A country with an average mid summer temperature of about 19°C which is about 2°C less than the average winter temperature where I live, North of Brisbane. I am currently sitting resplendent in jeans shirt and woolen jumper at a chilly 18°C. For me to go to Bangkok is not a great temperature change, especially from Summer as I am acclimatised to heat and humidity, but even I can find the climate a bit oppressive on occasions.
I,ve wondered why they don't go to the milder climates found in southern Europe. Can you Brits/Swedes/Germans/etc who spend half your life in a refrigerator/freezer tell me why and how you cope with the weather in Thailand long term.

I always hated Britain's weather most of the time.

When I came out to the Gulf, we used to go waterskiing in shorts every boxing day.

Decades later I wouldn't dip my toe in the sea, it's so cold.

You acclimatise.

I can walk around in 50C without too much trouble as long as it isn't humid.

I go back to the UK, I'm wearing three pairs of socks, trackies under the trousers, four layers on top, hat and gloves, and that's inside with the central heating on.

Our house is basically two buildings with a walkway between them. It's such a small but valued pleasure to be able to walk between them without spending five minutes wrapping up warm in the evening.

My first job in SEA was in Singapore, and there was a hawker centre (cuppage terrace) 5 minutes walk away. Such a pleasure to choose from about 300 dishes without changing out of the shorts and t-shirt I'd slept in and bring breakfast home, sleepy-eyed.

Now I'm typing this on my veranda with a view whose beauty would cost at least half a million quid to enjoy in the UK. And it's puzzling to some that the presence of the sun doesn't put me off?

Originally Posted by cyrille

Such a pleasure to choose from about 300 dishes

Yeah bullshit.

20 dishes by about 300 hawkers.

It's not just the Thai weather, the women are warmer too.

Originally Posted by Slick

Originally Posted by cyrille

Such a pleasure to choose from about 300 dishes

Yeah bullshit.

20 dishes by about 300 hawkers.

OK so I pretty much always went for fish and chips.

They do have a huge choice though...as you probably know. But yeah...chicken's feet didn't get me walking over there.

Originally Posted by Slick

Originally Posted by cyrille

Such a pleasure to choose from about 300 dishes

Yeah bullshit.

20 dishes by about 300 hawkers.

So you've never been to the big hawker centres then, have you Slick?

Our seasons: cold rain, warm rain and cool rain.



Until you've woken up to the rain (or hailstone) pounding your windows in the middle of June, you'll never know how refreshing it is to see the sun almost every day.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Originally Posted by Slick

Originally Posted by cyrille

Such a pleasure to choose from about 300 dishes

Yeah bullshit.

20 dishes by about 300 hawkers.

So you've never been to the big hawker centres then, have you Slick?

Well yeah...one stall will have 30 dishes of Nonya cuisine, for example. Then the one next to it a dozen desserts. Maybe not the Tomahawk steak slick was looking for though.

It isn't the temperature or indeed the rainfall in the UK, although some seasons it can take the piss and end up flooding after weeks of fucking rain but that's not the norm, it's the unremitting greyness of a dull winter that I detest. No sun for fucking weeks isn't unusual.

In truth, I love a freezing day in January with hardened snow underfoot but when the sky is cobalt blue and a distant sun shines weakly scarcely above the horizon and with no warmth. All happed up, and warmed by the trapped heat, there is nothing like it to go trekking over moors, hills and along coastal paths. You build up an appetite and reward yourself with a great pile of rare beef, roasties, kale, Yorkshire pudding and lashings of gravy washed down with a bottle of claret and a nice snooze in front of the telly watching some historical drama or David Attenborough shagging a wallaby.

Say what one will about the LoS, one can take the sun for granted most days and that in itself is a boon as one wanders along the beach with those swaying palms and balmy tropical zephyrs. Ok, the bandy-legged, pug-nosed hookers screeching away as the stench from a sewer wafts its way into one's nostrils might take the edge off things but one can't have everything.

Yeah...I was going to say, it's the way it can just repeat for basically years.

Last time I was in the UK for months was to do my Master's. Sheffield was utterly fucking horrible for the first three weeks. Just like hal's pic. Non-stop.

This was in June/July.

Originally Posted by Seekingasylum

It isn't the temperature or indeed the rainfall in the UK, although some seasons it can take the piss and end up flooding after weeks of fucking rain but that's not the norm, it's the unremitting greyness of a dull winter that I detest. No sun for fucking weeks isn't unusual.

In truth, I love a freezing day in January with hardened snow underfoot but when the sky is cobalt blue and a distant sun shines weakly scarcely above the horizon and with no warmth. All happed up, and warmed by the trapped heat, there is nothing like it to go trekking over moors, hills and along coastal paths. You build up an appetite and reward yourself with a great pile of rare beef, roasties, kale, Yorkshire pudding and lashings of gravy washed down with a bottle of claret and a nice snooze in front of the telly watching some historical drama or David Attenborough shagging a wallaby.

.

How often does this happen though? As I alluded to above, it's the black skies and constant rain that do for you.

Give me clear blue skies and cold anytime, but we rarely get anything blue as far as skies are concerned.

Sunny weather,sunny disposition
Gloomy weather, gloomy disposition.
I find that the weather really effects my mood. Time for an afternoon cup of coffee from Shan in sunny but breezy weather.

Originally Posted by cyrille

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Originally Posted by Slick

Originally Posted by cyrille

Such a pleasure to choose from about 300 dishes

Yeah bullshit.

20 dishes by about 300 hawkers.

So you've never been to the big hawker centres then, have you Slick?

Well yeah...one stall will have 30 dishes of Nonya cuisine, for example. Then the one next to it a dozen desserts. Maybe not the Tomahawk steak slick was looking for though.

FFS there's a even a little food court in the CBD that has about 100 different dishes on offer spread across 20 or so outlets.

Which over a week did my diet no fucking good at all.

It's the wind that pisses me off in the UK having my badminton net set up in the back garden any type of breeze and playing is a non starter making me need an as of yet unthought out plan B to shed these few extra kilos!!!!!

Originally Posted by hallelujah

Our seasons: cold rain, warm rain and cool rain.



Until you've woken up to the rain (or hailstone) pounding your windows in the middle of June, you'll never know how refreshing it is to see the sun almost every day.

Paradise. Fuck that pounding sun.

Yeah, that feeling lasts for about 20 hours.

Originally Posted by Neo

It's not just the Thai weather, the women are warmer too.

.....and generally more connected than your Occidental types.

OK for a holiday, I would get bored and sweat too much.

I like the seasons here in Switzerland. Autumn can be lovely and warm, the winters are mild - can't remember when we last had thick snow in Geneva, Spring lovely and the Summers are hot. 34 degrees today!!

Ok we also have what seems like weeks of grey, monotonous rainy weather too. But perhaps not as much as the UK. Also, the sun is not far away up in the mountains and the lake is great to swim in.

And, of course, for the past few months and probably the next few years I have been having top notch health care. 6 minutes in the bus door to door!! All paid for by my excellent health insurance.

20 years ago. I would have loved to move somewhere tropical, but not any more.

Then there's the fact that I am not a sultry, tiny little lady!! I do weigh 39 kilos, but that's the illness. My usual weight is 52.

My wild guess would be because of the hot babes! Admit it guys, you love the attention, especially being called HANSUM.

Or maybe its the pirated DVDs. 555

Originally Posted by GracelessFawn

My wild guess would be because of the hot babes

No complaints in that department. The only problem with it is, often a very pretty, hot babe will have nothing else to offer. OK for dogs like Screwed Punter, but any bloke with even half a brain needs some intellectual stimulation as well as the obvious.