Thread: The type of westerner who prefers life in thailand, china, cambodia etc to the west

Complete crap....did it ever occur to you that some of these people may actually just LIKE it here, not the fact they may have a better education, more money and whatever else goes with being born in a rich country. Why is it such a incomprehensible concept to you that not everyone has the same miserable mind as you?

Originally Posted by madjbs

did it ever occur to you that some of these people may actually just LIKE it here, not the fact they may have a better education, more money and whatever else goes with being born in a rich country. Why is it such a incomprehensible concept to you that not everyone has the same miserable mind as you?

So, tell me WHY? I appreciate that they prefer (I choose that word wisely over your use of "like", because I think that most are west-fleeing refugees) a long-term or permanent life as an ethnic minority immigrant in an asian country.
But the precise reasons are?
Are you capable of expanding on this?

Personally I like just enjoy living in Thailand more compared to the U.K, I feel the U.K has become over-regulated and crazed by "health and safety". There are things I miss but I would rather live here any day, everyday is exciting in Thailand. Perhaps you are right that there are many western refugees here but I think they tend to congregate in certain areas and that you will find out of these areas there are allot of people who like me, just enjoy living here. I know lots of nice guys but they mostly aren't interested in waisting their lives on the internet, on the other hand I haven't ever been to a country where you can go to certain areas and see the same amounts of complete morons as Thailand.

Originally Posted by madjbs

Personally I like just enjoy living in Thailand more compared to the U.K, I feel the U.K has become over-regulated and crazed by "health and safety". There are things I miss but I would rather live here any day, everyday is exciting in Thailand. Perhaps you are right that there are many western refugees here but I think they tend to congregate in certain areas and that you will find there are allot of people who like me, just enjoy living here. I know lots of nice guys but they mostly aren't interested in waisting their lives on the internet, on the other hand I haven't ever been to a country where you can go to certain areas and see the same amounts of complete morons as Thailand.

Thanks for your opinion. It is valued.

To share my opinion on what you say, I question the "excitement" you refer to in Thailand. To me, the UK is exciting if you have the ability to make it so. I have many friends back there with stimulating jobs, hobbies, and social lives. Those that don't thus need to go elsewhere, where the "excitement" is stimulated more naturally, simly via the new environment.

Personally, I am on the fence on this issue but increasingly leaning towards the west. I feel socially happier in the UK, but more challenged in Thailand. Thus it all comes down to a personal need for comfort and familiarity, or new challenges.

However, what makes me scratch my head every time is westerners who claim to have achieved comfort and familiarity in Thailand but obviously failed to previously beforehand, hence ended up as a long-term stayer in Thailand. Is that success or failure? Perhaps a success if they look at things short-term and only superficially. Much more a failure if they realise that such things, including great pubs, live music, and social life are much more achieveable in the west if only they were capable of accepting and enjoying it rather than ending up hating and rejecting it.

Cure for insomnia?? As always I read a few posts by Smeg and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

^ Chronically intellectually stunted / in denial?
Sweet dreams....

Originally Posted by Smeg

. Those who feel this sensation

Mmm I feel a bit cold this morning and I feel my bowels moving telling me it is soon time for a dump but a 'sensation'? Nope. no sensation here. Anyone else feel it?

Man, some stupid crap woke me up......

Smeg,can you answer this question that I have asked many times?

Do you or do you not teach English to company employees in Bangkok????

^ I answer personal questions only when I feel like it, and only to people who have not previously declared their hatred for me then demand over and over again that I answer their personal questions.

Get it, loser?

Yes I agree it is all about the individual, wherever works best for you. I normally don't look at things in the terms of success or failure, if there comes a time you are no longer happy living where you are then move on, it shouldn't be viewed as a failure but as a success in that you have had a good time up till that point. What I could view as a failure is if you stay somewhere you dislike.

I had a very exciting life in the U.K as I take part in what people like to term "extreme sports", but in some ways this made the problem worse for me as I was used to having all that excitement and then having to switch back into normal boring mode, whereas in Thailand I am having fun all the time and can still do all my sports. Luckily for me there isn't much caving, climbing, whitewater kayaking etc... here at the moment so I get to do the exploring and run expeditions!

A closet TEFLer........and you make fun of those that are open about their profession.

Lets see, am I loser?? Retired by my mid thirties after owning several businesses. Made a nice bit of cash buying and selling and rehabbing apartment buildings and high rise condos in Chicago. Owning several apartment buildings and other commercial rental properties on the Windy City's North side or a closet TEFLer - so who is the loser here?????

Originally Posted by Smeg

and only to people who have not previously declared their hatred for me

in other words, never!

Originally Posted by Smeg

But the precise reasons are? Are you capable of expanding on this?

weather. (warmer than Aus)
pay.
qaulity of life, ie buying power, maids n drivers n security guards etc.
closer to other countries, (than australia)
closer to holidays (ie phuket or bali for a weekend)
less tax n rules (which works usually but can also be fucked)

it's easier to get laid

This has got to be one of your best trolls, yet, Smeg. Very good. Anticipating being shot down by other members, twisting people's words before they can say them, very well phrased. Excellent effort!

kw he didn't mention indonesia or singapore so i think we may be alright on this one.

I have UK & Australian passports, and have lived and worked in both. I also worked in HK for 12 years, and have Permanent Residency there. I quit working in 2003 at 43, and moved to Australia for a few years with the wife, who is Thai. She now has Australian residence. We then moved here to Thaland two years ago, I am here on a marriage visa.

I prefer living in Asia to the West, although if I chose to live in the West again it would be Australia. If I wanted to work again, or needed to, I would probably go for HK or Singapore. For retirement, Thailand works for me- although if wife wasn't Thai, it could just have easily been the Philippines. Or maybe Cambodia- I can settle in and live most places, especially in Asia.

Our life in Oz could hardly have been considered substandard, or socially miscast. We lived on twelve beautiful acres with a nice private dam, drove a Lexus and Toyota 4WD, and were sponsors of the local footie team. The local pub (the main sponsor) held a bash for us before we left. The main thing I miss about Australia is the Locals, and the view from the house each morning- beautiful. I do not miss the cold winters, the obsessive government rules for everything, the boring food (unless you were prepared to drive), or the cost of everything. Oh, and I miss the Aussie rules.

I like living as an Asian expat in general because-
It is more exciting. Life in the UK/Oz seems staid by comparison
The food is more varied, more interesting
I like a multicultural community & expat lifestyle. I find the people more varied, and interesting.
I prefer the weather

I like Thailand in particular because-
it is cheap
There are few oppressive rules
There is plenty of interest to see in the country, and region
The people are quick to laugh, and don't take day to day life so seriously (yes, they can also be infuriating).
The women are beautiful, and fun.

So thats me. Back in the Adelaide Hills, I knew some people who had never even left South Australia. Still good people, including a good mate. But that isn't me, never has been. I don't seek to judge them for what seems to me their inanely boring existence- I take people as they come, and as I said good people.

So why do you smeg? People are different, always have been. I much prefer my experiences and lifestyle than someone who chooses to stay in their hometown until they die, but I don't look down on them or judge them for it.

You also seem to think, or imply, that every foreigner here is lowly paid, or too poor to 'make it' in the West, or a whoremonger, or a social outcast. You are quite wrong, and it really only speaks volumes about you and the type of people you must meet. Having 'made it' in both Sydney and HK, I hardly need to justify my choice of where I live to another- indeed I am lucky to have the choice.

You seem to me better off back home mate, but don't worry- I won't judge you for it.

I will never go back to UK. It bores me nowadays and the flight of 12hrs is too long.

I had a good and comfortable life there, but as you get older you come to realise that that you are 'a non-person'. Whereas here it is not so. As long as you have some dosh you are 'somebody'........

And getting up each morning to another sunny day is a joy!

Slimboy has a point also........

When I came here to live four years ago, I felt rejouvenated. It was a new life!

Some things drive me mad here, but overall I am happy, and glad I came.

OK, here it is again. The reason I loved to live overseas:

I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid certain surroundings, but they have always a nostalgia for a home they know not. They are strangers in their birthplace, and the leafy lanes they have known from childhood or the populous streets in which they have played, remain but a place of passage. They may spend their whole lives aliens among their kindred and remain aloof among the only scenes they have ever known. Perhaps it is this sense of strangeness that sends men far and wide in the search for something permanent, to which they may attach themselves. Perhaps some deep-rooted atavism urges the wanderer back to lands which his ancestors left in the dim beginnings of history. Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels that he belongs. Here is the home he sought, and he will settle amid scenes that he has never seen before, among men he has never known, as though they were familiar to him from his birth. Here at last he finds rest.

Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence

Originally Posted by slimboyfat

kw he didn't mention indonesia or singapore so i think we may be alright on this one.

Oh, really!? Excellent then.

Originally Posted by Jet Gorgon

I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid certain surroundings, but they have always a nostalgia for a home they know not. They are strangers in their birthplace, and the leafy lanes they have known from childhood or the populous streets in which they have played, remain but a place of passage. They may spend their whole lives aliens among their kindred and remain aloof among the only scenes they have ever known. Perhaps it is this sense of strangeness that sends men far and wide in the search for something permanent, to which they may attach themselves. Perhaps some deep-rooted atavism urges the wanderer back to lands which his ancestors left in the dim beginnings of history. Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels that he belongs. Here is the home he sought, and he will settle amid scenes that he has never seen before, among men he has never known, as though they were familiar to him from his birth. Here at last he finds rest.

erm, Nah, fuck it,

ITS EASIER TO GET LAID!

most of the first few posts were nowt more than pseudo-intellectualism, but beyond the ability to cobble together a few medium length words, actually said nothing that couldn't be said in a line and a half

smeg , what countries have you worked in so far ?

my overseas list is

Singapore
Indonesia
Malaysia
Laos
China
Zambia

and none of those jobs would be considered lowly paid even by western standards.