Subjugation to the farang.

[colourful-era]

This is not meant to be offensive to the Thai members of the forum but during my last 2 weeks it's just become so pitifully obvious as to how far the average Thai will 'sell out' to the farang tourist for some precious Baht.

I've really had the misadventure of going to Ko Pan Ngan and Ko Tao to see for myself (as expected) how all the locals there are just subservient to the backpackers and other types of tourist - and I mean the whole fucking island as well.

It's just Thais serving foreigners everywhere you look.

Once pleasant landscapes and Thai villages now just over-run by locals offering services to tourists and predominantly white backpackers taking advantage of this 'break' from the real world to lord it over the locals.

Now back on mainland Thailand in Chumpon it's a relative calm - free of all the hassling hawkers and marauding tourists - trouble is no-one I guess wants to come here as it's nothing really to look at.

Now you have a nice little community on your island which you grow up in and make friends just to eventually be pushed out by the self-inflicted destructive avarice of obtaining as many Baht whatever the cost - to the loss of the Thais really.

Why don't they just tell the tourists to fuck off and re-claim their own land?

[aging one]

Cause they are making money lots of money, and others are coming to make money as well.

The poor family I hooked up with in Samui a long long time ago, are all millionaires now. A family of 8, and they take care of the elderly as well. Sad but true this is progress. Capitalism run wild, and over population as well.

Shit man you should have been travelling 1955-1964 like me, you'd have a shitload more to complain about.

Sorry CE I hate it too but its the way its gonna be for frigging ever.

[colourful-era]

yes, but do they realise they are all in reality just servants of the white man?

[aging one]

The ones lower in the pecking order yeah. The ones I am talking about see the white man as the one that made them rich.

When you get back look for a video made about 10 years ago in Thailand by a Thai who goes by Ing K. She is great.

Everything you say she documents in Phuket and Krabi. It wont be shown anymore here as she predicts. But you can get it.

" The white men is who we get rich from"
"They are just the little brown people who bring me my drinks". That kinda dialogue.

I include it in my integrated skills class.


Its a BBC 2 production.

[colourful-era]

Ok , fair enough if you make heaps of cash from the tourist industry but the average local who struggles to make a living off 'serving' must be seriously pissed off that their once pleasant island community is now just a fucked up trampling ground for foreigners.

Mind you I never got that vibe at all as I have in other places (ie: off Spaniards in Costa Del Sol)

[aging one]

Think of it like this his little plot of land has gone up perhaps a thousand times in value. They are Thai, they can move on if they are elderly to bkK where the kids live and stuff.

I used to pity the chemist I would frequent on Silom over 25 years ago. He sold his 4 story big shophouse on 65 wah for over 15,000,000 baht.
8 years ago.

It aint like back in the west mate. Remember that when you return!!!

[colourful-era]

They are Thai, they can move on if they are elderly to bkK where the kids live and stuff.

So in the future it will just be tourists in the nice places and the Thais will all live in the cities and rent (or own) property on the islands etc.. as business interests.

Money is king I guess!

(just wish I had a bit more myself... )



It's still a warped way of living - don't the Thais have any concept of nationalism?

[mad_dog]

I bet some of the small time family run beach hut places on KPN make a 100000 a month .... I wouldn't mind getting exploited like that

[aging one]

Its the same in any country. The clever and land holding can stay and prosper, the others damn good luck is all I can say.

Broke my heart to see Samui go that way. But there are a hell of lot more happy locals than sad ones. Add those locals to the newer arrivals to Samui, and you happiness economically.

I wont go back because I knew the Samui before. You cause you dont like seeing the Thai's as slaves to the farung. But life will go on there and money will continue to be made.

The only thing you can do is keep your eyes open and find the Tao or Samui of tomorrow. I think I have.

[colourful-era]

^^Mad-Dog:

I guess not - it's just like the old Costa Del Sol down there.

buildings going up everywhere.....maybe DD should get in on the act!

[colourful-era]

The only thing you can do is keep your eyes open and find the Tao or Samui of tomorrow

I saw a picture of the main street in Mae Haad, Ko Tao from 1992 - not a building or car in sight, just a muddy track. Now it's like a mini-KSR with a 7/11 , farang bars and all the rest.

How about the islands further down in the South - are they even worse?


I guess other countries need to be travelled to to find the 'unspoilt' stuff.

[mad_dog]

tattooists on Phuket can make 90,000 baht a month .... I could be fairly servile for that kind of dosh....

[aging one]

Planning a trip to Ankor Wat, all I read is the constuction of new tourist infrastructure in Siem Reap!! More than a new guesthouse or hotel a month.

[colourful-era]

yes, it's about time they knocked some of those pointless outer buildings over so a new airstrip can be built to see the main temple easier.

I mean that's all anyone visits Angkor for anyway isn't it.

They should also damn well sell some bits of temple rock in the souvenir shop too - I mean , go all the way to see some boring temple in the depths of Cambodia and have nothing to show for it - it's just an incompetent tourist infrastructure there you see...

[Marmite the Dog]

The ones lower in the pecking order yeah. The ones I am talking about see the white man as the one that made them rich.

When you get back look for a video made about 10 years ago in Thailand by a Thai who goes by Ing K. She is great.

Everything you say she documents in Phuket and Krabi. It wont be shown anymore here as she predicts. But you can get it.

" The white men is who we get rich from"
"They are just the little brown people who bring me my drinks". That kinda dialogue.

I include it in my integrated skills class.


Its a BBC 2 production.

Is it this one?

http://www.tve.org/mp7/details.cfm?l=e&fid=1531

[aging one]

Thats it and good job Marmers. Really a nice one hour look at what has happened in Phuket. Mind you its over 10 years old now.

[Lily]

That kind of thing happens everywhere though.

Seven years ago, I bought a house in the seaside town in which I was brought up.
It was a small fishing village when I was young, with beautiful, sometimes deserted beaches and lots of bush.
Now, it is a major tourist centre with hotels and apartments and marinas taking up half of whole beaches.
The locals all get summer jobs serving the tourists.

[colourful-era]

I think it's more of a race thing that I'm getting at.

ie: it's always the locals (ie:Thais) serving the white-man.

Kind of reminds me of my own colonial days when I was lording it in Burma.

[aging one]

But this one goes deeper Lily, selling land in National Parks for luxury hotels, and making the local Thai's feel funny swimming at any of the beaches on Phuket.
Draining sewerage directly into the sea, and the Club Med moving a school for the benefit of its guests.
Building walls on the seafront to keep the sea gypsies from getting to their boats.

[colourful-era]

yes that's it AO - here in LOS the tourists seem more important than the locals...

it's just Baht over everthing else - they'd sell their fucking country (a la Taksin) if they could!

[Lily]

My post in reply has disappeared and I cant be bothered typing it all again.
Grrrr!!!

[aging one]

Yup CE the sub title is Thai's the nicest people money can buy!

[DJ Pat]

Samui is finished as an Island now, couldn't get off the place quick enough last time I was there.

[Whiteshiva]

I think it's more of a race thing that I'm getting at.

ie: it's always the locals (ie:Thais) serving the white-man.

Perhaps I am missing your point, but would you feel better if they imported Lao or Burmese to serve the tourists (who, BTW are not exclusively Caucasians)?

[Lily]

Samui is finished as an Island now

Why is it finished as an island?

Is it sinking?

Or joining up with the mainland?